The Scriptures
Charles Henry Mackintosh
Table of Contents
The Scriptures: Part 1
Number 1
By "Scriptures" we mean sacred writings. They are a most gracious gift and that they should ever have been recorded is very marvelous. That they should have been preserved for us amidst all the superstition and infidelity of the dark ages, is a standing witness of the goodness and power of God! We can, at this remote point in time, with the volume of inspiration before us and the teaching of the Holy Spirit within us, receive the doctrines of the apostles in all their primitive purity through their epistles. We can be in company with the Son of God, and catch the inimitable utterances which fell from His gracious lips in all their fervor and freshness. We are also able to enter into the divine ways as revealed in past ages and receive instruction, as it were, from the mouth of God. Such is the wonderful reality of possessing the infallible word of the living God.
Blessed be God, He has spoken and inspired His chosen servants to write the revelation of His own mind so that we may read it again and again. In this sacred service, He has been pleased to employ a variety of instruments at different times extending over a period of perhaps seventeen or eighteen hundred years. Persons in very different positions in this life were called and prepared to set before us the mind of God. Sometimes learned men and at other times ignorant and unlearned men were His instruments; on some occasions kings were used in this blessed service and at other times a herdsman or a fisherman.
In many parts and by different instruments, at various times and in many ways, God has graciously revealed His mind in writing. By the Spirit He has manifestly set forth one harmonious whole. However diversified and infinite its depth and range, yet all the parts so fit in with each other that we could not be without any portion of the inspired writings without serious loss. The "words," too, have been given, not according to those taught by human wisdom, but in those which the Holy Spirit teaches. (1 Cor. 2:13.) It is comforting to note that all is given for our profit and blessing. "All [or every] Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect [complete], thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
Moses was commanded of God to write (Ex. 34:27; Deut. 27:3), and the Lord said, "Moses... wrote of Me." John 5:46. Again we read that Moses wrote a song according to the commandment of Jehovah and taught it to the children of Israel. "Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord." Num. 33:2. (See also Deut. 31:19-22.) After the smiting of the rock on Horeb, in order that the people might have water to drink, the Lord said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua." Ex. 17:14.
It is clear that Moses was conscious that the word he gave to Israel had divine authority. He said, "It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth." His writings, therefore, are called "the words of this law," "the covenant,”
“His statutes which are written in this book of the law," and "Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests." Deut. 28:1, 58; 29:21; 30:10; 31:9. These were some of the beginnings of the Holy Scriptures.
Joshua, who was Moses's successor, was solemnly charged by Jehovah to observe and do according to all the law which Moses commanded. It was also said, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Josh. 1:8. C.H. Mackintosh
The Day of Glory
The day of glory bearing
Its brightness far and near,
The day of Christ's appearing
We now no longer fear.
He once a spotless victim
For us on Calvary bled;
Jehovah did afflict Him,
And bruised Him in our stead.
To Him by grace united,
We joy in Him alone;
And now by faith delighted,
Behold Him on the throne.
Then let Him come in glory,
Who comes His saints to raise!
To perfect all the story
Of wonder, love, and praise.
The Scriptures: Part 2
Joshua was assured by direct communication from Jehovah of the divine origin and authority of the writings of Moses. He was also taught that his success in the service of God would be connected with his observing to do according to all that Moses commanded, without turning from it to the right hand or to the left. Thus Joshua had sacred writings committed to him which were to be regarded by him as the Word of God.
We find also that Joshua wrote on an altar to the Lord God of Israel. "He wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel." And to show how genuinely he owned the divine authenticity of the writings of Moses, we are told that "afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Josh. 8:32-35.
Isaiah Wrote: Jeremiah Wrote:
The prophet Samuel was also a writer. He "told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord." 1 Sam. 10:25. We read also that Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, wrote the acts of Uzziah first and last. (2 Chron. 26:22.)
“Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see,
and shalt read all these words; then shalt thou say, O Lord, Thou hast spoken against this place." Jer. 51:60-62.
Daniel tells us that he had a dream, and visions of his head upon his bed, and he wrote the dream. He also acknowledged the divine authenticity of sacred writings, for he tells us that he "understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem," and he also owned the divine authority of what is "written in the law of Moses." Dan. 7:1; 9:2, 11.
The prophet Hosea says, "I have written to him [Ephraim] the great things of My law." Hos. 8:12. The Lord said to Habakkuk, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Hab. 2:2. The Psalmist said, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." Psa. 45:1. The wise man exclaimed, "Have not I written to thee excellent things?" Prov. 22:20. These instances are enough, we judge, to show that writing was a means ordered by God for communicating and treasuring up divinely given truth, and that it was practiced and acknowledged by His servants.
