THE period during which man was under the Law is by no means so long as that which preceded it, when he was without law, nor as that wherein grace abounds, which has followed it. “From Adam to Moses” (Rom. 5:1414Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (Romans 5:14).) covered some 2500 years, and since the resurrection of the Lord nearly 1900 years have elapsed; man was under the law for some 1500 years.
Only a few days of that 1500 years had elapsed before Israel openly and flagrantly broke the law. Even while the Lawgiver was yet in the mount with Jehovah, they cried, “Up, make us gods!” and even while the terrible sound of God’s words— “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them” (Ex. 20:3-53Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:3‑5))―still rang in their ears, they “made them a molten calf,” “worshipped it,” and “sacrificed thereunto.” (ch. 32:8.)
Nationally, the holy law of God was broken by the people to whom it was committed, while they dwelt at the very foot of Sinai, and before they took one day’s journey in the wilderness, as under its covenant. Israel, the people chosen out of the nations by God, said―all answering together― “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (ch. 19; but the Lord declared of them, “They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them;.... I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people” (chs. 32:8, 9); and the Lawgiver, on coming down amongst them from the presence of Jehovah, as he viewed their rebellion, could but cast the tables of the law―written by the finger of God though they were―out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount (vs. 19).
Thus, with sin abounding, commences the age “under the Law,” and unless God had mingled mercy with His judgments, He must have consumed Israel in His wrath. But the mediator lifted up his voice, and his plea was heard; Israel, though plagued for rebellion, was spared.
Idolatry had been set up in the very midst of Israel, and accordingly “Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp,” and thenceforward “every one, which sought the Lord, went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp” (ch. 33:7). God retired from the midst of Israel, and attracted to Himself without the camp all who sought Him. The professing body of Israel had within it individuals true to Jehovah, but to find Him these had to go outside the camp. The faithful remnant within the nation―the true hearted among the many lip-servers― henceforth becomes, in the history of Israel, that company upon which God looks with pleasure, and which waits upon Him, even up to the time of the Messiah.
In God’s ways with man, as seen in the history of Israel, the three great offices He has conferred upon man, in connection with Himself and His people become apparent. Prophet, Priest, and King are part and parcel of Israel’s history. Enoch prophesied before the flood, Noah performed priestly service, the patriarchs offered their sacrifices and uttered inspired words, but in the circle of Israel we find most markedly the three-fold honors of Prophet, Priest, and King.
Moses was a prophet, and the first who communicated the mind of God to man, writing the inspired words for man to heed and to obey. Alas! he was rejected, as we have observed, even while within the clouds that encircled the abode of the Lord on Sinai. For century after century was the voice of the prophet heard, and as often refused. Malachi spoke, and then came a silence for over 400 years, and the message was heard no more until God spake by His Son. Him they would not hear, as the Holy Ghost by Stephen testified― “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” (Acts 7:52, 5352Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. (Acts 7:52‑53))
The prophet communicate God’s mind to His people; the king is their representative. God raised up the royal line in Israel, which should both rule and represent the nation. But Solomon in all his glory worshipped idols. He forsook the living God, and idolatry was the ruin of the kingdom of Israel.
At Solomon’s death the kingdom was split in two, and after some years the crown departed first from Israel, and then from. Judah, ruin and captivity being the bitter end of the once glorious throne God had set up on the earth for man to fill for His praise.
David shines fora short time in the honors and glories of the king of God’s appointment; while Solomon, being crowned before his father’s death, supplements the type, adding, as it were, to the sword and victory peace and abundance for the people, and a temple of praise for Jehovah. David, the king of God’s choice, typifies the Lord obtaining the throne after rejection. Solomon typifies the Lord reigning in glory and peace. When Jesus was born King of the Jews, “Herod the king was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matt. 2:33When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2:3).) From His birth He was unwelcome: nor did the great and the wise of that day, rest, till they had cast out and crucified their King!
The prophet was rejected of the people, and the king cast off subjection to God; Jesus, the Prophet and the King, was set at naught: what shall be said of the priest, and of Him, the Priest?
The priest stands between God and man, and offers sacrifices and gifts. Aaron was called to this honor, and his sons were in the succession. As we look at our diagram we observe that the priestly office in Israel was of far longer duration than that of the king, and its service extended over a larger period than that of the prophet. Indeed; except during the years of the captivity, when there was no temple, and also on a few brief occasions, when there was no temple worship, the priests in Israel stood between the people and Jehovah, to offer up sacrifice to Him.
Man cannot come to God without a sacrifice, and a sacrifice requires an offerer. If man would approach God at all he must come owning that death is his desert as a sinner. So it was with the patriarchs, and with all the faithful among Israel, and so with every believing heart of the present day. Now God in His mercy allowed that the exercise of priestly service in Israel, should continue from Aaron to the Messiah, save with the breaks we have noted. Such were His wonderful ways of grace towards His ancient people.
Yet the priests of Israel, the very men whose service it was to sacrifice the victims, which spake of Jesus, the men whose whole existence as a class on earth related to Him, were His bitterest enemies! If any men in Israel might have been supposed to comprehend the meaning of the Passover we should say it would have been the priests. If any men might have been selected to teach what the atonement signified we should have chosen the priests. But the high priests and the chief priests led on the people to cry to Pilate, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” The long line of the priesthood, the Aaronic succession, which commenced upon the call of God, closed its history as the exponent of sacrifice by the murder of God’s Son.
The Lord was Prophet, King, and Priest. In Him these honors are all combined and made glorious. Man despised and rejected His words, scorned His title, King of the Jews, and nailed Him to the cross. But upon the cross Jesus our Lord offered Himself a sacrifice without spot to God. There the great priestly service in offering up the sacrifice was fulfilled, there the glories of the sacred work of the priest in relation to expiatory sacrifice are seen complete forever.
From that great day of atonement God has set forth that blood, that sacrifice, as expiatory for human sin; and whether they be priests of heathen gods or priests of Christendom, every other expiatory sacrifice offered up from that day is abomination with God. The present age has for one of its characteristics in God’s dealings with man, the glory of Christ the Priest on high, and we may say that that class which professes to be a sacrificing priesthood in Christendom is, as were the Jewish priests that cried for Christ’s death, His bitterest enemy on the earth. Christ now fills the heavens with glory, into which He has ascended; there He sits as High Priest, and awaits the glory of His crown and kingdom upon the earth. The believer rejoices in Him as Priest, who once for all sacrificed Himself, and who lives to make intercession for His people; and he looks for the fulfillment of the sure word of His prophecy when the Lord shall come to the earth again and reign.
The age of law begins with its broken tables, and ends with the dark story of the Prophet rejected and the King crucified. Israel’s history as a nation commenced with the Passover slain in Egypt; it ends as a light bearer for God on the earth in the sacrifice of Christ, the Passover. True, God has great things in store for Israel, but they will never become theirs through law keeping, but through the Prophet, Priest, and King, who shall, in His own power, and by God’s grace, establish and make good the promises of God.