S IT I 
 
 ALEXANDER PATTERSOTII 
 
 tt|Ifll)>nilSil!lllil!l!)!lllliMniWllS)Un<.!M 
 
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 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 Presented by Pr-esNcicn-t Pa^^o-n. 
 
 Division . AJ^iJ I I 
 Section • L.y^.l 
 
The Bible As It Is 
 
 A Simple Method of Mastering 
 Understanding the Bible 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY DIAGRAMS AND CH 
 
 By rev. ALEXANDER PATTERSON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the GREATER LIFE AND WORK OF CHRIST," "tHE OTHER 
 SIDE OF EVOLUTION," **BIBLE MANUAL" 
 
 GENESIS TO JUDGES 
 
 THE WINONA PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 BY THE WINONA PUBLISHING CO, 
 
 PUBLISHED 1906 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The title of this book gives its position, its purpose 
 and its method. It is a presentation of the Bible 
 upon its own claims for itself and as we have it. The 
 first essential to any one entering upon the study of 
 the Bible either as friend or foe, is to ascertain ex- 
 actly what the Bible says and means. We here take 
 the Bible as we have it. We are assured by scholars 
 that our English versions of the Bible are sufficiently 
 accurate for all practical purposes. It is also safe to 
 say that no material change of language, statement or 
 teaching will ever take place in the Bible. The books 
 will always come as they do now and the contents 
 remain essentially as they are. Hence it is safe and 
 proper to learn the Bible as it is. It is the con- 
 viction of the author that a fair inquiry as to the 
 actual statements and teachings of the Bible will go 
 far to clear up many if not all of the difficulties the 
 student meets. 
 
 The great purpose of all Bible study should be 
 Spiritual effect. Without this all else is "sounding 
 brass and clanging cymbal." It is the kind of study 
 Christ rebuked in the Scribes and Pharisees when he 
 said "Ye search the Scriptures because in them ye 
 think ye have eternal life, and these are they which 
 3 
 
4 Preface 
 
 bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me that 
 ye may have life." There is to-day much Bible study 
 that is as truly "pharisaical" as ever practiced in 
 Jewish circles of old, while the food for the soul is 
 neglected. It is the latter the rank and file of the 
 army of God need. Not one in a thousand cares for 
 these minute points of origin, date, etc., but all do 
 want comfort in sorrow, deliverance from sin, and in 
 death hope and assurance. These are the blessings 
 the Bible is intended to convey and without which 
 Bible study is disappointing. 
 
 The heart is a truer guide than the head, and the 
 great mass of the church remain convinced that they 
 are still justified in taking the Bible as it is. Certain 
 it is that on the objector rests the burden of showing 
 otherwise. 
 
 The plan of these studies is to present the great 
 lines of narrative doctrine and spiritual life upon 
 which the Bible is laid out. First the whole is given 
 at a glance, then the great parts of the structure are 
 given each in a similar view, then the books and 
 smaller divisions. Much of the study of the day is 
 "scrappy" and disconnected and no general or broad 
 idea of the whole divine plan is obtained. It is the 
 plan here to present the mountain peaks of Bible 
 narrative and to view the whole as centered about 
 these in a succession of bird's-eye studies. This is 
 the natural method. We remember history by great 
 men, events and epochs. While it may be the duty of 
 
Preface 5 
 
 some to study more closely it is not in the power of 
 the many to do so, nor is it necessary save for spe- 
 cial lessons or purposes. 
 
 Simplicity is one great purpose kept in mind. While 
 the average of intellectual condition of our day is 
 high the state of Bible knowledge has not kept pace 
 therewith. The tests applied to the advanced classes 
 in some of our colleges have shown a lamentable defi- 
 ciency in the elementary knowledge of Scripture. If 
 this state exists in such circles it is more common 
 among these who are in active business life. The aim 
 here is to so present the Bible that it will be easily 
 understood by the average mind. The Diagrams 
 and Charts are designed for this purpose. They have 
 been tested in hundreds of classes and found effect- 
 ive. Pastors and teachers will 'find in these studies 
 what is needed for popular Bible classes. The Dia- 
 grams should be reproduced on the blackboard, 
 accompaning them by the necessary explanation. 
 The old chronology is used simply because it is access- 
 ible to all and the differences are not important, 
 in the historical books at least, and where accuracy 
 is necessary it may be secured later. Dates are given 
 also in round numbers. 
 
 These studies are designed to accompany the Sun- 
 day School Lessons, and will furnish either an advanced 
 course or a parallel course uniting the lessons, which 
 are more or less disconnected, into one and a logical 
 and systematic course. 
 
6 Preface 
 
 The present volume is a revision and enlargement 
 of a former volume under another title the reception 
 of which has encouraged the author to thus enlarge 
 it and present it under a more suitable title. It is 
 sent out with the hope that it will aid in the knowledge 
 of "the Bible as it is." 
 
 We are in the day of Bible study. Ten million 
 copies are now made and sold every year. The wisest 
 of the world confess its value. Ruskin said the best 
 part of his education was the chapters his mother 
 taught him. Sir Edwin Arnold said he owed his edu- 
 cation to the Bible more than to any other hundred 
 books. Dr. Richard G. Moulton has said: "We have 
 done almost everything that is possible with these 
 Hebrew and Greek writings. We have overlaid them, 
 clause by clause, with exhaustive commentaries; we 
 have translated them, revised the translations, and 
 quarreled over the revisions; have discussed authen- 
 ticity and inspiration, and suggested textual history 
 with colored type; we have mechanically divided the 
 whole into chapters and verses, and sought texts to 
 memorize and quote; we have epitomized into hand- 
 books and extracted school lessons; we have recast 
 from the feminine point of view, and even from the 
 standpoint of the next century. There is yet one 
 thing left to do with the Bible: simply to read it." 
 We add to this, and to read it as it is. This is the 
 purpose of this series of studies. 
 
 Alexander Patterson. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 Method of Study, 13. How and Why We Believe the 
 Bible, 15. Testimony of Christ to the Scriptures, 15. 
 The Bible is Authentic, 17. The Bible True- 
 External Evidences, 20. Internal Evidences, 23. 
 The Bible Inspired, 24. How the Bible Came, 
 27. New Testament Inspiration, 32. How to Un- 
 derstand the Bible, ^^. What to Look for in Bible 
 Study, 35. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible. 
 
 The Whole Bible, 37. Lines of Unity in the Bible, 44. 
 Lines of Diversity, 45. Lines of Development, 47. 
 Full View of the Bible, 48. A View of the Old 
 Testament, 50. Genesis, 52. 
 
8 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Creation. 
 
 Outline, 57. The Godhead in Creation, 58. Extent 
 of the Six Days' Creation, 59. State of the Earth 
 before the Six Days' Creation, 60. The Six Days* 
 Creation, 62. Method of Creation, 66. Creation 
 of Man, 67. Agreement with Science, 71. Spirit- 
 ual Lessons of Creation, 75. The New Creation,77. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Eden and the Fall. 
 
 Truth of the Narrative, 78. Eden and Original Man, 
 79. The Probation, 81. The Tempter, 83. The 
 Temptation, 84. The Sin, 86. The Judgment, 88. 
 Consequences of the Fall, 89. Redemption, 91. 
 Spiritual Teaching, 92. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Deluge. 
 
 Story of Adam's Family, 94. Table of the Races of 
 Seth and Cain, 96. Commingling of the two Races, 
 98. God's Attitude Towards That Age, 100. Evi- 
 dences and Extent of the Deluge, 104. Causes of 
 the Deluge, 104. Chronology of the Deluge, 105. 
 Lessons, 105. 
 
Contents 9 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Origin of the Nations. 
 
 The Sons of Noah, 1 1 1 . The Dispersion, 114. Table 
 of the Nations, 116. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Abraham. 
 
 Abraham's Place and Reality, 121. Descent and 
 Table of Ancestry, 122. History, 123. The Cov- 
 enant, 125. Place and Character, 129. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Jacob. 
 
 Isaac, 134. Jacob's Place, 134. History, 136. 
 Character, 138. Sons, 139. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Joseph. 
 
 Joseph's History, 142. Place in Israel, 144. Joseph 
 Prophetically and Typically, 144. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Exodus. 
 
 Israel's State in Egypt, 148. Moses, 150. Pharoah 
 and the Plagues, 152. The Passover, 154. The 
 Exodus, 155. 
 
lo Contents 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Wilderness Journey. 
 
 The Books of the Journey, 158. Map of the Journey, 
 159. Egypt to Sinai, 160. Sinai, 160. Sinai to 
 Canaan, 163. The Years of Wandering, 165. The 
 Fortieth Year, 166. Conclusion, 167. Moses' 
 Farewell, 168. A Review of the Past, 168. A 
 Review of the Law, 169. The Blessings and 
 Curses, 170. Moses' Last Words, 171. Moses* 
 Character, 173. Spiritual Lessons, 174. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Law. 
 
 The Form of the Decalogue, 180. Law before Moses, 
 182. The Scope of the Law. 183. The Spiritual 
 Law, 187. The Ethical Law, 190. The Civil 
 Law, 193. The Criminal Code, 197. The Social 
 System, 199, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Ceremonial Law. 
 
 The Tabernacle, 206. The Offerings, 210. The 
 Priests, 216. The Law of Holiness, 218. The 
 Feasts, 221. Spiritual Lessons, 224. 
 
Contents 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Joshua. 
 
 Outline, 227. The Nation, 228. The Land, 229. 
 Crossing the Jordan, 230. War of Conquest, 232. 
 Destruction of the Canaanites, 235. Division of 
 the Land, 237. Joshua's Farewell, 239. Spiritual 
 Lessons, 239. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Judges. 
 
 Times of the Judges, 243. Chart of the Judges, 245. 
 Spiritual Lessons, 247. 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 Ruth. 
 
 Place and Purpose, 249. Picture of Social Life, 249. 
 Naomi, 250. Spiritual Lessons, 250. OutHne, 251. 
 
The Bible As It Is 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 We begin with some general facts introductory 
 to Bible study. What is proposed here is, first, 
 Bible study as distinguished from mere reading, 
 and, second, systematic study as distinguished from 
 promiscuous study of separate parts, and, third, study 
 with the purpose of getting a broad view of the Bible 
 and its general scope. 
 
 It is not proposed here that we stop to investigate 
 every interesting question that may arise, whether of 
 fact or doctrine. What we will seek is broad effects, 
 wide landscapes and perspective views of long periods, 
 taking in only the mountain-p^aks of the narrative, 
 and only indicating what is important for more 
 detailed study, but not stopping to deal with these 
 now. 
 
 The first endeavor is to master the narrative. The 
 Bible is first a history, and this should be learned, but 
 in general at first, without loading the mind with the 
 13 
 
14 The Bible As It Is 
 
 smaller events. One should thus become able to think 
 through the Bible. The great lessons should be 
 attached to this narrative at the proper places. The 
 book and chapter divisions may be used as helpful to 
 obtain the sequence of events or to keep them in mind. 
 It also greatly assists to future ease in finding places 
 to have a chapter analysis of each book. But there 
 are over a thousand chapters in the Bible, and some 
 books are difficult to so divide, and few could carry 
 so great a numbei in mind. So it is better to rely 
 upon the narrative and by means of it keep the whole 
 in memory. 
 
 The space a matter takes in the Bible is not always 
 a guide to its relative importance. The first chapter 
 of Genesis far outweighs the ten chapters of names in 
 Chronicles. We do not therefore spend the same 
 amount of study here upon all parts proportionally. 
 In reading for these studies, the student should read 
 continuously through the narrative and through all 
 parts containing it. For example, the history of 
 Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan should be read, 
 without regard to the legislative parts, through to the 
 end, and the legislation made an after study. We 
 must not stop at every "interesting story at first. What 
 is wanted is a full grasp of the whole. Afterwards we 
 can take up the details one by one. 
 
 Space is not taken in this book with the printed text. 
 It is supposed that the reader has his Bible in hand 
 and has read the passage under discussion, or follows 
 it as he reads here. 
 
Introductory Ij; 
 
 How AND Why we Believe the Bible. 
 This question is proper at all times. People have a 
 right to ask questions as to the Bible. Its claims are 
 so great, its interests presented so vast, that it ought 
 to be examined. The Bible never discourages inves- 
 tigation, nor should we. In beginning a course of 
 study we must therefore review briefly our ground of 
 belief. We make three claims for the Bible, i. It 
 is authentic. 2. It is true. 3. It is inspired. These 
 are three different questions. A book may be authen- 
 tic but not true. Most works of fiction are so. A 
 book may be true but not inspired. Most histories 
 are so. If inspired it must be authentic and true. 
 For all these claims we present first : 
 
 The Testimony of Christ to the Scriptures. 
 
 This cannot be met or impeached by any one. All 
 the world admits that He was the wisest and holiest 
 who ever lived. This is the testimony of infidels as well 
 as all others. We have abundant historical reason for 
 believing that there is no essential difference between the 
 Old Testament as we have it and as Christ and His 
 apostles used it. Christ and His apostles constantly 
 refer to it and always with the highest reverence and 
 confidence. They do not give the slightest hint of 
 want of faith in it, or that it is other than literally 
 true in its statements of fact and doctrine. Christ 
 lived the life therein commanded, and did many things 
 to fulfil its prophecies. He took His texts from it and 
 preached it constantly. 
 
i6 The Bible As It Is 
 
 He quotes from at least twenty of its books cover- 
 ing every part of the Old Testament. He affirms 
 twenty or more of its narratives. Christ refers with- 
 out any intimation of want of belief in their literal truth 
 to the following Old Testament narratives: Crea- 
 tion of man (Matt. 19: 4). Law of marriage (Matt. 
 19:5). Story of Cain and Abel (Matt. 23:35). 
 Noah and the Deluge (Matt. 24:37). Abraham 
 (John 8 : 56). Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 
 and Lot's wife (Luke 17 : 28-32). The Manna (John 
 6:49). Brazen Serpent (John 3 : 14). David and 
 Shew Bread (Matt. 12 : 3). Elisha and his miracles 
 (Luke 4: 25). Heahng of Naaman (Luke 4: 27). 
 Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 11: 22). Jonah and *'the 
 Whale" (Matt 12 : 39). The books of Moses (John 
 5 : 46). The Psalms (Luke 20 : 42). Moses and the 
 Prophets (Luke 24: 27). Isaiah (Matt. 13: 14). 
 Daniel's Prophecies (Matt. 24: 15). Malachi (Matt. 
 II : 10). 
 
 A single verse mentions the whole Old Testament as 
 follows : ' ' All things must be fulfilled which were writ- 
 ten in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the 
 Psalms concerning me " (Luke 24 : 44). Herein is in- 
 cluded the whole of the Old Testament, in the three 
 parts into which it was at that time divided. The 
 Law of Moses included the first five books of our 
 Bible which were then one. The Prophets included 
 most of the prophetical books. The Psalms included 
 the poetical as well as some of the other books, and took 
 that name from the Psalms which formed the 
 
Introductory 17 
 
 first of that part. In the further verses of that pas- 
 sage He bases His whole gospel upon the Old Testa- 
 ment and commands it to be preached everywhere. 
 
 So that here is the highest evidence possible 
 for the authenticity, the truth and the inspiration of 
 the Old Testament. Christ and His apostles lived 
 1,900 years nearer the time of the Old Testament 
 than we, and within the memory of the facts of its 
 composition as well as the facts therein related. They 
 believed in its inspiration ; they give us their un- 
 qualified assertions to its genuineness, truth and in- 
 spiration. We may therefore rest confidently upon 
 that unimpeachable testimony. The best, shortest 
 and most conclusive reason for believing that the Bible 
 is genuine, true and inspired is because Jesus said so. 
 This can be understood by the child and will satisfy 
 the philosopher. It can be understood and remem- 
 bered by any one and even in the hour of illness or 
 death will satisfy and bring assurance to the mind. 
 
 I. The Bible is Authentic. 
 We can trace the Bible back step by step from the 
 present day to the time of Christ and beyond. The 
 English version commonly used to-day was printed 
 first in 1 6 1 1 . Before that were other English versions, 
 the most common ones being Tyndall's and Wyckliff 's. 
 These were translated principally from the Latin Bible 
 called the Vulgate, which was translated from the 
 Greek copies about 500 a. d. Latin was then a spoken 
 language. The Greek copies we still have number 
 
1 8 The Bible As It Is 
 
 many hundreds and some of them are as old as the 
 third and fourth centuries. It is from these that our 
 Revised Version is taken, based upon the English or 
 Authorized Version of 1611. The following diagram 
 shows the course and connection of title to our Bible 
 as we have it. 
 
 History of the Bible. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 2.3.4.5.6. 7. 8.9.I0.II.I2.I3.I4 l5.l6.l7.l8.r9.2Q. 
 
 This diagram shows the history of the Bible from 
 our time back to that of Christ. Our Authorized 
 Version runs back 300 years. The older English 
 versions, as Tyndall's and Wyckliff's, 500 years. 
 The Latin version, called the Vulgate, 1,400 years. 
 The Greek copies, some of them 1,600 years, that is 
 to within 200 years of the time the latest books of the 
 New Testament were written. Fragments have later 
 been discovered as old as 1,700 years and it is very 
 probable that still older ones will some day be dis- 
 covered ; perhaps even some of the originals. 
 
 There is a gap, as shown by the diagram, between 
 the oldest Greek manuscripts and the days of the last 
 of the apostles. This is bridged in several ways. 
 Many writers of the first three centuries quoted from 
 the New Testament, and together they have quoted all 
 but twelve verses. Thus nearly the whole could be re- 
 
Introductory 19 
 
 placed from these writers. Many translations were 
 made into other languages, as Syriac and Ethiopian. 
 These all corroborate our copies, so we know that we 
 have not only authentic books, but correct copies of them. 
 
 But as we do not have the original manuscripts 
 actually written by the apostles and others, but only 
 copies, how do we know they are correct? Two 
 scholars, Dr. Wescott and Dr. Hort, who have ex- 
 amined and compared these many Greek and other 
 copies, tell us that, leaving out all minor differences 
 which do not affect the sense or meaning, these many 
 manuscripts gathered from all over the world, written 
 on cloth, skins, parchment, papyrus and other material, 
 do not differ from each other more than one word in 
 a thousand ; that is only one-tenth of one per cent. 
 As they do not differ from each other more than this, 
 it is safe to say that they do not differ from the original 
 manuscripts any more than this. So that we have 
 within a tenth of one per cent, of accuracy in the 
 copies we have. This is almost a miraculous preser- 
 vation in view of the many copyings, translations and 
 vicissitudes through which they have passed. 
 
 We have traced the New Testament back to the 
 time of the apostles, and we find, as all admit, that 
 Christ had the Old Testament as we have it, so we 
 need go no farther. If Christ was satisfied that it was 
 authentic, we may well be. Besides we have the testi- 
 mony of the Jews, who were so careful of their scrip- 
 tures, and they tell us it is authentic. 
 
 There are many other witnesses as the apocryphal 
 
20 The Bible As It Is 
 
 books which mention the Bible, and the Samaritan Penta- 
 teuch held by that people from the earliest days ; also 
 such writers as Josephus, who mention the parts of the 
 Old Testament as they then had them. In fact there 
 is no ancient book which has one- tenth the evidence 
 of this historical kind that the Bible has. The 
 ancient classics do not have a fraction of the manu- 
 scripts that the Bible has, nor the external evidence 
 it has. These are received as genuine. Why not the 
 Bible upon far greater evidence of the same kind ? 
 
 2. The Bible is True. 
 Besides the testimony of Christ, we have many 
 proofs that the Bible is true. It has been submitted 
 to the most searching tests. No book or matter of any 
 kind has been so searched and tested as the Bible. Its 
 proofs are generally classed as external and internal. 
 We have much external testimony to its truth. 
 
 1. There is a long line of historians. Christian, 
 infidel and heathen, running from our day back to 
 before the time of Christ. These affirm the facts 
 wherever they touch upon them. 
 
 2. The Jews tell us that the Old Testament is true. 
 It is their history. It is their legislation. One might 
 as well deny the facts of American history to us as to 
 deny the facts of Jewish history to them. Their very 
 existence as the Bible describes them is evidence for 
 the truth. The Jew is a witness to the truth of the 
 Old Testament wherever he appears. 
 
 3. The land of Palestine is a witness for the Bible. 
 
Introductory 2 1 
 
 It fits the facts of the Bible as a seal fits its impress. 
 The mountains, valleys, cities, rivers and even wells 
 are there as the Bible describes. The best guide book 
 of the Holy Land is the Bible. 
 
 4. The Christian Church is a witness for the 
 Bible. It has existed as all history admits from the 
 earliest days, and from the beginning it has believed 
 the Bible. Its sacraments, its holy days, its services, 
 its organizations, are all as the Bible declares. There 
 is a continuous line of Christian witnesses from the 
 first century to our times. 
 
 5. The ruins of all ancient nations testify to the 
 Bible. The science of archaeology, or ancient things, 
 is one of the latest as well as the best witnesses to the 
 Bible's truth. We can trace the course of the Bible 
 story almost in every event back to the earliest times. 
 On the walls of the Catacombs of Rome, made in the 
 early centuries, are found portrayed nearly all the 
 Bible stories. The Arch of Titus shows the picture of 
 the Golden Candlestick the Bible describes as in the 
 Temple. On the ruins of Assyria and Babylon are 
 the accounts of the capture of Jerusalem with the 
 names of its kings and details of the event. Under 
 the city of Jerusalem has been discovered the conduit 
 Hezekiah built to bring water into Jerusalem. The 
 peoples of Canaan, as the Hittites, are shown by ruins 
 and inscriptions as described in the Bible account of 
 the entrance of Israel into the land. The life in Egypt 
 is accurate to the smallest detail as corroborated by the 
 monuments and other records of Egypt. The names 
 
22 The Bible As It Is 
 
 connected with the history of Abraham are found on 
 the monuments of Assyria. The Tower of Babel has 
 been found as given in the Bible. The ruins of the 
 ancient world as destroyed in the deluge are being 
 found, and the races then existing correspond with 
 those described in Genesis. So as far back as we find 
 remains we are given proof that the Bible story is true.^ 
 6. Science is another witness to the Bible. It affirms 
 many facts written in the Bible ages ago. Almost 
 every science is touched upon and wherever the Bible 
 touches science it does so with precision. Professor 
 Dana tells us the first chapter of Genesis agrees with 
 the record of geology. Job gives this description of 
 the earth: '* He stretcheth out the north over 
 empty space and hangeth the earth upon nothing" 
 (Job 26 : 7). Here is a perfect description of the 
 suspension of the earth in space and the inclination of 
 its axis towards the north, and this written thou- 
 sands of years before the discovery of these facts by 
 modern science. So, in another place, is an equally 
 pertinent reference to the facts of meteorology. 
 "The wind goeth towards the south and turneth 
 about unto the north ; it turneth about continually in 
 its course and the wind returneth again unto its cir- 
 cuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is 
 not full : unto the place whither the rivers go thither 
 they go again " (Eccl. i : 6, 7). Here is a statement 
 
 1 See Authenticity of the Hexateuch, by President S. P. C. 
 Bartlett. 
 
Introductory 23 
 
 of one of the most recent facts of science, the rotary 
 motions of storms ; also a reference to the evaporation 
 of the water of the seas and the circulation of vapors 
 in the atmosphere. 
 
 Thus exact also are the astronomical references and 
 the anatomical and all other points which the Bible 
 touches, showing that the writers were guided in their 
 work. Where narratives or statements occur which 
 seem to be in conflict with fact, it is because we do 
 not understand either the reference or the fact. Many 
 difficulties have been cleared up by increasing knowl- 
 edge of the true meaning and the true facts of nature 
 or history. 
 
 Among the internal evidences to the truth of the 
 Bible we mention a few. 
 
 1. It claims to be true. There is no admission by 
 any writer that he is recording anything but facts and 
 truth. There is allegory, symbol and parable, but no 
 fiction in the Bible. Such is its own claim, and every 
 book and author must be taken at its own claim 
 unless controverted. Succeeding writers in the Bible 
 testify to those who wrote before. 
 
 2. The Bible looks like a true book. It gives 
 facts and names and dates and places all very unlike 
 the works of fiction or fable. In Luke 3:1, 2, there 
 are seventeen distinct historical geographical references 
 which, taken separately and together, form a network 
 of testing in which a fictitious narrative could not 
 escape detection. Many such are in the Bible and 
 through all it has passed triumphantly, unimpeached. 
 
24 The Bible As It Is 
 
 3. The agreement of the various writers with each 
 other in statement of fact is another evidence of truth. 
 There is not that verbal agreement which evidences 
 collusion, but that difference of statement with yet 
 substantial agreement which is the mark of unbiased 
 narrative. 
 
 4. Its plain statement of facts derogatory to its 
 own heroes and people evidences truth in the nar- 
 ration. Works of fiction glorify their heroes and 
 conceal their faults. The Bible takes no pains to do 
 so. It exposes Abraham's lie and Jacob's deception 
 and David's unchastity and murder and Solomon's 
 fall and Israel's apostasy, with unconcealed frankness. 
 
 3. The Bible is Inspired. 
 
 This is the great matter. If inspired it must be 
 authentic and true. It is this quality which lifts it above 
 all other books. It is in this respect that it stands 
 alone. No other book can claim to be inspired. We 
 sometimes use the word *' inspired " in a weak sense, 
 as when we say a picture or a painting or a song is in- 
 spired. We mean specially conceived and executed. 
 This is not what we mean when we say the Bible is 
 inspired. We apply to it two words, Inspiration and 
 Revelation. The Bible is a Revelation given by In- 
 spiration. We will see later what is meant by these 
 terms and how it was given. 
 
 I. We here again rely on the testimony of Christ 
 as to its inspiration. He fully believed it was 
 from God. He was silent as to any want of faith 
 
Introductory 25 
 
 in its inerrancy or inspiration. His silence is 
 as eloquent as His words. He based His whole 
 gospel upon it, and commanded His apostles to do 
 so, and they did. " Built upon the foundation of the 
 apostles and prophets. ' ' If the foundation is defective, 
 what of the superstructure ? They stand or fall to- 
 gether. 
 
 2. The Bible claims to be inspired. In the Old 
 Testament the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord," 
 occurs 2,600 times. The parts preceded by this word 
 certainly claim inspiration. The apostles claim to 
 have written by inspiration and place themselves on a 
 level with the prophets of the Old Testament. 
 
 3. Many scripture writers affirm the inspiration of 
 those who went before or were their contemporaries. 
 So the prophets affirm that Moses spake from God. 
 So Peter affirms Paul's inspiration. 
 
 4. The Bible bears the marks of an inspired book. 
 Its nobility of language and thought agree with this 
 claim. Its conception of God and man and the uni- 
 verse is high and noble. It gives a conception of 
 God entirely different from that of the world before or 
 since. This is also true of the hereafter. Its pictures 
 of heaven are as beautiful as its pictures of hell are awful. 
 
 5. It has foretold events and these events have 
 come to pass. The fulfilled prophecies of the Bible 
 are to our day what miracles were to the days of the 
 apostles. In the visions of Daniel we have an out- 
 line of the world's history as it has actually been ful- 
 filled. The fate of empires has come as foretold. 
 
26 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Nineveh, Tyre, Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem, and the 
 Jews are to-day just what the Bible foretold in writing 
 centuries ago. 
 
 6. Its agreement with the facts of science already 
 noted is evidence of its inspiration. Professor Dana, 
 the great geologist, writes of the first chapter of Gen- 
 esis : "It displays purpose in the author of the docu- 
 ment and knowledge beyond that of ancient or any 
 time and philosophy more than human. The sacred 
 volume manifests its divine origin in its accordance 
 with the latest readings of nature." No other hand 
 than God's could have written the account of creation, 
 for man did not then exist. 
 
 7. The effects of the Bible substantiate its claims 
 to inspiration. Blessing has followed its path. Free- 
 dom, education, morality, plenty and safety are the 
 evidences of the Bible's origin wherever it goes. 
 
 8. The adaptability of the Bible and its religion to 
 all mankind is another proof. It is understood as well 
 by the Esquimaux as by the Syrian ; in our day, as in 
 the time of its giving. It is a world book for all time 
 and ages and peoples. This is not true of any other 
 book whatever. 
 
 9. It has been accepted and trusted by the wisest 
 and best in every age and land. We give some testi- 
 monies which might be multiplied by the hundred.^ 
 
 * 
 1 Many such testimonies may be found in a little book, 
 «' Testimonies of Great Men to the Bible and Christianity," 
 by The Religious Tract Society, London. 
 
Introductory 27 
 
 Goethe wrote, — Almost to it alone do I owe my 
 moral culture. 
 
 Locke, — It has God for its author, salvation for its 
 end, and truth without an admixture of error for its 
 matter. 
 
 Ruskin, — I count it very confidently the most pre- 
 cious and on the whole the essential part of all my 
 education. 
 
 Napoleon, — Everything in it is grand and worthy 
 of God. 
 
 Wm. E. Gladstone, — The scriptures are a house 
 builded on a rock. The weapon of offense which 
 shall impair their efficiency in the redemption of man- 
 kind has not yet been forged. 
 
 Daniel Webster, — I have read it through many 
 times. I now make a point of going through it once 
 a year. It is the book of all others for the lawyer. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, — Take all of this book on reason 
 that you can and the rest on faith and you will live 
 and die a happy man. 
 
 How THE Bible Came. 
 The answer to this is not only interesting, but im- 
 portant. It will define or help us to understand what 
 Inspiration is. To know what Inspiration means we 
 may examine just how the Bible came. We find it 
 came in several ways. It gives its own account of 
 its origin. *' God having of old time spoken unto the 
 fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers 
 manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in 
 
28 The Bible As It Is 
 
 His Son" (Heb. i : i, 2). Here the Old Testament 
 is described as given " in divers portions and in divers 
 manners." A diagram will help us to understand 
 this. 
 
 1500 B.C., A,D. 2000 
 
 y \ i I li . I I ■ — J 
 
 lO.T.IOQO YRSJ y N.T.50YRS. 
 
 We have here a line running back to 1500 years 
 B. c. On this the centuries are marked. The time 
 of Christ is represented by a cross. The Old Testa- 
 ment is represented by the space marked off from 1500 
 to 500 B. c. It was about in this time that the Old 
 Testament was written. (We use round numbers here 
 and elsewhere for the sake of ease in remembering.) 
 It was written during this thousand years and by about 
 thirty writers. Each wrote his part or gave it and it 
 was written afterwards by others. These writings ac- 
 cumulated and were kept separate at first in rolls. At 
 last they were compiled in somewhat the shape as we 
 have them. The New Testament came differently. 
 It was written all at once, that is, in the lifetime of 
 the apostles, say within fifty years, and by about ten 
 writers. 
 
 In all, the whole came during about sixteen hun- 
 dred years, and was written by about forty writers. 
 
 We have now to enquire how God gave the con- 
 tents of the Bible to these writers. We take the 
 Bible's own account of itself. We find that there were 
 many methods used by God to communicate with 
 
Introductory 
 
 29 
 
 man. We will enumerate them. The diagram fol- 
 lowing will show the relation of these to each other 
 and the whole. 
 
 HOW THE BIBLE REVELATION WAS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION. 
 
30 The Bible As It Is 
 
 1. God spake to some by an audible voice. So it 
 is recorded He spake to Moses. ''The Lord spake 
 unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his 
 friend" (Ex. 33: 11). So it is recorded that a 
 large part of the Pentateuch was given. So also God 
 spake to Christ. A voice came out of heaven, 
 " Thou art My beloved Son ; in Thee I am well 
 pleased" (Luke 3: 22). 
 
 2. God sent messages by angels to some, and 
 these were recorded. So angels appeared to Abra- 
 ham, to Mary and Joseph, and many others. 
 
 3. Visions were given to others and were recorded 
 by them. So Ezekiel saw many visions and Daniel 
 others, and last, John saw the whole of the Revelation. 
 
 4. The influence of the Holy Spirit was God's 
 usual way of communicating truth to man. In the 
 Old Testament this was by special messages in certain 
 words. These were called a "burden." Sometimes 
 the prophet did not understand them himself. In the 
 New Testament times the message was by a general 
 inward illumination, which enabled the writers to un- 
 derstand all truth necessary to be given, so that what 
 they wrote was inspired. 
 
 5. Others wrote as witnesses, giving truthful ac- 
 counts of what they saw and heard. They were guided 
 by the Holy Spirit to record what they saw and heard. 
 John says he was such a witness (i John i : i). 
 
 6. Others did not themselves see or hear, but 
 recorded what others were witnesses to. So Luke 
 compiled the gospel he wrote. He says he " traced 
 
Introductory 31 
 
 the course of all things accurately from the first" 
 (Luke 1 : 3). 
 
 7. Many of the books of the Old Testament were 
 compiled from other books, which often are named as 
 the sources from which they were taken. These were 
 often the national records kept by the scribes ajid 
 recorders mentioned as officers of Israel. Many of 
 these ancient books are mentioned but are now lost. 
 Twenty such older books are mentioned in scripture. 
 Those who compiled often transcribed literally and 
 often condensed and referred to them for further in- 
 formation. The work of these, affirmed, as we have 
 seen, by after writers and by Christ, is as worthy of 
 the word Inspiration as any other part. 
 
 The final collecting of the books of the Bible, as we 
 have them now, was done by others, and to this also 
 we are indebted for the Bible as we have it. While 
 we do not claim the work of canonization as inspira- 
 tion, we can certainly see, in the orderly form in which 
 it exists as seen by the bird's-eye view hereafter given, 
 that it had providential superintendence. 
 
 It was to the Bible thus given and brought together 
 that Christ certified. So that we may have as much 
 reason to accept the one method of giving as the other. 
 All is a Revelation given by Inspiration. 
 
 We have not included Christ in this list of methods 
 of inspiration. Christ was more than a method of in- 
 spiration. He was the giver as well as the subject of 
 all inspiration, in all and through all methods. He 
 Himself was God's Revelation. 
 
32 The Bible As It Is 
 
 New Testament Inspiration. 
 As the New Testament was not written until after 
 Christ died and rose, the attestations of its inspiration 
 need to be specially mentioned. 
 
 1. The disciples, and particularly the apostles, 
 were a specially selected group of witnesses and chan- 
 nels for the giving of facts and truths of the gospel 
 (Acts I : 8 ; Luke 24 : 48). 
 
 2. They were given many and palpable evidences 
 of the facts and truths they were to proclaim (John 
 20: 30, 31; 21: 25; I John I, 2; Luke 24:35, 
 
 41-43)- 
 
 3. They were promised by Christ the aid of the 
 Holy Spirit to remember what they heard and saw 
 (John 14: 26). 
 
 4. They were promised also the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit in bringing new truth to their minds (John 
 16: 13;. 
 
 5. The apostles affirm that they were such wit 
 nesses and were so given revelations of the gospel 
 (Acts 2:32; 4:33; 13 ••31; I Cor. 15:1-6 
 
 I John 1:1,2; Acts 10 : 39-41 ; 2 Peter 1:16; Gal 
 i: II, 12). 
 
 6. The Holy Spirit attested their words and acts 
 (Acts 2: 43; 5:12; 10:41-46; 11:15; 14:3 
 15 : 8 ; Rom. 15 : 19; 2 Cor. 12 : 12; Heb. 2 : 4) 
 
 7. They give mutual confirmation of each other in 
 authority, fact and doctrine (2 Peter 3: 15, 16 _ 
 I Cor. 2 : 10-13 ; Eph. 3:5; Jude 17 ; Gal. 2 : 8) 
 
 8. We have the appeal of the fathers of the early 
 
Introductory 33 
 
 church to these writings. Tertullian and others refer 
 to them and affirm them. 
 
 9. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit to 
 the truths in every place preached. 
 
 10. We have the testimony of our own experience 
 to the inspiration of the New Testament in conscious- 
 ness of sins forgiven, peace with God, power and prayer 
 and hope of heaven. This is true in all ages, of all 
 classes, at all times. Such a mass of long-continued 
 testimony does not accompany any other matter of 
 human knowledge or experience. 
 
 How TO Understand the Bible. 
 
 1. The Bible is a spiritual book. While much in 
 it may be understood by any one, as its literary form, 
 historical narratives and ethical teachings, there is much 
 that can be only spiritually discerned. Therefore it re- 
 quires a spiritual state to enter into its meaning in 
 spiritual things (i Cor. 2 : 14, 15). 
 
 2. It calls for a willingness to obey its teachings. 
 One who goes to the Bible to find objections to it or 
 to criticise it need not expect to understand it. 
 
 3. Further the Bible calls for close study. Its 
 gospel messages to repent and believe are so plain that 
 a child may see their meaning, but there are parts 
 which need to be searched with all the diligence pos- 
 sible. 
 
 4. Again we must remember that it is a supernatural 
 book. We are not to expect it to agree with all in 
 our limited observation or experience. It professes to 
 
34 The Bible As It Is 
 
 relate matters of supernatural power far beyond human 
 understanding. 
 
 5. The Bible is self-explanatory. One place ex- 
 plains another. So that, in nearly every case, if we 
 search we will find the solution of every difficult matter. 
 
 6. The whole teaching of the Bible must be had on 
 any point or doctrine. It is unsafe to rest any teach- 
 ing upon single texts or a single part, especially in the 
 earlier books, and it is unnecessary to do so. Doctrine 
 is developed in scripture and the full meaning is found 
 in the later books. The Old Testament must be read 
 in the light of the New, and the New in the light of 
 the Old. 
 
 7. The Bible use of words is to be observed. 
 While many are used in the ordinary conversational 
 sense others have a special Bible meaning. This must 
 be ascertained. Every word has meaning. They are 
 like purified gold. The entire meaning of any part 
 must be taken as the writer intended. 
 
 8. Obscure parts must be read in the light of those 
 clearly understood. 
 
 9. The historical and local meaning should always 
 be ascertained before applying the teachings to ourselves 
 or to others. Interpretation is one thing and applica- 
 tion is another. The interpretation is to be first sought 
 and then the application made as warranted. 
 
 10. The plain, literal meaning is to be taken unless 
 some other is clearly designated. The Bible is not a 
 book of puzzles, nor, like the oracle, capable of many 
 meanings diverse from one another. 
 
Introductory 35 
 
 What to Look for in Bible Study. 
 
 The Bible lies in layers as the soil of the earth. 
 Some meaning is apparent to the actual observer; 
 much lies deeper. These may be represented as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Literary Study. 
 Historical Study. 
 Ethical Study. 
 Doctrinal Study, 
 Spiritual Study. 
 Practical Study. 
 Prophetical Study. 
 
 1. The Bible may be studied as literature. It was 
 the literature of a great people. It has prose and 
 poetry, drama and proverb. The literary form of any 
 part often has an important bearing on its meaning. 
 Such a book as the Song of Solomon must be arranged 
 in its parts before it can be understood. The analysis 
 of a book or part is also included in its literary study. 
 
 2. The historical study of the Bible must have 
 close attention. It is a great history, which has an 
 important bearing on its doctrinal teachings. This 
 includes all facts of every kind. 
 
 3. The ethical teaching of the Bible comes next 
 into view, — its great teachings as to right and wrong. 
 It is the standard book of life and conduct for man- 
 kind. 
 
 4. Still deeper lie the doctrines of the Bible. It 
 tells what to believe about man, God, sin, hereafter, 
 
26 The Bible As It Is 
 
 salvation. The doctrines are to the rehgious system 
 what bones are to the body. 
 
 5. The spiritual teaching of the Bible is the great 
 matter. It is the food of the spiritual nature. This 
 forms its value for devotional meetings and private 
 needs. Under this head come the study of the symbols 
 of the Bible and its typical teachings. Spiritual truth is 
 the very life of the soul. 
 
 6. The study of the Bible for practical uses needs 
 to be classed here. It is a book of lessons in Christian 
 service ; how to save and to lead men to Christ, how 
 to answer the inquirers' difficulties, how to meet various 
 classes. It is the sword of the spirit. 
 