Sacred Writings
Scriptures, or sacred writings, with all the value of divine authority were also recognized throughout Old Testament times. As we have seen, the statutes written in the Law of Moses were to be kept. When the people of Israel had a king it was said, "He shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them." Deut. 17:19. Joshua taught the people to "take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you." Josh. 22:5.
In David's day, the Lord brought a breach upon Uzzah so that he died before the ark, because the king had not sought to do the work after the due order. But when he and those with him acted as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord which had been written, then they brought up the ark of God with gladness. (See 2 Sam. 6:7, 8; 1 Chron. 15:13, 15, 28.) In David's dying charge to Solomon, he enjoined him to "keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself." 1 Kings 2:3.
Even Amaziah, though he did not do that which was right as David his father had done, still owned the authority of sacred writings.
Written in the Book
We find when he executed judgment on those who had slain his father that, "the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin." 2 Kings 14:6.
King Asa "commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment." 2 Chron. 14:4.
Jehoshaphat "sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in His commandments." He also sent teachers who taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them. In the battlefield he said, "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. 17:4, 9; 20:20. C.H. Mackintosh
The Scriptures: Part 3
In the reign of Hezekiah, there was a remarkable turning to the authority of the sacred writings. They soon discovered that they had not kept the Passover "for a long time in such sort as it is written." We are told, therefore, that the men of Judah had given to them by God one heart to do the commandment of the king, and of the princes by the word of the Lord. Moreover, Hezekiah appointed morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the Law of Moses. (2 Chron. 30:5, 12; 31:3.)
In the days of Josiah, king of Judah, the wonderful revival is traced to the practical acknowledgment of the divine authority of the Scriptures. It was brought about by Hilkiah the priest finding in the house of the Lord "a book of the law of the Lord given written] by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.... And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes." The reason was that he learned from these writings that they were justly exposed to divine wrath and the curses written in the book, because of their sins in having forsaken the Lord God, and having burnt incense to other gods. 'They bowed, therefore, to the authority of the sacred writings, and kept the Passover according to the ordinance "as it is written in the book of Moses," which was accompanied with God's abundant blessing. They were so exercised by the authority of Scripture about it that we read the king's commandment was, "kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses." We are further told that the evil and "abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him." (2 Chron. 34:24, 14-21; 35:6, 12; 2 Kings 23:24, 25.)
The return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon was also strikingly marked by their acknowledgment of the authority of the written law of the Lord. We know that Ezra "was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given." So truly did he recognize the divine authenticity of the sacred writings that we are told, "Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments." We read also that when they were gathered together as one man at Jerusalem, they "builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.... They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written." Again, when the temple was finished, they dedicated the house of God with joy; they offered a sin offering according to the twelve tribes of Israel. "And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is written in the book of Moses." (Ezra 7:6, 10; 3:2, 4; 6:15-18.)
When Nehemiah was the king's cup-bearer, we read that he fasted, wept, and prayed to God, and pleaded the word which He had commanded by His servant Moses, and written in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. When the wall was completed, the people gathered themselves together as one man in the street, and spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses which the Lord commanded to Israel. This he did, and read therein, and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, and others caused the people to understand the law, so they read the book of the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. They found written in the law which the Lord commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths; "for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God." Moreover, we are told that after this "they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever. Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude." (Neh. 1:8, 9; 8:1-18; 13:1, 3.)
It is most interesting to observe here that the faithful who returned from the captivity went back for divine authority to that which had been ordered of God from the beginning. They did not go to any particular period or revival, but stood for what had been written, apart from all traditions of men. Is not this always the path of the faithful in an evil time? C.H. Mackintosh
The Scriptures: Part 4
Ever since the writings of Moses, God's people have recognized the divine authority of the written word. Besides the books of Moses, God has added to them from time to time by various instruments, and especially by prophets. They not only enforced the divine authority of what had been written, but also spoke authoritatively with "Thus saith the Lord," or "The word of the Lord came," etc. The future blessings of God's earthly people were spread out largely by them to cheer the faithful and to animate them with hope. Although those who were so employed were men of like passions with ourselves, yet to assure us of the authentic character of their ministry and that they gave out the words of the Lord, we are told that "prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21. All the prophets call earnestly upon the people to be subject to the word of the Lord, for they declared that they spoke His words.
Isaiah said, "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." On another occasion he said, Thus said the Lord, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word." And again, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word." He also exultingly cried out in contrast with the frailty of man, "The word of our God shall stand forever." Besides this testimony to the truth of the words which he ministered as being the word of God, he reproves the wicked in Israel because they cast away the word of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. The prophet further assures them that "The Lord hath spoken." He said, "Hear the word of the Lord." "Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel." (Isa. 34:16; 66:2, 5; 40:8; 5:24; 1:2, 10, 24.)
