04.08 - Revelation and its Method

(8) Revelation and its Method

God spoke to the Hebrews by the Prophets, and by divers portions, and in divers manners, regarding His purposes toward the race. lie made Himself known by his personal activity among them, and after the analogy of the human factors in their history. He dwelt and moved among them as their God and Saviour; came into close contact with them that they might sec His works and acts on their behalf, and know His relations to them. He was known to them by a distinctive name; He spoke and declared to them His mind and will, and dealt with them as He did with no other people, because they were to Him a chosen people chosen for a special purpose, and I le loved them and was gracious to them. In these particulars God dealt with them in ways analogous with the human factors in their history, save always with that difference which distinguishes the Divine from the human. But just as man reveals himself, his will, purpose, and relation to his fellows, by his speech, actions, and conduct towards them, so God revealed Himself to Israel. But though the method was analogous it was not identical. The infinite God has ways and means of making Himself known, and declaring His will finite which man has not. He has freer and fuller access to the minds and consciences of men than man has, and in marvellous ways can reveal Himself to them and in them.

Hence the reality of the revelation of God to men is not less but greater than is the human: not feebler but fuller, and carries with it greater conviction and assurance than the human does. We need not dwell on the outward historical and wonderful dealings of God with Israel, and on their behalf. How He over ruled and controlled the forces of nature, and made them to work for their good; how by His direct intervention He wrought changes, achieved results, and accomplished His purposes towards them. We are concerned with the moral, religious and spiritual revelations of God, which, coming to them, enlightened their minds, heightened and quickened their mental energy and moral activity, stirred their dormant and latent faculties, and gave them a knowledge of the divine plans and purposes which others did not know. God not only gave them these revelations of Himself and of His purposes, but He gave them eyes to see, and minds to understand and interpret them for the instruction and edification of others. God appeared to men in visions and in dreams, and in a waking state, when there were presented to them visions of God and of His purpose and will. God is sometimes represented as speaking audibly from heaven to men as to Jacob at Bethel, to Israel at Sinai, to Moses on the Mount, to Samuel in the Temple at Shiloh, to Balaam at Peor, to Jesus at His baptism and transfiguration, to Paul on his way to Damascus, and afterwards when he heard unspeakable words. At other times messages were mediated by means of angelophanies, theophanies, and divers manifestations. At other times it would seem the revelation was realised inwardly within the human soul and conscience as in the burdens, visions, and revelations of Prophets and Apostles when they were said to have “seen the Word of the Lord,” and the Lord revealed His secret to them, and they heard the still small voice, and suggestions and revelations came to the mind. It was thus God made himself known, and revealed His will to Israel in ways which accord with the distinctive and peculiar relation in which He stood to them, and by which lie became a cofactor in their history.