 7. The prophetic study of the Bible should have a 
 large place. One-seventh of the Bible is predictive 
 prophecy. It tells the story of the future. It is the 
 part most neglected to-day. 
 
 Some penetrate no deeper than to see the literary value 
 of the Bible. Others will descend to the historical and 
 the ethical. Theology or study of doctrine is often 
 avoided. We must learn, if we want to get what God 
 would teach us in Bible study, not to be afraid to sound 
 its depths. Scripture itself counsels to go on to per- 
 fection in the knowledge of truth. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BIRD'S-EYE VIEWS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 I. The Whole Bible. 
 
 In opening any book we should first read the title 
 and then look at the table of contents to see the theme 
 and plan and scope of the book. The Bible has no 
 table of contents, but there is a list of its books printed 
 with most editions, and an examination of this will 
 give some idea of the plan and scope of the Bible. 
 We find there are sixty-six books in all and these are 
 divided into two parts, the Old Testament having 
 thirty-nine and the New Testament twenty-seven. 
 These numbers may be remembered by the number of 
 letters in the names of the parts. Old (3) Testament 
 (9)-39. New (3) Testament (9) 3 x 9-27. 
 
 The names "Old Testament" and "New Testa- 
 ment," are taken from the Bible itself. They are 
 found in these words, "Able ministers of the New 
 Testament"; "in the reading of the Old Testa- 
 ment " (2 Cor. 3 : 6, 14). Here the terms are applied 
 to the New and Old Covenants, or, as we would say, 
 to the law and the gospel, the Old Covenant being 
 that which Moses made with Israel, the New Covenant 
 being that brought by Christ, the words Covenant and 
 Testament being the same. 
 37 
 
38 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Here, then, are the great meanings and differences of 
 these parts. The great teacher of the Old Covenant 
 was Moses. The great teacher of the New was Christ. 
 The great feature of the Old is that covenant made 
 by Moses. The great feature of the New is that gospel 
 of grace brought us by Christ. 
 
 We live under the New Covenant, but the Old is as 
 precious to us as to them who lived under it, for it 
 contains the New in the seed or bud. The New 
 Testament with its New Covenant or gospel is the un- 
 folding or development of the Old Testament or 
 Covenant. Therefore we need to study both. The 
 seed and the full-grown plant are both necessary to a 
 right knowledge of the Bible. But, as the Old is the 
 germ of the New, and the central point of the New 
 Testament is the Cross of Christ, that also is the 
 central point of the Old Testament. It must then 
 be read in the light of the Cross. 
 
 It will greatly help in becoming interested in the 
 study of the Bible and in understanding it if we can 
 see its general scope and form ; if, before one visited 
 the World's Fair, he took a survey of the grounds 
 from some elevated point, noted the beauty of the 
 whole, the form of the grounds, the places and charac- 
 ter of the buildings, the entrances and exits, the roads 
 and points of interest, he would save himself much 
 time and obtain a far better idea of the whole than by 
 first beginning with some of the details. He would 
 know where to go for what he wanted most and first. 
 So, if we can obtain a survey of the whole Bible, we 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 39 
 
 will greatly facilitate our progress and interest in its 
 study. 
 
 Taking the books of the Bible, we will examine the 
 list with reference to some arrangement or grouping 
 of them. The first five we have no trouble in ar- 
 ranging. They are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, 
 Numbers and Deuteronomy. They are the books of 
 Moses. They were once one book and are still 
 called "Moses" as we say *' Shakespeare." Some- 
 times they are called ''The Law" or "The Law of 
 Moses." The great feature is law. There is some 
 history, but law is the principal contents of that part 
 of the Bible. We call it the Pentateuch, that is " the 
 five tools " or rolls. This, then, is the first group. 
 
 The second is a group of books which are com- 
 posed nearly all of history. They are twelve. 
 Joshua, Judges, Ruth, i and 2 Samuel, i and 2 
 Kings, I and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and 
 Esther. It will assist in learning these to make three 
 groups of them, and remember that those in the middle 
 group are double books and the first and last groups 
 end with a female name. Thus : 
 
 Joshua, Judges, Ruth. 
 
 Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. 
 
 Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. 
 
 The next group embraces the poetical books. This, 
 in turn, is different from all the foregoing and stands out 
 distinctly by itself. These books are written in poetical 
 form ; that does not mean rhyme of sound as we have 
 in poetry, but what we might call rhyme of meaning. 
 
40 The Bible As It Is 
 
 We will study that later. They are five. Job, 
 Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. 
 Their great feature is wisdom of many kinds. They 
 are the compressed essence of the wisdom of the Old 
 Testament. This includes not only what we call 
 rehgion, but also philosophy and practical knowledge 
 of life as well as what we call theology as then re- 
 vealed. 
 
 The last group is called the Prophets. These books 
 are so called from the fact that they are composed of 
 prophecy, which means either preaching or prediction. 
 There is very little history or other matter in them. 
 They form a distinct class. There are seventeen of 
 them. They are sometimes divided into five major 
 prophets, — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, 
 Daniel, — and twelve minor prophets, — Hosea, Joel, 
 Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, 
 Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. These, 
 especially the minor prophets, will be difiicult to 
 memorize. Their abbreviations form a sort of crude 
 rhyme which will assist the memory. 
 
 Ho. Jo. Am. 
 
 Ob. Jo. Mi. Na. 
 
 Hab. Ze. Hag. Ze. 
 
 Malachi. 
 
 By learning the names of the books of the Bible by 
 groups they will the more easily be remembered and 
 their meaning also. It is as necessary to learn these 
 as it is to know the alphabet. 
 
 The New Testament is divided into similar groups. 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 41 
 
 The four gospels stand by themselves because they 
 give the story of the life of Christ. They are Mat- 
 thew, Mark, Luke, John. They are like the books 
 of Moses in that they give us the laws of Christ as the 
 others give us the laws of Moses. They are the books 
 of Christian law. The book of Acts stands by itself, 
 and corresponds to the twelve historical books of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 The Epistles are a large group of twenty-one books, 
 and, like the minor prophets, will be difficult to mem- 
 orize. There are two classes of them, the epistles by 
 Paul and those by other writers. Paul's are Romans, 
 I and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philip- 
 pians, Colossians, i and 2 Thessalonians, i and 2 
 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. The latter 
 may be classed with Paul's for want of a better classi- 
 fication, for there is no unanimity as to who was the 
 author. These are fourteen in number. The other 
 group includes seven ; James, i and 2 Peter, i, 2 and 
 3 John, and Jude. Fourteen and seven, twenty-one 
 in all. All multiples of seven. The Epistles contain 
 the spiritual development of the wisdom of the New- 
 Testament, its theology and directions for Christian life. 
 In this it agrees with the poetical books of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 The last book in the New Testament stands by itself. 
 The Revelation is unlike any other. The Revelation 
 corresponds to the prophetical books in the Old Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 We have now four parts of the Old Testanaent and 
 
42 The Bible As It Is 
 
 four parts of the New Testament. These correspond 
 with each other as we will see by placing them in op- 
 posite lists. It will be seen that they follow common 
 lines of character. 
 
 Pentateuch (5) Gospels (4) 
 
 History (12) Acts (i) 
 
 Poetry (5) Epistles (21) 
 
 Prophecy (17) Revelation (i) 
 
 (39) (27) 
 
 It will be noticed that these groups in the Bible do 
 not correspond in the number of books or in the amount 
 of matter which they contain. That would be a mere 
 mechanical agreement. It is in character and not 
 quantity -that they divide into groups. These groups 
 are separated by natural lines of division, as much so 
 as the parts of an orange or of a flower. 
 
 The correspondence between the four groups of the 
 Old Testament and the four groups of the New Testa- 
 ment will be seen at once. The first groups are the 
 Pentateuch and the Gospels, the Pentateuch the law by 
 Moses, the Gospels the law by Jesus Christ. In the sec- 
 ond group the history of the Old Testament lies over 
 against that of the New in Acts. The Poetical books give 
 the wisdom of the Old and correspond with the Epis- 
 tles, which give us the wisdom of the Christian age ; and 
 the one book of prophecy in the New agrees with the 
 seventeen of the Old. 
 
 These groups may be united with each other and 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 43 
 
 the scope of all shown by four alliterative words; 
 Precept, Practice, Piety, Prophecy, describing the 
 character of each as follows : 
 
 Pentateuch. 
 
 Precept. 
 
 Gospels. 
 
 History. 
 
 Practice. 
 
 Acts. 
 
 Poetry. 
 
 Piety. 
 
 Epistles. 
 
 Prophecy. 
 
 Prophecy. 
 
 Revelation. 
 
 The first group of each includes books of Precept. 
 The Pentateuch contains the Precepts of the Old 
 Testament, the Gospels the Precepts of the New. 
 The second groups are books of Practice. The Old 
 gives these precepts in practice and often not in 
 practice ; the New gives the precepts of Christ as ex- 
 hibited in practice in the New Testament age. The next 
 groups we designate by the word Piety, which, as 
 an alliterative word, expresses the wisdom and life of 
 the poetical and epistolary books. The last groups in- 
 clude the Prophecy books. 
 
 There is a further agreement in these four divisions 
 in each Testament. If we divide a human life into 
 four parts, the first quarter will be spent in learning, 
 the child his lessons, the young man his trade or 
 profession, and all of us lessons in life. This corre- 
 sponds to the first group in each Testament. It is the 
 precept part of each Testament. The second quarter 
 of a person's life is the time of activity. The man is 
 in his profession or trade or business. This corre- 
 sponds to the second group of each part of the Bible, 
 
44 The Bible As It Is 
 
 the history groups. The third quarter is the time of 
 thought and contemplation. The man in middle life 
 wants to think more deeply, to form a philosophy, a 
 system of religion, to see the reason of things. To 
 this the third part corresponds, the group of wisdom 
 books. The fourth quarter of a life is the time of 
 retrospection or looking to the future. To this the 
 fourth class in each part of the Bible corresponds. 
 So that the Bible follows our life. As children we 
 naturally begin with the first books of the Bible, Genesis 
 or the Gospels. The youth loves history or story, to 
 that age the narrative books of the Bible appeal. The 
 man in middle life will be attracted to the more con- 
 templative parts, as he feels the burden and problems 
 of life, and so turns to the books of wisdom in the third 
 class. The aged Christian loves those which tell of 
 the future and are so mysterious to others. 
 
 The Bible, then, has an organization. It has a sym- 
 metrical form. There is evidence of a superintending 
 hand even in the form in which it has come to us, and 
 this is the order generally speaking in which it was 
 given. 
 
 2. Lines of Unity in the Bible. 
 
 There are certain lines of unity suggested by the 
 foregoing view which we ought to notice in beginning 
 the study of the Bible. 
 
 I. Unity of form. This we have seen in the pre- 
 ceding section. There is certainly unity, as any one 
 can see. This, in a book given during sixteen hundred 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 45 
 
 years and by forty different writers, is remarkable 
 enough to lead us to see design in it all and that de- 
 sign more than human. 
 
 2. Unity of history. We shall see that the Bible 
 tells one story. It is one narrative. We are not to 
 take up the study of disconnected books or narratives. 
 They are most intimately connected by a continuous 
 line running through the whole book from Genesis to 
 Revelation. 
 
 3. Unity of doctrine. It is one system of truth. 
 The doctrines of God, man, sin, grace, redemption, 
 and hereafter are the same throughout. 
 
 4. Unity of spiritual experience. The saints of 
 the Old Testament are like those of the New and all 
 like ourselves. The nature of man being the same, 
 the grace of God being the same, the nature of life 
 and the world the same, we may expect the experi- 
 ences to be alike also, and they are. 
 
 5. Unity of prophecy. The prophecies of the 
 Old are continued in the New and we see the same 
 outlook in each part. 
 
 3. Lines of Diversity. 
 The two great parts of the Bible also present some 
 striking contrasts. We will notice some of these. They 
 are necessary to a right understanding of the Bible. 
 
 1. We have seen the different manner in which 
 they came, the Old during a thousand years, the 
 New in one generation. 
 
 2. Also the great teachers of each. ** God who 
 
46 The Bible As It Is 
 
 at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times 
 past unto the fathers hath in these last days spoken 
 unto us in His Son." Moses and the prophets are 
 the great teachers of the Old. Christ and His apos- 
 tles are the great teachers of the New. 
 
 3. The persons addressed, or written of, form an- 
 other striking contrast. In the Old Testament it is 
 Israel. It is their history. To them the admonitions 
 are addressed. Other nations come in only because 
 they touch Israel. In the New it is the Church, a spirit- 
 ual body universal, and especially the Gentile Church. 
 This difference is recognized in this passage. 
 ** Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant. 
 . . . But Christ as a Son over His own house ' ' 
 (Heb. 3:5, 6). Israel is addressed as a nation. 
 True there is much to individuals in the Old. But 
 not only Israel, but other peoples are addressed mostly 
 as nations and their destiny as such is in the foreground. 
 In the New Testament the messages are principally to 
 the Church and to individuals. 
 
 4. The subjects with which each part deals is another 
 point of difference. The Old Testament has little 
 about the future life and the other world. It is there, 
 but not developed. In the New Testament these 
 form the great subjects. The other world and the 
 future life are fully declared. In the Old again it 
 is largely secular matters which are taught; Israel's 
 life as a nation and national duties ; the relations 
 of man in social life. Politics are dwelt upon and 
 matters of state. In the New there is little of all this. 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 47 
 
 Man's spiritual duties and interests are the great theme. 
 It will be seen that these two parts are supplementary 
 to each other. 
 
 4. Lines of Development. 
 We are to look for the development of certain lines 
 as we go on with the study of the Bible. 
 
 1. We shall see a succession of ages or periods of 
 dispensation in the history of man, during which we 
 will see changes of condition and divine actings to- 
 wards him. It will be important to discriminate be- 
 tween these so as to know what applies to each of the 
 scriptures we study. 
 
 2. We must expect to see an unfolding of divine 
 operation. The Bible shows God at work among 
 mankind in the past. He is still at work and on the 
 same plan extended. 
 
 3. We shall also see an extending sphere of grace. 
 At first we shall see God working with individuals, 
 then later with families, afterwards with a nation and 
 now with a world-wide body, the Church, and still 
 later not only the whole world, but other worlds come 
 within the sphere of grace. 
 
 4. We shall see a series of divine covenants given to 
 man, beginning with the first to Adam, following with 
 another to Noah, and a third to Abraham, and a fourth 
 to Israel, and a fifth to David, and a sixth to us in 
 Christ, and a seventh to the world in the New Earth. 
 All these are displays of the Everlasting covenant given 
 Christ in the Eternal ages. 
 
48 The Bible As It Is 
 
 5. A development of truth will be seen. We shall 
 find the germs of all truth in the earlier books, and 
 these brought out more clearly in the succeeding parts. 
 Successive revelations are given to each of God's 
 people. Enoch learns more than Adam, and Noah 
 more than he; and so Abraham, Moses and others 
 down to Christ and His apostles, receive ever greater 
 revelations, and at last, John, the greatest of all. 
 
 6. We shall see also a rise in godly character in the 
 successive persons who come before us. Each great 
 Bible character is a greater one spiritually than those 
 who were before him. 
 
 7. The Revelation of Christ is the great theme of 
 the Bible. We see Him first with the Father in the 
 eternal past, then in creation, afterwards with the Old 
 Testament church, later in earthly life, now in His 
 present state and the coming day of the Lord, and 
 at last in the eternal future. This eternal view of 
 Christ is the view of the Bible and its great theme. 
 It is to reveal God, for Christ is the revelation of God. 
 The theme, then, of the Bible is God, and Christ in His 
 many characters as His manifestation.^ 
 
 5. Full View of the Bible. 
 The entire view of the Bible is shown in this dia- 
 gram to which there are added some of the lines of 
 unity, diversity and development above described, and 
 some of the lines we expect to cover in these studies. 
 
 2 See " The Greater Life and Work of Christ," by the author 
 of this book. 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 49 
 
 The King and 
 
 Kingdom 
 
 O^^cnjoM 
 
 S.I:'*' 
 
 -: S? ^ « 5 
 
 fif ' 
 
 
 Prophecy 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 n 
 
 Revelation 
 
 Poetry 
 
 a> 
 
 Epistles 
 
 
 
 .r 
 
 
 
 
 (/3 
 
 as- 
 
 
 2 o 2. O o =r 
 
 « — in O 3 rt 
 
 I ■ w 3 nS 
 
 H ^ "" 2 • 
 
 5. g'- 
 
 : : : H : 
 
 History Pentateueh 
 O O K 
 
 o 
 
 Acts 
 
 '^^^^ 
 
 Qn 1 
 
 
 
so The Bible As It Is 
 
 6. A View of the Old Testament. 
 
 We will now take up the first great division of the 
 Bible, the Old Testament, and endeavor to obtain a 
 perspective view of it. It occupies three-fourths of 
 the whole Bible. This is all one great story. It is 
 all about the people of Israel. It tells their rise and 
 progress, their fall, and predicts their future. Along 
 this we find the great lesson God would have us learn. 
 It is a great sermon in story. While perfectly true, it 
 is also a great allegorical representation of great moral 
 and spiritual truths. We might call it the Pilgrim's 
 Progress of the Bible, only the happy ending of Bun- 
 yan's pilgrim has not been reached yet in the Israelitish 
 nation except in prophecy and allegorically. 
 
 The whole history of Israel in the Old Testament 
 may be described as The Rise and Fall of Israel. It 
 may be represented by an ascending and descending 
 line on which we will arrange approximately all the 
 books of the Old Testament in the order in which 
 they lie in the story. The following diagram will 
 represent this : 
 
 We have placed the highest point of their history in 
 the time of David and Solomon. This was spiritually 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 51 
 
 and typically their time of greatest glory. The books 
 we have placed along this ascending and descending 
 line as they occur in the narrative. Those on the 
 ascending line tell of their rise. Those on the de- 
 scending line tell of the time of their fall. The poetical 
 books, except Job, were mostly written at the time 
 of their greatest glory. The Prophets came as they 
 began to descend. By keeping clearly in mind this 
 brief outline a view is had of the general place of the 
 respective parts of the Old Testament. 
 
 Another diagram will assist in the understanding of 
 the historical part of the Old Testament. 
 
 Israel's history may be roughly outlined as a period 
 of two thousand years from Abraham to Christ. This 
 period may be divided into four parts of about equal 
 length. Some of these parts are longer, some shorter, 
 but this will do approximately, and later we will 
 correct the periods. We may describe these four 
 parts of Israel's history alliteratively by four words, 
 the Camp, Commonwealth, Crown and Captivity, 
 using the latter word for the entire period of the sub- 
 jection. 
 
 I Camp .Commonwealth . Crown .Captivity 
 THE Pentateuch I Joshua Judges I.II Sam. UI Kings Ezra. Neh 
 I Ruth | I.IIChrON. | ESTHER 
 
 OUTLINE OF ISRAEL'S HISTORY. 
 
 The Camp period includes the time of their history 
 before they became a setded people in their own land. 
 It includes the time of pilgrimage of their great an- 
 cestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the time of 
 
52 The Bible As It Is 
 
 their stay in Egypt and of the journey to Canaan. 
 The next period, the Commonwealth, includes the 
 time they were under judges in Canaan. The third, 
 the Crown period, the time when they had independ- 
 ent kings of their own ; and the last period, the 
 Captivity, when they were under foreign powers, but 
 not always as captives. 
 
 The books which tell of these periods are given on 
 the diagram. It is well to learn these and associate 
 them in mind with these general periods. 
 
 We will first take the Camp period and look at the 
 books which give the story of the origin and rise of 
 Israel as a nation. The Pentateuch tells us this 
 story. It includes, as has been said, the story of the 
 pilgrimage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the life of 
 Israel in Egypt and their journey to Canaan. In 
 Egypt they were but pilgrims. There they grew 
 physically into a nation. In the Wilderness they be- 
 came a nation politically. 
 
 7. Genesis. 
 
 We have taken a series of views first of the whole 
 Bible, then of the Old Testament and last of the 
 Pentateuch. We will now take a single book, 
 Genesis. 
 
 Genesis is in some respects the most remarkable 
 book in the Bible. The name Genesis is from the 
 title in the Greek version. It means the genera- 
 tion. It will give a key to the book. It is a book 
 of beginnings. It shows the beginning of mat- 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible 5:3 
 
 ter, of the world, of life, of man, marriage and home, 
 of grace, of sin in the world, of redemption, of the 
 church, of the promised Saviour, of nations, of law, 
 and of the chosen people. All study of things secular 
 as well as sacred must go back to Genesis. 
 
 No other book in the Bible contains such a succession 
 of interesting and generally well-known narratives as 
 Eden, Cain, Abel, the Flood, the Tower of Babel, 
 Hagar, Lot and Sodom, Ishmael, Isaac offered, Re- 
 becca, Jacob and Esau, Jacob's ladder, Rachel, Jacob 
 at Peniel, Joseph and his brethren, Joseph in Egypt. 
 These form a succession of narratives of surpassing 
 and dramatic interest and laden with truth. This is 
 one reason why Genesis is the place to commence 
 Bible study. 
 
 Another great feature is the extent of time it covers. 
 This will be seen by a diagram. We will use the 
 common chronology here and elsewhere for want of a 
 better, for there is no agreement as to early Bible 
 chronology by those who reject this. Besides, the fact 
 here shown would be more remarkable if we used a 
 longer time. 
 
 We will represent the time covered by Genesis and 
 by all the rest of the Bible. 
 
 ' ' ' * I ' _i 
 
 Genesis 2300 Yrs. l^fg^p^Oj^l 
 
 It will be seen that Genesis covers 2,300 years and 
 the rest of the Old Testament 1,000 years. Genesis 
 extends nearly half-way across the 6,000 years as- 
 
54 The Bible As It Is 
 
 signed to human history according to the old chro- 
 nology. If we take a longer chronology, it covers the 
 greater part of human history. 
 
 But we must remember here that the Bible was not 
 written to give a history of the world. It touches the 
 rest of the world only as it is necessary for the great 
 narrative it gives. 
 
 A good method by which to get the contents of a book 
 of the Bible is to read it carefully with pencil and paper 
 in hand, and, having read a chapter, to write in a word 
 on the paper the contents of the chapter ; say it is the 
 first chapter of Genesis, the word '^creation" de- 
 scribes it. Then take the second chapter in like 
 manner, and so through the book. If there is more 
 than one subject in the chapter take the principal or 
 most suggestive. After making a list of all, look 
 over the list and group the chapters. In this way 
 you will have an analysis of the whole book. 
 
 Now, taking Genesis in this way, it will be seen to be 
 the history of three families, Adam's, Noah's, Abra- 
 ham's. 
 
 1. Adam's family, — Chapters i to 5. 
 
 2. Noah's family, — Chapters 6 to 11. 
 
 3. Abraham's family, — Chapters 12 to 50. 
 Adam's family means, of course, his immediate 
 
 descendants to Noah; and Noah's family, his de- 
 scendants to Abraham. Abraham's family includes 
 three further divisions ; the chapters that relate to his 
 own history, those relating to Jacob, and those relating 
 to Joseph. 
 
Bird's-Eye Views of the Bible ^^ 
 
 1. Abraham, — Chapters 12 to 24. 
 
 2. Jacob, — Chapters 25 to ^6. 
 
 3. Joseph, — Chapters 37 to 50. 
 
 These also are only general divisions for ease of re- 
 membering. So that, in all, five divisions are made, 
 relating respectively to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob 
 and Joseph. Isaac has only mention with others ; only 
 a single chapter is given exclusively to him. 
 
 We also notice that Adam's family occupies five chap- 
 ters, Noah's six, and Abraham's the rest of the book, 
 thirty-nine. The history of Abraham and his family 
 occupies three and a-half times the space, yet only 
 covers a seventh of the time. Evidently Abraham is 
 the important character. All the foregoing chapters 
 are then only introductory to Abraham. This is in 
 accord with the plan of the Bible as we have seen. 
 Israel, of whom Abraham is the progenitor, is the 
 great theme and all else accessory only. So that we 
 are to enter the study of the Bible, and especially of 
 Genesis, with the understanding that this is the great 
 subject, and that all preceding is only introductory, 
 and that only so much is given as is necessary to a 
 right introduction to, and study of, the history of the 
 chosen people. 
 
 Genesis is divided into ten narratives, each of which 
 commences with the words, *' These are the gener- 
 ations of " Once it is, '' This is the book of the 
 
 generations of ' ' So we have the history intro- 
 duced of the heavens and the earth (2 : 4), Adam (5 : i), 
 Noah (6 : 9), Sons of Noah (10 : i), Shem (11 : 10), 
 
SG The Bible As It Is 
 
 Terah (ii : 27), Ishmael (25 : 12), Isaac (25 : 19), 
 Esau (^2)^ : i), Jacob (37 : 2). This is a scriptural way 
 of beginning a narrative. So the history of Christ in 
 Matthew begins. These divisions could be followed 
 as a method of study, but with our plan this would 
 divide the matter into too many parts and fail to give 
 that sweep we desire. It is well to notice these in 
 passing, however. 
 
 The order of study that we shall follow will be : i, 
 The Creation ; 2, Eden and the Fall ; 3, The Flood ; 4, 
 Origin of the Nations; 5, Abraham; 6, Jacob; 7, 
 Joseph. We will group around these the subsidiary 
 topics. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CREATION 
 
 Genesis i, 2. 
 
 The study of the Creation well deserves a larger 
 place than is usually given to it. While it is true that 
 the space devoted to any event is some guide to its im- 
 portance, this is not an infaUible guide. For here we 
 have but two chapters, yet they are of vital and far-reach- 
 ing importance. Libraries have been written upon them. 
 This subject lies at the basis of all modern science and 
 thought, and here are the great questions which vex 
 the mind to-day. Therefore to pass it over with a 
 mere enumeration of the items is not true study. We 
 may be mistaken in our conceptions, yet any study is 
 better than neglect. 
 
 The topical parts of the narrative are as follows : 
 
 1. The Creation of the world and its physical and 
 animal contents. 
 
 2. The Creation of Man. 
 
 The first chapter of Genesis is the key to the whole 
 Bible. We are struck with its simplicity, — it contains 
 but about 1,000 words; also with its sublimity, com- 
 pared to all other cosmogonies. It evidences divinity 
 in its structure as well as in the scientific accuracy of 
 its teachings. « 
 
 57 
 
58 The Bible As It Is 
 
 The opening sentence is one of the most weighty in 
 the Bible. '' In the beginning God created the heaven 
 and the earth." Dr. Murphy says : '* It denies athe- 
 ism, for it assumes the being of God. It denies poly- 
 theism, for it confesses the one Eternal Creator. It 
 denies materialism, for it asserts the creation of matter. 
 It denies pantheism, for it assumes the existence of 
 God before all things and apart from them. It denies 
 fatalism, for it involves the freedom of the Eternal 
 Being" (Commentary on Genesis, p. 30). 
 
 I. The Godhead in Creation. 
 
 The scriptures teach that the several persons of the 
 Trinity had a part in creation. The first verse of the 
 chapter might be translated, ** In the beginning the 
 Godhead created the heaven and the earth." The 
 word in the original is plural. God the Father, God 
 the Son, God the Holy Spirit had special spheres in 
 creation. Some of the scriptures which teach this are 
 as follows : *' There is one God the Father, of whom 
 are all things, and we unto Him ; and one Lord Jesus 
 Christ, through whom are all things, and we through 
 Him" (i Cor. 8: 6). *'By whom also He made 
 the worlds" (Heb. i : 2). ''In Him were all things 
 created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things 
 visible and things invisible, whether thrones or domin- 
 ions or principalities or powers ; all things have been 
 created through Him, and unto Him ; and He is 
 before all things and in Him all things consist ' ' (Col. 
 
The Creation 59 
 
 i: 16, 17). "The Spirit of God moved upon the 
 face of the waters " (Gen. 1:2). ''By His Spirit He 
 hath garnished the heavens. The Spirit of God hath 
 made me " (Job 26 : 13 ; ^^: 4). 
 
 So that the teaching of scripture as to creation is 
 that God the Father is the ultimate source of all; 
 Christ was the active agent in the creation or forma- 
 tion of all and the Holy Spirit the source of life of all. 
 This agrees with the teachings of science of the three 
 great unities in nature, a unity of substance, a unity 
 of form, and a unity of life. 
 
 2. Extent of the Six Days' Creation. 
 
 We need to enquire how far the account in this 
 chapter extends. The verse, ''In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth," is generally inter- 
 preted of the entire universe. It may be applied to 
 that, but it is not so used here. The "heaven" here 
 mentioned is not the heaven of the universe of fixed 
 stars. It is defined in the eighth verse as " the firma- 
 ment," that is our earth's heaven or immediate sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 A scholar states : " The expression, ' the heavens 
 and the earth,' was among the Hebrews the common 
 designation for the world, for which the Old Testa- 
 ment has no single expression. It always means the 
 terrestrial globe and its aerial firmament." The stars 
 in the Fourth Day's work in connection with the sun 
 and moon are the planets only. We need not then 
 look further in this chapter than the solar system, of 
 
6o The Bible As It Is 
 
 which our earth is part and with which it is so closely 
 connected. The boundless universe of fixed stars is 
 mentioned in other parts of scripture, but not here. 
 
 Undoubtedly, the earth and the entire solar system, 
 being parts of the universe, were created, so far as 
 their original form and subsequent formation, at the 
 same time as the universe, for all are one in substance 
 and general form and in the energies that animate 
 them. We must notice that no time is mentioned 
 when the earth was created or the length of time for 
 the process. All that is said on these points is that it 
 was *' In the beginning." 
 
 3. State of the Earth Before the Six Days* 
 
 Creation. 
 
 The next point necessary to a right understanding 
 of the chapter is the state of the earth before the Six 
 Days' Creation began. *' The earth was waste and 
 void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and 
 the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 
 Here is a change from the authorized version, which 
 reads, "the earth was without form and void." The 
 two statements are radically different. The revised 
 translation is the true one. It describes not chaos or 
 the primeval state of an unformed earth, but a state 
 of desolation. The same word is used in Jer. 4 : 23, 
 where the prophet sees in vision the earth after the 
 desolations of the last day. 
 
 Again- the Bible statement is that the earth was 
 covered or largely covered with water just before the 
 
The Creation 6l 
 
 Six Days' work began. This is not chaos or the 
 primeval form of earth. It shows the earth in a 
 spherical shape, and under the ocean must have been 
 a solid floor or crust of earth with its series of 
 rocky strata. This was a comparatively finished state 
 of earth, and far from the idea generally held of a 
 chaotic state. All that intervenes between the original 
 creation of the earth and its state as here described is 
 passed over in silence. 
 
 There is therefore an interval between the first and 
 second verses. In that interval lies all geology tells 
 us of. The history of the formation and after progress 
 of the earth is there. This includes all up to the 
 beginning of the Six Days' Creation. Here is where 
 the fossil creatures lived and died. All this is passed 
 over in silence in the Bible account. It takes up the 
 story after the desolations which geology tells us ended 
 that time. This left the world as stated, *' waste and 
 void." So we do not have to read into this chapter 
 the account of the long ages in which were formed the 
 earth's crust with its countless races of fossil creatures. 
 
 Science and the Bible agree that our present order 
 of nature is a late and comparatively recent one as 
 compared with the geologic ages. 
 
 It is interesting to notice here that geology tells us that 
 there was such a time or age or series of ages of com- 
 parative desolation just before our present races of ani- 
 mals and plants, and, especially, just before man came. 
 The Great Ice Age was such a state of earth. Geology 
 tells us that the ice was i,ooo feet thick over Cincinnati 
 
62 The Bible As It Is 
 
 and 10,000 feet thick over New England. The south- 
 ern ice was 12,000 feet thick, as shown by its marks 
 on the mountains of South America. The darkness 
 was intense. The whole lasted 200,000 years. 
 
 Without sunlight and with such a climate the earth 
 might have been well described as <' waste and void." 
 Whether this was the age the Bible account refers to we 
 cannot say, but it corresponds to it in many respects. 
 
 The Six Days' Creation then is to be regarded, as 
 plainly shown in the chapter, as one of a series of 
 creations, in which the earth is repopulated and pre- 
 pared for the use of man. Man is the great object in 
 the divine mind. Even the past ages are intended 
 to prepare the earth for him. Its wealth of coal and 
 oil and gas and metals and rocks were all in the mind 
 of God intended for man. He filled the cellar with 
 fuel and other necessaries before He brought the fami- 
 lies of living creatures upon it. Here is an illustration 
 of the prevenient grace of God. 
 
 4. The Six Days' Creation. 
 The Six Days' Creation lies in two parallel groups as 
 shown in the following list. The opposite days cor- 
 respond to each other. 
 
 I. Light. IV. The Sun, Moon and Planets. 
 
 II. Waters and Atmosphere. V. Water and Air Animals. 
 III. Land and Vegetation. VI. Land Animals and Man. 
 
 The order of the Six Days' Creation should be 
 noticed and learned, for there is a deep spiritual lesson 
 
The Creation 63 
 
 to be learned from it, which we will consider at the 
 close. We will examine each day's work separately. 
 
 We need to notice the scientific order in which the 
 creative days are given. First the elements, light and 
 air, then vegetation, after that the lowest forms of 
 living creatures and succeeding them the higher orders 
 and man last of all. This is the order science tells of 
 also. The earth was in darkness and largely covered 
 with water. Vegetation preceded animal life and the 
 lowest orders came first and man was the last that 
 appeared. In view of the fact that this account has, 
 as all know, been in writing for thousands of years and 
 while the world was in ignorance of all this, we must 
 here see evidence, as Dana the geologist writes as 
 quoted before, that a divine hand gave the account. 
 
 The study of the succeeding days will disclose 
 other facts of this kind. 
 
 1. The First Day gave light. Not that this was 
 the first appearance of light in the universe or even in 
 the earth. The account does not say that. It simply 
 speaks of light on the earth. The sun, whose relations 
 to the earth are fixed in the Fourth Day's work, was 
 then shining, but the dense vapors excluded its rays 
 from earth. The First Day's work then was the ad- 
 mission of some light through the vapors with which 
 the earth was surrounded. Light must precede the 
 life of vegetation and animals. 
 
 2. The Second Day gives the formation of the 
 present atmosphere. The atmosphere of the early 
 ages of earth was pestilential with carbonic gas. It was 
 
64 The Bible As It Is 
 
 in this that the dense forests of ferns and other geologic 
 plants grew. This was utterly unfit for our present 
 order of animals and especially man. Dense vapors 
 preceded the Six Days' Creation and rested on the 
 ocean's surface. The lifting of these and their 
 cleansing from the deadly gases which they contained 
 was the Second Day's work. The suspension of this 
 mass of vapors would form *'the waters which are 
 above the earth." 
 
 3. The Third Day's work was the elevation of 
 some of the earth's surface above the ocean's surface 
 and the sprouting of the first forms of vegetable life. 
 The earth has had many such depressions and eleva- 
 tions of its surface, as is well known. How quickly 
 these took place is a matter of dispute in science. That 
 God could do this quickly, and, indeed, that it has 
 occurred quickly, the history of our earth shows, some 
 such changes are matter of record in historic times. 
 The clothing of this part of the earth with vegetation 
 was the Third Day's work. We notice the botanical 
 order in which the plants are named, ''grass, herb, 
 tree," and that they come before animals as the neces- 
 sary food of most of them. 
 
 4. The Fourth Day's work is the adjustment of 
 the sun, moon and planets in their relationship to 
 earth. We must keep out of mind any idea of the 
 sun's creation as referred to here. The word 
 "create" is not used of this day's work. The sun 
 was long in use and as it is now. But the position or 
 orbit or relation of the earth to the sun has undergone 
 
The Creation 65 
 
 changes, as we know. This day's work was as stated, 
 <* for signs and seasons and for days and for years," 
 and " for lights." We have here the apparent purpose 
 of a greater degree of light than at the first and a 
 different relation of the earth to the heavenly bodies, 
 so as to produce not only the rotation of seasons, but 
 also the calculation of years and days and other 
 periods. Some scientists have said that the earth's 
 axis was once parallel to the sun and not inclined as 
 now. This made fixed seasons. The inclination 
 would correspond to such a work as the Fourth Day's. 
 
 5. The Fifth Day's work was the production of 
 animal life of the lowest orders. The English words 
 do not indicate with exactness the nature of each class. 
 They are all egg-producing creatures and these are the 
 lowest forms. They are also named in scientific order. 
 
 (i) '<Let the waters bring forth the moving 
 creature that hath life," literally let the waters swarm 
 with swarmers. The immense animal population of 
 the ocean is here meant ; not the fish, they come 
 later and are an advanced order, but the lowest orders 
 of water animals. 
 
 (2) ''Let fowl fly above the earth." These are 
 not the birds, for they are mentioned later as '* winged 
 fowl." These are the insects and properly come 
 after the lowest form of animals in the waters from 
 which the insects largely come. 
 
 (3) "Great sea monsters" are named next. 
 These are the reptile orders. The word "sea" is 
 used in the Bible for any body of water. 
 
ee The Bible As It Is 
 
 (4) Fish are meant in the next description. 
 "Living creatures that moveth, that the waters 
 brought forth abundantly," referring to the immense 
 fertihty and increase of the fish orders. 
 
 (5) Birds are meant in the ''winged fowl." 
 These come last and are highest in the egg-producing 
 class. 
 
 6. The Sixth Day's work gives the mammals, the 
 highest order of animals, ending with man. They 
 are named as follows, "Living creatures," ''cattle," 
 ' ' creeping things, " " beasts of the earth . " The previous 
 day's creation was from the waters, these are from the 
 earth, " Let the earth bring forth." The first named 
 are the smaller earth animals ; the cattle, the domestic 
 orders; the "beasts of the earth," the beasts of prey, 
 the highest in the order of intelligence. 
 
 5. The Method of Creation. 
 The whole account gives us the idea of a succession 
 of creative changes. Whether the old species were 
 used in the creation of the new species we are not in 
 so many words told. The expressions " Let the 
 earth bring forth." . . . " Let the waters bring 
 forth," some claim may include such a process. But 
 it was a creation and not the long and infinitesimal 
 changes that the unproven theory of Evolution proposes. 
 God could have created new species by extraordinary 
 births of new from old and this is proposed as a solu- 
 tion by some. This would agree with the way the 
 fossil creatures came and went. They are successive 
 
The Creation 67 
 
 in history, come in suddenly in small numbers, grow- 
 to great proportions and pass out as suddenly as they 
 came. In our present order all the species are 
 simultaneous and appear to have come in nearly so. 
 In view of the fact that no case of Evolution is 
 known, nor any law by which it could have taken 
 place, and that it is admitted by its teachers to be un- 
 demonstrated, we may dismiss the matter so far as it 
 seems to controvert the Bible account. A book which 
 has proven right on so many well known matters may 
 be trusted where we do not understand the facts, as in 
 the origin of life and its forms, the laws of heredity 
 and countless mysteries in all nature about us.^ 
 
 6. The Creation of Man. 
 
 The creation of man was a special act of the God- 
 head. It was preceded by a special consultation: 
 "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." 
 
 It is also expressly said, " God created man in His 
 own image, in the image of God created He him : 
 male and female created He them." In the next 
 chapter the process is described. " The Lord God 
 formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed 
 into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a 
 living soul." The Avhole narrative expressly forbids 
 the idea that he had any connection with the brutes, 
 
 ^See "The Other Side of Evolution" by the author and publisher 
 of this book. It has an introduction by Prof. George Frederick 
 Wright of Oberlin University and gives in popular form the areumcnis 
 for and against the theory of evolution. 150 pages, price, 60 ■.mr-,. 
 Postage, 10 cents. 
 