Jeremiah was so sensitive to the divine authority of the words he communicated to the people, that we find him saying, "Thus saith the Lord," and "Hear the counsel of the Lord." So divinely true were the words to his own conscience that he calls them God's words. He says, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." Again, we hear him saying, "The word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name. But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." (Jer. 19:1; 49:20; 15:16; 20:8, 9.)
Ezekiel says, "the word of the Lord came unto me," and "the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel," and "Again the word of the Lord came unto me." This is repeated many times in his prophecy and he was also commanded to write. The Lord said unto him, "Thou shalt speak My words unto them," and in a vision he saw "a roll... written within and without." So assured was he that what he declared was the word of God, that he said, "The word that I shall speak shall come to pass" and "the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. 7:1; 1:3; 16:1; 2:7, 9, 10; 12:25, 28.)
No one can carefully consider the book of Psalms without seeing the value and authority of the Word of God frequently set forth. It opens by marking one point in the righteous man, being that he meditates in the law of God day and night. In Psa. 119 almost every verse speaks of the word, statutes, commandments, or law of the Lord. Not only does it speak of the purity of the word itself and its cleansing virtue, but its divine authenticity is so regarded that he says, "The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver," and "I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold." David was one of those holy men of old who was moved to speak by the Holy Spirit. (Psa. 1:2; 119:9, 72, 127.)
Daniel owned the writings, or books of Jeremiah as "the word of the Lord," and also "the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God," and that God had confirmed His word which He spake against us "as it is written in the law of Moses." We know that the God of heaven made known and revealed wonderful things to Daniel, and used him to communicate His mind both concerning the times of the Gentiles and His own people. Some things concerning them have since been accomplished, and much remains to be fulfilled. (Dan. 9:2, 11, 13; 2:19, 28, 44.)
The other prophets generally ascribed the authenticity of their ministrations to God. In Hosea it is, "the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea." In Joel, "The word of the Lord that came to Joel." Amos said, "Thus saith the Lord." Obadiah said, "Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom." In Jonah it is twice said, "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah." Micah begins with, "The word of the Lord that came to Micah." Nahum says, "Thus saith the Lord." Habakkuk tells us, "The Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Zephaniah begins with, "The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah." (Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Amos 1:3; Obad. 1:1; Jonah 1:1;3:1; Mic. 1:1; Nah. 1:12; Hab. 2:2; Zeph. 1:1.)
The testimony of the prophets was nearly completed before the Jews were carried away into Babylon. We have only three post-captivity prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Haggai distinctly affirms that his word was "the word of the Lord," and that it came to him at different times. He announced it authoritatively with, "Thus saith the Lord." Hag. 1:1, 7; 2:1, 7, 20.
Zechariah also asserts the divine source of his solemn and beautiful utterances when he says, "The word of the Lord came unto Zechariah." Zech. 1:1, 7; 7:1; 8:1.
Malachi also introduces his testimony with, "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi." It is well to observe that this last Old Testament prophet presses, in the Lord's name, the divine authority of the writings of Moses, saying, "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Mal. 1:1; 4:4.
C.H. Mackintosh El
The Scriptures: Part 5
From the days of Moses, sacred writings were recognized by the faithful in Old Testament times as the Word of God, therefore demanding implicit subjection and continual obedience. They were not to "add unto the word" or "diminish aught" from that which God commanded. It was so indispensable that the Lord instructed Israel that he might "know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." (Deut. 4:2; 8:3.) But while God's people were called to hearken to, and hold fast what He had revealed, and to obey it at all cost, yet it is well to observe how remarkably in these times God's blessing was with those who honored Him in obeying His truth. His displeasure followed those who turned away from it. This runs all through Scripture. It will be interesting to notice a few examples.
The disobedience of our first parents in doing what was contrary to the word of God, has been followed with unutterable misery to them and to their posterity. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12. Cain became "a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth," for he refused to hearken to the voice of God and do His will. Abel Noah believed God's testimony as to coming judgment, because men had corrupted the earth and filled it with violence. He therefore, according to the word of God, prepared an ark to the saving of himself and his house. The world, so overrun with infidelity as to reject the testimony of this preacher of righteousness, was therefore swept away by divine judgment.
Abraham was singularly blest and honored in obeying the word of God, while just Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day and had to escape for his life. His posterity came under God's curse. All this could be traced to walking after the sight of his eyes and doing his own will instead of being subject to the will and word of God.
When God gave the children of Israel manna in the wilderness, He commanded that no man should leave of it till the morning. But some of the people did not listen to Moses and left some manna till the morning. It bred worms and stank and Moses was wroth with them. On the sixth day the Lord sent them a double portion so as to feed them also on the Sabbath day. They had to lay it up to be kept until the morning according to the word of the Lord by Moses and it did not stink, neither was there any worm in it. Again we find there were some who would not believe God, that there would be none sent down on the seventh day; therefore, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?" Ex. 16:28. Scarcely anything could show more strikingly the divine authority of the Word, the peace and blessing connected with subjection to it, and the evil of departing from it.