68 The Bible As It Is 
 
 whatever might have been his origin. The descrip- 
 tion of that first man is utterly inconsistent with the 
 idea presented to us by the theory of Evolution. 
 Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. 
 A brute, whatever in the way of soul might be im- 
 parted to him suddenly or gradually, is not in the 
 likeness or image of God. We have the full account 
 of one who was in the image of God. Christ is thus 
 described. ''The effulgence of His glory, and the 
 very image of His substance " (Heb. 1:3). By com- 
 paring the two, the incongruity of an ape-man as an 
 image of God appears. The two accounts are utterly 
 inconsistent with each other. But, as has been re- 
 marked, its advocates admit that it is an unproven 
 theory, so we may dismiss it from further consideration 
 here. The other scripture writers and Christ Himself 
 accept this account and so may we (Matt. 19 : 4-6). 
 
 The objection to the Bible account seems to come from 
 grotesque ideas of the process and from facetious jests 
 founded upon it. There is nothing grotesque in the 
 story itself. The dust of which man's body was made 
 means all the earthy constituents of which the human 
 form is composed, whether solid or fluid or gaseous. 
 That man's body is composed of these all admit, as also 
 that his moral and spiritual nature is from God, and 
 this is the main point in the scripture narrative. As 
 to the actual process the psalmist gives a picture. 
 Speaking of himself, but with evident reference to 
 man's original creation, he says, *' My frame was not 
 hidden from thee when I was made in secret, and cu- 
 
The Creation 69 
 
 riously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
 Thine eyes did see mine unperfect substance and in 
 Thy book were all my members written which day by 
 day were fashioned when as yet there was none of 
 them" (Ps. 139: 15, 16). The same figure Job re- 
 fers to when he says in his distress, " Naked came I 
 out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return 
 thither " (Job i : 21 ; 10 : 9). We ourselves are con- 
 stantly speaking of <' mother earth" and the womb 
 of earth. A body when it dies passes through the 
 same changes reversed. The breath leaves it, it be- 
 comes corrupt and finally disintegrates and at last 
 all that is left is dust. Now reverse that process. Let 
 that dust reform and the constituent fluids and gases re- 
 turn. Let breath enter in and it is as at first. It cer- 
 tainly ought not to be a repugnant or difficult con- 
 ception to a believer in the resurrection. 
 
 The creation of man is referred to three times in 
 the first five chapters of Genesis. The scripture 
 method is to give the outlines of an event and then 
 return and fill in the details. In the second account 
 (Gen. 2) the former account is referred to ; the supple- 
 mentary facts are then given. In the second account 
 the general creation of plants and animals is supposed 
 to be known. '< The plant of the field and the herb 
 of the field " are the domestic plants man has had, as 
 all evidence testifies, from the beginning. 
 
 The standpoint of the second account is stated to 
 be at a point between the finishing of the six days' 
 work and before the creation of man. Then ensues 
 
70 The Bible As It Is 
 
 an account of the creation of man in detail and there 
 follows an account of the preparation of the garden 
 and the trees necessary, man's introduction to it, the 
 animal creation and the creation of woman. There 
 is no difficulty here. The statement that no plant of 
 the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field 
 had yet sprung up has no reference to the whole vege- 
 table kingdom, but only to the trees and plants needed 
 by man which the narrative proceeds to relate God 
 made or planted in the garden. So also the narrative 
 of the creation of the beast of the field and the fowl 
 of the air. These are the domestic creatures which 
 all history shows have been with man from the earliest 
 knowledge we have of him. To have left man with 
 the order of plants and animals of the earth at large, as 
 all the other creatures were, would have been to leave 
 him in a wild jungle or forest or wilderness, which was 
 the state of the earth at the close of the sixth day, and 
 before the creation of man. This is all the narrative 
 means by the statement as to the trees and herbs. The 
 garden with its vegetation and animals is the subject 
 of the chapter and the statements must not be stretched 
 further than its own declared subject. The writer in 
 the second narrative supposes the existence and knowl- 
 edge by the reader of the first narrative and cannot 
 therefore be contradictory or erroneous. It is not a 
 recapitulation of the third day's work. That is ended 
 as he expressly states. This is supplementary^ and 
 only refers to the garden and its use for man. 
 
 The creation of woman came last of all. The 
 
The Creation 71 
 
 origin of sex is one of the mysteries of science, as 
 much so as the Bible account. There are deep physi- 
 ological mysteries here hinted at (Gen i : 27). All 
 we can do is to accept the account as it is given, a 
 supernatural event thus described in the only language 
 we are capable of hearing. Other scripture accepts 
 the account (i Cor. 11:12; i Tim. 2:13; Matt. 
 19: 4; Mark 10 : 6, 7). 
 
 As Matthew Henry quaintly says, "Woman was 
 made of a rib out of the side of Adam, not out of his 
 head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled on 
 by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, un- 
 der his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be 
 beloved" (Commentary). 
 
 7. Agreement with Science. 
 
 We will sum up here the points of agreement with 
 the facts of science. 
 
 There are great facts we need to notice here. In 
 these there is agreement with science as there is in all 
 the Bible statements when each is rightly read. 
 
 1. Science and the Bible tell us there was a Be- 
 ginning. All the operations of nature point back to 
 a time when all we see had a beginning. 
 
 2. That beginning was creation. There is no 
 other conceivable origin. Science admits that. 
 
 3. It is also now conceded by science that the 
 originating of the universe by an act of volition by 
 God is perfectly supposable aad indeed the only 
 origin. All forces are one. Light is formed from heat, 
 
72 The Bible As It Is 
 
 and that from chemical action in combustion, ana 
 that from electrical action, and that from motion, and 
 that again from heat, and so all forces are forms of 
 one force. It is also believed that all substances are 
 one, and that a form of energy. So all is resolved 
 into energy and that is stated as the product or effect of 
 volition. So here science meets creation. God willed 
 and the universe existed, probably in some primeval 
 form of substance. 
 
 4. The glory and immensity of the universe is 
 alike made known to us by the Bible and science. 
 There is no grotesque description such as we find in 
 the cosmogony of ancient peoples. This, written so 
 long ago when the world was in darkness about the 
 great universe, contains no error on this great ques- 
 tion. 
 
 5 . Astronomy tells us that the solar system, which is 
 the subject, as we have seen, of the Bible creation 
 account, is unique in the heavens. It is far away 
 from other worlds and in a region where stars are 
 scarce. If we represent the sun and planets by a 
 farmer and his eight sons living within a mile of each 
 other, and the nearest neighbor five thousand miles 
 away, we have the relative distance of the solar system 
 from other worlds. Again, its orbit is unique. No 
 other is so circular and regular as ours. And further, 
 we see no other worlds whose state is that which is fit 
 for organic life. So that altogether it looks like the 
 subject of a special operation ; not that it was created 
 at any different time or by any different process, but 
 
The Creation 73 
 
 that it was the subject of special care and for special 
 use. 
 
 6. As to the whole creative order and history, Dr. 
 Murphy states its evidence as follows: ''The eleva- 
 tion of extensive tracts of land, the subsidence of the 
 overlying waters into comparative hollows, the clari- 
 fying of the atmosphere, the creation of a fresh supply 
 of plants and animals on the newly formed continent, 
 compose a series of changes which meet the geologist 
 again and again, as he penetrates into the bowels of 
 the earth" (Commentary on Genesis). 
 
 7. Geology tells us, as we have seen, of conditions 
 on earth which agree with the statement of its state 
 before the six days' work began; and it tells that the age 
 after the coming of man was a warm one, that verdure 
 reached the poles and that tropical animals lived there. 
 This agrees with the Bible account of man's being able 
 to live in nakedness and the climate necessary for 
 that. 
 
 8. The order in which the creation came is the order 
 that science tells us is the right one ; the elements before 
 life, the botanical order of plants, the scientific classifi- 
 cation of animals and, last of all, man. 
 
 9. Our order is new and late and far in advance 
 of all before. So says science. It was ''all very 
 good," the Bible tells also. 
 
 10. Man came in last, both the Bible and science 
 tell us. He appears as the climax of creation. No 
 new creations have come in since, both the Bible and 
 science agree in saying. 
 
74 The Bible As It Is 
 
 1 1 . There is an unbridged gulf between man and 
 the brule. His language, his faculties, and especially 
 his spiritual nature form impassable barriers. 
 
 12. Tradition and history agree with the Bible as to 
 the centre from which man diverged; they also affirm that 
 the noblest races are nearest that centre, retrograding 
 as they recede ; that the cereals also came from that 
 centre, and that it is the centre of the habitable earth. 
 The name of the first man, as given on the Assyrian 
 monuments, is Adafftu. 
 
 13. The time of man's appearance is coming nearer 
 in the calculations of scientists to that given in the Bible. 
 The vast periods of antiquity for man's history are 
 being abandoned. Geology and archaeology are com- 
 bining to give shorter periods. The Egyptian chronol- 
 ogy has been reduced from over five thousand years to 
 half of that time, and that of China and India in like 
 manner. 
 
 Dr. Cunningham Geike sifts all the evidence for 
 these extreme dates for the origin of man obtained from 
 deposits, remains, implements, changes of climate, geo- 
 logic evidence, monuments, data of ancient peoples 
 and civilizations and the rise of races of man, and 
 finds it wanting in proof of any great antiquity. 
 (Hours with the Bible, ch. IX. X. B.). 
 
 Prof. George Frederick Wright tells us, " The 
 glacial period did not close more than ten thousand 
 years ago. This shortening of our conceptions of the 
 ice age renders glacial man a comparatively modern 
 creature" (Homiletic Review, May, 1900). 
 
The Creation j5 
 
 The length of the Six Days is a subject of interest. 
 The view that these were long geologic ages is unneces- 
 sary in the interpretation here given. No long age 
 would be necessary for the incoming of light or for 
 the clearing of the atmosphere or the elevation of a 
 portion of the earth's surface or even the sprouting of 
 that primeval vegetation. I'he coming of species after 
 the cosmical changes of the Fourth Day seems to call 
 for longer time, but on the whole we need not suppose 
 extreme periods called for. On the other hand we 
 should not interpret these days to be our short days 
 of twenty-four hours. The earth's revolutions have 
 been changed since its creation, and we have evidence 
 of some changes in the course of the Six Days' crea- 
 tion that we have been studying, so that, while they were 
 not long ages, they were not days as measured by our 
 clocks. 
 
 8. The Spiritual Lessons of Creation. 
 Creation contains the germs of all spiritual truth. 
 It is important to study these in connection with the 
 narrative itself. 
 
 1. We learn that life can come only from God. 
 Science has acknowledged that no such thing as life 
 without preexisting life is known. Not the smallest 
 seed or germ has ever been originated by man or has 
 ever come spontaneously into existence, to man's 
 knowledge. So in the spiritual world there is no 
 spiritual life except as it is from God. 
 
 2. Creation in the scriptures is a type and repre- 
 
76 The Bible As It Is 
 
 sentation of regeneration. ** If any man is in Christ 
 he is a new creature," (marg. there is a new creation). 
 (2 Cor. 5 : 17). "We are His workmanship created 
 in Christ Jesus for good works " (Eph. 2 : 10). ''Put 
 on the new man which after God hath been created in 
 righteousness and hoHness of truth " (Eph. 4: 24). 
 *< The new man which is being renewed unto knowledge 
 after the image of Him that created him " (Col. 3 : 10). 
 So that we may look for light both upon creation and 
 upon regeneration from this resemblance. First we 
 see that the state of the earth typifies the state of man 
 before regeneration. The earth was '' waste and void. " 
 The sinner in the Bible is declared lost, sick, dead, 
 without hope. What he needs is a new creation. 
 Except a man be born again, from above, of the 
 Spirit of God, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 
 Even if there were some forms or germs of life in that 
 old world before creation, they had reached their 
 limit of development. It was a dying world into 
 which God introduced that new creation, for it was a 
 new creation, as all science tells us, utterly unlike the 
 monstrous creatures which went before it. 
 
 3. The work of the separate persons of the Trinity 
 is seen in regeneration as in creation. God the Father 
 gives a people to Christ, Christ redeems them, the 
 Holy Spirit gives them life and perfects all beauty and 
 fruitfulness in them. 
 
 4. The process of this regenerating work is illus- 
 trated in the Six Days' Creation. The earth was in 
 darkness. So is the sinner. He does not see his 
 
The Creation 77 
 
 own state or need. Into this darkness God by the 
 gospel sends light. In the Second Day's work the 
 atmosphere typifies the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 breathing life ; and in the Third, the separating of land 
 and water, the new sphere of that new life. In the 
 Fourth Day the appearance of the celestial bodies in- 
 dicates the heavenly lights by which man now walks, 
 and in the work of the further days the fruit of the 
 Spirit and the full-grown man in the image of Christ 
 are typified. 
 
 5. In creation man received two great gifts, mar- 
 riage and the Sabbath. These are the foundations 
 respectively of the state and the church. On these 
 all rest. The Sabbath thus lies at the foundation of 
 human history. It was not first given in the law to 
 Moses. It was then only reestablished for Israel. 
 
 9. The New Creation. 
 A New Creation is prophesied in scripture. We 
 may learn what it will be from the one we are now 
 studying. It, too, is to come on an earth in ruins, it is 
 to be by divine interference and is to lead to a better 
 state as that creation was better than the one before. 
 The scriptures which speak of it are Isa. 65: 17; 
 66 : 22 ; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21 : i. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EDEN AND THE FALL 
 
 Genesis 2, 3. 
 
 The account of man's origin, state and fall, lies at the 
 basis of all true history, science, philosophy, theology 
 and Christian experience. The Bible teachings can- 
 not be mastered until this with its great principles are 
 understood. An outline is given following this for 
 closer study. 
 
 The truth of the narrative is certified to by Christ 
 and the writers of scripture. There is not the slight- 
 est intimation given of other views of it. All the 
 traditions of mankind also point in the same direc- 
 tion. Man's happy state is one of the memories 
 of mankind. The tree of life was widely known 
 among Hindus, Persians, Arabs, Greeks and Assyrians. 
 The Fall is also universally known. The features 
 given in the Bible account, the woman, the tree and 
 the serpent, are grouped together among many peoples. 
 As Dr. Geike says, " It finds an echo in every religion 
 of the world." The Fall is pictured on the monu- 
 ments of Assyria. 
 
 The sacred books of India give the account of the 
 Fall. The first man is called Adima. The first 
 woman Heva. They were tempted to evil also, but 
 Adima tempted Heva. 
 
 78 
 
Eden and the Fall 79 
 
 The remains left by the cave-men and other prehis- 
 toric races tell of just such a state as man would be 
 in after his expulsion from the garden, without 
 weapons, tools, houses, and with only a scant covering 
 of skins. Geology tells of an age, about that time, 
 when the earth's climate would permit the state of 
 nakedness related. In short the Bible account agrees 
 with all the facts. 
 
 The account of the Fall is often quoted in subsequent 
 scripture and by New Testament writers. Christ 
 himself quotes it (Matt. 19:4, 5 ; Mark 10 : 6, 7), 
 and all without any intimation that it was other than 
 true. Paul bases the doctrine of sin and death and 
 redemption upon it (Rom. 5:12-21). Many cita- 
 tions will be given in the oudine of study. The study 
 of this narrative requires that we examine the follow- 
 ing points: i. Man and Eden. 2. The Probation. 
 3. The Tempter. 4. The Temptation. 5. The Sin. 
 6. The Judgment. 7. Consequences of the Fall. 
 8. Redemption. 9. Spiritual Teachings. 
 
 I. Eden and Original Man. 
 
 Eden is often spoken of in scripture. It is also 
 accepted as a definite geographical location (Gen. 
 13 : 10 ; Isa. 51:3; Ezek. 28 : 13 ; Joel 2 : 3). 
 
 The location of Eden is given at that point at which 
 man is universally believed to have originated. It is 
 at the centre of the habitable earth, the best point for 
 distribution over the world. It is where the race is 
 found at its greatest perfection and where the tradi- 
 
8o The Bible As It Is 
 
 tions of man all agree was his original home. The 
 changes of time have made the identification of the 
 exact place uncertain. 
 
 It was in a garden which was in the general district 
 called Eden. The names of two of the rivers remain 
 to the present time so that we know the general but 
 not the particular site. It was a prepared place for 
 the new race. The account in the second chapter 
 tells of a special creation for this garden with special 
 plants and trees. And the testimony of all time is that 
 man has had these common plants from his earliest 
 history. 
 
 The state of primeval man is attested as equal to 
 the best of modern civilization physically and es- 
 pecially in dimensions of the brain. The remains of 
 the prehistoric man are equal to the best of modern 
 man in brain capacity. Nor is there any time or 
 space for the theoretical history of Evolution from the 
 brute. The facts so far agree with the Bible ac- 
 count. 
 
 Adam, in the Bible account, is described as perfect, 
 but not perfected. He was of capable mind, but not 
 of experienced nature. He was in the image of God 
 and that implies spiritual, mental and physical per- 
 fection. He enjoyed the frequent presence of Jehovah, 
 who walked in the garden, sometimes at the cool of the 
 day, as we are told, and called Adam to personal 
 fellowship with Him. We must not think that this was 
 God the Father. It was Jehovah, the second person 
 of the Trinity, who often so manifested Himself to 
 
Eden and the Fall 8l 
 
 man afterwards. Adam was then under the personal 
 care and teaching of Jehovah. 
 
 2. The Probation. 
 
 We must distinguish between probation and tempta- 
 tion. Adam was submitted to probation, but this did 
 not necessarily involve temptation. God does not 
 tempt man (Jas. i : 12-15), but He does submit him 
 to trial and to proving (Deut. 8:2, 3). 
 
 The necessity for the presence of evil and tempta- 
 tion we cannot wholly solve. The origin of evil is the 
 darkest and deepest problem which comes to us in 
 this life. We may, however, see some light upon it 
 here. The highest character is that which comes 
 from choice and especially at the cost of struggle and 
 after heroic victory. This would not be possible 
 unless there was an alternative choice. To give free 
 agency, the requirement of the highest moral beings, 
 and not to give any choice would be farcical. The 
 choice was the simplest possible. Less suggestion of 
 temptation could scarcely be presented, a garden full 
 of trees and only one prohibited, with the Tree of 
 Life ever present giving full protection against sin. 
 Compare this with the law afterwards and its hun- 
 dreds of commandments and rites. Then their state 
 was the freest from incitement to evil. Nor have we 
 reason to think that the tempter had such power as since. 
 There was no pressure of need and want to make the 
 taking appear necessary. 
 
 The test man was submitted to was just such a test 
 
82 The Bible As It Is 
 
 as was best suited to his infantile being. It was such a 
 test as we sometimes submit a child to. There is noth- 
 ing puerile about it when looked at from that standpoint. 
 Adam was a perfect man but needed discipline. This 
 involves trial and effort against wrong and for right. 
 There is no perfected created character without this. 
 The presence of the Tree of Knowledge awoke in him 
 the sense of obligation and obedience and raised up a 
 standard of right and wrong and affirmed the right of 
 Jehovah to command. The Tree of Life was sacramen- 
 tal. It was to Adam what the Lord's supper is to us. 
 These two trees represented all the gospel does to us. 
 The Tree of Knowledge stood for sin and the turning 
 from it for repentance. The Tree of Life represented 
 Christ in the gospel and the eating of it faith in Christ. 
 So Adam's gospel was the same as ours. There is not, 
 nor ever has been, any other gospel. 
 
 Adam was left free to act. He could not have 
 been otherwise and been in the likeness of God or a 
 creature worthy of God's purposes. If unable to 
 choose wrong or right he would have been but an 
 animal. It was this very liberty which made him a 
 man. It is the right use of it which makes a saint and 
 the wrong use, a devil. 
 
 It is probable that Adam would have been lifted 
 out of the state of probation, if he had kept himself 
 from sin, into a higher state, perhaps by translation as 
 Enoch. The life of a thousand years, of which all 
 afterwards fell short, seems to fix that as man's 
 given term at first. The medical men tell us that 
 
Eden and the Fall 83 
 
 there is no reason why man should not now live one 
 thousand years if his organs were in a perfect state, 
 and he were in a suitable environment. 
 
 How long Adam lived in Eden we do not know. 
 His third son, Seth, was born 135 years after Adam's 
 creation and Cain, and no doubt Abel, were grown to 
 manhood before Seth was born, so there is room for 
 considerable time in Eden. His life was a happy one, 
 we know. He had occupation without toil and the 
 rural life which to-day is man's ideal life. 
 
 3. The Tempter. 
 
 The tempter must be distinguished from the 
 creature used by him as an agent. Satan does not 
 reveal himself directly to man. Here he uses a beast 
 of the field, that is a wild animal as distinguished from 
 a domesticated animal. That it was not the serpent 
 as we know it is evident. It was ** more subtle than 
 any beast of the field." The serpent is not specially 
 subtle. That it could speak and evoked no surprise 
 or alarm in Eve tells us that it was some creature we 
 do not now have. It was something superior to any 
 animal now existing. It was not in serpent form, for 
 that was its after form given as a penalty. It prob- 
 ably was in human or semi-human form, perhaps a 
 beautiful creature. 
 
 It is significant that while this is the same word for 
 serpent as that used for those that attacked Israel in 
 the wilderness, the form that Moses raised on the pole 
 was a <'saraph," meaning burning or shining, from 
 
84 The Bible As It Is 
 
 which we get seraphim. There may be reference here 
 to the original form of the serpent. 
 
 It was Satan, however, which animated it. Upon 
 this point scripture is clear. Satan began this evil work 
 with man which has lasted so long and ruinously. He 
 himself had fallen from his created state, we think 
 scripture teaches. He may have been led by jealousy 
 towards the new being which was to take a place so 
 superior to his own, and hoped by conquering him to 
 use him for his own advancement or power. 
 
 4. The Temptation. 
 
 It began with a spiritual temptation. '' Hath God 
 said ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden ? " This 
 was a doubt suggested as to God's goodness. It was 
 and is the most subtle form of temptation. Few dis- 
 believe in God's existence. Many doubt His good- 
 ness or kindness. This is the beginning of nearly all 
 unbelief. Here comes in the failure in prayer. Satan 
 would rather have one doubt God's goodness than His 
 existence. The latter would simply produce indiffer- 
 ence; the former would create hatred, and that is 
 Satan's state. 
 
 After insinuating doubt of God's mercy, he comes 
 with insinuation of doubt of God's justice. ''Ye shall 
 not surely die." Thus all forms of present day false 
 religion are along the line of liberalism or the doubt 
 of the penalty of sin or any particular danger in the 
 next world. 
 
 When these two great barriers are broken down, then 
 
Eden and the Fall 8^ 
 
 the way is open for false belief. After distrust in God 
 and disbelief in the warnings as to sin, come the false 
 belief and religion, and these precede the actual sin. 
 It is a common saying to-day that it makes no differ- 
 ence what one's belief is, if he be sincere. This is 
 nonsense. Intelligence consists in acting according to 
 belief. Animals act from instinct; idiots from im- 
 pulse; rational beings from belief. Therefore the 
 belief must be changed with such in order to change 
 the conduct. The actual temptation does not 
 follow until these steps have been established. 
 These were the fatal steps leading to the actual 
 temptation. 
 
 The sin of taking the fruit seems a small matter to 
 be made so much of in the Bible. The gravity of a 
 spiritual act does not depend on the importance of the 
 material thing which leads to it. The taking of a 
 pin might involve the unpardonable sin as truly as the 
 taking of a life. The tearing down of a piece of 
 bunting may constitute treason as truly as the sur- 
 render of a fleet, indeed it may be that very thing. 
 The act of taking and eating the fruit involved the 
 question of belief in God's character, in His veracity, 
 in the superiority of Satan to God. It affected the 
 very position of God as supreme, for if He was not 
 good and not true He could not be God. 
 
 We must distinguish also between the subjective 
 temptation and the objective. The former leads to 
 the state of heart which makes the latter possible. If 
 the distrusting state existed, it was a secondary matter 
 
86 The Bible As It Is 
 
 how it manifested itself, whether in eating the fruit or 
 some gross crime. 
 
 Satan leaves the doubt to do its work. He does 
 not give Eve the fruit. He lets the subjective tempta- 
 tion produce its objective result. He plants the seed 
 and awaits its development. 
 
 " And when she saw the tree was good for food and 
 that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was 
 to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit 
 thereof and did eat." Here was presented the three- 
 fold temptation, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
 eyes, and the pride of life " (i John 2:16). It was 
 an appeal to man's threefold nature, body, soul and 
 spirit (i Thess. 5 : 23). It was the same threefold 
 temptation presented to Christ (Luke 4: 1-13). It 
 was a physical and spiritual temptation. The same 
 forces of temptation are still presented to man (2 Peter 
 2 : 18 ; Rom. i : 22-31). 
 
 5. The Sin. 
 There is evidence of preparation in Eve, and doubt- 
 less in Adam, for the temptation. Satan chooses such 
 times and states (Luke 8 : 12). Their ready belief in 
 Satan's insinuations, their acceptance of his state- 
 ments, their quick fall into his suggestion, all point to 
 a previous preparedness for such sin. Eve's words 
 in reply to Satan also point to unbelief and discon- 
 tent. '' Neither shall ye touch it lest ye die." Here 
 is an addition to God's command that He did not give, 
 "neither shall ye touch it," and a weakening of his 
 
Eden and the Fall 87 
 
 positive threat of "ye shall surely die " into " lest ye 
 die." These show first discontent with their state. 
 This is generally the beginning of unbelief and sin. 
 It is entirely possible in the most perfect conditions. 
 Those who have most are often the most discontented. 
 It was to this that Satan appealed when he said, '' Hath 
 God said ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden ? " 
 A latent unbelief also was there not yet expressed in 
 thoughts, but which Satan appealed to when he said, 
 "Ye shall not surely die." This state arises from 
 their neglect to eat of the Tree of Life (Gen. 3 : 22). 
 
 From preoccupation, or greater attractions, or 
 neglect, or forgetfulness, or procrastination, or any of 
 the many reasons which still cause man to neglect, 
 they did not eat of the Tree of Life. So to-day the 
 reason temptation overcomes is for want of the strength 
 and fulness that the Holy Spirit gives, and this for 
 want of the union with and communion with Christ. 
 
 Another and incidental weakness was that Eve was 
 near that Tree. Prudence would have said. Keep far 
 from it. She seems to have been alone also, and 
 solitude has its peculiar dangers. 
 
 The threefold temptation tells of a threefold sin. 
 The sin was first spiritual, as shown, then psychical, 
 then physical. Unbelief in God's goodness, accept- 
 ance of a false religion, and then the physical sin 
 which follows (Rom. i : 22-31). Israel first gave up 
 belief in Moses and God, then made the golden calf, 
 then fell into licentiousness (Ex. 32 : 1-6). 
 
 There is more in the Fall than we see on the sur- 
 
88 The Bible As It Is 
 
 face. It is more than one simple act of disobedience. 
 The sin was more than that. Their shame afterwards 
 was sexual shame and this points to sexual sin. We 
 may not here enter into this, but the whole account 
 points to an orgie of sensuality. 
 
 6. The Judgment. 
 
 The examination first traces the sin to its source 
 and the judgment begins there. The serpent, that is 
 the animal used as the tempter, is first judged. 
 Whatever that creature was it is remanded to a de- 
 graded state where it will have no more power to 
 tempt or be used as a means of temptation. There is 
 to be enmity henceforth between Satan and the 
 woman and his seed and hers. This reveals the pur- 
 pose of Satan's attack to affiliate himself and his seed 
 with mankind in alliance or amalgamation. Jehovah 
 foils it by drawing a distinct line declaring the two 
 irreconcilable sides. There have been the two ever 
 since, Christ's and Satan's. No reconciliation is pos- 
 sible between these to the end. There is to be, on the 
 contrary, antagonism. The serpent is to have the 
 power to persecute and impede the progress of the 
 church, the serpent is to be at last crushed in its head, 
 that is in Satan. The seed of the woman can be no 
 other than Christ, including that larger view seen in 
 its climax in the Apocalypse. 
 
 This antagonism is seen all down the line. First 
 between Cain and Abel, then between the race of 
 Cain and that of Seth, between Isaac and Ishmael, 
 
Eden and the Fall 89 
 
 Jacob and Esau, Israel and the surrounding nations, 
 all of whom were enemies, between the righteous and 
 ungodly in the Psalms, which is the great theme of 
 the Psalms. This enmity was shown towards Christ 
 and exists, as He foretold, between the world and the 
 believer. It is seen in the conflict in heaven between 
 Satan and the angels (Rev. 12) and will at last 
 manifest itself in open conflict between Satan and 
 Christ (Rev. 19). Only then will the serpent 
 be crushed finally. Christ and John call the evil ones 
 '' Ofl'spring of vipers " three times (Matt. 3 : 7 ; 1 2 : 34 ; 
 and 23 : ^s). They have the race of the Old Serpent 
 in mind. 
 
 We are struck by the lightness of the doom on Eve 
 and Adam. Subjection and increase of the pain of 
 childbirth for her and labor for Adam seem not a 
 full measure of the threatened death. Dr. Patrick 
 says, '' Lest Eve's fault should occasion a breach be- 
 tween them, God kindly makes this gracious promise 
 of a Redeemer to depend upon Adam's union with 
 his wife." 
 
 Expulsion follows. Eden is lost and closed against 
 them forever. They go out in disgrace, in sorrow, in 
 sin, to make their way without Eden's protection and 
 blessings, and, worst of all, without Jehovah's pres- 
 ence and fellowship. 
 
 7. Consequences of the Fall. 
 To this event the Bible traces all the stream of sin 
 and misery which has followed mankind. The 
 
90 The Bible As It Is 
 
 spiritual contamination of man, the sorrows, the 
 sicknesses and death which follow him, all are charged 
 to that Fall. ** Through one man sin entered into the 
 world — and death through sin — and so death passed 
 unto all men for that all sinned" (Rom. 5: 12). 
 All other scripture agrees with this. Man is in a 
 fallen state in sin (Eph. 2 : 1-3 ; Rom. 3 : 9-18). 
 The world is in the power of the evil one (2 Cor. 
 4:4; Heb. 2:14; I John 5:19). Creation is 
 fallen also (Rom. 8 : 20-22). 
 
 This is the testimony of observation and history and 
 experience. We see that man is in anything but an 
 ideal state, that this was not his original state all tra- 
 dition attests, and our consciousness seems to affirm. 
 That some evil influence affects mankind is only too 
 true. Nature suffers with us. Its creatures suffer 
 and die as we do. Its tones are in the minor key as 
 if they would confirm this truth. There is a pathos 
 and undertone of sadness in human life which point 
 to some sad disturbance and tell us that all is radically 
 wrong. Death, which until that time had sway only 
 over the animals, was extended to man also. The 
 medical men tell us that death is not necessary, judged 
 by our organs and faculties, if in a perfect state. The 
 separation of man from God is attested by his efforts 
 to find God, his wanderings in these efforts and his 
 sad perversions of God as he pictures Him in his idols 
 and false worship. All the state declared by the 
 Bible as to man's condition after the Fall is true. 
 
 The Fall still continues. Man is still falling. 
 
Eden and the Fall 91 
 
 Savage nations are not nations in a state of progress, 
 but of decay. All the nations are falling save as they 
 are being lifted by Christianity or its precursor, the 
 religion of Israel. All the great nations of antiquity 
 have fallen, the Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian and 
 Roman. The present unchristian peoples have fallen 
 and are still falling, as the Chinese and the Hindus. 
 Those nations which have Christianity in a perverted 
 form are the ''dying nations," as they have been 
 characterized. Only the Tree of Life will keep from 
 falling a nation or individual. 
 
 8. Redemption. 
 
 Redemption follows. " Where sin abounded, grace 
 did much more abound." Grace was on the ground 
 before sin. God in the creation chapter is named 
 Elohim, the godhead ; in the account where man ap- 
 pears He is named Jehovah. Whatever the views 
 may be as to the composition of the record, this is a 
 nearer view of God than that in material creation. It is, 
 in short, the Old Testament name for Christ, the second 
 person of the godhead. This is seen in the fact that 
 all manifestations of God are those of Jehovah, and 
 not of God the Father, "whom no man hath seen or 
 can see " (i Tim. 6 : 16). Christ identifies Himself 
 with Jehovah (John 12 : 41 ; Isa. 6:1; Matt. 11 : 10; 
 Mai. 3:1). 
 
 It was Christ, then, who called the guilty couple and 
 adjudicated their sin. Here we can see why the 
 penalty threatened was not visited upon them. It was 
 
92 The Bible As It Is 
 
 said, '* In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die." They did not die that day nor for long after, 
 nor did they die spiritually at all, for Adam is a son 
 of God (Luke 3 : 38), and sons of God are not 
 spiritually dead nor do they perish spiritually. Here, 
 then, came in the saving work of Christ. He 
 stretched over that guilty couple His redemption. The 
 coats of skins were taken from animals slain and with 
 these they were covered. This, if not actual sacrifice, 
 contains the very element of sacrifice, one giving his 
 life for another to cover that one's shame and sin. 
 This was the initiation of sacrifice. It pointed to 
 a Christ to come ; they were saved by Christ in His 
 mediatorial work as truly as we are. 
 
 ♦ 9. Spiritual Teachings. 
 
 Typically Adam is a representative of Christ 
 (i Cor. 15 : 22, 45). Christ is the representative of 
 the race. He is held accountable as Adam was. 
 His work passed out over the race as Adam's did 
 (Rom. 5 : 14-19). Adam brought death, Christ 
 brought life. Where Adam failed, Christ stood fast 
 and resisted temptation. By one sin Adam brought 
 death ; by one act of righteousness, His death, Christ 
 brought life. 
 
 Eve is a type of the church. It was from Adam's 
 side she was taken (Eph. 5 : 28-32). Adam fell with 
 her. So Christ is incarnated and died for us and we 
 with Him. It is probable that Adam had revealed to 
 him much spiritual truth, for man began with such 
 
Eden and the Fall 93 
 
 truth. The early nations all had purer truth than the 
 later ones. 
 
 Satan is a subject of study from this lesson. He 
 is a subject of much scripture teaching. There is an 
 individual called Satan, the devil, and he has subor- 
 dinate assistants. There is a great realm of darkness 
 in constant conflict with all that is good in heaven 
 and in earth (Dan. 10:13, 20; Rev. 12; Eph. 
 6:12; Job 1:2; Luke 10:18, 19; Jas. 4:7; 
 
 1 Pet. 5 : 8 ; 2 Tim. 2:26). The war begun in Eden 
 goes on. The temptation of man continues. The 
 serpent bruises the heel of all in heavenly progress. 
 His head will be finally crushed (Rev. 20 : 1-3, 10). 
 The sad consequences of the Fall are to be destroyed 
 (Rev. 21:4, 5). Eden is to be restored. Paradise 
 is the name of the abode of God's people (Luke 23 : 43 ; 
 
 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2 : 7), 
 
CHAPTER V 
 THE DELUGE 
 Genesis 6-8. 
 
 I. The Story of Adam's Family. 
 
 What was their life after their expulsion from 
 Eden ? We are not without some knowledge. They 
 were naked, save as clothed with the skins of the 
 animals, probably lambs, slain for them. They must 
 seek shelter, must find their food, must struggle with 
 the creatures for it. Naked-handed, they soon could 
 sink to the level of savages. The Bible tells of the 
 beginnings of the use of metals, musical instruments 
 and domestic cattle ; before which they were, with- 
 out these, dependent on clubs, on stone instruments, 
 on the chase, or on wild fruits. They were, in short, 
 just what the remains of prehistoric man show. They 
 were cave men. Here is confirmation of the Bibk 
 story. 
 
 The advance, however, appears to have been rapid. 
 Cain builds a " city." We must not imagine a mod- 
 ern city. It was a crude erection. There followed the 
 invention of instruments of music, tools and weapons 
 of metal, and the domestication of animals. With 
 94 
 
The Deluge 95 
 
 these the advance was rapid with primeval powers 
 and strength and faculties. The Bible tells us that 
 the first man was **in the image of God," and that 
 means physical and intellectual powers. The evidence 
 of archaeology tells the same story. 
 
 If the remains of what is called prehistoric man are 
 those of that time they had scattered far and wide. 
 The great centres of population remained at or near 
 their original home, and that we know as to general 
 locality. Another fact that we must notice is the 
 remarkable advance made in that old world in civili- 
 zation. We have evidences of this. The Great Pyra- 
 mid was erected by the descendants of, although not 
 in, that antediluvian age, and shows the skill of those 
 early times. It is in some' respects the greatest 
 building now existing. Prof. Piazzi Smyth tells 
 us that the stones are laid with such skill that the 
 junctures, mortar and all, may be covered with a hair. 
 Prof. Flinders Petrie tells us that the stones show 
 marks of the tubular and solid drill cutting a tenth 
 of an inch, yet exhibit no sign of wear in the tool, 
 which was edged with diamond or equally hard 
 stones. It is the repository of scientific secrets also, 
 showing knowledge of astronomical facts of a high 
 order. 
 
 The Bible presents us the history of two races of 
 antediluvians. The course of the two races is seen in 
 the tables of their descent. The line of Seth is the 
 godly one. Enoch and Noah are in that line. The 
 line of Cain is the ungodly race. 
 
96 The Bible As It Is 
 
 2. Table of the Races of Seth and Cain. 
 
 These ten generations have left their evidence in 
 the Ten Heroes or Kings of antiquity which nearly all 
 ancient peoples have in tradition. 
 
 The remarkable longevity attributed to that age is 
 not considered impossible from a scientific stand- 
 point by the best physiologists. Dr. John Gardner 
 writes: *• Before the flood men are said to live five 
 and even nine hundred years. As a physiologist, I 
 can assert positively that there is no fact reached by 
 science to contradict or render this improbable. It is 
 more difficult, on scientific grounds, to explain why 
 men die at all than to believe in the duration of life 
 for one thousand years. Only from experience do we 
 learn that all men in the past have died ; we infer that 
 all now or in the future will die " (Longevity, p. 176). 
 In the Bible view of man's creation in physical per- 
 fection, which he retained through many generations 
 in some degree, the gradual loss of longevity as shown 
 in the table and after the flood is another evidence of 
 the consistency of the Bible account. All fall short 
 of a thousand years in age. That was probably the 
 time of the original life which would have led to some 
 superior state, perhaps translation, as Enoch, or as at 
 the end of the world. 
 
 The time when '' men began to call upon the name 
 of the Lord " is seen in the names ending with "el," 
 the name of God. On the Cain side Mehujael, '' puri- 
 fied of God"; Methusael, "strengthened of God." 
 
The Deluge 97 
 
 On the Seth side we find Mahalalel, **the praise 
 of God." The dedine of the revival is seen in 
 the names also. Lamech, ''strong youth," boasting 
 in physical strength. Tubal-Cain, '' lance-forger" ; 
 weapons of war, showing strife and cruelty. This 
 extended to the Seth race who intermingled by 
 marriage. Methusaleh, *'man of the arrow"; and 
 also a Lamech or ''strong youth." All this agrees 
 with the general statement that the earth was filled 
 with violence, that is war and murder and persecu- 
 tion of the godly, which began with Abel. The 
 general state was as seen in the name given Noah by 
 his parents, " rest, ' ' evidencing their present unrest and 
 hope for the future. They were weary of violence. 
 
 The apostasy of that old world seems to have been 
 the substitution of physical strength, wealth, the 
 culture of the arts and military achievement for god- 
 liness. This, with the advance in the use of weapons, 
 led to the reign of violence, and God in His sovereign 
 wisdom brought the whole age to a close in the 
 deluge. 
 
 On the Seth side is found the godly Enoch who 
 walked with God, perhaps the only one, in a world 
 of sin. His taking from the earth by translation is a 
 hint as to the probable means of ending the probation 
 of all if they had not sinned in Eden. His taking 
 before the flood is prophetic of those who also shall 
 escape what the flood stands for in the future. Save 
 in name only, we find that all the godly are in the 
 Seth line. 
 
98 The Bible As It Is 
 
 3. Commingling of the Two Races. 
 
 We read ''the sons of God saw the daughters of 
 men that they were fair and they took them wives of 
 all that they chose." This means the mingling of 
 the races of Cain and Seth. The mingling of God's 
 people with the world has been the usual cause of 
 apostasy and decline and has brought down chastise- 
 ment upon the whole race. The *' men of renown " 
 are undoubtedly the heroes to whom all ancient peoples 
 look back. Their number is that of the ten genera- 
 tions of Seth or the seven of the Cain race. The 
 discoveries of prehistoric man give strange attestation 
 to the Bible account. There are three classes of re- 
 mains found from these early times. One is that of 
 a mild featured, brown-haired race ; a second a sturdy 
 brutal race ; the third a gigantic race whose skeletons 
 measure seven and a half feet. This agrees with the 
 three races given in the scripture, the race of Seth, of 
 Cain and the giants named. 
 
 The moral state is thus described : "The wicked- 
 ness of man was great in the earth. Every imagina- 
 tion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con- 
 tinually. . . . The earth was corrupt before God 
 and the earth was filled with violence " (6 : 5, 13). 
 Noah was the only exception to that state. The sins of 
 that age were violence and corruption with persecution 
 of the godly. There seems to have been no general 
 law against murder as after the flood ; nor any govern- 
 ment save might. Sensual corruption also prevailed. 
 Lamech's sin was an instance of many such. Polyg- 
 
The Deluge 99 
 
 amy also prevailed, and intemperance, for Noah's in- 
 temperance after the flood tells of even greater in- 
 temperance in others. The first chapter of Romans 
 tells the state of that world and God's treatment of it. 
 It undoubtedly refers primarily to that age as it does 
 to man in general (Rom. i : 18-32). 
 
 In Job is a reference giving the state and sin 
 of that time. "Wilt thou keep the old way which 
 wicked men have trodden who were snatched away 
 before their time, whose foundation was poured out as 
 a stream, who said unto God, Depart from us and 
 what can the Almighty do for (to) us. Yet He filled 
 their houses with good things" (Job 22:15-18). 
 Here is a distinct statement of their rejection of God. 
 
 Prof. Taylor Lewis thus writes on the state of 
 man then : ** Only evil, nothing but evil, all the day 
 — every day, and every moment of every day. If 
 this is not total depravity, how can language express 
 it ? ... It affirms that he is all wrong in all 
 things and all the time. It does not mean that man 
 is as bad as the devils, or that every man is as bad as 
 every other, or that man is as bad as he possibly may 
 be or may become. There are degrees of intensity, 
 but no limit to the universality or extent of evil in the 
 soul." The process of the growth of evil is here 
 given. "The imagination of the thought of his 
 heart." Here are the fashioned purposes, the thoughts 
 from which these come, and the state of heart the 
 source of all. The Spanish proverb expresses this, 
 "Sow a thought and reap a wish, sow a wish and 
 
lOO The Bible As It Is 
 
 reap an act." But the scripture goes deeper. It 
 lays bare the nature of the heart, the abyss from which 
 the feelings come. Christ opens this source of evil 
 when He says, *' out of the heart come forth evil 
 thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
 false witness, railings" (Matt. 15 : 19). 
 
 4. God's Attitude Towards that Age. 
 We read the statement that '' it repented the Lord that 
 He had made man on the earth and it grieved Him at 
 His heart" (6:6). We must interpret this, as all 
 scripture, in consistency with its own declared princi- 
 ples. Every writer has this privilege. This language 
 is then to be understood in the light of God's omni- 
 science and knowledge of the outcome of all things 
 from the beginning and His unchangeableness. What- 
 ever it means, it does not mean that God did not know 
 how man would turn out or what the results of his crea- 
 tion would be. This is to strip God of His character 
 and reduce Him to the level of ordinary beings. We 
 must remember that we are in the earliest book of the 
 Bible, the primer of the Bible, where God is teach- 
 ing the elements of truth. We must also remember 
 that God must represent Himself in human attributes 
 and acting on our level in order to convey any meaning 
 to our minds. He therefore speaks as we would if 
 disappointed at the results. To speak in the language 
 of heaven or to represent God in a purely spiritual 
 light to us would be like talking science to a savage. 
 As the great revelation goes on, the language is more 
 
The Deluge loi 
 
 spiritual and God is revealed in higher terms, as man 
 is able to apprehend Him, God is represented to man 
 in motives, as in outward acts, in anthropomorphic 
 terms and figures and in such attitudes. Only such 
 could be understood at all. 
 
 Another thought is that in being infinite God does 
 not represent Himself as without emotions, but as 
 infinite in emotions. His love is not absence of love, 
 but infinity of love, so with all His qualities. God is 
 grieved, infinitely grieved, at man's sin and misery, 
 and pleased, infinitely pleased, at man's attainment to 
 holiness and happiness. 
 
 His decision is based on this condition, " My spirit 
 shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is 
 flesh ; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty 
 years " (6 : 6). It is in man's conscience that God's 
 spirit strives, and this cannot, from the very nature of 
 conscience and truth, continue forever. Conscience 
 gets hardened. Truth loses its power over man by 
 use. Therefore it is in mercy that God takes the sub- 
 ject of that appeal away from further opportunity and 
 further apostasy. 
 
 It was also an act of mercy as well as judgment. 
 The warnings were many and clear. The calls to re- 
 pentance also were many. Enoch, the seventh from 
 Adam, foretold the flood and, as a prophet, called men 
 to repent (Jude 14). Noah was himself a preacher 
 of righteousness (2 Pet. 2 : 5), and, if we read rightly, 
 prophesied one hundred and twenty years. The ark 
 itself was a constant call to all to enter as the Church 
 
102 The Bible As It Is 
 
 is to-day. We may be sure that any who applied would 
 have been admitted. They had the relics of primeval 
 religion. Man began with the knowledge of God as 
 all old religions attest. Perhaps the Cherubim also 
 were allowed to remain and by their presence warn 
 man. This might have been the place of worship. 
 
 The message to Noah to build the ark was a call of 
 mercy to that world as well as of favor to himself. It 
 was a step of faith to enter upon that great endeavor. 
 Ridicule, expostulation, censure, persecution and 
 finally neglect would follow his work. It was a work 
 of great self-sacrifice. It possibly required the expen- 
 diture of his entire fortune, all upon the simple word 
 of God. He is called a week before the Deluge be- 
 gins. Such a pause we often see before the storm of 
 vengeance. It is given in the destruction of Sodom 
 and in the destruction of Jerusalem and at the last day. 
 
 5. Evidences and Extent of the Deluge. 
 
 There is no fact of ancient history better certified to 
 than the deluge. There are said to be sixteen ancient 
 accounts of it besides that in the Bible. It is re- 
 corded by, or known to all peoples who have records or 
 traditions. The Chaldeans, the Hindus, the Chinese, 
 the Romans, Greeks, Scandinavians, the Indians and 
 Mexicans of America all have the story. The best 
 account is that just discovered, believed to have been 
 made soon after the time by the Chaldeans. It agrees 
 with the Bible account in twenty-five particulars. A 
 comparison of these accounts with the Bible story shows 
 
The Deluge 103 
 
 a vast difference in consistency, clearness and credibility. 
 The ancient accounts from the monuments and other 
 sources show the usual crudities and grotesque features 
 of all such records. If the one is a copy of the others, 
 the comparison shows that the Bible account bears all 
 the evidences of the original by its simplicity and 
 careful statements. But it is probable that none of 
 them are copies of the others. All are the records of 
 the event itself. 
 
 Its universality, as far as man is concerned, is 
 verified by its universal traditions. It is not necessary 
 to suppose the entire earth was involved in the deluge. 
 The expressions used do not call for any wider area 
 of destruction than that covered by the human race. 
 Mankind would, it is estimated, at that time number 
 some millions. Similar expressions are used elsewhere 
 of purely local and limited events. 
 
 The region of these events is peculiarly situated. 
 The level of the Black Sea is eighty-three feet above 
 the Persian Gulf. A depression of this region on the 
 same scale as has often occurred in historic times else- 
 where, would involve the whole region for 2,000 square 
 miles in an overflow covering its hills. The statement, 
 " fifteen cubits and upward did the waters prevail and 
 the mountains were covered" (7: 20), points by its 
 comparatively small depth to a limited and local flood. 
 It certainly does not seem a compatible measurement 
 with the covering of such great heights as the Him- 
 alayan and Rocky mountain ranges rising to the 
 height of 30,000 feet. This is also intimated in the 
 
I04 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Creation Psalm, where it is said of the rising of the 
 land at the formation of the seas, <* Thou hast set a 
 bound that they may not pass over ; that they turn not 
 again to cover the earth " (Ps. 104 : 9). Here a uni- 
 versal covering of the earth seems forbidden by the 
 creative edict. 
 
 6. Causes of the Deluge. 
 
 We do not know, except in a general way, what were 
 the direct causes of the deluge. There are many possible 
 causes. The atmosphere contained much more mois- 
 ture than now. The expression in the creative ac- 
 count, speaking of the "waters which are above the 
 heavens," seems to point to such a condition. 
 
 The giving of the rainbow as a new appearance 
 after the flood also indicates some changes in the con- 
 stitution of the atmospheric conditions. The gradual 
 clearing of the atmosphere from the earliest age to our 
 own tells of a similar state of denser moisture in the 
 earth's early ages. So that we have reason, not only 
 from scripture statements, but from geologic evidence, 
 to believe that there was a denser mass of vapors in 
 the atmosphere than we have now. The precipita- 
 tion of this would be the opening of ' ' the windows 
 of heaven " not till then opened. This, with the dis- 
 charge of the volumes of water from the surrounding 
 seas, would answer the scripture statements and produce 
 the deluge described. If it accompanied some great 
 volcanic upheaval, such as has often come to earth, as 
 geology and history alike testify, there would be not 
 
The Deluge 105 
 
 only a flood covering that region, but extending to all 
 
 parts of the earth. The earth has had many deluges. 
 
 Again and again has its surface been under water. 
 
 The presence of sea shells on the highest mountains 
 
 attests that deluges have been among the commonest 
 
 experiences of our globe. 
 
 7. Chronology of the Deluge. 
 The deluge is dated, and its various stages also 
 
 given. It occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah. 
 
 The year began at that time with the autumnal equinox, 
 that is September 2 2d. It was afterwards changed by 
 Moses to the spring equinox, but at this time it was in 
 the fall. The dates of the deluge reduced to our time 
 are as follows: Noah entered the ark November ist. 
 The deluge began November 8th. It rained forty days, 
 that is to December i6th. The waters prevailed all 
 winter and began to recede in May. The dove was 
 sent out in July. The earth dried during July and 
 August. Noah left the ark November ist, a year from 
 the time he entered it. This was the season for culti- 
 vation of the land. The Bible account says that the 
 flood began on the seventeenth and the earth was dried 
 on the twenty-seventh. The ten days are necessary to 
 bring the lunar months in which they reckoned into har- 
 mony with the solar time, thus completing a full year. 
 
 8. Lessons. 
 The best review of the lessons of the deluge is to 
 follow the scriptural use of it. It is referred to in the 
 following passages : 
 
io6 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Our Lord uses it as a type of His coming. *'As 
 were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the 
 Son of Man. For, as in those days which were before 
 the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and 
 giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered 
 into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came 
 and took them all away : so shall the coming of the 
 Son of Man be" (Matt. 24: 37-39). Here is a 
 description of a time of plenty and merriment, 
 utter indifference and ignorance of the approaching 
 doom. 
 
 In the epistle to the Hebrews, Noah's faith and the 
 reason and result are given. ''By faith Noah, being 
 warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, 
 moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving 
 of his house ; through which he condemned the world 
 and became heir of the righteousness which is accord- 
 ing to faith " (Heb. 11 : 7). The grounds on which 
 Noah believed were sufficient for all to have believed 
 and his faith therefore condemned their unbelief as 
 unreasonable and impious. 
 
 The Apostle Peter used the ark as a type of the 
 Christian life. ''In the days of Noah, while the ark 
 was preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls were 
 saved through water ; which also after a true likeness 
 doth now save you, even baptism, not the putting 
 away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a 
 good conscience towards God " (i Peter 3 : 20, 21). 
 The ark and Noah's entrance into it here stand for 
 that open confession of Christ and entrance into Christ 
 
The Deluge 107 
 
 which baptism shows (Rom. 10 : 9). The believer has 
 passed from that condemned and guilty world and life 
 into that new world and life typified by Noah's new 
 world and life. 
 
 Again the Apostle Peter quotes the flood in confir- 
 mation of the certainty and character of the end of 
 the world : *' In the last days mockers shall come 
 with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and say- 
 ing. Where is the promise of His coming ? for, from 
 the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue 
 as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
 For this they will fully forget, that there were heavens 
 from of old, and an earth, compacted out of water and 
 amidst water, by the word of God ; by which means 
 the world that then was, being overflowed with water, 
 perished ; but the same heavens that now are and the 
 earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire 
 (margin stored with fire) being reserved against the 
 day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 
 . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; 
 in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great 
 noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent 
 heat, and the earth and the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up . . . but according to His 
 promise we look for new heavens and a new earth 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness " (2 Pet. 3 : 3-13). 
 
 Here the idea of the unvarying stability of nature is 
 controverted and the deluge pointed to as a proof of 
 mighty changes in the future as in the past. The 
 destruction of that old world of life is held out as a 
 
io8 The Bible As It Is 
 
 proof of the destruction of the present world. It is 
 also a type of that coming destruction. That did not 
 annihilate the earth or destroy its substance, but the 
 surface only. It was a renovation of the earth pre- 
 paratory to a new order of things. But as that day 
 was greater than any previous time of judgment, so 
 this coming destruction will exceed that of the flood. 
 We might argue from the analogy that in some way 
 there will be preserved the beginnings of the new order 
 which shall prevail at that time. As the earth con- 
 tained the elements of its own destruction then, so it 
 does now. It is " stored with fire" as all knowledge 
 of the earth's interior tells us. Its air and water are 
 combustible and there are the most inflammable of 
 gases, coals and oils in its interior. All that it needs 
 is the word of God. The burning of worlds is often 
 seen in the heavens by the astronomer. Men are to- 
 day incredulous of all this as they were at the time of 
 the deluge. The present state of the world will be 
 like that old world in civilization, plenty and merri- 
 ment, unbelief and corruption. But God's word is 
 certain of fulfillment. 
 
 The great lesson of the deluge is one on dispensa- 
 tional truth. The future has a large place in the 
 Bible. It is ever pointing forward to the Day of the 
 Lord, and the last book sums up all the others in its 
 splendid picture of that Day. Like Enoch, some 
 will be taken out of the world ; like Noah, some will 
 go through the judgments of that Day. 
 
 The new world is opened with some remarkable 
 
The Deluge log 
 
 changes. Noah builds an altar and offers burnt- 
 offerings of clean animals. The mention of these 
 elements of the ceremonial worship shows an early and 
 a full revelation of more than is generally supposed. 
 Only by divine revelation could man know that such 
 would be a right way to approach God. In response 
 to Noah's worship, God gives him a New Covenant. 
 It is therefore given on the grounds of Christ's merits, 
 which all sacrifice implies. The New Covenant re- 
 moves the curse from the ground, and gives permanency 
 to the seasons, perhaps the arrangement of seasons as 
 we have them now. If the deluge was caused by the 
 precipitation of the masses of vapors in the heavens that 
 we know once existed, then there would come that 
 colder state which geology tells followed the warm age 
 of early man's life on earth. The rainbow was 
 evidently a new phenomenon, and this shows that 
 there once existed a state unlike our present cloud and 
 rain climate. 
 
 A special blessing is given Noah. **Be fruitful and 
 multiply and replenish the earth." They are also 
 now given animal food. 
 
 Protection of life is given in the command to slay 
 the murderer, also a promise of exemption from flood, the 
 fear of which would have kept man in a state of terror. 
 The storm gives the rainbow, the promise of immunity as 
 well as the evidence of its passing away. The new 
 world starts with better conditions as well as a wider 
 display of grace. Human life is shortened but is 
 pleasanter, and more safe. There is no special 
 
no The Bible As It Is 
 
 religious revelation mentioned save that inferred in 
 the knowledge of sacrifice. The blessings are tem- 
 poral and earthly, but they show a new and closer re- 
 lation to God. ^ 
 
 The ark is often used as a type of Christ. It 
 should be more properly applied to the Christian life, 
 Christ impersonal rather than Christ personal. The 
 Apostle Peter thus uses it (i Pet. 3:21; also Heb. 
 II : 7). As the ark built by Noah saved himself and 
 house, so the godly life of the church and its 
 ordinances are the heavenly appointed means of sal- 
 vation. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS 
 
 Genesis 9-1 i. 
 With the beginning of the new age after the flood, 
 we are introduced to the ground plan of humanity. 
 Noah was heir to the whole earth, and with him God 
 began the race again. All are descended from him 
 as all are from Adam. So the history of the race 
 begins again here. This is the beginning of all 
 history, of all ethnology; for, while much may be 
 learned of man before the flood, it will be little at 
 best. Our present nations all began here. These 
 chapters are the foundation of all we know as to 
 man's early history. In the tenth chapter of Genesis 
 is given what is called the Table of the Nations, in- 
 cluding seventy nations, more or less, and to this all 
 must go for a beginning. The study of this subject 
 includes The Sons of Noah, The Dispersion, The 
 Table of the Nations. 
 
 I. The Sons of Noah. 
 The three sons of Noah form the simple yet com- 
 prehensive ground plan of humanity. These develop 
 into the '' Seventy Nations " of the tenth chapter after 
 the Dispersion, which, though it precedes the Table 
 of Nations, is related afterwards. 
 Ill 
 
112 The Bible As It Is 
 
 The incident which led to the prophecy regarding 
 the three sons and their descendants is characteristic 
 of scripture. Much is made of names and their 
 meaning in scripture, also much is made of natal con- 
 ditions and events, and the doings in childhood. So 
 the destiny of Ishmael was fixed, and the character of 
 Jacob foretold (Gen. 21: 9, 10; 25: 24-26). So it 
 was with nearly every great scriptural character. It 
 was a method of divine prophecy. The incident of 
 Noah's prophecy as to his sons may be studied as 
 a personal family lesson, but its great meaning is 
 prophetical and dispensational. 
 
 The ordinary lessons of temperance and parental 
 honor need not to be enlarged upon here. The world 
 needed this lesson. The honor due the parent is 
 the basis of all government, which is now to be 
 developed. It is taught, and severely, with a curse 
 which will not be forgotten and which the world has 
 never forgotten. The authority of the parent was then 
 forever established. 
 
 It contains also a great lesson in that strange scien- 
 tific and scriptural fact of heredity, whose laws are at 
 the basis of all life and form the stability of nature. 
 It is as true of man as of plant or animal. The traits 
 of Noah's sons, that is the natural traits, follow down 
 through these channels to our own time. The three 
 races of man inherit the great traits of these primeval 
 ancestors. The prophecy therefore rests on right and 
 on natural law as well as on divine justice. It is the 
 union of natural and supernatural law. 
 
The Origin of the Nations 113 
 
 The threefold division of the human race prophesied 
 by Noah holds good along racial, political and relig- 
 ious lines. The three divisions into black, white and 
 brown are the best that can be made. It is significant 
 that the names of Shem, Ham and Japheth, as found 
 on the Assyrian tablets, mean respectively olive-col- 
 ored, sunburned and white. The social and political 
 character is even more strongly marked. The superi- 
 ority of the white needs no proof. The condition of 
 the others likewise needs no comment. This, of 
 course, applies to all as races. Individual exceptions 
 of a contrary character are found and all distinctions 
 are done away in Christ. The white race is the domi- 
 nant race and the others are in subjection. ^< God shall 
 enlarge Japheth." He is now the great colonizing 
 race. 
 
 The religious difference is clearly seen. The Sem- 
 itic races are the religious peoples. From them come 
 the great ethic religions. "Blessed be the Lord God 
 of Shem," marks him as the preserver of true religion, 
 the priestly member of the family. From him have 
 come the Jewish and Christian religions. 
 
 There are other distinctions also clearly seen. There 
 are three types of language and three orders of national 
 thought : the material, the psychical, the spiritual. 
 These are predominant in these three races. Ham is 
 physically inclined, Japheth intellectually, and Shem 
 religiously. 
 
 All this was laid out in scripture 4,000 years ago. 
 It is the administration of God in the destinies of 
 
114 The Bible As It Is 
 
 man. God is sovereign. He has not taken us into 
 His councils or given us all the reasons or the facts 
 in the problem. It is no basis for personal or racial 
 pride, for the proudest have been humbled to the dust 
 in the course of ages and the humblest exalted. These 
 are earthly relations only and in eternity may be found 
 reversed. In the case of individuals, the first is made 
 last, and the last, first. It may be so in races also. 
 
 2. The Dispersion. 
 
 The dispersion seems to have been in the days of 
 Peleg, the fourth from Shem (lo: 25). The event 
 itself is in the narrative of the Tower of Babel. There 
 is no fact better verified than the Tower of Babel. It 
 was used as a place of worship to the third century 
 A. D. An ancient manuscript has been found giving a 
 description of it. {Expository Times, August, 1900.) 
 It was composed of six stories ; a temple on the top 
 formed the seventh. It was ascended by 365 steps, 
 sixty of these of gold, the rest of silver. It had been 
 abandoned in its early history, and finished by subse- 
 quent rulers. 
 
 The fact of the unity of human language is now 
 established. Language is one of the barriers between 
 man and the brute. It was man's faculty from the 
 first. It was a part of his original being. We do 
 not know what was the original tongue. It is prob- 
 ably lost in the general changes which have occurred. 
 The fact of a common origin shows a common lan- 
 guage. This with the fact of a common centre from 
 
The Origin of the Nations 115 
 
 which man has dispersed attests the account here 
 given. 
 
 The Tower of Babel was a religious edifice, as the 
 account and use attest and the scripture hints. It 
 was the beginning of another apostasy, the origin of 
 heathenism, which has cursed the world ever since. 
 This is the origin of the traditions among many 
 peoples of the war of the giants against the gods. 
 The Tower of Babel was the antithesis of Noah's altar, 
 the approach to God after His approved way. 
 
 God wants penitent lives and man builds towers. 
 There was at the bottom of their hearts unbelief in the 
 promise of God as to the exemption of mankind from 
 another flood, as well as a heaven-defying pride in the 
 tower. 
 
 After the dispersion the building of the tower was 
 continued by Nimrod, who bears the characteristics 
 of "a mighty hunter before the Lord." Probably 
 a hunter of men, that is a conqueror and dictator. 
 Heathen mythology has his fame enshrined in fable. 
 In a later time the name of the tower is given to Babylon, 
 which had the same characteristic of world-ruling, 
 heaven-defying pride. It also was antagonistic to God 
 and His people, and in the prophetic future the name 
 is applied to the anti-Christianity of the last times. 
 Babylon of the Apocalypse is the spiritual successor 
 of these early godless displays. 
 
 The spiritual lessons are the seed of the Serpent in 
 antagonism to God and His people ; the want of faith 
 in God that the world shows, especially in His good- 
 
ii6 The Bible As It Is 
 
 ness ; the rejection of the altar for the tower ; and the 
 substitution of false religions for the true. The con- 
 centration of religion in one great body is man's idea 
 of religion. It has led to the greatest evils in the past. 
 It cannot be until He comes whose right it is to reign 
 over church and world. 
 
 3. The Table of the Nations. 
 
 This comes before the account of the dispersion, 
 but it describes the state of the world after that event, 
 and therefore we will consider it here. It is a mistake 
 to pass it by. It lies at the basis of all history and 
 ethnology. It is remarkable for what it gives and for 
 what it omits. Its brevity is as remarkable as its 
 comprehensiveness. It has stood the test of investi- 
 gation, and calls for the careful study of the Bible 
 lover. The great purpose of the chapter, as with all we 
 have so far studied, is, first, to show the descent of the 
 chosen people. The table begins with the descendants 
 of Japheth, with whom Israel had least to do, and then 
 gives the descendants of Ham, with whom they had 
 much to do, and then the descendants of Shem, of 
 whom they were part. The first two are given only 
 to the third generation, the last down to Eber the 
 great ancestor from whom the Hebrews get their 
 name, and his son Peleg in whose days the dispersion 
 occurred. 
 
 The dispersion shows the Japhetic race in Europe, 
 the Shemitic in Asia, and the Hametic in Africa, or 
 drifting that way. These, however are general 
 
The Origin of the Nations 117 
 
 divisions, for there are exceptions to each. The prin- 
 cipal nations^ are as follows : 
 
 1 . Japheth : — Gomer is represented by the Germanic 
 races ; Magog, Tubal, and Meshech, by the Russian 
 races ; Madai, by the Medes ; Javan, by the Greeks 
 and Italians ; Togarmah, by the Armenians ; Tarshish, 
 by the western European nations. 
 
 2. Ham: — Mizraim is Egypt; Canaan, the Ca- 
 naanite nations; Accad, the early Assyrians. The 
 Philistines and other Canaanite nations are well recog- 
 nized. The nations of Africa are also included in 
 the names of Ham's descendants. 
 
 3. Shem : — The later Assyrians and the Hebrews 
 are the best known representatives of his descendants. 
 The older Arabian peoples are given also. 
 
 The general plan of the settlement of the world is 
 given in these words, " When the Most High gave to 
 the nations their inheritance, when He separated the 
 children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples 
 according to the numbers of the children of Israel " 
 (Deut. 32 : 8). This refers to the dispersion at 
 Babel. The divine plan tells us that the various races 
 were located with reference to their relation to the 
 nation of Israel. Israel was placed at the centre of 
 the earth. This will be seen by taking a globe or map 
 showing the whole world, having the American con- 
 tinents on the left, and measuring from Canaan to the 
 extremes of the lands of the world. The distance is 
 about the same to the extremes of Alaska and Siberia, 
 to the southern extreme of America and to Australia. 
 
ii8 The Bible As It Is 
 
 It is the most central point on the earth. It is also the 
 most accessible point from all lands. The great seas 
 which lead up towards that land give channels of water 
 communication with the whole earth. The continents 
 all radiate from the land of man's origin, from the region 
 of man's after dispersion at the flood, and from the 
 centre of man's religious life, the land of Canaan. 
 
 All this tells of purpose as plainly as any fact can. 
 The regeneration of man spiritually, by means of 
 Israel, was the divine purpose, and this will be seen 
 more fully as the history proceeds. Israel was to be 
 a house of prayer for all nations, and must therefore 
 be accessible to the nations. Therefore they were 
 arranged around Israel from their beginning. 
 
 Another great truth we see in all this, the hand of 
 God in history. We are not shut up by the Bible to 
 the one nation of Israel, although that is its great sub- 
 ject. God is the God of the whole earth. He had 
 world purposes in mind from the beginning. Even in 
 His election or selection of Israel, it was not them 
 alone, but the world that God was preparing to save. 
 Here we see in the very ground plan of humanity that 
 God so loved the world that He prepared for them a 
 great salvation from the first. 
 
 Another great fact we must see from all this. We 
 must read history from the divine centre or stand- 
 point ; that is the spiritual view. It is this that shaped 
 all the rest in the divine purpose. If the spiritual 
 rules, or should rule the lower natures, it should also 
 be in the divine purpose, and it is and was. We must 
 
The Origin of the Nations 119 
 
 therefore, in conclusion, read history from the stand- 
 point of the spiritual, as given in the Bible, that is 
 from the land of Canaan and its people. God's pur- 
 pose for the world centres in them. Let the nations 
 stand in devout scholarship and learn the divine 
 lesson, and wisdom will be not only more spiritual but 
 more certain. 
 
TABLE OF ABRAHAM'S ANCESTRY 
 
 2349 
 B.C. 
 
 2300.. 
 
 Shem 100 YR5 Old at Flood 
 
 
 
 Arphaxad Born 2345 
 
 Lived 438 Yf 
 
 is 
 
 
 Sau&h 2311. 433 
 
 __- 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 EBER. 2Z8I.4-64.- 
 
 2275- - 
 
 - 
 
 - -PELEG. 2247. 239.- "~ 
 
 2250. - 
 2225. 
 
 
 
 
 -- 
 
 - 
 
 peril -J-?!? O-^Q 
 
 
 
 
 .- — — 
 
 2200. . 
 2I75_ 
 2150. 
 2125 
 
 --- 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 3ERUG Zlb5. Z30.- 
 
 48.' 
 
 --■ 
 
 NAHO'R.llSSr 
 
 ... 
 
 TERAH.2I26. 205. 
 
 2100 
 
 
 
 2075 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2050. _ 
 2025 _ 
 
 Noah 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 -• 
 
 Peleg 
 
 }|£D 
 
 ZOOB 
 
 NAhOB 
 
 'DiEo'2io7^': " :. 
 
 2000 
 
 Died isyz. 
 
 ---is..:.! 
 
 
 1975 
 
 
 
 
 
 D]zp 
 
 1978 
 
 "ABRAHAM BORNI^QS. 
 
 1950 
 
 
 --- 
 
 
 JSERUGDIEO 
 
 .1955 
 
 1 ED 1921 ■ 
 
 1925 
 
 
 
 
 TERAH 
 
 1900 _ 
 
 Arpmaxad died 1908. 
 
 
 r 
 
 K/\Ar CnOKi IQQC 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 ur^r.^ ut^^TMi j.U2y» . . 
 
 1875 
 
 JSALAH Died I878.' 1 
 
 
 
 1850 
 
 Shem Died 
 
 1S45. J 
 
 
 -Jacob Born 18377 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1825. . . 
 
 |BER Died I8 
 
 7. Abra 
 
 haFi Died I82i.---- 
 
 1800 
 
 _ . 
 
 - — — 
 
 . _ 
 
 
 rTj 
 
 rn:r^_ 
 
 IXO 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 ABRAHAM 
 
 Genesis 11-25. 
 
 The whole narrative in Genesis has been centering 
 towards one point, which we now have reached, the com- 
 ing of the progenitor of the chosen people. The eleven 
 chapters we have studied cover 2,300 years on the 
 shortest chronology. The remaining thirty-nine chap- 
 ters of Genesis are occupied with about 300 years of 
 narrative. This shows the relation of the events and 
 that all up to this is introductory. 
 
 The reality of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as verita- 
 ble persons is as well attested by outside evidence as 
 any event of that time can be. The whole nation of 
 the Jews attest it. That long history of the Jews, 
 their purity of descent, their scriptures, preserved with 
 such care, are among the many facts that verify the 
 scriptural account. Abraham is as well known among 
 eastern people as Washington is among us. His 
 tomb is there as described by Josephus 1,900 years 
 ago, also Jacob's well, known for centuries, and the 
 seven wells of Beersheba lately discovered by Prof. 
 George L. Robinson, of Chicago. The battle Abraham 
 fought with the four kings (Gen. 14) is attested by 
 the discovery of the names of these kings on Assyrian 
 121 
 
122 The Bible As It Is 
 
 monuments, and the account of a battle fought by these 
 kings under similar circumstances. All the points of 
 historic nature are true to the times and lands of the 
 patriarchs. 
 
 The study of Abraham may be followed in four 
 parts. I. His Descent. 2. His History. 3. His 
 Covenant. 4. His Character. 
 
 I. Abraham's Descent. 
 
 The history of Abraham opens, as most Bible biogra- 
 phies do, with his genealogy. There are ten genera- 
 tions from Shem. The accompanying Table shows 
 some very valuable and interesting facts. 
 
 From examination of the Table we see the rapid de- 
 cline in the longevity of the patriarchs after the flood, 
 from 950 years of Noah's life to 175 for Abraham, 
 gradually reduced in the intervening patriarchs. Again 
 we notice the many generations contemporary with each 
 other. Ten are living at the same time. Noah lives 
 to see nine generations. He lives to within a year of 
 Abraham's birth. Shem lives until after the birth of 
 Isaac. Eber, from whom the whole race take the name 
 of Hebrew, lives until after the birth of Jacob, the 
 father of the twelve tribes. Abraham could have 
 conferred with Shem and learned all the facts of the 
 flood from him. By comparison with the table of the 
 Antediluvian Patriarchs, it will be seen that Shem 
 could have conferred with several cotemporaries of 
 Adam. So that Abraham was only distant by two 
 generations from Adam. What Adam told Methu- 
 
Abraham 123 
 
 selah he, in turn, could have communicated to Shem, 
 and he again to Abraham. We can see here how the 
 narratives of the Bible were transmitted, first orally 
 and then committed to writing. 
 
 We see in Abraham the result of a process of se- 
 lection. He is taken from the line of Shem, the godly ; 
 and Shem, from Noah, the one righteous man ; and he, 
 from the line of Seth, in which comes Enoch. The 
 same process continues in his descendants. Isaac is 
 taken as against Ishmael ; and Jacob, instead of Esau. 
 
 Abraham shows characteristics remarkable in that age. 
 The world was falling into apostasy from the primeval 
 religion when Abraham was called. The worship of 
 the heavenly bodies had taken the place of the worship 
 of God and now Sargon, the king, was introducing a 
 multitude of idols. At Ur, where Abraham lived, a 
 splendid temple to the moon was erected. Tradition 
 tells many incidents of Abraham's godly character. 
 Most of them are unreliable, but the tenor of them all 
 is to the effect that he stood alone in adherence to God. 
 One historian tells that he conceived the idea of turn- 
 ing the whole world to his way of thinking about God. 
 His prompt obedience to the call of God and faithful 
 adherence to Him through all his life tell of prior firm 
 and true character and fixed belief. 
 
 2. Abraham's History. 
 The call of God came to Abraham in Ur of the 
 Chaldees (Acts 7:1). With his father and family, he 
 was following a pastoral life. The death of Abraham's 
 
124 The Bible As It Is 
 
 brother, Haran, loosened the ties that bound them to 
 Ur, as a death often does. They had an encampment 
 similar to that of an Arabian tribe to-day. This life 
 Abraham followed all his days, and his sons after him. 
 His life and character were much like that of Job. 
 
 His call gave no hint as to the direction in which he 
 was to go (Heb. 1 1 : 8), although he was guided from 
 time to time. He journeyed up the Euphrates along 
 the fertile lands which could furnish food for the flocks 
 and herds. They halted at Haran, where a stop was 
 made, until by the death of the aged father, Terah, 
 another tie was broken; and Abraham, having no 
 further bonds to hold him, went on as guided to the 
 land of promise, which, no doubt, had been then 
 pointed out to him. 
 
 Abraham's life is full and carefully given. The 
 chapters will assist in getting it fixed in mind. They 
 are as follows : 
 
 Ch. II. Abraham's genealogy. 
 
 Ch. 12. Call. Haran. Shechem. Bethel. 
 Egypt. Age 75. 
 
 Ch. 13. Lot. Promise. 
 
 Ch. 14. Battle. Melchisedek. 
 
 Ch. 15. Covenant. 
 
 Ch. 16. Hagar. Ishmael. Age 86. 
 
 Ch. 17. Circumcision. Promise. Age 99. 
 
 Ch. 18. Angels. Sodom. 
 
 Ch. 19. Lot and Sodom. 
 
 Ch. 20. Abimelech and Sarah. 
 
 Ch. 21. Isaac. Hagar. The Wells. Age 100. 
 
Abraham 125 
 
 Ch. 22. Isaac oifered. 
 
 Ch. 23. Sarah's death. 
 
 Ch. 24., Rebecca. Age 140. 
 
 Ch. 25. Keturah. Abraham's death. Age 175. 
 
 3. Abraham's Covenant. 
 The covenant God made with Abraham is the 
 great feature of his life. It is this which made him 
 great. It is this to which the subsequent scripture refers. 
 It should be, therefore, the subject of special study. 
 It was given in seven sections or communications. 
 
 1. In Ur (Acts 7 : i), he is given a command with 
 the promise only of a land that God would show him. 
 This step involved giving up his home and friends 
 and taking the pilgrim life. The great provisions of 
 the covenant are not revealed to him until he has 
 shown this unquestioning obedience. He obeys the 
 command. 
 
 2. Haran (ch. 12: 1-3). Here the second com- 
 mand and section of the promise are given. God com- 
 passionately waits until Terah has been laid to rest. 
 It is not Terah, but his great son who is the Covenant 
 Father. He is promised now a land, a blessing, a 
 great name, to be a blessing, others to be blessed or 
 cursed for his sake, and all the families of the earth to 
 be blessed in him. The leaving Haran was another 
 step of separation from his brothers and his family, 
 and from the land of his nativity ; it was taking another 
 land and beginning life among another people. 
 
 3. Shechem (ch. 12 : 7). Here the land is pointed 
 
126 The Bible As It Is 
 
 out, ''Unto thy seed will I give this land." Here he 
 builds an altar and the altar accompanies him from 
 this on. 
 
 4. Bethel (ch. 13). Here another tie is broken. 
 Lot separates from Abraham. His choice of Sodom 
 marks him as unfit for a share in the covenant. God 
 now tells Abraham that ''his seed is to be as the 
 dust of the earth." 
 
 5. Hebron (ch. 15). Here the covenant is form- 
 ally made and ratified. Abraham's seed are now- 
 promised to be as the stars for multitude. The visible 
 stars are only a few thousand. Here, then, is a simile, 
 coming after the number of the dust of the earth and 
 so superior to it. There is plain reference to the in- 
 numerable number of invisible stars only recently known 
 in such vast numbers. It is this promise which Abra- 
 ham believes, and it is this faith which is counted to him 
 for righteousness, but not until it is tested, as James 
 tells us (Jas. 2 : 21-23). The sacrifice offered was a 
 blood covenant, made in that day and still made by 
 the people of that country, as when General Grant 
 visited the East. It was made by the parties passing 
 between the parts of the sacrifice laid side by side. 
 Jehovah, in the symbol of fire, and Abraham doubt- 
 less so passed between the parts of the sacrifice. The 
 boundaries of the land are also given from Egypt to 
 the Euphrates. The Egyptian bondage is also foretold. 
 
 6. Hebron (chs. 17, 18). Here he is given a 
 change of name. Abram is now Abraham, " Great 
 Father of a multitude." It is to be an "Everlasting 
 
Abraham 1 27 
 
 Covenant," and Canaan to be an '' everlasting posses- 
 sion." Cifcumcision is given as the seal of the cove- 
 nant. Ishmael, whom Abraham thought might be the 
 source of the coming nation, is set aside and Isaac 
 promised. Twelve princes are to come from him. 
 
 The same year, a few months after this, three angels 
 visit Abraham, one of whom is Jehovah, and again 
 Isaac is promised. Abraham is again told that he is 
 to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Here, 
 in these repeated promises of being a world-wide 
 blessing, we see a confirmation of the tradition of his 
 desire to bring the world to God. His desire will yet 
 be fulfilled. 
 
 7. Mount Moriah (ch. 22). Isaac is called for as 
 a sacrifice and is offered. Then the wealth of the 
 covenant is given Abraham. God adds His oath, 
 "By myself I have sworn." Abraham's seed are to 
 be as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea. 
 They are to possess the gate of their enemies and all 
 the nations of the world are to be blessed by Abraham's 
 seed. 
 
 Now, examining this covenant, we see some particu- 
 lars to be noticed. First, what Abraham obtained 
 himself. He was to have a great name. His name is 
 great to-day all through the world. In the place 
 where he lived he is revered. He is there still called 
 "The Friend of God." His tomb is the most sacred 
 trust of the Arabs. He was promised a land and 
 people. So it has come to pass. That land is Israel's. 
 
128 The Bible As It Is 
 
 It is now desolate, but no other people have a right to 
 it. It was given by the Lord of heaven and earth to 
 Abraham and his seed forever, and theirs it is. He 
 was promised a great people, as the dust of the earth, 
 as the sand of the sea, as the stars of heaven. Mil- 
 lions have come from him, but the great fulfilment 
 awaits in the future. The spiritual seed of Abraham 
 will far outnumber all others (Rom. 4:11). 
 
 In the battle of the confederated kings under 
 Chederlaomar, King of Elam, Abraham meets the 
 first king of united Babylonia. These names, that 
 they possessed power in Canaan, that their vassals 
 there rebelled and that they invaded Canaan, are all 
 told on the Assyrian tablets, although this particular 
 battle is not mentioned. This battle is typical. The 
 Church meets the world in conflict. The enemy has 
 never forgotten nor forgiven the Church that defeat, 
 and afterwards the Church was oppressed by that same 
 Babylon. 
 
 In Melchisedek, Abraham recognizes a priest of the 
 Most High God. He pays tithes to him. Melchise- 
 dek was acting under the covenant made with Noah, 
 which was for mankind at large and prevailed even 
 for Abraham until his own covenant came into force. 
 Melchisedek represents that old world's religion which 
 prevailed until the covenant of Abraham came in. 
 
 It is in the relations of Abraham to the Church that 
 we see the greatness of that covenant. Paul makes it 
 the basis of the Church. To Abraham was the gospel 
 preached (Gal. 3:8). He was the first to believe the 
 
Abraham 129 
 
 gospel so preached (Rom. 4: 11). His faith is the 
 standard faith. His conversion is three times quoted 
 in scripture (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2 : 23). 
 As he was justified so are we. He is the father of all 
 that believe (Rom. 4:^1; Gal. 3:7). All that 
 believe are blessed with Abraham (Gal. 3:9). His 
 covenant is the basis of God's grace to the Gentiles 
 (Gal. 3 : 14). The law was an interregnum which was 
 temporary in its work and sway. This has been swept 
 away and on the Abrahamic foundation Paul builds 
 the gospel of grace. Christ was typified in Isaac. 
 He was that Seed (Gal. 3=16). It is through the 
 Church that Abraham is to become the father of 
 many nations (Rom. 4: 16, 17). 
 
 However far the stream of grace shall flow, it can 
 never leave the channel of the Abrahamic cove- 
 nant. We are to believe in the continuity of God's 
 plan. The names of Abraham's seed are to be on the 
 twelve gates of the New Jerusalem, and the promise 
 that his seed shall be as the stars of heaven points to 
 the glory of the resurrection saints as well as to other 
 worlds than ours. The universe is to be a partaker of 
 the blessing of Abraham's covenant. 
 
 4. Abraham's Place and Character. 
 His greatness is not in what he is or has himself 
 alone. He had faults. His prevarication twice about 
 Sarah, his marriage to Hagar and after to Keturah did 
 not add to his happiness or fame. The sons of these 
 wives turned out to be the enemies of Isaac's de- 
 
ijo The Bible As It Is 
 
 scendants. Sarah, too, was far from perfect. She 
 was to blame in the matter of Pharoah and Abimelech. 
 The latter used gentle irony in sending her a thousand 
 pieces of silver to buy a veil with (20 : 16). Abraham 
 was absent from her when she died and had ap- 
 parently been absent some time (22:19; 23 : 2). 
 
 It was the covenant that made Abraham great. By it 
 he was to become a blessing to all the earth. Here is 
 an answer to that charge of favoritism sometimes made 
 against the choice of Israel for such favors from Jehovah 
 and her place in the Bible. It is the great plan of 
 God for the welfare of mankind. That it has thus 
 resulted, we have seen. That it will be even more 
 of such a blessing, time will show. The Old Testament 
 is therefore not narrow, but is a world book full of 
 world plans for man's welfare. 
 
 Abraham is the Church in embryo. He is chosen, 
 called and saved. He is made the depository of the 
 covenant, and the faith of the Church is his. He 
 travels the pilgrim path as the Church does still. He 
 lives in a land which is to be his in the future, as the 
 Church has her inheritance in the same future. 
 
 In Sarah, too, there is an allegory (Gal. 4: 22-31). 
 Sarah is the covenant of grace, Hagar that of bondage 
 gendering only to bondage. Isaac can come only 
 from Sarah, so hope for the future can come only 
 from the New Covenant. There is in the history of 
 Isaac a trivial incident which is made the starting-point 
 of a great period. At Isaac's weaning feast, Ishmael 
 mocks, probably at his promised future. Ishmael and 
 
Abraham 1 3 1 
 
 his mother are cast out. It is the beginning of the 
 trouble of the chosen seed. In that small event the 
 spirit of antagonism and unbelief is as truly seen as in 
 the great wars which followed between the people of 
 Isaac and their own connections. Personally it does not 
 amount to a permanent breach, for Ishmael and Isaac 
 are together at the burial of Abraham. But Ishmael' s 
 nature is thus clearly seen in boyhood. Modern 
 psychology tells us that the character is fixed as early 
 as seven years of age. 
 
 This great blessing and place came to Abraham 
 because of his faith attested by his obedience. His 
 faith was that what God had promised he was able to 
 perform. He believed what God promised, accepted 
 all as his own and acted accordingly. He therefore 
 obeyed God's commands as they came to him. He 
 was not a perfect character. He had faults many, 
 but he had faith in God and this justified him with 
 God. All our blessings must come in like manner. 
 We are asked to beHeve in Jesus Christ. If we do, we 
 will act accordingly. If we do not act accordingly, we 
 are not counted as believing (Jas. 2 : 18-26). The 
 fulness of the Holy Spirit is promised to the faith 
 which, like Abraham's, takes hold of God's promises 
 (Gal. 3: 14). 
 
 There are degrees in the apprehension of truth and 
 consequently of blessing. There are stages of bless- 
 ing. If Abraham had stopped at certain points, he 
 would have had some of the blessing, but not the fulness 
 of it. It was his perseverance which won the cove- 
 
1-^2 
 
 The Bible As It Is 
 
 nant. By faith they " obtained promises " is recorded 
 of such (Heb. ii : ^^). Abraham had not only a 
 general idea of God and His power and goodness, but 
 he apprehended the gospel. He gave Isaac to be of- 
 fered expecting God would raise him from the dead, 
 from which in a figure he was raised (Heb. ii : 19). 
 Isaac is a type of Christ in the submissive giving of 
 himself up to the Father. 
 
 Abraham apprehended Christ. He tells us, " Your 
 father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and 
 was glad " (John 8 : 56). He foresaw the coming of 
 the Mediator, the one that Job longed for, that one prom- 
 ised in Eden, but scarcely understood until Abraham 
 came and realized the Coming One. Abraham had 
 also a knowledge of heaven. " He looked for the 
 city that hath the foundations " (Heb. 11 : 10). His 
 vision penetrated eternity. 
 
 We are to follow the history of the people who de- 
 scended from Abraham and we will see that all that 
 came to them of blessing came because of this great 
 covenant. It was constantly appealed to -both by 
 Jehovah, when He called them to repentance, and by 
 the people, when they called for deliverance. Its 
 workings in grace will be seen as soon as we enter the 
 history of the children of Abraham. 
 
 Lot is associated with Abraham and is to be con- 
 sidered in connection with his history. He is Abra- 
 ham's nephew and charge. He, however, becomes 
 independent in property and following. He separates 
 from Abraham before the covenant is sealed, and so 
 
Abraham 133 
 
 separates himself from its blessings. He pitches to- 
 wards Sodom, and at last enters and resides there, 
 and is a judge sitting in its gate and marries probably, 
 a woman of Sodom. He does all for gain and loses all 
 thereby. He escapes with his life and daughters, who, 
 doubtless contaminated by Sodom's disgraceful life, 
 bring disgrace upon themselves. Lot's descendants 
 are Israel's enemies to the end. Lot is an illustration 
 of the fact that nearness to means of grace does not 
 necessarily bring grace to the heart or life. Ishmael 
 and Esau are also such instances. 
 
 Ishmael is not forgotten, though not included in the 
 special blessings of the covenant. That father's prayer, 
 "Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee," was heard. 
 It has been answered. The knowledge of God has never 
 died out of Ishmael's people. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Genesis 24-36. 
 
 We pass from Abraham to Jacob because Isaac has 
 a small space in the narrative. He has only one 
 chapter exclusively devoted to him. He has but a 
 single event mentioned in the New Testament, his 
 blessing his sons. He is the submissive and passive 
 character of the Bible. He is mocked by Ishmael when 
 a child, is offered unresistingly as a sacrifice ; his wife 
 is chosen for him ; he gives up the wells one after an- 
 other unresistingly, and settles only when let alone ; he 
 is deceived by his son. He is a type of Christ in his 
 humiliation and in his sacrifice. But, as the time for 
 the full revelation of Christ's humiliation has not yet 
 come, Isaac is passed in scripture with minor mention. 
 
 Events of Isaac's Life. Promised, 17 : 21. Birth, 
 21:2. Offered, 22. Marriage, 24. Heirship, 
 25:6-11. Sons' Birth, 25: 21-26. The Wells, 
 26 : 1-32. Deceived by Jacob, Blesses Sons, 27. 
 
 I. Jacob's Place. 
 
 Jacob occupies a large place in scripture. His name 
 
 as Israel occurs more often than any other save that of 
 
 God. It is this name by which the chosen race are 
 
 134 
 
Jacob ^35 
 
 called. Seven great revelations are given him and 
 such visions as Abraham never had. Angels appear 
 to him again and again. He sees heaven open and 
 the ladder dropped at his feet, and angels descend 
 upon him as on Christ afterwards (Gen 28 : 12; 
 John 1 : 31). An angel allows him to wrestle with 
 him and wrest a blessing from him. 
 
 We are compelled to ask who and what manner of 
 man this was to whom such favors are shown and 
 whose name is so immortal. We are met at the out- 
 set by surprise and disappointment. Scarcely a good 
 or noble trait appears in him, and the charge rests 
 against him of taking advantage of his brother, ot de- 
 ceiving his aged father, of advantage taken of his 
 employer and relative. 
 
 It is not on his own account that he is blessed, and 
 when we ask for other reason we are made to see that 
 it is because he is an inheritor under the great cove- 
 nant. Jacob is the one great Bible illustration of free, 
 undeserved sovereign grace. Without a single re- 
 deeming quality, he obtains all the wealth of that great 
 covenant won by such heroic efforts and faith, sealed 
 by Isaac's self-immolation, and now poured out on this 
 miserable character as if he deserved it all ! He 
 therefore represents all who are saved by grace. His 
 name therefore is properly given the people of God. 
 Spiritually we are all the children of Israel. 
 
 He is so favored, in the purpose of God, before his 
 birth, so that there may not be the slightest ground 
 for attributing to him some real or imagined good- 
 
136 The Bible As It Is 
 
 ness for which he is chosen or favored. He is one of 
 twins. Of these one is chosen and that is Jacob. 
 "For the children, being not yet born, neither hav- 
 ing done anything good or bad, that the purpose of 
 God according to election might stand, not of works, 
 but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, [his 
 mother]. The elder shall serve the younger. Even as 
 it is written, Jacob have I called loved, Esau have I 
 hated " (Rom. 9 : 11-13). He is made therefore the 
 representative of all the subjects of grace, that is of us 
 all, for we also are saved by grace and not by works. 
 He is a type of the Church, as Israel was of Christ. 
 If Abraham, in offering Isaac, is a type of the Father 
 offering His Son, Isaac undoubtedly being a type of 
 Christ in His sacrifice, then we have here the unity 
 of Father, Son and Church by the Spirit which Christ so 
 loved to dwell upon. " That they may be one even as 
 we are. . . . That they may all be one, even as 
 thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also 
 may be in us. . . . That they may be one 
 even as we are one ; I in them and thou in me, that 
 they may be perfected into one" (John 17 : 11, 21, 23). 
 The history of Jacob will also show the human side 
 of the Church in its evils and errors and consequent 
 chastisements, which follow Jacob's story. His his- 
 tory is not one of victory in himself. 
 
 2. Jacob's History. 
 With this view of Jacob we will follow his life. 
 It may be best learned, as was Abraham's, by the 
 
Jacob 
 
 137 
 
 chapters, 
 
 to keep the continuity and order of events, 
 
 as well as 
 
 to keep the whole patriarchal narrative in 
 
 due ordei 
 
 \ Taking key words we find the following 
 
 chapter headings : 
 
 Ch. 24 
 
 His Mother. 
 
 Ch. 25 
 
 Birth. Birthright. 
 
 Ch. 26 
 
 Isaac. 
 
 Ch. 27 
 
 Blessing. 
 
 Ch. 28 
 
 Flight. Vision. Bethel. 
 
 Ch. 29 
 
 Laban. Rachel. Leah. Sons. 
 
 Ch. 30 
 
 Sons. Cattle. 
 
 Ch. 31 
 
 Flight. Laban. 
 
 Ch. 32 
 
 Mahanaim. Peniel. 
 
 Ch. 33 
 
 Esau. Shechem. 
 
 Ch. 34 
 
 Simeon and Levi. 
 
 Ch. 35 
 
 . Bethel. Benjamin. 
 
 Ch. 36 
 
 . Esau's People. 
 
 Ch. 37 
 
 . Joseph's Loss. 
 
 Ch. 38 
 
 . Judah's Sin. 
 
 Chs. 3( 
 
 ^-47. Famine and Egypt. 
 
 Chs. 4^ 
 
 I, 49. Blesses Sons. Death. 
 
 Seven distinct revelations are given him. At leav- 
 ing home (28 : 10-20). Leaving Laban (31 : 3). Two 
 before meeting Esau (32 : 2, 24-32). At Shechem 
 (35 : i). Bethel (35 : 9). On going to Egypt (46 : 2). 
 The focal points of this narrative are his obtaining of the 
 birthright and blessing ; his prayer at Bethel ; his prayer 
 at Peniel ; his return to Bethel ; his dying blessing. 
 The latter the Epistle to the Hebrews dwells on as 
 alone worthy of mention (Heb. 11 : 21). 
 
138 The Bible As It Is 
 
 3. Jacob's Character. 
 
 In his personal character some features call for 
 special mention. With all his evil conduct he is a 
 spiritual man. The same strange union of the flesh 
 and the spirit is seen in all Christians. He is con- 
 trasted with Esau, a purely natural man who has had no 
 conflict, but has some natural good qualities. Jacob 
 shows his spiritual nature in seeking the birthright 
 and in his prayer. His vow at Bethel and his return 
 to it speak of the presence of the spiritual nature ; and, 
 above all, this nature is shown in his prayer at Peniel 
 and his struggle with the angel. God Himself recog- 
 nizes the latter as an evidence of spiritual power and 
 rewards him for it. 
 
 But with the spiritual nature, Jacob has human na- 
 ture, and that of a most unlovely quality. He is self- 
 ish and crafty and deceitful and carnal. It is the 
 flesh and the spirit in the same individual. Two 
 natures of antagonistic characters in one person. The 
 flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against 
 the flesh. It is seen in every believer ; and not until 
 the flesh is crucified and Christ given full control is 
 there victory (Gal. 5 : 17-25). 
 
 Jacob suffers in his family and in his life. He 
 realized the after statement, " He that soweth to the 
 flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." In his life 
 is sorrow for the wrong-doings of his children. They 
 treat their brother and him as he treated his father 
 and his brother. He is deceived by his wife, and 
 idols are in his home. He ends his life in a strange 
 
Jacob 139 
 
 land, and he has to say, *' all these things are against 
 me ; few and evil have been the days and the years 
 of my life. ' ' It might have been different ; for all 
 would have come to him without his scheming and 
 deception and trickery. God needs no such help to 
 bring about His purposes. God chastens those He 
 loves and He says, ''Jacob have I loved." God is 
 faithful to His own in chastisement as well as in favor 
 and blessing. 
 
 4. Jacob's Twelve Sons. 
 
 The twelve sons of Jacob should be noticed, as in 
 them are found the germs of future nations ; and from 
 their character, their conduct, their maternal ancestry 
 and the dying blessing of their father, Jacob, the nation 
 takes its character and its whole history is shaped. 
 The twelve sons are as follows : 
 
 Leah's sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, 
 Zebulun. 
 
 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid, Dan, Naphtali. 
 
 Sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid. Gad, Asher. 
 
 Rachel's sons, Joseph, Benjamin. 
 
 The first-born, Reuben, lost his place as the favored 
 one by primogeniture, by wrong-doing. Judah ob- 
 tains the leadership by his favor to Joseph. He is 
 the leading tribe from whom the rulers came and the 
 Messiah. That this place is not from his own char- 
 acter is seen from his own unworthy conduct in chap- 
 ter 38. The jealousy between the wives of Jacob is 
 the source of the after-divisions between the sons and 
 
I40 The Bible, As It Is 
 
 the tribes, the spUt of the kingdom into two parts, 
 the wars between them, the final separation for all 
 these centuries and the loss of the ten tribes. All this 
 can be traced to the two wives and their jealousy re- 
 lated here. Polygamy brought Jacob misery as it 
 does everywhere. Judah was the leading tribe of Leah's 
 sons, and Ephraim, Joseph's son, the leading tribe 
 of Rachel's sons, and these two were antagonists 
 always (Isa. ii : 13). The inferior tribes are from the 
 handmaids and these rally about the respective wives 
 and their sons. The idolatry of Israel began with 
 Ephraim, and it was in Rachel's keeping that the idols 
 were which were stolen from Laban (Gen. 31 : 34). 
 We see here the far-reaching effects of family life. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 JOSEPH 
 
 Genesis 36-50. 
 
 Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, occupies the place 
 of interest after his father and it is about him that the 
 narrative centres. It is under his care that they are 
 saved from famine and brought to Egypt and there 
 increase to a nation. The story of Joseph is one of 
 the most dramatic in all scripture. It is true to the 
 Eastern life and conditions in which it is placed. It 
 could only have been written by one with the facts be- 
 fore him. The coat of many colors which his father 
 gave him was often used for favored children ; such 
 coats have been found in tombs and indeed are some- 
 times used to-day. The pit into which they put him 
 was a dry cistern, such as abound in that country. 
 Arabian caravans pass through the land to-day and 
 would buy such a slave now. The price is that for a 
 slave under twenty-five years of age. In the Egyptian 
 part of the narrative are over two hundred points of 
 correspondence with Egyptian conditions. The story 
 of Joseph itself is reflected in an Egyptian story of 
 <'The Two Brothers," which resembles it, and is 
 doubtless an Egyptian rendering of the same occur- 
 141 
 
142 The Bible As It Is 
 
 rences, as so many of such old traditions are. This we 
 have seen in the stories of the Fall and the Deluge. 
 
 The life of Joseph should be studied on three 
 lines: i. His personal history and character. 2. As 
 representative of the nation. 3. Prophetically and 
 typically. 
 
 I. Joseph's History. 
 
 The personal story may be best learned by the 
 chapters. These will keep the order of events in 
 mind. 
 
 Ch. 30. Joseph's Birth. 
 
 Ch. 37. Dreams. Betrayal. 
 
 Ch. 39. In Egypt. With Potiphar. In Prison. 
 
 Ch. 40. Pharaoh's Butler and Baker. 
 
 Ch. 41. Pharaoh's Dreams. Joseph's Release. 
 Famine. 
 
 Ch. 42. Joseph's Brethren. 
 
 Chs. 43, 44. Benjamin. 
 
 Ch. 45. Joseph Revealed. 
 
 Ch. 46. Jacob Comes. His Family. 
 
 Ch. 47. Jacob and Pharaoh. The Famine. 
 
 Ch. 48. Jacob Blesses Joseph's Sons. 
 
 Ch. 49. Jacob Blesses His Sons. Dies. 
 
 Ch. 50. Burial of Jacob. Joseph Dies. 
 
 The discoveries of archaeology in Egypt have given 
 light upon his life in that land of intense interest. 
 Joseph's life was that of an Egyptian prince. It can 
 scarcely be too highly colored. Egypt was far in 
 advance in civilization. Joseph lived in a palace 
 
Joseph 143 
 
 adorned with paintings, surrounded with a paradise of 
 palms and tropical plants. There were couches adorned 
 with ebony, ivory and gilding ; vases of gold, bronze, 
 ivory and crystal ; perfumes from alabaster cups ; soft 
 carpets and costly furs. He was attended by hundreds 
 of trained slaves, and had the luxuries of the world at 
 his command. There were acrobats, dancers, musicians 
 to amuse him, a great estate with its animals and poultry 
 of every kind, a menagerie of wild beasts gathered and 
 kept for the royal pleasure. Garlands of roses and 
 wreaths of lotus blossoms were placed upon the necks 
 and heads of the guests, while choirs and orchestras 
 entertained them during the feast. It was to such a 
 ruler, in such surroundings, that Joseph's brethren were 
 introduced. The effect on the rustics from Canaan may 
 be imagined, especially when that princely ruler said 
 to them as they tremblingly awaited their fate, " I am 
 Joseph your brother." 
 
 The noticeable facts as to Joseph's character 
 are his goodness in youth at home, his fidelity in 
 places of trust (39 : 6), resistance of temptation 
 (39 '• 8), wisdom in administering affairs (41 : 48), his 
 love for his cruel brethren (45). His godly character 
 was the source of all. ''God was with him" 
 (Acts 7 : 9), is the keynote to his history and 
 character. 
 
 He shows his faith as well as his hope of their re- 
 lease from Egypt, which with all its luxuries is noth- 
 ing to him beside the land of the covenant, and this 
 gives him his great place as hero of faith more than all 
 
144 The Bible As It Is 
 
 else he did (Heb. ii : 22). His body is therefore 
 embalmed and carried up out of Egypt, not at the 
 time of his death as with Jacob, but at their release. 
 
 2. Joseph's Place in Israel. 
 Joseph is the representative of the coming nation. 
 He is sent in prevenient grace to deliver them in the 
 time of famine, the director of their course. Here we 
 see the hand of God. It was to this that the strange 
 dreams of his youth pointed. It was for this specially 
 that " God was with him." It was here that his great 
 character was so needed. Abraham was their father 
 spiritually, Jacob physically, Joseph providentially. 
 The increase of the family to twelve sons and sixty 
 grandsons, with all their wives, made a settlement for 
 the time necessary. It needed to be where food was 
 plentiful, the necessity for increase of man or beast or 
 plant, where protection for the young nation could be 
 had in that unsettled time, where education also was 
 to be obtained for those who were to be such a people. 
 No land offered all these as did Egypt. Therefore to 
 Egypt they were taken. All Joseph's eventful life was 
 just part of the great divine plan to promote the 
 growth of the nation, as promised Abraham. We see 
 the covenant now operating in blessing. Joseph was 
 the administrator for the time of that covenant. 
 
 3. Joseph Prophetically and Typically. 
 Joseph was a typical or prophetic character of 
 which scripture shows a succession and which it is 
 
Joseph 14 J 
 
 important to study if we would learn its meaning. 
 The dreams in which he sees the sheaves all bowing 
 down to his sheaf, and the sun, moon and planets all 
 bowing to him, were prophetic of his future glory 
 and mark him as a prophetic character. 
 
 It requires but little insight to see the strange par- 
 allel between Joseph's life and that of Jesus. Each 
 is beloved of his father, each hated and betrayed and 
 sold by his brethren, and each by this act of betrayal 
 becomes their deliverer. Each goes down into 
 Egypt in youth, and each rises to royal dignity and 
 becomes his people's saviour. Each operated under a 
 great covenant and each looked forward to a resurrec- 
 tion day and another land (Heb. 11 : 22). Each is a 
 stranger in a strange land, and that the land of bond- 
 age of the soul. The woman in the Apocalypse clothed 
 in the sun and crowned with the stars (Rev. 12) is 
 Israel glorified, which Joseph saw in type, in his dream 
 of the sun and moon and stars (Gen 37 : 9). The reve- 
 lation of Joseph to his brethren is to be reen acted when 
 Jesus, their now rejected Messiah, shall be revealed to 
 the chosen people as their long rejected brother. Then 
 will be fulfilled the prophecy of Zech. 1 2 : 10-14. They 
 shall " look upon Him whom they have pierced and they 
 shall mourn for Him." With Him they will then rise 
 to glory. 
 
 There is no other such complete parallel of the 
 whole work of Christ for His people in scripture. No 
 one can consider these correspondences without being 
 impressed that they form a prophecy. Therefore 
 
146 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Joseph is one of the great Messianic characters of 
 scripture and is to be given study accordingly. To 
 be sure, there is no direct scriptural mention of Joseph 
 as such a Messianic character ; yet this is not excep- 
 tional, for there are many such. Indeed all scriptural 
 characters are in some measure reflections of the glory 
 of the coming Saviour. Joseph can at least be used 
 as illustrative of Christ. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 THE EXODUS 
 Exodus 1-15. 
 
 Here begins the history of Israel as a nation. Up 
 to this it is a family we have studied. The Exodus 
 made them a nation. This therefore is the great 
 event of their history. Scripture is full of it. The 
 books of the Pentateuch after Genesis are occupied 
 with the events of this time. Two great parts appear 
 in these books, i. History. 2. Legislation. The 
 historical part tells their story from Egypt to Canaan ; 
 the legislative part, the laws given them at this time. 
 These should be studied separately, the historical first. 
 
 The historical part must be gathered out of the 
 four books. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deute- 
 ronomy, but principally from Exodus and Numbers. 
 It should be read first consecutively, omitting the 
 legislative parts, so as to secure the whole narrative 
 in unbroken order. 
 
 The order of study to be followed is as follows : 
 I. Their state in Egypt, chapter i. 2. Moses, chap- 
 ters 2-4. 3. Pharaoh and the Plagues, chapters 5-1 1. 
 4. Passover, chapters 12, 13. 5. Exodus, chapter 
 12-15. 6- The wilderness journey. Exodus 1 6 to end ; 
 Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 
 147 
 
148 The Bible As It Is 
 
 I. Their State in Egypt. 
 The exodus and accompanying facts form a well- 
 attested narrative. That Israel was in Egypt, that 
 they left it and went to Canaan is accepted by all. 
 The Egyptian part is true to the time and place. It 
 could only have been written by one familiar with the 
 facts and on the ground. The facts of history also 
 are in agreement with the Bible record. When Joseph 
 and his brethren went to Egypt, it was ruled by a 
 friendly dynasty, the Hyksos kings, of the same gen- 
 eral race as Israel and called the Shepherd Kings in 
 reproach by the Egyptians, whom they strangely and 
 completely and easily conquered some time before. 
 This accounts in part for the friendly reception of 
 Joseph and his brethren. The oppression of Israel 
 was caused by the expulsion of this friendly dynasty 
 and the return of the native dynasty to power. Of 
 these was the king '* who knew not Joseph." The 
 special oppression in the making of brick was under 
 that greatest of all builders of Egypt, Rameses II, 
 who built more than all others together. There are 
 found on the monuments of Egypt the pictures, of the 
 semitic-faced laborers such as Israel was, with all the 
 details of their oppression. The buildings show the 
 facts also. The ruins of the '* treasure cities" show 
 the facts of the account. In the ruins of the granaries 
 at Pithom, the lowest layers of brick work are laid with 
 brick made with straw, the next with brick made with 
 '* stubble " or reeds, the upper with bricks made without 
 either. This exactly agrees with the scripture account. 
 
The Exodus 149 
 
 A long period of silence follows the death of 
 Joseph. They increased into a nation by the quiet, 
 safe and well-fed life in Egypt. They were also learn- 
 ing of Egypt's civilization, the effects of which they 
 showed in after life. They were, at leaving, far from 
 the rustic people they were at coming. That splendid 
 civilization certainly was an education. The Egyp- 
 tians could calculate eclipses, knew geometry, chem- 
 istry, anatomy, architecture, mining, all kinds of ag- 
 riculture, horticulture and care of cattle, used the 
 most exquisite articles of household furniture, carpets 
 and couches. They used glass surpassing the best Vene- 
 tian forms, and pictures made of feather work, requir- 
 ing the most powerful microscope to discern the parts. 
 They used chisels, drills, planes and cutting tools of 
 every kind. It would have been impossible for any 
 nation of any ability to have been in daily contact 
 with all this and not be taught some of it. It was for 
 this, for one reason, that the chosen people were sent 
 to Egypt, the mother of learning. 
 
 Socially the Israelites were a separate people although 
 they spread through the land. Their language, race, 
 and especially their affinity with the hated Hyksos kings, 
 would keep them separate. Many of them retained 
 their pastoral life and roamed over the eastern wilder- 
 ness. Some even raided into Canaan (i Chron. 7 : 
 21-24), perhaps trying to force the promised return. 
 Politically they were an alien as well as an inferior 
 race. They retained their tribal and community life. 
 They had their elders and other rulers at the close of 
 
150 The Bible As It Is 
 
 their stay in Egypt as all such peoples then had and 
 still have to-day. 
 
 Religiously they had the memory of their fathers' 
 religion. Some, as the parents of Moses, " feared 
 God." Moses himself kept the faith. They had the 
 memory of the land from whence they came and the 
 hope of returning to it. But most had lost their vital 
 piety. They did not, however, fall into the idolatry 
 of Egypt. That was too degraded for such a people 
 to adopt. The worship of cattle and cats and croco- 
 diles disgusted them, and, as they believed themselves 
 of a superior race, that also kept them from that base 
 religion. If they practiced idolatry it was that of the 
 nations from which they sprang, as Canaan or Ur 
 whence Abraham came. 
 
 We notice the lesson that God prepared the people 
 for leaving Egypt by the hardships of the oppression. 
 It was a delightful land and in peace they would not 
 care to leave it, and would ever turn to it again in the 
 trials of the wilderness. Even as it was, they looked 
 back to it at times with longing. They never could 
 fulfil God's purpose for them and for mankind in 
 Egypt. The believer in the world is in the same posi- 
 tion. " Come out from among them and be ye sep- 
 arate " is God's call to His people at all times. 
 
 2. Moses. 
 When God designs to bless His people, He raises up 
 an instrument and generally from among them. 
 Moses was His appointed and prepared leader for 
 
The Exodus 
 
 151 
 
 Israel's deliverance. He was Israel's Washington. 
 His life may be divided into three parts of equal 
 length, in Egypt forty years, in Midian forty years, in 
 the Wilderness forty years. The first two were neces- 
 sary to prepare him for his work which lay in the last 
 third of his life. 
 
 I. His birth and strange childhood are familiar sto- 
 ries. We see in this the direct hand of God. Such a 
 leader needed training of two kinds : first, the education 
 of a secular kind needed for the great national leadership 
 he was to assume; second, the spiritual education 
 needed in the same sphere. The first was given him 
 in Pharaoh's palace under the best of Egypt's teach- 
 ers. He undoubtedly was initiated into the mysteries 
 of Egyptian occultism of every kind, as well as the 
 usual learning of the land. He lived the same luxurious 
 life of a prince as did Joseph. Trained servants by 
 hundreds waited upon him. He was entrusted with 
 important military commissions, and, if tradition is 
 right, fought battles with Egypt's enemies. 
 
 He, however, did not lose his piety. That mother 
 training never left him. And further he came to 
 know his divine commission at this time. He had 
 choice given him of a life of luxury, perhaps to rise to 
 the throne, or one of peril and poverty with his 
 people. He deliberately chose the latter (Heb. 1 1 : 
 24-26). He seems to have incurred the suspicion at 
 this early time of those in power, for when he slays an 
 Egyptian he has to flee for his life. This would not 
 have been necessary had he been in affinity with 
 
152 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Egyptian power at court. No prince of the palace 
 need have fled for kiUing a subject. It shows his 
 friendless state at the time. There is a long, romantic 
 story in the few lines of Moses' Egyptian history. 
 
 2. His hfe after his flight was the opposite of the 
 Egyptian. He was a shepherd. It is a sohtary life, 
 one excessively wearing. Shepherds have become 
 insane through the constant solitude and never-end- 
 ing bleating of flocks. He here learns patience, and 
 the learning only had in solitude. Here God reveals 
 Himself. Here he gets his commission. 
 
 3. With Israel. To review this is to repeat Is- 
 rael's history which we are now to study. He was a spe- 
 cially fitted man for a special place. The key to his 
 character is given in a word. ** He endured as seeing 
 him who is invisible." He reveals himself to Israel 
 and is accepted as their deliverer, evidenced by the 
 signs he shows when the proper time has come. 
 
 3. Pharaoh and the Plagues, 
 chapters 5-1 1. 
 Pharaoh is an official title like emperor. The 
 Pharaoh who ruled when Moses appeared was one of 
 Rameses II' s successors, perhaps Menephtah I. The 
 fact of the finding or not finding of his mummy has 
 little bearing on the matter. There is no reason to 
 say that this Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea, or 
 that if he was his body was not recovered and em- 
 balmed, for many bodies were left on the shore, as the 
 record tells us. There are some facts which attest the 
 
The Exodus 153 
 
 general narrative. A tablet has been found that gives 
 what is believed to be the Egyptian account of the 
 exodus, ''The Israelites have been annihilated, no 
 posterity is left them." ^ The Egyptians saw them dis- 
 appear and to them they were annihilated. 
 
 We can easily understand the resentment of Pha- 
 raoh, whom the monuments say was twenty-six years 
 younger than Moses, at being demanded to let go a 
 subject race by one of their number, and one, too, who 
 had been a possible competitor with him for the throne. 
 He first hardens his heart and then God hardens it 
 further. He was raised up as a resistance piece for 
 Jehovah's purpose to reveal His power (Ex. 9: 16; 
 Rom. 9:17). ''That my name may be declared 
 throughout all the earth." The first sign should have 
 satisfied him. He calls for his magicians, and is 
 hardened to resistance when they perform some similar 
 feats. Another sign fails also. Plague after plague 
 fails to bring this hardened man to obedience. 
 
 The plagues were ten in number. They should 
 be memorized, i. Nile turned to blood. 2. Frogs. 
 3. Lice. 4. Flies. 5. Murrain on cattle. 6. Boils 
 on man. 7. Hail and fire. 8. Locusts. 9. Dark- 
 ness. 10. Death of first-born. 
 
 Many of these, perhaps all, have a natural basis. 
 The hand of God is seen in the severity and in the 
 time and place and purpose of the plagues. The 
 Nile is subject to changes to a red color from the 
 
 "^Expository Times, Nov., 1897. See also Authenticity of the 
 Hexateuch, Bartlett, p. 106. 
 
154 The Bible As It Is 
 
 presence of immense quantities of infusoria in it at 
 times. The insect plagues are all in a measure often 
 felt there. So also the murrain on cattle and boils on 
 man. The plague of hail is not unknown, in some 
 degree, with electrical storms. The darkness has 
 been experienced, and also the pestilence which scripture 
 tells smote the first-born (Ps. 78: 50, 51). Justice 
 took their first-born for the robbery of Jehovah's. It 
 was this death blow that broke their hearts. 
 
 4. The Passover. 
 While the oppressor is being broken, Israel is 
 being prepared for deliverance. The redemption 
 must be by blood as well as by power. Right as 
 well as might characterize God's salvation for 
 His people. Therefore the edict of death on the 
 first-born is universal. Israelite as well as Egyptian 
 is under that doom; hence the need of the Pass- 
 over. If the Angel of Death, who knows no dis- 
 cretion, is to pass over any house there must be a 
 .seal upon it. That seal is blood. That blood is the 
 type of a future Deliverer, whose forfeit it is, pledging 
 Him to come and, at a time appointed, make good 
 this forfeit with His own death. The passover there- 
 fore is Calvary in rehearsal of its great enactment 
 (i Cor. 5 : 7). Christ was that Lamb of God of whom 
 not a bone was to be broken (John 19 : $6). He was 
 to die at passover time. By virtue of His death His 
 Church as a whole passed out to victory, and judg- 
 ment fell upon the hosts of darkness. Through faith 
 
The Exodus 155 
 
 in that blood the believer has the right to pass out to 
 freedom, and through partaking of that flesh he has 
 strength to do so. ^' Neither is there salvation in any 
 other" (Acts 4: 12). 
 
 Besides the protection of the blood, there was 
 the strength of the flesh eaten. In the strength 
 of that eaten passover lamb and bread they march out 
 to liberty. It is Christ's flesh eaten. It is perpetuated 
 in the Lord's supper. We, too, sing the song of 
 Moses and the Lamb at every communion (Matt. 
 26: 17-28 j John 6 : 53-58; Rev. 15: 2, 3). 
 
 5. The Exodus. 
 The story of the Exodus is briefly told. They were 
 prepared. They had seen the plagues and courage 
 filled their hearts. Their terror fell upon all who 
 knew the strange occurrences of the past weeks. They 
 are told to ask (not *' borrow" as in Authorized 
 Version) from the Egyptians jewels and money. These 
 are their hard earned wages unjustly kept from them. 
 They ask and are given willingly and lavishly, ''jewels 
 of silver and jewels of gold. ' ' They march out in order 
 *'by their armies." They have maintained their 
 tribal order and divisions into ''families," "houses" 
 and households under their hereditary princes and 
 elders. It is not a confused mass of flying fugitives, 
 but a comparatively orderly caravan and encampment. 
 There are 600,000 fighting men. This would call for 
 perhaps 2,000,000 in all. In haste, yet with order, 
 they march out, joined at places by the converging 
 
156 The Bible As It Is 
 
 companies from various parts and by crowds of op- 
 pressed peoples who, like themselves, have felt the lash 
 of the oppressor. They march in order, probably in 
 great divisions meeting at Rameses or Pithom on the 
 edge of the wilderness. 
 
 The crossing of the tongue of the Red Sea was 
 assisted by what was a miracle upon a natural basis. 
 The place and conditions made such a piling up of the 
 waters possible and, with special providential winds to 
 assist, the whole event is not only possible but certain. 
 The Egyptians have scarcely let them go than they 
 repent, especially for their treasures disappearing so 
 quickly. The pride and unbelief of Pharaoh harden his 
 heart to the last point and he orders a pursuit. The 
 overthrow of the Egyptian hosts is confirmed by the 
 fact that a sort of anarchy prevailed in Egypt after 
 this. A papyrus relates that the population had 
 broken away over the borders, and among those that 
 remained there was no commanding voice for many 
 years. The regions of that event were full of its 
 traditions for ages. 
 
 Israel celebrates her escape with songs of joy, and 
 Moses writes a song which remains ever after and will 
 remain, as prophecy tells us, the typical song of the final 
 victory of the Church (Rev. 15 : 3). 
 
 The use of this and reference to it in later scriptures 
 gives us the key to the spiritual meaning of the 
 Exodus. It is a prophetic event and of the last times, 
 as so much of scripture narrative is. The Revelation 
 contains much of the Egyptian story. Egypt is 
 
The Exodus 157 
 
 a type there of the anti-Christian opposition of the 
 last days. Pharaoh is antichrist. Israel is God's 
 Church in that day. The oppression is their treat- 
 ment at the hands of antichrist and his people. 
 The world's judgments are portrayed- in the plagues. 
 The waters turned to blood, the locusts, the fire 
 and hail, the sores, the darkness, the one who 
 smites as Moses did, the final song of victory at the 
 edge of the sea of fire all are given us here. As the 
 deluge gave us such a picture, so we have another here 
 in greater detail and vividness. 
 
CHAPTER Xr 
 
 THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY 
 
 Ex. 1 6 TO End. Lev. Num. Deut. 
 
 We now begin the forty years' journey which forms 
 the subject of the books of the Pentateuch after 
 Genesis. The relations of each book to the journey 
 may be seen in the map given herein. Genesis takes 
 them to Egypt; Exodus, from Egypt to Mt. Sinai; 
 Leviticus was all given at Mt. Sinai ; Numbers takes 
 them from Mt. Sinai to Canaan ; Deuteronomy was 
 all given at the edge of Canaan. 
 
 A further comparison of these books is instructive. 
 
 Exodus is partly historical (chs. i to 19), partly 
 legislative (chs. 20 to 40). 
 
 Leviticus is nearly all legislative. ^ 
 
 Numbers, like Exodus, is partly historical, partly 
 legislative. It is so called from the two numberings at 
 the beginning and close of the journey (chs. 2, 26). 
 
 Deuteronomy is the farewell discourse of Moses just 
 before his death. 
 
 The whole divides into (i) history of the journey 
 and (2) legislation. 
 
 The journey from Egypt to Canaan divides into five 
 stages: i. From Egypt to Mt. Sinai. 2. At Mt. 
 158 
 
The Wilderness Journey 159 
 
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i6o The Bible As It Is 
 
 Sinai. 3. From Mt. Sinai to Canaan. 4. The thirty- 
 eight years of wandering. 5 . The fortieth year. 
 
 I. Egypt to Mt. Sinai. 
 
 EXODUS 12 TO 18. 
 
 This was a circuitous way to Canaan. It was 
 evidently chosen for several reasons. It hid the 
 nation in the wilderness from the Egyptian enemies 
 and other antagonistic peoples. It brought them to 
 the place of schooling at Mt. Sinai, where God in- 
 tended to give them the law. 
 
 The events on this stage of their journey are all 
 preparatory; the experience of the bitter waters at 
 Marah, the Pillar of Cloud, the giving of manna and 
 the quails, the contest with Amelek, and the visit and 
 advice of Jethro. The time was about three months. 
 It was a series of lessons of faith in Jehovah. These 
 were all preparatory events and typify the early ex- 
 periences of the Christian hfe. 
 
 2. At Mt. Sinai. 
 ex. 19 to end. lev. and num. i to lo. 
 
 This was in the general locality where Moses 
 spent the forty years, when banished from Egypt. 
 Mt. Horeb it was also called. Here he had the vision 
 of the burning bush (Ex. 3). Their arrival here 
 was to be the evidence that God had called and sent 
 him and was with him (3 : 12). 
 
 The events at Mt. Sinai are all of a religious nature ; 
 
The Wilderness Journey i6i 
 
 the revelation of God to the people from the mount, 
 the giving of the law, that is the decalogue, by audible 
 voice in the hearing of all the people, and further laws 
 to Moses in the mount, which he ascended many 
 times; the giving of the two tables of stone, the 
 directions for building the Tabernacle, the idolatry of 
 Israel with the golden calf, the punishment, the reve- 
 lation of God's grace to Moses and the erection of the 
 Tabernacle. The whole of Leviticus was given here 
 from the Tabernacle. Here Aaron was consecrated. 
 Here occurred the profanation by his sons, Nadab and 
 Abihu, and their death. The second Passover was 
 here observed. The remainder of the first year was 
 spent here. The first numbering of the nation and 
 the order of the camp for the further march was also 
 arranged here. 
 
 The great events were the giving of the law and 
 that part called the Book of the Covenant and the 
 covenant entered into between Jehovah and the nation. 
 The basis of this was the covenant with Abraham. 
 Now a subsidiary covenant was given them in which 
 they ratified that great covenant and accepted Jehovah 
 as their national God, they to be His peculiar people 
 (Ex. 20-24). Having fulfilled His promise to bring 
 them out of Egypt, He asks of them this covenant in 
 which they covenant to be His and obedient to Him. 
 It is formally ratified, not only by the spoken consent 
 of the people, but by sprinkling them and the Book with 
 the blood of burnt and peace offerings. It was further 
 impressed by the taking of Moses, Aaron and seventy 
 
i62 The Bible As It Is 
 
 elders up into the mount and their having there a 
 vision of Jehovah. They are now under the most 
 solemn obligation to keep the law, and also under the 
 most blessed relations to the God of heaven and earth, 
 as His chosen people, to be led and fed and helped and 
 used and glorified. 
 
 Sinai represents the conviction of sin, righteousness 
 and judgment, so necessary for the spiritual advance 
 of the soul (Rom. 7). We have no more of Christ than 
 we see, desire and appropriate. We have to be brought 
 to this by conviction of our need by the law. It is sig- 
 nificant that the law was given to a people already 
 redeemed from Egypt. Conviction is as necessary 
 for the believer as for the world, but it is not his per- 
 manent place of experience. We are not to be always 
 under Sinai. Therefore the gospel comes. 
 
 In the New Testament this whole scene is contrasted 
 with Christ and the gospel (2 Cor. 3 ; Heb. 8 : 6-13 ; 
 12 : 18-29). '^h^ ^^^v ^s contrasted with the gospel. 
 The law brings condemnation ; the gospel forgiveness. 
 The law works by its terrors ; the gospel by its grace 
 and love. The law was feared and soon forgotten ; 
 the gospel is written on the heart and loved and re- 
 membered. The law brings us to Mt. Sinai with its 
 fearful threatenings ; the gospel to a view of the 
 heavenly city with its redeemed saints. Mt. Sinai is 
 the antithesis of Calvary. Their sins were punished. 
 Ours are forgiven and forgotten. 
 
 On the other hand, we are reminded of the greater 
 responsibility of hearing such a superior gospel. If 
 
The Wilderness Journey 163 
 
 they perished under Moses' law, what of those who re- 
 ject Christ Himself? If they perished who sinned 
 under the blood of the sacrifice, what of those who 
 trample under foot the blood of Christ ? If they fell 
 who refused Moses who spake on earth, what of those 
 who refuse Him who speaks from heaven? (Heb. 
 10 : 26-31.) 
 
 Another great event was the giving and erection of 
 the Tabernacle which thenceforth was the centre of 
 the camp. This occupies the last part of Exodus. It 
 was given to Moses in a vision and the directions for 
 its erection were most minute, so that it can be built 
 to-day from these directions, and has been often shown 
 in models, which are a most helpful method of study- 
 ing it. The study of the Tabernacle will come under 
 the study of the ceremonial law, with which it is most 
 intimately connected. Let it suffice here to say that 
 it was the residence of Jehovah among the people. It 
 was not so much the meeting-place of the people, 
 though they did meet at its door, as the meeting-place 
 of the people with Jehovah. It could not contain 
 many people and only the priests were allowed to enter. 
 The Pillar of Cloud rested upon the Tabernacle and 
 spread thence over the entire camp as a canopy. 
 
 3. Sinai to Canaan. 
 numbers i to 1 9. 
 The numbering of the people and the ordering of 
 the camp was at Sinai and with this they left for the 
 journey. 
 
164 The Bible As It Is 
 
 The arrangement of the camp -was in four divisions, 
 one on each side of the Tabernacle, which was there- 
 fore in the centre of the camp. Each of the four 
 divisions was led by one of the four strong tribes, 
 Judah on the east with Issachar and Zebulun. Reu- 
 ben on the south, with Simeon and Gad, Ephraim on 
 the west with Manasseh and Benjamin, and Dan on 
 the north, with Asher and Naphtali. These group- 
 ings were according to affinity. The tribes which 
 were from sons of the same mother were together, and 
 antagonistic tribes at the extremes. 
 
 The Pillar of Cloud was spread over the camp like 
 a canopy, a central stem resting on the Tabernacle. 
 It shielded them from the burning sun by day and 
 illuminated the camp at night. 
 
 A regular order of march was commanded, Judah 
 going first, the other camps following in order. While 
 in camp, which was for considerable periods, they 
 wandered far and near for forage. These encamp- 
 ments must be distinguished from the daily camp 
 when on the march. The manna was probably some 
 natural production greatly multiplied for their use. 
 A species of lichen is found in this region and its seeds 
 are taken up by the wind and fall in great quantities. 
 There is also a fungus which grows very plentifully. 
 It is of a gray color and as large as a pea. The 
 Arabs call it "angels' food." 
 
 We cannot judge that country by what we see of 
 it now any more than we can the land of Canaan. 
 Neglect and lawlessness have rendered many regions 
 
The Wilderness Journey 165 
 
 desolate which were once comparatively fertile. We 
 must not suppose it all a sandy desert. The children 
 of Israel had flocks and herds, and these required 
 pasture. Their path and progress were adapted to 
 their necessities. 
 
 The march to Canaan is characterized by sin and 
 rebellion and chastisement. The people rebel continu- 
 ally and even Moses wearies and is given the seventy 
 elders to aid him. Miriam and Aaron rebel against 
 Moses. At Kadesh the whole nation turns from entering 
 Canaan and disbelieve the good report of the spies 
 and even turn against Moses. God shuts them out of 
 Canaan and turns them back into the wilderness. 
 They are doomed to fall in the wilderness, in which 
 they are to wander the rest of forty years. Korah, 
 Dathan and Abiram rebel against Moses' and Aaron's 
 authority and are destroyed. The blossoming of 
 Aaron's rod stops the murmuring against him. Some 
 laws are given as called for by the need of the time. 
 
 4. The Years of Wandering. 
 The period of thirty-eight years after this is passed 
 over without record of events. Only the stages of the 
 journey are given (Num. 33). They are under the 
 judgment of Jehovah. It is a time of apostasy. 
 They worship the gods of the heathen (Amos 5 : 25, 26 ; 
 Acts 7 : 42, 43). The people waste away with 
 pestilences and other calamities (Num. 14: 30-33; 
 32: 13; Ps. 78: 33). It was probably during this 
 time that Psalm ninety was written by Moses. It re- 
 
1 66 The Bible As It Is 
 
 cites the brevity of life, threescore years and ten or 
 fourscore years, which was far below the average life, 
 but was the limited term of that generation. He re- 
 views the anger of God and the fate of the sinners. 
 The next Psalm was probably by Moses, also, and 
 speaks of the security of the godly in these same cir- 
 cumstances. All this time, however, they are fed and 
 led (Deut. 2 : 7, 8). Jehovah does not forsake them. 
 While the years of wandering were a time of chas- 
 tisement, there was mercy also in them for the nation. 
 With the expulsion of the Hyksos Kings, Pharaoh 
 extended his empire east over Canaan and as far as the 
 Euphrates. After the destruction of the Egyptians at 
 the Red Sea the power of Egypt over these regions 
 was relaxed, and they fell into a state of war and in- 
 vasion from the east. The nations of Canaan were 
 therefore much weakened when the children of Israel 
 did enter. In the wilderness they were apart from 
 these wars, and, although unsettled, were safe from 
 foreign foes. 
 
 5. The Fortieth Year, 
 numbers 20 to end and deuteronomy. 
 This is a year of many events. There is much of 
 sin and rebellion as in the past thirty-eight years, and 
 also much of blessing. Miriam and Aaron both 
 die. The fiery serpents are sent among the people. 
 Balaam prophesies in vain against the nation, but 
 they fall into sin with Moab and many are de- 
 stroyed. The second numbering now takes place, 
 
The Wilderness Journey 167 
 
 showing that all over twenty have fallen as fore- 
 told. Joshua is chosen and consecrated. War is had 
 with the Midianites and with Og and Sihon, and their 
 land is given to Reuben, Manasseh and Gad. The 
 allotment of the land and the cities of refuge are pro- 
 vided for. Moses writes the law, gives his farewell 
 discourses in Deuteronomy, gives his song, blesses the 
 tribes and dies on Pisgah. The nation is encamped in 
 the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 This closes the story of Israel in the wilderness. 
 From the single progenitor they have increased to a na- 
 tion of millions. They have passed through strange 
 vicissitudes, but their Jehovah has not forsaken them. 
 Now they stand at the door of Canaan. Moses is dead. 
 A new captain has been appointed. Canaan is before 
 them. 
 
 Before we enter Canaan, let us review the work of a 
 world-wide nature so far done by Israel as an instru- 
 ment in Jehovah's hand to bring the world to the 
 knowledge of Himself. Abraham was promised that 
 he was to be a blessing to all the families of the 
 earth. The plagues of Egypt and Israel's deliverance 
 made Jehovah's name known to all the earth (Ex. 
 9:16). A godly people have been prepared. The 
 earth was falling into apostasy and these were kept in 
 a measure from that fall. They were a comparatively 
 pure race. They had been in a measure purged from 
 the contamination of Egypt. 
 
1 68 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Moses' Farewell, 
 deuteronomy. 
 
 The simplest view of this book is to take it at its 
 own account of itself as the last words of Moses, his 
 farewell discourses. While the decalogue was spoken 
 from Mt. Sinai, and the ceremonial law in Leviticus 
 from the Mercy Seat, the addresses of Deuteronomy 
 are simply Moses' own words, inspired, of course, but 
 not miraculously given. 
 
 The outhne of Deuteronomy is as follows : 
 
 Chapters i-ii. A review of the past and ex- 
 hortations. 
 
 Chapters 12-26. A review of the Law. 
 
 Chapters 27-30. The Blessings and Curses. 
 
 Chapters 31-34. Moses' Last Words. 
 
 I. A Review of the Past and Exhortations. 
 
 Moses' review of the past is noticeable for what it 
 omits and for what it recites. It is not a complete 
 review of their history or even of their journey. He 
 says little or nothing of Egypt or its bondage or the 
 exodus or the march to Mt. Sinai or the wonders 
 there. He begins at Mt. Sinai and passes with a 
 word to Kadesh and dwells on the apostasy there. 
 He omits all the thirty-eight years of wandering, — in- 
 deed all the sad events of their journey. He wants to 
 confirm and encourage them for the conquest. So 
 God forgets our past. We are not to be continually 
 occupied with the memory of our past sins and fail- 
 
The Wilderness Journey 169 
 
 ures. If God has forgotten, so may we. Moses does 
 tell them of the rulers he has appointed ; for they are 
 soon to depend on them, and Moses would enforce 
 theif authority. The great event he recites is the 
 coming to Kadesh Barnea and the story of the spies 
 and the awful turning away from that entrance to the 
 Promised Land. He wants no more sin like that. He 
 will remind them once for all of the sin and effects of 
 turning back from God. He tells them of the 
 splendid victory over Sihon and Og, and the settle- 
 ment of the two tribes and a half and that these are to 
 go before them armed to fight. All this is with a 
 view to their encouragement that they may be better 
 prepared to enter Canaan. 
 
 2. A Review of the Law. 
 " Deuteronomy " means the second giving or review 
 of the law ; but, as a matter of fact, there is only a 
 small part reviewed. Of the one hundred and twenty 
 matters mentioned in Deuteronomy, only a fraction 
 are from the former books, Exodus, Numbers and 
 Leviticus, while the greater part of this legislation is 
 omitted and much new legislation is introduced. What 
 Moses reviews are matters of special deficiency in their 
 behavior or special need in view of their entrance into 
 the Promised Land. He reviews in a hortatory way 
 without trying to quote verbatim, and often breaks into 
 a quotation with his own paraphrase or admonition. 
 The Ten Commandments are reviewed in this par- 
 aphrastic way. It is not a second repetition of the 
 
lyo The Bible As It Is 
 
 decalogue, but an address founded upon it. The new 
 matters he gives are such as the people will need in the 
 new land regarding battlements to houses, places of 
 worship, gleanings, etc. The whole is more merciful, 
 more spiritual than the original laws. Christ loved to 
 quote from Deuteronomy. 
 
 3. The Blessings and Curses. 
 
 Moses had placed the nation under a covenant of 
 blood at Mt. Sinai, but a new generation has come, 
 so he now places them also under a set' of awful 
 prophecies. 
 
 We must remember in studying Deuteronomy that 
 it addresses a new generation many of whom had not 
 seen Egypt, Mt. Sinai, or much of matters since. 
 Now he brings to bear upon them that for which the 
 law stands; blessing, if obeyed, cursing, if disobeyed. 
 He recites these in detail and, as once before in 
 Leviticus they are related (Lev. 26), he now reviews 
 them. They are to hear the dreadful doom of those 
 who disobey. It is needed ; man soon forgets the future 
 danger for present pleasure and pursuits. The sum- 
 ming up is given by Paul, <' Cursed is every one that 
 continueth not in all things that are written in the 
 book of the law to do them " (Gal. 3 : 10). 
 
 The people are required to say, Amen, to every 
 curse pronounced upon themselves — if they disobey. 
 They are cursed in body and soul, in property and 
 family, in land and life, they and their descendants, 
 with every blight and plague and evil that can afflict 
 
The Wilderness Journey 171 
 
 mankind, so that they shall hate life and turn against 
 each other and devour their nearest and dearest, and 
 long for death to end it all. All this they that day 
 call down upon themselves if they fail to keep that 
 law. Moses then puts them under a covenant as he 
 did at Mt. Sinai. It had its effect. That generation 
 did not wander, and while any lived who remembered 
 that awful day the nation was obedient. It was 
 branded upon their souls. 
 
 All this is accompanied with exhortations ; Moses 
 pleading with the people to be obedient to God and 
 His law. His soul is poured out in his emotions. 
 He exhausts every feeling of his being in his intensity 
 and earnestness. He sums up his exhortation in these 
 words, '^I call heaven and earth to witness against 
 you this day, that I have set before you the life and 
 death, the blessing and the curse ; therefore choose 
 life that thou mayest live, both thou and thy seed " 
 (Deut. 30 : 19). 
 
 4. Moses' Last Words. 
 In Moses* song (ch. 32), and in his blessing Moses 
 reaches the highest inspired state. We have several 
 of Moses' songs recorded, that at the overthrow of the 
 Egyptians (Ex. 15 : i), and Psalm ninety, which is 
 ascribed to Moses. This song in his parting days 
 deals with the election of Israel, their apostasy, their 
 punishment and their restoration. It is a prophecy of 
 their national history, as the blessings of the tribes 
 which follows is a prophecy of their tribal history. 
 
172 The Bible As It Is 
 
 It is of interest to us because we are mentioned in it, 
 the gentiles coming to Christ (Deut. 32 : 21 ; Rom. 
 10: 19). 
 
 Verse 8 is very significant. It tells us that God 
 arranged the nations around Israel. This is for the 
 world's benefit, as we have seen. The tender care of 
 Jehovah in the figure of the eagle mother and her 
 young (v. 11) is also here shown. In Moses' blessing 
 of the tribes (ch. 33) he begins at Reuben, the 
 eldest, giving Judah the next place, dwelling on Levi, 
 the law teacher, and on Joseph the beloved, mention- 
 ing his sons also. Simeon is omitted. It is useful to 
 compare this list with the lists of the tribes as given 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Moses* death and burial are next related. He has 
 done all and said all that he can. He has lived his 
 life ; he is now an old man. Israel is at the edge of 
 the Promised Land ready to enter, but Moses is for- 
 bidden to enter. His sin, but more particularly the 
 sin of the people, and still more his typical place for- 
 bid his entrance. 
 
 The account of Moses' death is most sublime. At 
 an appointed time, knowing that he is going to die, 
 he ascends Mount Pisgah. He is given a view of the 
 Promised Land, doubtless aided supernaturally to see 
 it in its full extent and glory ; then he lies down as a 
 child to rest, and God kisses his soul away. There 
 is a contest as to his body. Satan and Michael dis- 
 pute about it (Jude 9). Doubtless the devil would 
 like a great human funeral and a burial-place to turn 
 
The Wilderness Journey 173 
 
 into an idolatrous place of worship in after years. 
 But God forbids and the angels bury him. His ap- 
 pearance on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah, 
 who was translated without dying, looks as if his body 
 had some special care given to it. No one knows of 
 his sepulchre unto this day. 
 
 Moses' Character and Place. 
 
 He is to be considered personally and typically. 
 Personally he is in some respects the greatest character 
 in scripture. As the author of the law, he is ranked 
 with prophets and apostles. His work lies at the basis 
 of all modern civilization. His decalogue is the 
 foundation of all society as well as religion. He is 
 and will be forever the world's lawgiver. When we 
 ask for the secrets of his greatness, we see many facts 
 and traits. Some of these are noted below. 
 
 1. He had a godly ancestry. So had most if not 
 all of great men in scripture ; Joseph, Samuel, David, 
 Jeremiah, Paul and Timothy. 
 
 2. A remarkable training, parental, secular and 
 spiritual, as we have seen. 
 
 3. An early choice of godliness for himself, as 
 against all the attractions the world could give to any 
 man (Heb. 11 : 24-26). 
 
 4. A ready acceptance of his mission to deliver 
 Israel in face of untold dangers. 
 
 5. His courage in facing Pharaoh and his deter- 
 mination for victory in the face of the satanic deter- 
 mination of Pharaoh not to let the people go. 
 
174 The Bible As It Is 
 
 6. His administrative ability. To organize and 
 lead and rule that undisciplined host was a vast test of 
 such ability. 
 
 7. His meekness in utter self- forgetfulness. There 
 is no self-laudation in all this history. 
 
 8. His renunciation of self in his prayer for Israel 
 where he asks to perish if Israel might thus live (Ex. 
 32: 32). 
 
 Typically, Moses is even greater than he is per- 
 sonally. 
 
 1. He represents the law spiritually. Moses and 
 law are synonyms typically. He has therefore to 
 die outside of Canaan ; for the law can make nothing 
 perfect, cannot save. Therefore Moses must submit 
 to be set aside at the edge of conquest, and allow an- 
 other to take his place and lead Israel into rest. 
 
 2. He is a type of Christ as prophet. '' A prophet 
 shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your 
 brethren like unto me" (Deut. 18 : 15 ; Acts 3 : 22). 
 
 3. He has a prophetic place. He appears at the 
 last day in judgment upon the wicked (Rev. 11: 
 2-12). 
 
 4. He is prophetic and illustrative of the gospel 
 as will be seen in the review of the law. All the gos- 
 pel of grace will be found there (Luke 24 : 27, 44). 
 
 Spiritual Lessons from Israel. 
 The journey of Israel and, indeed, their whole his- 
 tory are typical of the spiritual history of the believer. 
 The apostles often apply it so. It is the story of the 
 
The Wilderness Journey 175 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress from the land of sin and bondage 
 to liberty. 
 
 The three states, Egypt, the Wilderness and 
 Canaan, represent the soul under sin, law and grace 
 respectively. The soul must be made tired of sin by 
 its results, as Israel was made weary of Egypt by its 
 bondage, otherwise they would have been willing to 
 remain there always. The delights of sin must be 
 made bitter as Israel's life was made bitter by tasks 
 and oppression. By the death of Christ, typified in 
 the Passover, and the work of Christ in defeating 
 Satan, typified in the plagues of Egypt, the soul is de- 
 livered and brought into freedom. 
 
 Israel was baptized in the cloud and in the sea 
 (i Cor. 10 : I, 2). The cloud is a type of the Holy 
 Spirit in His Old Testament phase upon and with the 
 Church, while now He is in the Church (John 14 : 17). 
 The stream from the smitten rock represents the 
 same Holy Spirit in His satisfying influences (i Cor. 
 10: 4; John 7: 37-39). The manna represents 
 Christ's flesh or word by which we live (John 6 : 32 ; 
 Matt. 4 : 4), the quails, the lusts of the flesh 
 (Num. II : 18-20, 33; Gal. 6: 8). 
 
 Conviction of sin must come to all ; so this is typi- 
 fied in Mount Sinai when the thunders of law strike 
 terror to their hearts. The works of the law being 
 completed they come to the edge of Canaan repre- 
 senting the life of rest in Christ. This is particularly 
 the lesson in Hebrews third and fourth chapters. 
 
 The apostasy of Israel at Kadesh is there made the 
 
176 The Bible As It Is 
 
 text of warning to us not to fail to enter Christ. The 
 land of rest is the life of rest in Christ. 
 
 '' There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of 
 God ' ' does not mean heaven. The next verse shows 
 that, " He that is entered into his rest he also hath 
 ceased from his own works. ' ' (See Heb. 3 : 7 to 4 : 11.) 
 "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest." 
 
 The refusal of Israel at Kadesh Barnea to enter 
 Canaan was the great sin of their wilderness journey. 
 It turned them back into the wilderness and all that 
 generation save two fell before the final entrance into 
 the Promised Land. It represents the failure to enter 
 Christ in full consecration when the opportunity is 
 presented (Rom. 6: 13; 12 : i). 
 
 This is the common experience still. Few seem to 
 pass at once to victorious Christian life. The wilder- 
 ness life therefore is the life of most Christians. It is 
 a life of unrest, of frequent backsliding, of chastise- 
 ments, of much murmuring. The sins at the begin- 
 ning were those of despondency ; towards the close, 
 sins of presumption. So in the Christian life the first 
 falls are from discouragement; then come later the 
 more guilty sins of rebellion. The root of all is dis- 
 satisfaction with God's leading and unbelief in His 
 presence or goodness. 
 
 This state is the opposite of being " filled with the 
 Spirit." It is a state of want of assurance, of faihng 
 before besetting sins, of want of power in service. 
 Prayers are few and feeble and often unanswered. 
 There are many hours of brooding and unhappiness. 
 
The Wilderness Journey 177 
 
 God's love is doubted. The soul is robbed of its joy 
 and peace, and the gospel stripped of its attractive- 
 ness in the eyes of all beholders. Many live and die 
 in this state, and never know the life of victory " in 
 Christ " (Rom. 8), the fruit of the Spirit and its rest. 
 
 The sins of Israel were also of another kind, those 
 of presumption. They rebelled and profaned God's 
 service, and finally abandoned it and served other 
 gods. So to-day the unspiritual, unconsecrated 
 Christian falls into open sin, into habits utterly in- 
 consistent with his profession. This is the case to- 
 day. The prevalence of the many anti-Christian 
 systems springing up and attaining such vast propor- 
 tions is evidence of a wilderness state of life among 
 multitudes. They get their adherents from dissatis- 
 fied or unsatisfied Christians. Those filled with the 
 Spirit never fall into these beliefs. There is no safety 
 for an unconsecrated Christian. 
 
 The sins of Israel are held up as warnings. That 
 with the golden calf is especially held up as a warn- 
 ing (i Cor. 10 : 1-12). If that redeemed people were 
 so chastised for their sins, we may be sure that we 
 will be also. False or erroneous religious beliefs in- 
 evitably lead to wrong lives. The rush into pleas- 
 ures, especially unclean pleasures, was the sin of that 
 people. First came worship of the golden calf; then 
 festivity, then lascivious pleasure. *'They sat down 
 to eat and to drink and rose up to play." 
 
 They hovered about the edge of Canaan, per- 
 haps attempting as at first to enter presumptuously, 
 
178 The Bible As It Is 
 
 but failed. They are like those ** ever learning and 
 never coming to the knowledge of the truth " (2 Tim. 
 3: 7). It is the "Oh, wretched man that I am" 
 state of Romans seventh. The whole lesson is 
 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you 
 an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living 
 God. . . . To-day if ye will hear His voice 
 harden not your hearts" (Heb. 3 : 12, 15). 
 
 2. The reverse of the picture is the unfailing 
 goodness of God all this time of wandering. He 
 never forsakes His people; the manna never fails 
 nor does the pillar of cloud ever leave them. They 
 are protected from outward foes and led day by day. 
 They are not cast off; they are still His own pe- 
 culiar people. He deals with them as with sons ; he 
 chastises them, and every sin brings its punishment. 
 This is the difference between the people of God and 
 the people of the world. The latter often go on with- 
 out adversity to the end, and then their doom is sealed. 
 God does not so neglect His people. Nor does He 
 make any record of that long time of wandering. It 
 is a forgotten page of history blotted out and not to 
 be remembered. The eternal record will show only 
 the time of fidelity. So our sins are cast behind His 
 back and never remembered against us. There will 
 be but short histories to some lives, however, when 
 the record is made up. The story leads us to a brighter 
 page, and Israel has another opportunity, and this they 
 gladly and boldly embrace, and so enter Canaan. So 
 with us there comes the call to a better life in Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE LAW 
 
 That body of legislation contained in the Penta- 
 teuch is called The Law. There are hundreds of 
 commands but these form one body of law. These 
 were given as needed. We are not to suppose it was 
 all given or arranged as we have it. The various oc- 
 casions of the giving are often named. The most 
 necessary were given first. The decalogue with other 
 most necessary laws were given as soon as Sinai was 
 reached. After the erection of the Tabernacle the 
 laws of Leviticus were given, these forming the cere- 
 monial law which could not have been observed pre- 
 vious to this time. Before starting on the march to 
 Canaan the law of the camp and march was given 
 (Num. 1-9). On the way and during the several 
 episodes mentioned much of the rest of Numbers was 
 given ; and at the edge of Canaan, just before Moses' 
 death, all of Deuteronomy. 
 
 The germ and centre of the whole law was the 
 
 decalogue, the ten commandments on the two tables 
 
 of stone. These were called the Testimony and these 
 
 gave the name to the Ark which contained them. It 
 
 was the Ark of the Testimony. They also gave the 
 
 name to the Tabernacle. It was the Tabernacle of 
 179 
 
i8o The Bible As It Is 
 
 Testimony. It was over these tables of stone that the 
 cherubim hovered in reverence, and above them rested 
 the brightness which we have reason to beUeve filled the 
 Holy of Holies. It was on the Mercy Seat covering 
 the law that the blood of expiation was sprinkled, 
 the demands of this law making such atonement 
 necessary. The pillar of cloud rested on the Taber- 
 nacle as on a place on which God could rest with ap- 
 proval. The Ten Commandments then represent the 
 centre of all that complicated system. To under- 
 stand these and the relation of all the other laws to 
 them is to obtain the key to all. We will consider 
 the form of the decalogue, its basis in pre-mosaic law, 
 its scope and expression in spiritual, ethical, civil and 
 ceremonial law. Exodus contains most ethical law ; 
 Leviticus, most ceremonial ; Numbers, most civil ; 
 and Deuteronomy, most spiritual law. 
 
 I. The Form of the Decalogue. 
 
 The Ten Commandments were written on two 
 tables of stone which were placed in the Ark. These 
 two tables represented respectively duties to God and 
 duties to man. The usual arrangement is of four on 
 the first and six on the second ; but the arrangement 
 of three on the first and seven on the second as fol- 
 lows seems more probable and reasonable. 
 • I. This arrangement makes a more equal division 
 of the matter. 
 
 2. It places the Fourth Commandment among 
 
The Law 
 
 i8i 
 
 those regarding human duties, and Christ tells us that 
 the Sabbath was made for man. 
 
 3. It arranges the commandments in groups of 
 three for the divine side of the law and seven for the 
 human side, and these numbers are respectively the 
 
 numbers of deity and humanity in manifested per- 
 fection. Three is the well-known number of the 
 Trinity which is God's manifestation of Himself to 
 man. There is also an adaptation of the three to the 
 three respective persons of the Trinity ; the Father is 
 the subject of the First Commandment ; Christ is in- 
 
1 82 The Bible As It Is 
 
 volved in the Second, as He is the only image of God 
 we are permitted to see or know; while the Third 
 Commandment looks to that profanation of the Holy- 
 Spirit which has no forgiveness. So also the number 
 seven represents the perfection of human conduct. 
 Seven is three added to four. Four is the scripture 
 number for earth and humanity. Three added to four 
 then represents the perfections of God added to man, 
 or perfect human conduct. This the second table of 
 the law demands. Perfect duty to God and man then 
 is the meaning of the law. 
 
 2. Law Before Moses. 
 
 The Ten Commandments have a basis in the laws 
 given before the time of Moses. It is evident that 
 right was always right and wrong was always wrong. 
 The giving of the Ten Commandments was not the 
 origin of law. 
 
 The eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge by 
 Adam and Eve was the violation of every command- 
 ment. It violated the First by acknowledging an- 
 other before God. It violated the Second by seeking 
 another way to approach God than that which He had 
 ordered. It violated the Third by profaning the name 
 of God upon them as well as by their use of His name 
 in the temptation. It violated the Fourth by break- 
 ing the Sabbath of rest which God had entered upon 
 and in which they lived. It violated the Fifth by 
 dishonoring their heavenly Father. It violated the 
 Sixth by bringing death upon themselves and others. 
 
The Law 183 
 
 It violated the Seventh, for it involved sexual sin. It 
 violated the Eighth, for they took what was not theirs. 
 It violated the Ninth, for they bore false witness 
 against God. It violated the Tenth, by coveting. 
 So also the tree of life represents the reverse of all 
 this, the keeping of the law. 
 
 We see the germs of the ceremonial law in the 
 skins with which this first pair were clothed ; for that 
 covering meant the very essence of sacrifice, benefit 
 by the death of another. We also find mention of 
 sacrifices of clean animals as if this law was well known. 
 Certainly this must have been by revelation. Special 
 laws were given, as the laws regarding the Sabbath 
 and marriage and that against murder given to Noah. 
 The, curse on Ham shows a knowledge of the duty of 
 parental honor. The sanctity of property would come 
 with the possession of property. So that the germs 
 of all the laws of the decalogue were in the world be- 
 fore the time of Moses. It was not therefore a new 
 standard of right which was given to man in the Ten 
 Commandments, but one as eternal as God Himself. 
 
 3. The Scope of the Law. 
 
 The Ten Commandments were the centre and 
 spring of all the system of law, spiritual, ethical, 
 ceremonial and civil, given by Moses. Every law of 
 any kind was an extension of one or more of these 
 commandments. One may take his Bible and with a 
 pencil mark opposite each of the commands of the 
 Pentateuch, however various, the number of some 
 
184 
 
 The Bible As It Is 
 
 command of the decalogue under which it comes. 
 It forms, not a system of laws, but The Law and it is 
 always thus designated in scripture when spoken of 
 collectively ; so that to break it in one place was to 
 break The Law, and, if wilful, the penalty was death. 
 He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all 
 (Jas. 2 : 10). 
 
 The following diagram represents this unity and 
 relationship of the various parts of the law. It is to 
 be read from the centre outward. 
 
 ^. 
 
 tAWS 
 
The Law 
 
 i8j 
 
 We will give under each command the general class 
 of laws which it covers. 
 
 1. The First Commandment shut up Israel to 
 Jehovah as their only God and ruler. The whole 
 system of government with all its civil and religious 
 legislation therefore rested upon it. All subordinate 
 rulers were representatives of Jehovah. This is 
 still the principle of the New Testament (Rom. 
 13 : 1-4). This command is indeed the basis of all 
 law of every kind. 
 
 2. The Second Commandment, forbidding images 
 as a wrong way of worshiping Jehovah, is the force of 
 this, for the idea of the image is to represent the 
 deity in or behind that image. The forbidding of 
 the false way of worship therefore carries the right 
 and necessity to prescribe the true way of worship. 
 So that under this come all the laws of worship with 
 respect to the Tabernacle, the offerings and ceremonies 
 of every kind. In short the whole ceremonial law 
 rests on this, as the whole governmental system rests 
 on the First Commandment. 
 
 3. The Third Commandment, the keeping sacred of 
 the name of God, covers all the laws called specifically 
 Laws of Holiness. These include laws regarding 
 ceremonial uncleanness such as the law of the leper 
 and his cleansing, clean and unclean food, etc. These 
 rest on the fact that Israel is God's pecuHar people, 
 bearing His name and representing His cause and 
 rule, and ought therefore to keep themselves sacred 
 because they bear His name. It was a profanation 
 
1 86 The Bible As It Is 
 
 of the name of God to defile themselves. This is 
 also the teaching of the New Testament (Rom. 2 : 24). 
 
 4. The Fourth Commandment respecting the 
 Sabbath requires the keeping of one seventh of the 
 time as holy. It is the basis of all sacred time, the 
 seventh year, the seventy times seven or Jubilee year, 
 and also the whole system of feasts and fasts. In 
 short the Sabbath was the centre of the whole 
 religious calendar. 
 
 5. On the Fifth Commandment rests the whole 
 system of laws of the home. The father was the 
 ruler by right natural and divine. The laws of 
 Moses fixed his right as supreme in the home. The 
 whole family life rested on this and laws as to servants 
 and the aged also. 
 
 6. The sanctity of human life, with all the laws 
 relating to the protection of life rest on the Sixth 
 Commandment, including laws regarding murder, 
 assault and cities of refuge. 
 
 7. On the Seventh Commandment rest all laws 
 respecting women, divorce, unchastity and marriage. 
 
 8. All laws respecting property, restitution, dis- 
 honesty, weights and measures, usury, land, strays, etc., 
 are based on the Eighth Commandment. 
 
 9. On the Ninth Commandment are based all 
 laws respecting evidence, trials, judicial proceedings, 
 perjury and oaths. 
 
 10. All laws regarding charity, the poor and 
 strangers, tithes, love to enemies, etc., rest on the 
 Tenth Commandment. 
 
The Law 187 
 
 4. The Spiritual Law. 
 
 1. The law is first of all spiritual (Rom. 7 : 14). 
 It comes from a spiritual being, and reflects God's 
 nature. The commandments are all based on the 
 nature of God. i. God's sovereignty. 2. God's 
 worship. 3. God's sanctity. 4. God's time. 5. 
 God's delegated authority. 6. God's life given. 7. 
 God's sanctity in marriage. 8. Sanctity of owner- 
 ship in title from God. 9. Sanctity of truth, for God 
 is truth. 10. Sanctity of the heart. 
 
 The law is a transcript of the righteousness of God. 
 Now Jesus Christ is declared to be the righteousness 
 of God, not only imputed, but personally, for He 
 could not be imputed or imparted unless He had it 
 to give. We must therefore see in Christ the perfect 
 transcript of the Law. So when He came He ful- 
 filled the law, both moral and ceremonial. He said 
 He came to fulfil the law. He also taught it. The 
 Sermon on the Mount was a sermon on the law. But 
 it was in Himself and in His Hfe that He manifested 
 the perfect law. 
 
 2. The law is spiritual because it works through a 
 spiritual relation established between man and God. 
 The three commandments relating to God precede 
 the seven commandments relating to man. The latter 
 are dependent on the former. There would be no 
 motive for the keeping of any commandment if the 
 first three commandments did not exist. Man must 
 have a standard of right and wrong, and this is the 
 will of God. If he accepts this, he is in right rela- 
 
1 88 The Bible As It Is 
 
 tionship to God and in right spirit for keeping the 
 commandments. The law was given to Israel, who 
 were God's people. It began, ''I am the Lord thy 
 God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt 
 and out of the house of bondage " (Ex. 20). 
 
 3. The law is also spiritual because it appeals to a 
 spiritual nature. Man '' has a law of God written in 
 the heart " (Rom. 2:15). He has a God-conscious- 
 ness, which is the principal distinction between him 
 and the brute. This awakened becomes a spiritual 
 life. It is to this that the law appeals and it is only 
 this that can keep the law. The Ten Commandments 
 are ineffectual with natural man. Only by constant 
 constraint will he keep them. God designed this 
 spiritual nature to control the whole man. His lower 
 nature is to obey it, and only thus can he keep the 
 law. 
 
 4. The law is spiritual because it is in effect 
 spiritual. The keeping of the law would be perfect 
 love to God and man. The keeping of the first three 
 commands would express perfect love to God. The 
 keeping of the last seven would express perfect love to 
 man. This is seen in the converse of this statement. 
 Perfect love to God would keep the first three com- 
 mandments ; perfect love to man would keep the last 
 seven. Or, as Christ stated it, *' Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and 
 with all thy mind. This is the first and great com- 
 mandment ; and a second like unto it is thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two com- 
 
The Law 189 
 
 mandments hangeth all the law and the prophets " 
 (Matt. 22: 37-39). 
 
 5. The law is spiritual because the violating of the 
 law is first spiritual before it is actual and open. It 
 begins with unbelief in God. If man truly believed 
 in God, in His goodness and faithfulness and wisdom, 
 he would trust and obey Him. Either through 
 ignorance of God or through a perverted mind, he 
 distrusts and therefore seeks other ways of benefit. 
 
 The violation begins with the last or Tenth Com- 
 mandment. "Lust when it hath conceived bringeth 
 forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth 
 death" (Jas. i : 15). This leads along the way of 
 the Ten Commandments. Lust leads to deception ; 
 it conceals itself under apparent honesty, then comes 
 theft or unchastity or murder or disobedience. All 
 profane the name of God. The sinner seeks some 
 other way than God's to make himself right, so viola- 
 ting the second command ; and at last there is repudi- 
 ation of God or substitution of something else for 
 him. The course now sweeps backward and forward 
 at will through the whole law without restraint. 
 
 6. The law is spiritual because it expresses the 
 love of God more than all else, save His giving of 
 Jesus Christ. It is, next to the gospel, the greatest 
 boon to humanity. It is the basis of all civilization 
 and safety. We would be a race of savages without 
 this standard of right and the blessings which even its 
 partial observance gives. 
 
 Here we see that there is no antagonism between 
 
ipo The Bible As It Is 
 
 the law and the gospel; both come from the same 
 God, require the same relation, appeal to the same 
 spiritual nature and have the same spiritual effect. 
 
 As Dean Alford has said, "There is but one law 
 of God partly written in man's consciences, more 
 plainly manifested in the laws of Moses, and fully 
 revealed in Jesus Christ" (New Testament 2 : 332). 
 
 If there is want of efficiency in the law, it is not 
 because it is unspiritual, but because of man's un- 
 spiritual nature and the presence in all of an un- 
 spiritual nature called the flesh which cannot keep 
 the law of God. 
 
 5. The Ethical Laws. 
 
 The Ten Commandments give certain great princi- 
 ples by which wise and especially experienced be- 
 lievers can decide their course, but the Israelite of 
 that day was not such. He was a child in spiritual 
 things as was the whole of mankind. It was neces- 
 sary therefore to give him specific directions as to 
 every act of life and worship. This the Mosaic law 
 does. He is told not only the principles of right, but 
 the application of these principles. He is given a 
 schedule of right and wrong acts. The law was ex- 
 tended into all phases of life by subsidiary ethical 
 laws which prescribed what to do in specific cases. 
 In some cases, perhaps the most as has been said, 
 these laws came from actual cases which came up in 
 the course of jurisprudence. 
 
 Under each of the Ten Commandments will be 
 
The Law 191 
 
 found some applications of them to actual questions 
 of conduct. The law forbidding the seething of a 
 kid in its mother's milk (Ex. 23 : 19), besides having 
 reference to a superstitious rite of the heathen, was to 
 impress sacredness of the relation of parent and off- 
 spring. The care for human life taught in the Sixth 
 Commandment gave rise to the command to build 
 battlements around the roofs of their houses, so as to 
 prevent any one's falling off (Deut. 22 : 8). The 
 Seventh Commandment was the basis of the command 
 to give a divorced wife a writing of divorcement 
 (Deut. 24 : i). The law against removing a land- 
 mark was but an extension of the Eighth Command- 
 ment; so tale-bearing was a violation of the Ninth 
 Commandment (Deut. 19 : 14). The laws for the 
 poor and those requiring the leaving of the gleanings 
 (Lev. 19 : 9), would spring from the spirit of the 
 Tenth Commandment. 
 
 This minuteness in law is one of the objections 
 sometimes made to the whole system ; but it is to be 
 remembered that such a system is necessary to a low 
 state of spiritual life and experience. We deal so 
 with children. We cannot expect them to be guided 
 by abstract principles as in older life. Israel was in 
 such a state of childhood, as was also the entire 
 world at that time. It was the child state of the 
 Church (Gal. 4 : 1-3). 
 
 This answers another objection as to the imperfec- 
 tion of some of the Mosaic laws, such as the permis- 
 sion of polygamy and slavery, and retaliation. This 
 
192 The Bible As It Is 
 
 imperfection was admitted by Christ, who amended 
 the law especially as to retaliation (Matt. 5 : 21, 27, 
 33> 3^)- The great principles of the decalogue are 
 unchangeable, but their application by these subsidiary 
 laws can be and was modified as greater light de- 
 manded. We do not require the same rules of life 
 for a child as for a man, for an idiot as for a sane 
 person, for a convert just from heathenism as for the 
 aged saint. We ourselves are not living in a state of 
 perfect righteousness. God's own holiness is far 
 above anything man knows, or can conceive of, as 
 yet. Sinful man, even regenerated man, cannot bear 
 the full light of the absolute and perfect holiness of 
 God. 
 
 The study of the moral law suggests the difference 
 between Old Testament and New Testament ethics. 
 The Old Testament ethics rested on specific com- 
 mands; the New Testament on great moral and 
 spiritual principles, as the golden rule already re- 
 ferred to, which acted upon would keep the law so 
 far as our conduct towards man is concerned. Love 
 is the short cut to morality if embodied in the heart. 
 It works from the centre outward instead of from the 
 circumference inward. It affects the heart first and 
 the life afterwards in consequence. Only the con- 
 duct which comes from this changed state of heart is 
 real or accepted of God. The young ruler, though 
 he did all that the law commanded, which Christ ad- 
 mitted, yet lacked one thing, the changed heart. 
 Morality is one thing, spirituality another. Chris. 
 
The Law 193 
 
 tian ethics spring from spirituality; the moraUst's 
 from other motives all more or less selfish and weak. 
 The great principle which the New Testament 
 gives is love. One who has the love of God 
 has the love of His law also, and the psalmists are 
 continually breaking out in such expressions as, 
 ''Oh! how love I Thy law." The principle of 
 love already referred to will keep the law, there- 
 fore the New Testament narrows all down to that. 
 The Talmud says that there are six hundred and 
 thirteen injunctions given by Moses ; David reduced 
 them to eleven (Ps. 15); Isaiah reduced them to 
 six (33: 15); Micah to three (6:8). It might 
 add that Jesus reduced them to two. ''Thoushalt 
 love the Lord thy God . . . and thy neighbor 
 as thyself" (Matt. 22: 37). Paul still further con- 
 denses them when he says "Love is the fulfilling of 
 the law " (Rom. 13: 10). 
 
 6. The Civil Laws. 
 
 The principles of the decalogue extended, as has 
 been said, to all the spheres of life ; therefore to the 
 political and social state. It has been shown that the 
 whole civil system of Israel rested upon the First 
 Command, "Thou shalt have no other gods before 
 me." This rested first on God's call and deliverance 
 of them as a nation from Egyptian bondage (Ex. 
 20 : 2, 3), and that on the covenant made with Abra- 
 ham (Ex. 3:6). 
 
 Jehovah was Israel's Sovereign. We call this form 
 
194 The Bible As It Is 
 
 of government a Theocracy, The Reign of God. 
 They on their part were His peculiar people (Deut. 
 14 ; 2), and He asked and provided for allegiance 
 solely to Himself. It was therefore a Church State 
 and had a State Church. These two must go to- 
 gether. It is useless to provide a state church if there 
 is not a church state. All laws were God's laws, 
 whether civil or religious. The whole people were a 
 sacred people, their land consecrated, their time holy, 
 their position to the rest of the world as a nation of 
 priests or a priestly nation. We must consider the 
 form of government in its ideal rather than its actual 
 state as existing in Israel's history. What we should 
 strive to ascertain is the actual state of things given 
 by God to Israel. 
 
 1. The first principle that God gave them was 
 liberty. Everything was submitted to their choice. 
 Even Jehovah Himself submitted to the nation's 
 choice as to whether they would have Him for their 
 God and ruler (Ex. 4: 29-31). Thus also He sub- 
 mitted the law for their acceptance (Ex. 24 : 7). 
 When they wanted a king they were given one chosen 
 of God, but submitted to their choice (i Sam. 
 10 : 24 ; 2 Sam. 2 : 4 ; 5 : 3). They had the right of 
 suffrage and elected their subordinate rulers. 
 
 2. It was a constitutional government. The law 
 of Moses was such a document as was necessary for 
 this. With the Abrahamic Covenant it bound both 
 Jehovah and the nation. It safeguarded the rights 
 of the people as well as of the king. It was formally 
 
The Law 195 
 
 ratified by a covenant of blood after the rites of that 
 day (Ex. 24: 6-8). It will thus be seen that Israel 
 had the two great fundamental principles of modern 
 government, and that thousands of years ago. The 
 political privileges of the freest and most enlightened 
 nations to-day are based on these principles. 
 
 3. The twelve tribes formed a union of states in- 
 dependent within their respective boundaries in local 
 matters, but all bound together by this great body of 
 laws and the relations which sprang from it. Each 
 tribe maintained its own tribal form and rule. There 
 were princes and elders of each tribe. From these 
 were formed certain national bodies. 
 
 (i.) The Seventy Elders (Ex. 24: i-g; Num. 
 II : 16) formed a central deliberative body, which we 
 hear of as acting for the nation. 
 
 (2.) A larger body was that sometimes called The 
 Congregation. This was not the entire nation, men, 
 women and children, but selected representatives who 
 could and did meet and confer (Num. 10 : 3, 4). 
 This was the highest body in the nation. These two 
 bodies corresponded to our houses of congress or 
 houses of parliament. The Seventy Elders were the 
 Senate or House of Lords; the larger body, the 
 House of Representatives, or Commons. 
 
 (3.) Of less importance were the tribal officers and 
 elders and princes and heads -of families. Besides 
 these, or including these, were the rulers of tens, 
 hundreds, and thousands, specially chosen to assist 
 Moses and continued afterwards (Ex. 18 ; 13-27). 
 
196 The Bible As It Is 
 
 (4.) The priesthood was a permanent order of the 
 family of Aaron. The duties of the priests at first were 
 purely religious, but afterwards they took part in the 
 government as did EH (i Sam. 4 : 18). This body of 
 priests gave steadiness to the government ; they inter- 
 preted the law. It answered therefore to our Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 (5.) Another office was that of prophet. This was 
 neither elective nor hereditary. Men were called by 
 God and sent into the nation to speak for God, who 
 thus gave them communications from Himself. The 
 prophets gave guidance and often reproof as they 
 were instructed by God, and more than once restored 
 the government when on the verge of anarchy or mis- 
 rule. The prophet spoke for God to the people. The 
 priest spoke for the people to God. 
 
 As the nation grew they added treasurers, recorders, 
 rulers over the host, counsellors, directors of the 
 tribute and other officers. But we are now only to 
 look at those provided for in the Mosaic Law. 
 
 4. God gradually gave the nation self-government. 
 He spoke directly from Mount Sinai. He accom- 
 panied them after that by an angel. At last He spoke 
 only through Moses ; and in Canaan, by prophets who 
 came as needed. 
 
 5. The judicial part of the government was com- 
 mitted to a regular system of ascending courts. Such 
 were the rulers of tens, hundreds and thousands (Ex. 
 18 : 20) above mentioned ; the Supreme Court, as be- 
 fore stated, being composed of the priesthood. 
 
The Law 197 
 
 The whole tribe of Levi was selected for the service 
 of the Tabernacle. They were assigned special 
 duties such as that of song, and the care of the Tab- 
 ernacle itself, and served in courses, living in cities 
 assigned to them throughout the whole nation and 
 coming up at their appointed seasons. 
 
 Whether all this system was in perfect use at any 
 one time it is difficult to say, but probably not. A 
 perfect system of law does not ensure a perfect gov- 
 ernment. Law then, as now, often was neglected, 
 and the actual was far below the ideal. But this out- 
 line shows the perfect system as ordered for Israel. It 
 contains the features of the most advanced forms of 
 modern government and all such are, knowingly or 
 not, copies of this ; all of which proves the divinity 
 of the whole, for this was given thousands of years 
 ago when the world had no such governments, as we 
 have now, and still less any such ideas of liberty and 
 security. Constitutional government and liberty were 
 first taught by Moses as revealed to him by God. 
 
 The Criminal Code. 
 
 The criminal laws of Moses are to-day the basis of 
 the codes of all civilized lands. They cover the fol- 
 lowing essential points : 
 
 I . The Home. The Fifth Commandment secures 
 this element of civilization. The home of all civi- 
 lized lands is a copy of Israel's. The servants' rights 
 were guarded. A mild form of slavery was allowed ; 
 but this institution was universal, and the servant 
 
198 The Bible As It Is 
 
 or slave was protected, and no Hebrew slave allowed. 
 The service was made in a large degree voluntary. 
 Provision was made for emancipation every fiftieth 
 year. 
 
 2. Protection of life was secured. Death for 
 murder was commanded, but justice in this was se- 
 cured by the Cities of Refuge. The infliction of the 
 death penalty was placed in the hands of the nearest 
 of kin, as is done in all such lands. This secured 
 quick execution which is the value of all penalty. 
 
 3. Women were protected and honored among the 
 Hebrews. The wife was in a place of honor and 
 safety. Divorce was allowed, but was secured from 
 abuse by writings of divorce officially issued. Adul- 
 tery was severely punished. 
 
 4. The rights of property were secured. Restitu- 
 tion was made and fines imposed. 
 
 5. Trials were secured from injustice by rigorous 
 laws against bribes and false swearing. 
 
 Some of the various penalties inflicted were fining, 
 restitution, retaliation for bodily injuries, flogging to 
 the extent of forty stripes save one, and death by 
 stoning or the sword. No torturing was allowed, and 
 their methods of execution were quick and compara- 
 tively painless. There were not many imprisonments, 
 a kind of punishment which at best is doubtful in its 
 effects, on the prisoner at least. 
 
 The Mosaic code is sometimes said to be cruel be- 
 cause under it over a dozen crimes were punished by 
 death. In view of the fact that up to two hundred years 
 
The Law i99 
 
 ago there were one hundred and seventy-four such in 
 Great Britain, Moses' law seems merciful in comparison, 
 especially when we consider the early age in which it was 
 given and the world's general spirit of disregard for 
 human rights and human life. The laws of a religious 
 nature calling for the death penalty were based on the 
 principle that Jehovah was their rightful sovereign, and 
 that therefore idolatry and blasphemy and other such 
 crimes were treason against their sovereign, and sub- 
 versive of the whole system of rule and safety. 
 
 The Social System. 
 
 The Mosaic laws passed out over the social state 
 and effected it accordingly. The life of the Israelite 
 was mainly agricultural, pastoral or horticultural, or a 
 mingling of all. They lived in villages and went out 
 to the fields to work. This gave the society of the 
 town and the advantages of the country. The isola- 
 tion of country life is in many places its great disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Land was given in homesteads and these were in- 
 alienable. At the end of every fifty years all home- 
 steads were to go back free to their owners. This 
 further checked monopolies and the forming of vast 
 landed estates. Every man had a chance once in his 
 life. 
 
 The contracting of heavy indebtedness was made 
 difficult, if not impossible, by the law that at the end 
 of every seven years all debts were declared can- 
 celed. This would be a hardship to creditors if 
 
200 The Bible As It Is 
 
 enacted now or where debts already existed, but to 
 begin with such a law no wrong was done and great 
 evils were prevented. Moses provided for doing all 
 business on a cash basis. This prevented all corporate 
 and communal indebtedness. The debts of many 
 nations and communities are to-day unpayable, there 
 is no intention of paying them, and they are increas- 
 ing. No such state could exist under Moses' legisla- 
 tion. This was a great check on monopolies also, for 
 it is the right to borrow money and issue bonds which 
 largely gives these their power. 
 
 Sanitary laws were enacted also ; and cleanliness of 
 person and premises was commanded. When the state 
 of these eastern lands is considered in these respects, 
 the high nature of his legislation is noticeable. The 
 constant washings provided for under the law, while 
 largely ceremonial in their immediate motive, had a 
 hygienic value also. The distinction between clean 
 and unclean animals then laid down to-day forms the 
 line between the food of civilized and that of other 
 nations. Isolation of contagious diseases was also 
 commanded. The whole effect of this legislation is 
 seen in the Jews to-day, although only partially ob- 
 served. They have little or no scrofula. Among 
 them only half the number of infants die as among 
 other nations and the average length of life is a fourth 
 greater. 
 
 The laws of rest need to be noticed ; not only 
 those respecting the Sabbath, the essential of health, 
 but those pertaining to the frequent festivals which 
 
The Law 201 
 
 were social as well as religious and were a means of 
 recreation. One whole year in every seven was given 
 in which no crops were to be sown, all debts were to 
 be canceled and servants freed. The fiftieth year 
 was the climax of the Israelitish system ; at that time 
 all homesteads were restored, all debts cancelled, all 
 servants released and all the people rested. 
 
 The question naturally occurs, what was the ap- 
 plication of all this and what was the effect, and what 
 is the possibility to-day of the application of such a 
 system ? 
 
 The whole coloring of the Old Testament is 
 Mosaic ; yet this system of laws was probably never 
 observed as it should have been, any more than the 
 best laws are so observed to-day. But it was enacted 
 sufficiently to observe its general effect which is thus 
 stated. "Israel dwelt safely, every man under his 
 vine and under his fig tree. . . . Judah and 
 Jerusalem were many, as the sand which is upon the 
 sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making 
 merry (i Kings 14: 20, 25). 
 
 Can this system be enacted to-day ? We are living 
 in a time when social questions are in the mind of all. 
 Therefore this question is an interesting and timely 
 one. 
 
 There are three necessities often mentioned as 
 essential for a successful life for man, animal or plant ; 
 heredity, environment and development. 
 
 These three God used in Israel. He began with a 
 selected race, sifted, as has been seen, from the world. 
 
202 The Bible As It Is 
 
 He also had a spiritual race as compared with the 
 world at large, that is a race that knew of God and 
 had a spiritual conception of Him ; there were also 
 among them many really spiritual people. This is the 
 essential of the divine law. Neither in its spiritual 
 nor civil aspects is it possible but as embodied in a 
 spiritual people. It was the failure of the people 
 themselves that at last brought the whole system down 
 to ruin. It failed by reason of the failure of human 
 nature, and that remains the same to-day. Environ- 
 ment is the second need; a land rightly situated 
 to give freedom from contact with the wicked 
 world about them, yet at its centre to affect it 
 favorably, with sufficient food and other necessaries 
 of Hfe. The development of the Hebrews was under 
 the direct reign of God Himself. Given these three 
 qualifications, and this system may be enacted any- 
 where. These however are the very qualifications now 
 lacking and there is no prospect of their coming in 
 our present order of things ; so that, under these con- 
 ditions, this system is now not actually practicable. 
 But so far as any nation adopts the principles of the 
 Bible, it enjoys this state ; and the more it conforms 
 to them, the better will be the state of its people. 
 
 There are also great spiritual lessons which, after 
 all, are the residuum of value from all this history and 
 this great national experiment. In this experiment 
 God did show what a nation might be under present 
 conditions with obedience to Him. 
 
 It is evident that such a system of law would soon 
 
The Law 203 
 
 be known and admired and copied by other nations, 
 and this was the purpose of God in giving it. Israel 
 was to be a national teacher. Again and again it is 
 said that God's glory was at this time declared 
 throughout the earth. The influence of Israel upon the 
 world at that time is a neglected but fruitful theme. 
 It will yet be found that all that this world has had 
 of useful progress has been inspired in ancient as well 
 as in modern times by the word of God given to His 
 people. The rise of the great civilizations of Rome 
 and Greece was at the time of the downfall and dis- 
 persion of the Israelites through the world. Such a 
 people and such a system could not fail to affect 
 mankind. We are told "all the kings of the earth 
 came to hear the wisdom of Solomon." This was 
 about four hundred years after Moses. Here is direct 
 evidence of the universal effort of the Mosaic system 
 upon the world. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE CEREMONIAL LAW 
 
 A LARGE part of the Pentateuch is taken up with 
 laws regarding ceremonials, such as the consecration 
 of priests, offerings, purifications from certain defile- 
 ments, prohibitions of certain food, and commands 
 respecting feasts and ceremonies. Some of these, 
 such as those relating to feasts, washing after touching 
 dead bodies, and the use of clean and unclean food, 
 have a physical value, but many have only a cere- 
 monial value, and even those mentioned have their 
 principal sanction in their ceremonial meaning. 
 Therefore the rehgious and spiritual meaning is the 
 great matter ; they were great object lessons to teach 
 great spiritual truths. 
 
 Certain underlying principles need to be understood 
 before the spiritual meaning can be grasped. 
 
 1. The whole system rested on the fact that the 
 Israelites were Jehovah's people and He was their 
 God. This was provided for in the Abrahamic 
 covenant and by their own assent in the covenant at 
 Mount Sinai. 
 
 2. This relation required, on their part, holiness. 
 They were to be holy because they were in such rela- 
 tions to Jehovah. '*Be ye holy for I am holy." 
 
 204 
 
The Ceremonial Law 205 
 
 While much of the moral law looked to man, the 
 ceremonial law looked to God. It was with God in 
 mind that they offered sacrifices and performed cere- 
 monies. 
 
 3. He taught them what holiness was by these 
 outward ceremonies. Physical cleanliness taught the 
 greater need of spiritual cleanliness. God fenced 
 Himself off from them by these laws, requiring such 
 offerings and performances as to teach them His own 
 holiness and the need of holiness on their part. Sin- 
 ful man could not approach a holy God without 
 preparation. 
 
 4. There was a deeper meaning still. Besides 
 personal holiness, there was also an imputed hohness 
 taught them as necessary. They were shown that, 
 even with all that they could do, there remained the 
 need of a perfect holiness that only God Himself 
 could furnish them. The offerings therefore pointed 
 to this. It was the same imputed righteousness that 
 we enjoy, only then it was in the future as far as ac- 
 complishment was concerned. To us it is accom- 
 plished in the death and atonement of Christ. There- 
 fore we can see the gospel of Christ in these 
 offerings, just as we can see Christian hoUness in the 
 laws for holiness and Christian enjoyment in the 
 feasts. 
 
 The order in which the ceremonial part of the 
 Pentateuch should be studied is that in which it is 
 given. Exodus closes with the Tabernacle erected, 
 Leviticus gives next the offerings, the consecration of 
 
2o6 The Bible As It Is 
 
 the priests, the laws of hoHness and the feasts. This 
 then is the order of study : i . The place of worship, 
 the Tabernacle. 2. The offerings. 3. The Priests. 
 4. The laws of holiness. 5. The Feasts. Alliter- 
 atively the whole may be summarized in four words, 
 Sanctuary, Sacrifice, Separation, Satisfaction. This 
 will also be found to be a summary of the gospel of 
 Christ. We are to seek nearness to God by the 
 atonement of Christ, who is our holiness, and in Him 
 we have the blessed life which is portrayed in the 
 feasts. 
 
 I. The Tabernacle. 
 
 The Tabernacle was the residence of Jehovah 
 among the people. It was not a meeting-house for 
 the people as our churches are, for it was a very 
 small building, and only the priests were allowed to 
 enter. It was a meeting-place of the people through 
 their priests with Jehovah. The people sometimes 
 met at the door of the Tabernacle on occasions of 
 solemnity or national importance. 
 
 The following diagram gives the ground plan of the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 It was a tent-shaped structure made of boards and 
 curtains and surrounded with a fence of curtains. 
 The whole enclosure was seventy-five feet wide by 
 one hundred and fifty long. The Tabernacle itself 
 was about fifteen by forty-five feet. It was divided 
 into two parts, one fifteen by thirty feet called the 
 Holy Place, and the other and inner apartment a per- 
 
The Ceremonial Law 
 
 207 
 
 WeglEnd.,7Sft. JOpdlars 
 
 ISJt. 
 
 y |D 
 
 dcora. 
 '0-O-CKH5' 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 Lccver 
 
 D 
 
 Smnt Qffainff. 
 
 ; ''so-fb. ' 
 
 Crourf^ 4>Un of Courr of Tab«rtacle. 
 
2o8 The Bible As It Is 
 
 feet cube of ten cubits or fifteen feet. This was 
 called the Holy of Holies or Holiest, or sometimes 
 the Sanctuary, though this name was also sometimes 
 given to the whole Tabernacle. It was this smaller, 
 inner apartment which was the presence chamber of 
 Jehovah. It contained only the ark, and the 
 cherubim upon it. The ark was a small chest covered 
 by a lid on which stood the figures of two angelic 
 beings made of gold, bending over it in reverence 
 with extended wings. 
 
 In the ark were the two tables of stone containing 
 the Ten Commandments engraven upon them. 
 Aaron's rod was afterwards placed within it and a 
 pot of the manna. As we have before seen it was 
 upon this law that the cherubim looked down with 
 reverence. It was upon the lid of this ark contain- 
 ing this law that the presence of Jehovah was mani- 
 fested in brightness, as the Jews say, and so we have 
 every reason to believe. It was upon the lid of the 
 ark containing the law, and just over it, that the blood 
 of the greatest sacrifice of the year was sprinkled on 
 the Day of Atonement. It was called the Mercy 
 Seat, that is the place where Jehovah received the 
 offering of the sacrifice and gave mercy or forgive- 
 ness and blessing. 
 
 The law was thus the centre of the whole Taber- 
 nacle and consequently of the whole religious system 
 of Israel; so that, not only the whole law centred 
 about the decalogue, but also the whole ceremonial 
 system. It was from this Mercy Seat that the whole 
 
The Ceremonial Law 209 
 
 of Leviticus was spoken to Moses. It was on the 
 basis of this law and its requirements that the whole 
 ceremonial ritual rested. The law represented the 
 perfect holiness one must have who approached Je- 
 hovah, and, as none had that holiness, the sprinkled 
 blood was the only plea or ground of acceptance that 
 Jehovah would receive. 
 
 The other parts and articles of the Tabernacle were 
 all secondary and auxiliary to this central part and 
 its meaning. The altar of sacrifice at the door of 
 the Tabernacle in the outer court showed the sacrifice 
 necessary to offer in order to enter; the laver, the 
 cleansing also necessary before offering; the table 
 of shew bread, the sacred food of one so entering ; 
 the candlestick or lampstand, the type of the life of 
 such ; the altar of incense, the prayer and praise with 
 which one should approach Jehovah. The whole had 
 one great lesson, the holiness of Jehovah and conse- 
 quently the holiness required of those who approached 
 Him in worship. 
 
 The Tabernacle as a whole and in all its parts is 
 the most remarkable type of Christ in the Bible. 
 When we consider that it was shown to Moses in a 
 vision and the particulars of its construction accu- 
 rately and minutely directed by God, we must believe 
 that it was deeply significant. The epistle to the 
 Hebrews especially dwells upon this typical use of the 
 Tabernacle, the high priesthood and the mediatorial 
 work of Christ. As the Tabernacle was the dwelling- 
 place of God among Israel, so Christ was the dwelling- 
 
2IO The Bible As It Is 
 
 place of God on earth (John i : 14). The Holy of 
 Holies, especially the Mercy Seat, the lid of the ark, 
 was the meeting-place of mercy and justice. Thus 
 Christ is our propitiation or mercy-seat (Rom. 3 : 25 ; 
 I John 2 : 2). The rent veil at His death (Matt. 
 27:51) typified His flesh (Heb. 10:20). The 
 High Priest entering with the blood of the sacrifice 
 shadowed forth Christ entering Heaven with His own 
 blood, for the same purpose of making propitiation for 
 His people's sin. 
 
 This was the culminating act in the Tabernacle 
 service ; but every part was significant. The altar of 
 sacrifice was the cross; the laver, the sanctifying 
 work of the Spirit ; the altar of incense, the daily 
 work of intercession by Christ ; the shew bread, the 
 flesh or word of Christ; the candlestick, the Church 
 kept in the true light by Christ (Rev. i : 12, 13, 20). 
 The heavenly privileges of the believer are repre- 
 sented by the pot of manna (Rev. 2: 17). The 
 gospel was thus preached to that early age in object 
 lessons and pictures. Few of the people could read, 
 there were few books and our Christian terms could 
 not have been understood. Doubtless the spiritually 
 minded understood, but it required study. This ex- 
 plains the frequent references to meditation on the 
 law and delight in it expressed in the psalms and 
 other devotional writings. 
 
 2. The Offerings. 
 The offerings were of many kinds. There were, 
 
The Ceremonial Law 
 
 211 
 
 however, five principal elementary offerings. These 
 singly or in combination formed the greater part of 
 the ritual of the Tabernacle. They are found in 
 Leviticus in order (Chs. 1-7). The burnt-offering, the 
 meal-offering, the peace-offering, the sin-offering, the 
 trespass-offering. With these God represented Him- 
 self as surrounded. The diagram represents them 
 thus arranged : 
 
 The diagram is to be read first as given in the 
 order in Leviticus, from the centre outward, and 
 afterwards from the outside inward. We are first to 
 see Christ in the offerings and then to see the way of 
 salvation in them. Read from the centre outward, 
 we see Christ in the offerings, as coming down from 
 God for man's salvation. Read from the outside in- 
 ward, we see man approaching God in the way made 
 by Christ in His death as typified in the offerings. 
 Looking at them in the first order named, we take 
 them up as follows : 
 
212 The Bible As It Is 
 
 1. The burnt-offering was wholly burnt up. It 
 represents Christ in perfect consecration to the Father 
 and so giving Himself to Him to do His will (Ps. 
 40 : 6-8 ; Phil. 2 : 6-8). The greatest motive of 
 Christ was to do the will of the Father ; so He said 
 again and again. 
 
 2. The meal-offering was the next. It is called 
 the meat-offering from the old use of the word meat as 
 indicating food. '' Meal " is better and expresses the 
 true meaning. The meal offering expresses Christ's 
 perfect devotion in the sacrifice of incarnation (John 
 1 2 : 24). It is the sacrifice of service. It looks to the 
 preaching of the word. It was to be anointed with 
 oil, the type of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of 
 which gave Christ His name, Christ the anointed one. 
 It had frankincense offered with it, the type of grace 
 and favor. It had also salt, the type of purity and 
 pungency and fidelity. It was to have no leaven, 
 the type of evil ; nor honey, the type of human grati- 
 fication (Prov. 25 : 27). A little was offered on the 
 altar, the rest eaten by Aaron and his sons. Christ's 
 words were for man. 
 
 3. The peace-offering. Part of this was burnt 
 upon the altar, part was eaten by the offerer, and part 
 by the priest. It represents Christ entering into fel- 
 lowship and identity with man (Heb. 4 : 15) by which 
 He could effect His mediatorial work. Being already 
 in identity with God, He was a partaker of both na- 
 tures, and so fit to be man's representative as well as 
 God's. 
 
The Ceremonial Law 213 
 
 4. The sin-offering. This was burned without the 
 camp, and represents the work upon the cross, Calvary- 
 being outside of the city gates. On the cross Christ 
 was "made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5 : 21). 
 
 Atonement is the great word in Leviticus. It oc- 
 curs fifty times. On the day of atonement occurred 
 the great presentation of this sin-offering. It is this 
 that the writer of Hebrews has in mind. The blood 
 of this offering typifies the blood of Christ that He 
 carries into heaven for us. 
 
 The meaning of this offering or sacrifice involved 
 several ideas. 
 
 (i) Substitution. The animal was given in place 
 of the offerer. He identified himself with it by pla- 
 cing his hand on its head. 
 
 (2) Imputation. The offerer's guilt or righteous- 
 ness was imputed to the offering. It was held ac- 
 countable for whatever of sin was charged to the 
 person offering it. 
 
 (3) Retribution. The penalty deserved by the 
 guilty was visited upon the victim. It was death ; 
 the animal was slain. The penalty of sin against the 
 holy God was death. The blood shed was the evi- 
 dence of that. It was life for life. Blood is life, 
 therefore blood shed was life given up. 
 
 (4) Satisfaction. Not satisfaction as the word is 
 used conversationally, but in the judicial sense. Jus- 
 tice was satisfied in the penalty visited upon the 
 victim, that is in its death. 
 
 (5) Propitiation. Justice having been satisfied, 
 
214 The Bible As It Is 
 
 there is propitiation made. There are no longer 
 claims against the guilty. The same word is appUed 
 to the Mercy Seat. It is a Propitiation because 
 there the claims are satisfied which prevented 
 mercy, and now favor can be shown, as to an in- 
 nocent person. 
 
 (6) Atonement. The result of the offering is that 
 the sinner and God are now at one. God is recon- 
 ciled and the sinner is accepted. 
 
 These are the fundamental ideas of the sacrifice, 
 and these are the principles of the redemption of 
 Christ. These principles are all appHed to Christ's 
 sacrifice in the New Testament both by Christ and 
 His apostles. What Christ is to us, and what the 
 meaning of His cross is to us, these sacrifices were to 
 the Israelite. It is not to be supposed that each offerer 
 knew the spiritual meaning. Some did, but the fact 
 of their not knowing does not detract from the impor- 
 tance of the intended lessons. 
 
 5. The trespass-offering. This was offered as 
 needed. It represents Christ in daily intercession; 
 as our constant advocate (i John 2:1; Rom. 8 : 34). 
 
 The first three of these offerings are called ** sweet 
 savor " offerings, the last two are not. That is in the 
 first three Christ is personally in contact with God, 
 but in the last two, the sin and trespass offerings, He 
 touches sin and therefore He bears our guilt. There 
 is no sweet savor in sin or anything that it touches. 
 Here Christ is made sin for us ; He bears our blame 
 and disgrace. 
 
The Ceremonial Law 215 
 
 The sum of the offerings is Christ. Together they 
 present His perfect work for us. We can understand 
 how one Hke David in that day could meditate upon 
 the law day and night, having glimpses of this Com- 
 ing One revealed to him in it. 
 
 We must now read the offerings from the outside 
 inward. We must see our path along them to God. 
 We begin at the outermost. We first in conviction 
 think of our trespasses ; we therefore want Christ as 
 our forgiveness. We next think of Sin as something 
 deeper than mere acts, and realize our need of cleans- 
 ing ; we want ourselves made right as well as our sins 
 forgiven. This leads us to Christ as our sin-offering. 
 Then we have fellowship with God through Christ. 
 This is Christ in the peace-offering (Rom. 5 : i). 
 Then we may enter His service and we may eat of 
 Him as in the meal-offering. The consecration of the 
 burnt-offering is the greatest. Few reach it at once. 
 It is the place where in Christ we give ourselves 
 wholly to God (Rom. 12 : i). 
 
 There are several grades of offerings. The ox was 
 the princely offering, the sheep or goat the common 
 offering, the dove or young pigeon the poor man's 
 offering, and the barley cake that of the very poor. 
 These represent different degrees of apprehension of 
 Christ. Some see in Christ all His offices, like the 
 prince, they see His kingly rule and power ; others 
 take the more common evangelical view of Christ as 
 Redeemer ; others have only a faint idea of the work 
 of Christ, but have true faith ; others still only know 
 
'ii6 The Bible As It Is 
 
 that Christ is able to save, though how or why they 
 know not, but have faith, nevertheless. 
 
 3. The Priests. 
 
 The persons set apart to carry out this law form an 
 important part of study. The whole tribe of Levi 
 was chosen of God for the service of the Tabernacle 
 and from among them the family of Aaron to serve as 
 priests. The Levites had charge of the Tabernacle. 
 They had no one place of abode in Israel, but had 
 houses in the various tribes. This fulfilled the 
 prophecy of their father Jacob, " I will scatter them in 
 Israel," but turned the curse into a blessing (Gen. 
 49 : 7). They had charge of the Tabernacle, the 
 service of song and other parts of the worship. 
 
 The priesthood was to remain in the family of 
 Aaron. Formerly the eldest or father of the family 
 offered sacrifices, and the word priest has the meaning 
 of presbyter or elder. The priests were to offer sacri- 
 fices and conduct the services on the days of special 
 holiness and on feast days; and, in the journey 
 through the wilderness, were to carry the ark and 
 vessels of the Tabernacle. They also acted as a court 
 to decide special cases (Deut. 17 : 8-13). They were 
 supported by tithes; and served in courses. The 
 great service of the year was on the day of atonement, 
 when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies and 
 made intercession for the nation. 
 
 In Hebrews Aaron, the high priest, is compared and 
 contrasted with Christ. The High Priest was a type of 
 
The Ceremonial Law 217 
 
 Christ in being appointed of God, in offering a sacrifice, 
 in entering the presence of God, and in securing atone- 
 ment. Christ was unhke Aaron in that He was not of his 
 tribe or family ; that He administered a better covenant ; 
 that He did not offer the blood of an animal, but His 
 own ; that He did not enter an earthly tabernacle, but a 
 heavenly one ; that He did not make an imperfect atone- 
 ment, but a perfect one ; and that His atonement was 
 not temporary in its effect, but permanent (Heb. 5-10). 
 
 Because of these incomplete resemblances, and be- 
 cause Aaron was an Israelitish priest only and Christ 
 had a world-wide work of atonement to perform, 
 another type is added to His priesthood. Melchis- 
 edek is chosen as this type. He was long before Aaron 
 or the law, and had no predecessors or successors, was 
 from the world peoples and was a King as well as a 
 priest. These are some of the qualities to be seen in 
 Christ's priesthood that are wanting in Aaron's. 
 
 Aaron, however, represents the believer. He is 
 <<a spiritual house, a royal priesthood, to offer up 
 spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus 
 Christ." As Israel was a national priest among the 
 nations to serve God, to administer the worship of 
 God, and to teach the nations ; so the believer is in the 
 world, so the Church is in the world. The believer is 
 called the Temple, the Sanctuary; the believer's 
 body being a Holy of Holies in which God dwells by 
 the Holy Ghost, as in the Tabernacle the presence of 
 God dwelt (i Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor. 6: 16; i Cor. 
 3 : 16, 17 ; Eph. 2 ; 20-22). 
 
2i8 The Bible As It Is 
 
 4. The Laws of Holiness. 
 These are laws which are distinguished from the 
 moral laws because they commanded or forbade things 
 not in themselves ethical, as for example the absti- 
 nence from certain kinds of food, the wearing of cer- 
 tain kinds of clothing, and the following of certain 
 ways of cutting the hair. Some of these laws have 
 no reasons for them stated ; but all had reasons, and 
 important ones for their enactment. 
 
 1. Some of these laws were sanitary and hygienic 
 in effect ; as the law regarding washing after touching 
 a dead body, the law of the cleansing of the leper, 
 the laws respecting the use of certain kinds of food 
 and the disposal of offal. 
 
 2. Some had great symbolic teachings. God 
 taught the people spiritual holiness by laws of phys- 
 ical cleanliness, sis we would teach children by the use 
 of the same illustrations. The leper was a type of 
 the sinner. Leprosy was treated like a sin. There 
 were ceremonies connected with it of no hygienic 
 use, but purely s)niibolic (Lev. 14, 15). These held 
 up this disease as a type of sin in its inheritance, its 
 effects, and its incurableness by any human effort. 
 This the psalmist had in mind when, referring to this, 
 he says, " Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean " 
 
 (Ps. 51:7). 
 
 3. Separation was one great purpose of these laws. 
 Most of the things forbidden were customs of the 
 heathen and the use of these things would lead the 
 Israelites into fellowship with them. Their disuse 
 
The Ceremonial Law 219 
 
 would erect a barrier between the two. Therefore 
 these laws were made. Such laws were those forbid- 
 ding the marking of the body by heathen rites, or the 
 placing of names of heathen deities upon one. In- 
 stead they were to place the law upon their foreheads. 
 Such laws also were those regarding the cutting of the 
 hair and the sowing of mingled seeds. 
 
 4. Some were laws of propriety, as those forbid- 
 ding a man to wear a woman's clothing or a woman, 
 the clothes of a man. 
 
 All these laws were based on the fact that they were 
 Jehovah's chosen people, sacred and separated from 
 the rest of the world. 
 
 There is, however, in these a great spiritual lesson. 
 The Christian is still under such laws. There are 
 certain things that he is not to touch and certain peo- 
 ple that he is not to mingle with (2 Cor. 6 : 17). 
 There are things he is not to eat or drink (Rom. 
 14: 1-23). His abstinence is for the sake of others. 
 "It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to 
 do anythmg whereby thy brother stumbleth " (Rom. 
 14: 21). This is the Biblical ground of temperance. 
 A further reason for temperance is this, <* Ye cannot 
 drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils" 
 (i Cor. 10 : 21). This latter certainly applies to in- 
 toxicating drinks in our days. A further motive is 
 offered in this text, "Give no occasion of stumbling 
 either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God " 
 (i Cor. 10 : 32). A further and broader principle is 
 given in these words, " Whether therefore ye eat or 
 
220 The Bible As It Is 
 
 drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God" (i Cor. lo: 31). All these look outside of 
 the person himself. There is also regard for oneself 
 to be considered. *'Your body is a temple of the 
 Holy Ghost" (i Cor. 6: 12-20). Here is the same 
 principle that was given to Israel, the sanctity of 
 themselves as God's chosen people. 
 
 We find, then, that the same principles underlie the 
 Israelitish code and the Christian code. The differ- 
 ence being that the one consists of a long list of cer- 
 tain acts prohibited, and the other is an enumeration 
 of certain principles applying to all acts. Now, as the 
 conditions have changed since Israel's time, as in the 
 case of food offered to idols and in the coming in of 
 many habits and amusements unknown to Israel, we 
 see why God has given us principles rather than rules 
 for life. The principles live in the heart and are a 
 permanent motive ; the prohibition of acts can be only 
 temporary and local. 
 
 These are the great differences between the Old 
 Testament and the New Testament teachings. We have 
 no prescribed list of acts right and wrong, but we have 
 certain principles which enable one with a right mind 
 and the spirit of Christ to determine for himself what 
 is right and what wrong. The Church has the right 
 to say what its members shall or shall not do ; so we 
 find the Council at Jerusalem prescribing to the young 
 gentile Churches what they were to avoid (Acts 
 15 : 19, 20). 
 
The Ceremonial Law 221 
 
 5. The Feasts. 
 
 The calendar of the Israelite was laid out on the 
 number seven; thus we have the seventh day, the 
 seventh month, the seventh year and the seventh 
 seventh or fiftieth year — the year of jubilee. Every 
 year there were three great festivals and one great fast 
 day ; seven festivals and one fast in all. Nothing could 
 better express the happy purpose of Jehovah in this peo- 
 ple than this fact. The whole course of the year was 
 designed to be a course of sacred joy ; their religion 
 was to be a happy one and their pleasures sacred. 
 
 I . The germ of all was the Sabbath. This was a 
 reenactment of the existing Sabbath (Ex. 16: 26). 
 The word " remember " in the Fourth Commandment 
 recites this fact. The Sabbath was observed before 
 the time of Moses and by other nations. It was in- 
 stituted at creation (Gen. 2 : 2, 3). The reasons an- 
 nexed to the various commands about the Sabbath are 
 that the people may rest, with their servants and cat- 
 tle and strangers after the example of God (Ex. 20 : 
 8-1 1); that they may remember their deliverance 
 from Egypt (Deut. 5 : 15) ; and that it may be a sign 
 between them and Jehovah (Ex. 31 : 13), a perpetual 
 covenant (16), a holy convocation (Lev. 23: 3). 
 Thus the idea of the Sabbath is first rest, then com- 
 memoration, then consecration and worship. 
 
 These are the ideas of the Lord's Day that we ob- 
 serve. While there is no command to change to the 
 first day of the week there is scripture warrant. First 
 the Sabbath was a shadow and the substance has 
 
2 22 The Bible As It Is 
 
 come in Christ (Col. 2: 16, 17). The command is 
 observed by keeping one day in seven. It is "six 
 days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the 
 seventh is the Sabbath." Six days' work and then a 
 day of rest. This the Lord's Day gives. 
 
 There is a pointing to the Lord's Day in the men- 
 tion of the eighth day (Lev. 23 : 39), especially the 
 offering of the first-fruits on *< the morrow after the 
 Sabbath," which was the prophecy of the resurrection 
 of Christ as "the first-fruits of them that slept" 
 (i Cor. 15 : 20). The example of Christ, in meeting 
 with His disciples, their custom to meet for break- 
 ing bread, that is the Lord's Supper, and the state of 
 John in Patmos, "in the Spirit on the Lord's day," 
 warrant us in keeping this day and dropping the Jew- 
 ish Sabbath, which in spirit is kept on the Lord's 
 Day. 
 
 If one day in the week is to be kept sacred it must 
 be a uniform custom, else there cannot be that use of 
 it that we need. Confusion would come from every 
 one having his own day. Luther said, " I believe that 
 the apostles transferred the Sabbath to Sunday, 
 otherwise no man would have been so audacious as 
 to dare do it." Another has said, "Take away the 
 day of rest and there is no worship ; no worship, no 
 religion ; no religion, no morals ; no morals, then — 
 pandemonium." Such a day of rest was embodied 
 in the moral and not in the ceremonial law to give it 
 the greater validity. 
 
 2. The new moon or the first day of each month 
 
The Ceremonial Law 223 
 
 was a sacred day. It was celebrated by the blowing 
 of trumpets, the offering of sacrifices, and the 
 solemnities of the Sabbath. In the seventh month its 
 observance was especially marked. 
 
 3. The three great annual feasts were the Pass- 
 over celebrated at the beginning of the year, Pente- 
 cost coming when the wheat harvest was ripe, and the 
 Feast of Tabernacles held in the fall ; the latter was 
 the harvest home of Israel, when they dwelt in booths 
 for a week. The Passover has already been spoken 
 of. It commemorated the nation's deliverance. It 
 was its national anniversary. Pentecost, meaning 
 ** fiftieth," was held fifty days from the gathering of 
 the first ripe sheaf, the ** first-fruits." Two leavened 
 loaves were presented to the Lord. This was a 
 prophetic feast. It was fifty days after Christ rose 
 from the dead, ''the first-fruits of them that slept," 
 that the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples. The 
 two loaves were typical of the Jewish and gentile 
 churches. The feast of ingathering or Tabernacles 
 was preceded by the Day of Atonement, by which 
 they were prepared for that joyous time. It has a 
 prophetic meaning also in the harvest to come and the 
 millennial era to follow (Rev. 14: 14-20). 
 
 The Seventh Year feast was the leaving of the 
 fields fallow and only gathering what grew of itself. 
 It was the violation of this that fixed the time of the 
 Babylonian captivity at seventy years (2 Chron. 
 36 : 21). 
 
 The Jubilee was the climax of all the festivals and 
 
224 
 
 The Bible As It Is 
 
 of all the nation's calendar. Then servants were 
 freed, all debts paid, all homesteads returned, all at 
 rest. When Christ preached His first sermon He 
 took for His text the prophetic cry of the jubilee year, 
 the climax of Israel's great system (Luke 4 : 18). 
 He proclaimed spiritually all that the jubilee gave 
 literally. It was probably on the very anniversary of 
 the jubilee that this sermon was preached. The four 
 things given by the jubilee were alliteratively : liberty, 
 land, liquidation and leisure. Prison doors were 
 opened ; homesteads restored ; debts canceled ; rest 
 given. So in Christ we have release from the penalty 
 of sin, restoration to the place of our inheritance, for- 
 giveness of sins, and rest in Christ. As all of Israel's 
 history, this is also an allegory worked out in the actual 
 history of a soul's experience. It has been jubilee 
 time ever since Christ preached that great sermon. 
 
 Spiritual Lessons from the Law. 
 The New Testament lessons from the study of the 
 law are as follows : 
 
 1. All are guilty before this law. The parts of 
 the law are one. The New Testament does not 
 make a distinction between the moral and ceremonial 
 law. It is one law, and when it refers to the law it 
 means all the law (Jas. 2 : 10 ; Rom. 2 : 19, 20). 
 
 2. Christ taught that the law prophesied of Him, 
 and that He fulfilled these prophecies and types 
 (Matt. 5 : 17; Luke 24: 27, 44). "That it might 
 be fulfilled " is written as a reason for much that He 
 
The Ceremonial Law 225 
 
 did and said. He obeyed its precepts and lived the 
 life that it commanded (Matt. 3:15). Its righteous- 
 ness was fulfilled in Him in its spiritual and ethical 
 meaning (John. 8 : 46). He fulfilled its ceremonial 
 acts (Luke 2 : 21-24). He is the fulfilment of its civil 
 and social state spiritually. 
 
 3. The aposdes taught Christ from the law (John 
 1 : 45) ; see Epistle to Hebrews. They taught the 
 insufficiency of the law in itself, i. To give for- 
 giveness (Acts 13:38). 2. To justify (Rom 3 : 20 ; 
 Gal. 2:16). 3. To give holiness or peace (Rom. 
 8 : 3). 4. It is not a rule of life to the believer "in 
 Christ" (Acts 15:1, 28, 29; Rom. 6: 14; 7:4; 
 Gal. 3 : 23-26 ; Col. 2 : 14-23). 
 
 4. Christ satisfied the demands of the law against 
 us (Gal. 3: 13),, and put it out of the way (Col. 
 2 : 14 ; John i : 17). This does not degrade the law 
 (Rom. 3:31); nor lead to sin (Rom. 6 : i, 15). 
 
 5. The Christian is in a higher state of grace 
 (Gal. 3:23-29; 4; 5: 1-6), and thus under a 
 higher law; he is a son and not a servant; under 
 grace and not under law. 
 
 6. The present use of the law is to manifest the 
 righteousness of God in Christ (Rom. 3:21); to 
 make sin apparent (Rom. 5 : 20) ; to restrain trans- 
 gression (Gal. 3 : 19 ; i Tim. i : 9-1 1) ; to convict of 
 sin (Rom. 7 : 7, 8) ; to judge the sinner at the last 
 day (Rom. 2:12; John 5 : 45 ; Rev. 20 : 12). 
 
 7. The offerings, as we have seen, all point to 
 Christ. 
 
226 The Bibk As It Is 
 
 8. The laws of holiness are typical of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 9. The feasts are to have their fulfilment in the 
 kingdom of heaven. They all point to that (Luke 
 4: 17-19; Ps. 72; Ezek. 40-48). 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JOSHUA AND THE CONQUEST 
 
 With Joshua we take up the story of the Chosen 
 People taking possession of the Land covenanted by 
 Jehovah to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 
 and to themselves. To this they had looked forward 
 for four centuries. It had cheered them in their toil 
 in the brickyards of Egypt and been their goal all 
 through their march in the wilderness. This great 
 end they had failed of securing at Kadesh-Barnea by 
 their unbelief and disobedience and now once more 
 they are at the gate of their long desired home. But 
 great enemies possess it and it must be fought for. 
 The contest forms the subject now before us. 
 
 The book of Joshua has four divisions. 
 
 I. Preparation for the War. Chs. 1-5. 
 
 Charge to Joshua, i. The Spies, 2. Directions 
 for Crossing Jordan, 3. The Crossing, 4. 
 Circumcision of the People and the Vision, 5. 
 
 II. The War of Conquest. 6-12. 
 
 Capture of Jericho, 6. Sin of Achan, 7. Battle 
 of Ai. The Blessings and Cursings, 8. The 
 Gibeonites, 9. Battle of Gibeon and Conqest 
 of the South, 10. Battle of Merom and Con- 
 qest of the North, 11. List of Conquests, 12. 
 227 
 
228 The Bible As It Is 
 
 III. Division of the Land, 13-22 
 
 The Two and Half Tribes, 13. Caleb's Choice, 
 14. Judah's Portion, 15. Manasseh and Eph- 
 raim's Portion, 16-17. Remaining Tribes, 18- 
 19. Cities of Refuge, 20. Levite Cities, 21. 
 Departure of Trans- Jordanic Tribes, 22. 
 
 IV. Joshua's Farewell, 23-24. 
 
 To The Elders, etc., 23. To Israel. Writes his 
 Records. Death and Burial, 24. 
 
 Besides the general outline there are special points 
 for study, preliminary to the history. The state of 
 the nation and also of the land and its inhabitants 
 are to be considered. 
 
 I. The Nation. 
 
 They were a race young and trained by the wilder- 
 ness journey. All over twenty years of age had fal- 
 len in the wilderness as foretold by Jehovah as the 
 penalty of their disobedience at the first offer of the 
 land at Kadesh. They had been fused into a nation 
 by their isolation, the wilderness life, and the teach- 
 ing of Moses. They were far in advance of the 
 fugitive host that fled from Egypt. Several great vic- 
 tories had given them confidence in themselves and 
 their leader and their Jehovah. They must not be 
 considered, however, as a modern disciplined army 
 but as an aggregation of pastoral tribes. 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 229 
 
 2. The Leader. 
 
 The conquest of the regions east of the Jordan was 
 made under Moses. Sixty cities there fell into ttie 
 possession of Israel. These regions were allotted to 
 the two and half tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh 
 who were sworn to send their armed men with Israel 
 to the conquest of the rest of the territory. The leader 
 appointed for this task was Joshua. He with Caleb 
 were the two faithful ones over the age of twenty who 
 were premitted to survive and enter Canaan. He was 
 Moses' personal attendant and trained under his own 
 care. He was appointed by Jehovah and given the 
 special charge, *'Be strong and of a good courage," 
 several times repeated. He was also given a Vision 
 of Jehovah as Captain leading the army. He was 
 promised complete success and victory. Judah the 
 Messianic tribe was to go first. 
 
 3. The Land. 
 
 Canaan was well known to Israel. It was not far 
 from their residence in Egypt. It was the home of 
 their progenitors. It was connected with Egypt by 
 many ties. Egyptians owned estates there and there 
 was constant intercourse by travel and correspond- 
 ence. Indeed some Israelites made raids into the 
 land while in Egypt (i Chron. 7:21). The inhabit- 
 ants of Canaan were divided into several tribes fre- 
 quently at war with each other and at this time with- 
 out the control and aid of the powerful kingdoms of 
 
230 The Bible As It Is 
 
 Egypt on the one hand and AssjTia on the other to 
 whom at prior times they were held in subjection. 
 This made the task of conquest easier than if Israel 
 had the great Assyrian or Egyptian powers to deal with. 
 However they had no small task before them. The 
 number of the Canaanites were great. They had 
 walled cities. Some were tribes of gigantic stature. 
 They had chariots of iron and suits of armor. When 
 united as at the close of the campaign they presented 
 a force of vast numbers and formidable armament. 
 They were however at this time in a state of terror. 
 The news of the strange people and their deliverance 
 had preceded them. The plagues of Egypt God had 
 said were ordered that his name and glory might be 
 declared through the earth and all lands had heard of 
 them. The wilderness journey, the pillar of cloud, 
 the wonders of Mt. Sinai, all had been heard of and 
 now like an impending judgment the host of Israel 
 was at their doors. 
 
 4. The Crossing of the Jordan. 
 
 The conquest of the trans- Jordan regions brought 
 them to the banks of that river at that time at full 
 flood. It was and is a tortuous stream that flowed 
 through a gorge of 600 feet and twisted through 200 
 miles of channel to make 60 miles of progress. To 
 cross this with their herds of cattle in face of an armed 
 foe was a hazardous task. That it seemed impossible 
 to the nations of Canaan appears from the fact that 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 231 
 
 no steps of defence or opposition were taken. To 
 Israel Jordan was their Rubicon. It put an impassable 
 barrier between them and retreat. 
 
 Practical preparations were at once begun by Joshua. 
 Spies were sent out to see the lay of the land and the 
 state of the enemy. The adventures of these give 
 us the well known story of Rahab. After their 
 departure an order is issued for a three days' provision 
 of victuals for within that time they were to cross the 
 Jordan. They were to "sanctify themselves,"' that is, 
 to put away all ceremonial and other uncleanness. 
 The order of march was arranged. The ark borne by 
 the priests went first and as they touched Jordan its 
 waters passed away and the passage was left dry. The 
 priests with the ark stood in the bed of the river and 
 the people passed over before them, the armed men 
 first. A memorial of twelve stones taken from the 
 river bed where the priests stood with the ark was made 
 to testify in days to come w^hen any disputed the truth 
 of the event. It has been needed for the account is 
 one disputed to-day. It was, as are most such ac- 
 counts, a union of the natural and supernatural, or 
 rather a directing of natural causes to certain effects 
 at certain times. The river was undoubtedly gorged 
 at some point above the crossing and in consequence 
 ran dry. The point was a suitable one. The river 
 is narrow and its banks steep. Any case which would 
 stop its waters would fill all the requirements of the 
 narrative. The bed of the Jordan shows that it has 
 
232 The Bible As It Is 
 
 changed its level several times. It was once thirty 
 feet higher than at present. Dr. George Frederick 
 Wright has found geologic evidence of the elevation 
 of the bed of the river a mile or two from the crossing 
 and the return again to its present level. Such a tem- 
 porary elevation would have caused the dry crossing 
 described in the account. 
 
 5. The War of Conquest, 
 chapters 5-12. 
 
 The whole war may be divided into three cam- 
 paigns; the conquest of the trans- Jordan region called 
 Gilead already mentioned made under Moses, and 
 the subjugation of the land of Canaan proper in two 
 campaigns of the north and the south. The perma- 
 nent camp was fixed at Gilgal where they crossed the 
 Jordan. Here they left their families and flocks and 
 from this went out to the battles of the conquest. 
 Here also a preparatory observance of the Passover 
 was held and Circumcision performed which had been 
 neglected during the wilderness journey. 
 
 The two campaigns of Canaan proper may be 
 arranged around the four great battles that are 
 described; three battles in the conquest of south 
 Canaan, the battle of Jericho, 6-7, the battle of Ai, 
 8-9, and the battle of Gibeon, 10. The conquest of 
 north Canaan was accomplished in one great battle 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 233 
 
 with the confederated nations of Canaan, the battle of 
 Merom, 11. The capture of Jericho is well known. 
 The fall of its walls on the seventh encircling by the 
 army was a miracle. Such events need no explana- 
 tion to a believer in God and the supernatural. Nor 
 may we say how much the natural enters into such 
 events until we better understand the mysterious 
 forces of nature. The trotting of a dog will cause a 
 great iron bridge to shake. The vibrations caused 
 by a violin we are told would if continued cause the 
 tallest tower to move. It is senseless and unscien- 
 tific to object to miracles simply because they lie out- 
 side of our limited field of observation. For similar 
 reasons the African savage mJght decline to believe 
 in freezing of water or the telephone. 
 
 The fall of Jericho struck terror into the Canaanites 
 and gave Israel the key to the land. The battle at 
 Ai was a wholesale check in its temporary defeat to 
 Israel tempted to presumption and to follow the sin 
 of Achan. Israel had also to be taught to use their 
 own skill and not to depend infant fashion on super- 
 natural resources. The battle of Gibeon was caused 
 by the city of Gibeon who got a treaty from Joshua 
 by stratagem and were made tributaries. They were 
 attacked by the king of Jerusalem and confederate 
 tribes for this. Their call was the occasion of Joshua 
 attacking the enemy and, assisted by a fearful hail- 
 storm which destroyed more than the sword, he won 
 a mighty victory. It was in this battle occurred the 
 
234 The Bible As It Is 
 
 miracle of ''Joshua's long day" so called, when the 
 sun stayed in its course. This was not impossible to 
 Him who made the sun and stars. He who conducts 
 the universe could check the movements of the world 
 as easily as an engineer can control the movements of 
 his train. These three battles gave Israel an open 
 door to the land. A succession of invasions brought 
 the whole of the southern part of Canaan into their 
 power and possession. 
 
 The nations of the northern part were now awak- 
 ened to their danger and aroused from the paralysis 
 of fear that at first seized them. The result was a 
 confederation of the nations of the north. It was the 
 supreme effort of the Canaanites and the greatest 
 battle fought by Israel. The number of the enemy 
 is described as the "sand of the sea," with "chariots 
 and horses very many." Israel was now a nation of 
 veteran warriors. They were inspired by continuous 
 victory. A sudden attack gave them victory. "The 
 waters of Merom," became a subject of song ever 
 after. There came into the Canaanites a hardness 
 and desperate resistance that forbade any terms of 
 surrender. The terrific nature of the attack and 
 rout is seen, as well as the truth of the narrative, in 
 the inscription left by the fugitives who fled as far as 
 Algiers and left two monuments with the inscription 
 "We are those who fled from Joshua the robber." 
 (Giekie's Hours with the Bible. 2.409.) 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 235 
 
 6. The Destruction of the Canaanites. 
 
 The fate of the Canaanites is one of the objections 
 some raise to the Bible. It was partial extermination 
 although some were spared and remained among the 
 Israelites and retained their possessions and even 
 their independence. But the narration tells us of 
 whole cities all of whom were slain. Such was war 
 in those days where the battle resolved itself into a 
 series of personal combats in which one and sometimes 
 both of the antagonists were slain. In the case of the 
 Canaanites the destruction of these peoples was by 
 command of God. This seems to add to the perplex- 
 ity of the subject. We must at the outset of the whole 
 study of religion and the Bible allow that God has the 
 final disposal of human life by whatsoever means he 
 chooses to select whether by the slow coming of age 
 or the more rapid progress of disease or the swift 
 destruction by the plague when thousands fall in a 
 day. Nor may we ask God to give an account of 
 His doings. He is sovereign. He is also just and 
 infinitely merciful and we must in faith believe that the 
 destruction of these peoples at this time was in accord- 
 ance both with justice and mercy. The revelations 
 of eternity alone will explain the full meaning of the 
 whole story of sin and sorrow that afiflicts humanity 
 which God in his wisdom has permitted. But some 
 considerations are given in their narrative that throw 
 light upon this acting of divine judgment, for such it 
 was as truly as if performed by storm or plague. 
 
236 The Bible As It Is 
 
 1. The Canaanites were utterly and indescribably 
 vile. That land was the plague spot of the world. 
 Sodom was a t}^ical city and its sins have given the 
 name to unmentionable crime to-day. Paul describes 
 such whether he had these people in mind or similar 
 races everywhere and at all times. (Rom. 1:18-32.) 
 The Bible story of Lot tells the everyday life, of that 
 city and the race generally. (Gen. 19: 5-8). Even 
 1500 years after this the spread of their vices to 
 Rome, that city called "the sewer of the nations," 
 was bewailed by the writers of the day as a calamity. 
 
 2. They had also the most exalted religious privi- 
 leges. Melchisedek, that being of such exalted char- 
 acter that he was the type of Christ, was their king 
 and priest. Abraham and his descendents while 
 among them also gave example of a purer life. 
 
 3. They were given ample time for repentance. 
 The divine reason for sending Israel into Egypt for 
 four centuries was, "the iniquity of the Amorites is 
 not yet full." (Gen. 15:16.) The plagues of Egypt 
 were intended to arouse these as well as all nations. 
 Israel's year at Mt. Sinai was a year of possible salva- 
 tion and repentance to these doomed people. The 
 added thirty-nine years of wandering was further 
 time and the halt at their doors while Israel waited 
 at the Jordan was further days of grace. As stated 
 the encircling seven times of the walls of Jericho was 
 God's call by the trumpets to submission and mercy. 
 The one that yielded, Rahab the harlot, with all her 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 237 
 
 household were saved. It is clear that any others who 
 would have sued for mercy could have had it. So 
 also the Gibeonites although coming by subterfuge 
 were spared. Not another nation asked for terms 
 of mercy. There was a desperate state of hardened 
 resistance that made destruction inevitable. 
 
 4. The welfare of Israel as the hope of the world, the 
 depository of divine revelation and the only light the 
 world had, made their preservation from the contam- 
 ination of these peoples absolutely necessary. To 
 permit them to live in this physical and moral state 
 was to permit contagion of the most ruinous kind to 
 poison the fountain of mercy'at its source. As it was, 
 the remnants of the Canaanites who survived were 
 the cause of Israel's frequent apostasy and the cause 
 of their final overthrow by divine judgments. The 
 world's salvation still depends on the purity of the 
 church. The final judgments of earth will be sim- 
 ply an enlargement of these judgments on impenitent 
 and hardened mankind. The Seven Trumpets are 
 found in the Apocalypse and the falling cities also. 
 
 7. The Division of the Land, 
 chapters 13-22. 
 The boundaries of the region Israel was to possess 
 at once had been described by Moses (Num. 34). 
 This was not the full territory promised to Abraham 
 and later conquered by David but was suifficient for 
 their present needs. God had said he would not dis- 
 
238 The Bible As It Is 
 
 possess the entire region lest the beasts of the field 
 multiply in the vacant regions and become a menace 
 as they are in such regions. (Ex. 23:29.) Two 
 tribes Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh 
 had been provided for. 
 
 Judah of the remaining tribes received its portion 
 next. Its home seems to have been decided by the 
 choice of Caleb of that tribe, the sole survivor of the 
 Egyptian multitude. He makes special request for 
 Hebron and is given that for his portion. The region 
 of which it is the center becomes the allotment of 
 Judah. That this was the divine purpose is seen 
 from the facts that they are given Jerusalem and are 
 the Messianic tribe. They were to survive to the 
 close of the kingdom and Jerusalem was to remain 
 until Christ came, and so they are placed at the ex- 
 treme south far away from the enemies by whom the 
 overthrow of the kingdom finally came. Ephraim and 
 the rest of his brother Manasseh's tribe not accommo- 
 dated on the east of Jordan are also given their portion. 
 The Tabernacle had been set up at Shiloh within the 
 limits of Ephraim's portion and this was undoubtedly 
 the reason that Ephraim's portion was early settled. 
 He had been promised superiority and Shiloh had 
 been predicted as sacred and the gathering place of 
 the tribes. (Gen. 48:19; 49:10.) Shechem however 
 a few miles to the northwest where the blessings and 
 cursings were pronounced became their capital city. 
 
 Seven tribes remained for some time unalloted. 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 239 
 
 The land was then divided into seven portions and 
 these divided by lot. The Levites were given no 
 allotment save cities for residence. This was a pen- 
 alty for the sin of Levi (Gen. 49:11) but by their 
 appointment to the service of the Tabernacle for their 
 fidelity in the great apostasy in the wilderness (Ex. 
 32:26-28; Num. 1:47-51), the curse was turned into 
 a blessing. The cities of Refuge were allotted, Mt. 
 Ephraim given to Joshua as his choice and the two 
 and half trans- Jordan tribes dismissed to their homes. 
 
 8. Joshua's Farewell, 
 chapters 23-24. 
 
 All that God had commanded Joshua to do had 
 been accomplished. He had led Israel into the land, 
 conquered their enemies and allotted the land to 
 them. He had called them to the appointed place at 
 Mountains Ebal and Gerizem and there read the bless- 
 ings and curses as commanded and renewed the cove- 
 nant. He judged Israel during the rest of his life 
 and as his end approached, solicitous for their fidelity 
 to God, called them together to the same place for his 
 farewell charge. He exacted a solemn promise of 
 them and set up a stone of memorial. He lived to 
 the age of a hundred and ten and was buried in his 
 chosen portion. 
 
 Spiritual Lessons. 
 
 I. Canaan has sometimes been used as typical of 
 Heaven, and Jordan of death. But not only is there 
 
240 The Bible As It Is 
 
 no such application in Scriptures but much against 
 it. Canaan is in no respect analagous to Heaven. 
 There are no enemies there to be conquered and cer- 
 tainly we shall not have to expel any such. Canaan 
 is a type of the ideal Christian life and is so used in 
 Hebrews (Ch. 4). There it is a type of Christ's vic- 
 torious work. It is the Land of Rest, the Land of 
 the Promises to which some have attained and all 
 may attain. But alas, many like Israel spend their 
 days in the Wilderness a life of unrest, of legality or 
 like Israel of sinfulness and idolatry, God's worship 
 neglected and under constant afflictive chastisements. 
 For such to reach the place of Consecration and Faith 
 in Christ is Canaan. ''We which do believe do enter 
 into rest" (Heb. 4:3). The three states in which 
 Israel are seen represent respectively three states of 
 Christian experience. Egypt is the believer under 
 sin ; the Wilderness, the believer under law ; Canaan, 
 the believer under Grace. The privileges of the be- 
 liever are represented by the New Testament term "In 
 Christ" where all spiritual blessings are (Ep. i : 4-14). 
 2. Joshua is a type of Christ. Jesus and Joshua are 
 the same name, the latter Hebrew the other Greek. 
 The Son of God by command of God took the name, 
 of all names that might be had of Israel's leader, be- 
 because the work of Joshua is typical of the work of 
 Christ. Moses represents the Law. The apostle 
 Paul tells us the Law made nothing perfect. It can- 
 not forgive, but only condemn. It cannot therefore 
 
Joshua and the Conquest 241 
 
 save. It cannot make free but brings into bondage. 
 It cannot bring us into Rest it condemns and does not 
 save. It was temporary only and now has passed 
 away being superseded by a higher law, that of faith, 
 of grace and love. (See Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; 
 Rom. 8:^; Acts 13:39, etc.) Moses therefore as 
 a type of the law was not permitted to bring Israel 
 into Canaan. To be sure he was excluded for his 
 own wrong (Nu. 20:12), but God always has further 
 purposes in all his doings. This is the use of Joshua's 
 work in Hebrews, fourth chapter. 
 
 3. The allotment of the land to the several tribes and 
 persons represents the possible range of attainment 
 for the believer. There was much they had in com- 
 mon. The state of rest, the food of Canaan, the 
 worship and much else represent that "grace for 
 grace" of Christ of which each believer has an un- 
 divided portion. But there are differences "accord- 
 ing to the measure of faith given." The rule of 
 attainment is that given Israel "Every place that the 
 sole of your foot shall tread upon," is the place of 
 conquest. But it takes the whole body of believers 
 to measure "the breadth and length and height and 
 depth" of the possibilities of Christian attainment. 
 And there is constant conflict also. While there was 
 conquest there were Canaanites left as we shall see to 
 test and keep awake Israel's vigilance. So the believer 
 while in Christ has the world, the flesh and the devil, 
 to watch against. 
 
242 The Bible As It Is 
 
 4. The sad thought is suggested that there are many 
 who Hke Israel fail at their Kadesh-Barnea and only 
 after a wasted life like that of Israel's weary wilder- 
 ness journey enter the state of rest and peace. Some 
 may never enter. They fall in the wilderness. While 
 they are not lost yet they have missed the Canaan 
 experience of a life of faith and peace. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE JUDGES 
 
 Joshua had no successor. The conquest of the 
 allotted portions of the land was carried on by the 
 separate tribes. None of them seem to have quite 
 subjugated their entire territory. Even the citadel 
 in Jerusalem was not taken until the time of David 
 four hundred years after. There was lio central 
 government during this period. The Judges who 
 were in power during this period were temporary mili- 
 tary chieftains raised up to deliver the nation from 
 some foreign foe and retained some judical authority 
 during their lives. The state of affairs is well described 
 by the words repeated many times ''In those days 
 there was no king- in Israel and every man did that 
 which was right in his own eyes." (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 
 21:25.) 
 
 The spiritual state brought about their social con- 
 dition. The book of Joshua closes with the statement 
 that they served the Lord all the days of the elders 
 that outlived Joshua. Then followed apostasy. They 
 relaxed their military vigilance, came to terms of famil- 
 iarity with their heathen neighbors, mingled with 
 them in their sports and intermarried, and finally 
 adopted their idolatry. This was followed by chas- 
 243 
 
244 The Bible As It Is 
 
 tisement mostly by foreign invasion and oppression. 
 Then a deliverer was raised up called a Judge and 
 the land had rest for a time. After this another 
 apostasy followed and another chastisement and an- 
 other deliverance. This cycle of events occurred six 
 times. 
 
 The social and spiritual state during the times of 
 apostasy is described in the live closing chapters, 
 which are out of place and describe conditions exist- 
 ing at the beginning and perhaps all through this 
 period. There idolatry is seen with lawlessness and 
 internal war during which one tribe, Benjamin, was 
 almost exterminated. The periods when, as stated 
 "the land had rest," are well portrayed by the 
 book of Ruth which belongs early in the time of the 
 Judges. The place of worship where the Tabernacle 
 was located was Shiloh. Here the priests were to be 
 found and council asked of God. It must not be 
 supposed that the whole Mosaic law or ritual was 
 observed here or at any time perfectly. It was often 
 for long periods almost wholly neglected, as indeed 
 the commands of Christ are to-day. 
 
 The book of Judges consists of three parts: (i) An 
 introductory account of the conquests and failures of 
 the tribes after the death of Joshua. Ch. 1-2. (2) The 
 apostasies and deliverances by the Judges, 3-16. (3) 
 Two narratives of the conditions of the times of the 
 Judges, 17-21. The bulk of the book consists of the 
 second period, the history of the apostasies and deliver- 
 
The Judges 
 
 245 
 
 ances each designated by the name of the Judge who 
 delivered them. The intervening judges are of less im- 
 portance and may be either omitted for further study 
 or inserted as they occur. There were fourteen in 
 all. The Six great Judges were Othniel, Ehud, 
 Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. The fol- 
 lowing Table presents them in order. The first two 
 chapters of the book are introductory and the last 
 five chapters refer to this early time and should also 
 be read here. 
 
 CHART OF THE JUDGES 
 
 Chap. 
 
 Judge 
 
 Oppressor 
 
 Period 
 
 of 
 R est" 
 
 Succeeding 
 Judges 
 
 3 
 
 Othniel 
 
 Mesopotamia 8 yrs. 
 
 40 yrs. 
 
 
 3 
 
 Ehud 
 
 Moab 18 yrs. 
 
 80 yrs. 
 
 Shamgar 
 
 4-5 
 
 Deborah 
 
 Canaanites 20 yrs. 
 
 40 yrs 
 [Ruth] 
 
 
 6-8 
 
 Gideon 40 yrs 
 
 Midianites 7 yrs. 
 
 40 yrs. 
 
 Abimelech 3, 
 Tola 23, Jair 22 
 
 10-12 
 
 Jephthah 
 
 Philistines- Ammonites 
 
 
 Ibzan 7,Elon 10, 
 
 
 6 yrs. 
 
 28 yrs. 
 
 
 Abden 8, Eli 40 
 
 yrs. 
 
 13-16 
 
 Samson 
 20 yrs. 
 
 Philistines 
 40 yrs. 
 
 
 
 The judges were not regularly successive. There 
 were long gaps between them often. Only Gideon is 
 succeeded by his son. Each of the great judges and 
 some of the less important should have careful study. 
 The periods of "Rest" were the delightful times in 
 Israel. The book of Ruth pictures such a time. 
 
246 The Bible As It Is 
 
 These have no history given of them. The best times 
 are uneventful always and everj^vhere so far as the 
 changes and disturbances are concerned which occupy 
 the pages of history. The spiritual and social decline 
 is seen in the last five chapters. They contain 
 two narratives. The first that of Micah occurred 
 near the beginning of the period and shows the decline 
 of the priesthood and spiritual life. The second, the 
 war with Benjamin, shows the coming of licentious- 
 ness which was so common in that land and the civil 
 w^ar that ensued and the partial extermination of the 
 tribe of Benjamin. 
 
 The last of the invaders were the Philistines. Sam- 
 son their great foe only partly subdued them. Eli w^ho 
 seems to have been both priest and judge was a failure 
 as either. He w^as the last of the judges. In passing 
 from the judges we notice they were of great variety 
 of character and method. They were not what we 
 would call spiritual men yet some of them, as Jephthah 
 and Samson, are mentioned among the heroes of faith. 
 (Heb. II 132.) The period of the Judges was but pre- 
 paratory for the Kingdom which came next. During 
 the Judges Israel, notwithstanding all the adversi- 
 ties, increased in number and extended in territory. 
 The loose form of government under the Judges was 
 suitable to the growing state of the nation and brought 
 them all to see that something more firm and central 
 was necessary to their safety and usefulness. This 
 they found in the Kingdom. 
 
The Judges 247 
 
 Spiritual Lessons. 
 
 1. Israel in Canaan is typical of the oeliever in a 
 state of rest and also of the dangers of that state. He 
 has the world and flesh and the devil still to contend 
 with. He is especially exposed to the contamination 
 that comes from worldly society. "Come out from 
 among them and be ye separate" is the only safety. 
 
 2. We see the constant tendency of declension to 
 follow revivals. It has ever been so. The enemy 
 sows tares among the wheat. 
 
 3. God's ways of blessing his church in times of 
 need are seen in the great judges he raised up. The 
 best gift God can give the church is a great and good 
 leader. The Luthers and Wesleys and Moodys have 
 often brought the church out of low spiritual states. 
 
 4. The certainty of chastisement to follow apostasy 
 and backsliding is seen plainly in this narrative. 
 Both the church and the individual may read the ways 
 of God here. Backsliding is exceedingly unsafe. 
 
 5. Israel in the Judges illustrates a new born soul 
 abusing its liberty in Christ. ''Every man doing that 
 which is right in his own eyes." 
 
 6. We see the vicissitudes of the believer. Such are 
 not in Heaven yet. One may be "In Christ" and 
 have many sad experiences. 
 
 7. The various classes of enemies are represented 
 here. Some of the oppressors were blood kindred as 
 the Moabites, others not at all connected, as the Ca- 
 naanites. Our temptations come from within and 
 
248 The Bible As It Is 
 
 without. The Enemies in Canaan seem to represent 
 the temptations that are in ourselves. The enemies 
 from outside those that attack from without. 
 
 8. The whole period shows the need of a King. 
 At that time there was no King in Israel." God was 
 preparing them for a king by showing them their 
 state without one. So the believer comes to see by 
 his failures that something stronger than himself 
 is needed. He must be not only "In Christ" but 
 "Christ in him. " This we will see was effected typi- 
 cally when David came and his Messianic line of 
 Kings. 
 
 Some special lessons are : the danger of mixed mar- 
 riages; in Christian work the weak things God uses; 
 Gideon's lamps, pitcher and trumpets; the failure of 
 vast opportunities as Samson's loss of power; the high 
 place woman had in Israel seen in "Deborah," the 
 power of faith and courage seen in Shamgar. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 RUTH 
 
 Ruth is simply a chapter in the time of the Judges 
 as already shown, probably she lived in the time of 
 rest after Deborah and Barek's victory. One purpose 
 of this book is declared in its last word, David. It 
 gives the connecting link with the coming king and 
 Kingdom, and gives also the story of one of the gentile 
 ancestors of Christ. Besides all this it gives a beau- 
 tiful picture of one of the many times of rest the land 
 had when Israel was loyal to God and God was bless- 
 ing Israel. It has a further use in its great moral 
 and spiritual teachings and especially as a picture, in 
 type, of the gospel. Its picture of the social state in 
 the times of the Judges comes properly first. It gives 
 first the account of one of the famines that fell upon the 
 land because of their apostasy, one not recorded in 
 Judges but threatened by God. (Lev. 26: 12-20.) It 
 also gives us knowledge of the emigration of Israelites 
 to distant lands where some permanently made their 
 homes and carried the truth to some extent with them. 
 It confirms also the existence and knowledge and 
 observance to some extent of the Mosaic Law in the 
 custom of attestation in releasing land rights by draw- 
 ing ofif the shoe. (Ruth 4:7- Deut. 25: 7-10.) A 
 249 
 
250 The Bible As It Is 
 
 beautiful picture of harvest times and social life is 
 also given us of that primitive time. 
 
 We see also a beautiful type of the Gentile Church 
 united to the parent stem, that Good Olive Tree Paul 
 speaks of (Rom. 10). Here is foretold the ingather- 
 ing of the Gentiles through the widowed nation of 
 Israel in the later days. It shows Israel as the center 
 of God's plan for the world. 
 
 The spiritual teachings of an mcidental kind are 
 many. The most important centers about the inter- 
 view between Ruth and Naomi, and in the beautiful 
 words spoken by Ruth. (Ch. 1:16-17.) These words 
 express the most astonishing devotion. She declares 
 her intention to give up home and friends, native land 
 and religion, to go with Naomi, to stay with her where- 
 ever she goes or stays, to remain until she died and in 
 the place Naomi dies there will Ruth die and in the 
 place of her sepulcher there will she herself be buried. 
 There is but one other instance of such devotion 
 written and that is the words of Paul ''It is no longer 
 I that love but Christ that liveth in me." The motive 
 is the same. It is spiritual consecration though dimly 
 understood even by Ruth who made the consecration. 
 We need to study the influences in Naomi that drew 
 Ruth to her. We see an example of the power of 
 true character, of true religion and especially of sym- 
 pathy in drawing souls to Christ. 
 
 The whole gospel is here in type. There is the 
 wanderer from Israel like the Prodigal in the far 
 
Ruth 251 
 
 country, there is the return of God, and the reception 
 by the great Bridegroom and the gathered sheaves, 
 and the restored inheritance and the Marriage Supper 
 of the Lamb. 
 
 THE OUTLINE. 
 
 Ch. I. The Migration and Return of the Family of 
 Ruth. 
 
 Ch. 2. Ruth among the Gleaners. 
 
 Ch. 3. Ruth and Boaz. 
 
 Ch. 4. Boaz Redemption of the Inheritance and 
 Marriage to Ruth. Her Descendents.