The children of Israel, after the solemn covenant of the law when they promised obedience to all the words which the Lord had said, almost immediately rebelled in making a golden calf, and worshiping and sacrificing to it saying, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Ex. 32:4. Thus they brought upon themselves the just judgment of God in acting so contrary to His holy word. We are told, "There fell of the people that day about three thousand men." v.28.
When Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, entered upon the solemn office of priesthood, they were cut off by instant death because they offered strange fire which the Lord commanded them not to do. The Lord said, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified." Lev. 10:3.
When the son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed, God commanded that he should be put to death, and that all the congregation should certainly stone him. (Lev. 24:10-16.)
Those, too, who were under the Law of Moses, were commanded to keep the Sabbath day holy and to do no manner of work in it. When a man therefore, despised the word of the Lord and was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, he was stoned to death. The word of the Lord was, "The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." Num. 15:35. These are some of the instances of the sad results of despising the Law of Moses they died without mercy.
Saul lost the kingdom by rejecting the word of the Lord. He was commanded by the Lord of hosts to utterly destroy and not spare Amalek, man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Instead of this he spared the king of the Amalekites, Agag, the best of the sheep, oxen, lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. Saul might have thought hg was doing a good thing in reserving some of the sheep and oxen for sacrifices, but it was contrary to the word of the Lord. Therefore Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king." 1 Sam. 15:22, 23. C. H. Mackintosh
The Scriptures: Part 6
When David set forth to bring up the ark of the Lord from Kirjath-jearim, because he did not follow the due order, according to the word of the Lord, it was attended with disastrous consequences—Uzzah was smitten and died. Instead of the ark being brought up to the city of David, they carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. But when David found from Scripture that "none ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites" and thus acted, then they brought up the ark of God with great gladness and rejoicing. (2 Sam. 6; 1 Chron. 15.) Can any instance more strikingly show God's jealousy for the authority of His own word than this?
In tracing further the solemn way in which God dealt with those who despised the authority of His own word, whether written or spoken by His servants, we notice His interference on account of the idolatry of His people. The children of Israel "served idols, whereof the Lord had said, ye shall not do this thing." They would not hear His prophets, but hardened their necks and rejected His statutes and His covenant. "They left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images... and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.... Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.... The Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria." 2 Kings 17:16, 18, 23.
The Ten Tribes
Where the ten tribes are, no one knows with certainty to this day; hence, they are sometimes spoken of as the lost tribes. However, the scripture must be fulfilled that they will yet be gathered back to their own land according to the word of the prophet Ezekiel and other servants of the Lord.
The Two Tribes
Notwithstanding the solemn warning in God's removing these ten tribes out of His sight because of their transgression, scarcely a century had elapsed before the commandment of the Lord came to remove Judah also out of His sight, because of the sins of Manasseh. Besides, the Lord God sent to them by His messengers rising up continually and carefully, but they mocked His messengers, despised His words, and misused His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, so that there was no remedy. So "the king of Babylon.... carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land." 2 Kings 24:12-14.
“The king of the Chaldees,... slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age." The people were in captivity for seventy years, "to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years." 2 Chron. 36:17, 21. What a solemn thing it is to turn away from God and not to hearken to His Word! How offensive to Him to profess to be His people, and yet not be obedient to His will according as He has caused it to be written for our learning and comfort!
Examples of Blessing
The cases in the Old Testament we have thus far looked at, have been for the most part showing the dreadful consequences of despising the Word of God. We will now turn to a few examples of God's remarkable blessing and honor on those who, in times of great darkness, have stood at all costs for the claims and divine authority of the Scriptures. We shall always find whether in the times of the Judges or of the Kings, even when they had for a long season been without the true God, that when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their trouble, He was found of them. (Judg. 2:16-18; 3:9-15; 4:3-7; 2 Chron. 15:4.)
We are told that Jehoshaphat walked in the commandments of the Lord God of his father, and not after the doings of Israel. (2 Chron. 17:3, 4.) This was boldly standing against his own people for the authority of God, and His Word. But more than this, he taught the people by the Levites, who had the book of the law of the Lord with them, and went about throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. God was with Jehoshaphat therefore in a remarkable way, for "the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat." v. 10. So truly did he hold the authority of Scripture that the king's motto seems to have been: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. 20:20.
Authority of Scripture
When Hezekiah came to the throne, he found that the doors of the temple had been shut up, the lamps put out, and neither incense burnt nor sacrifice offered according to the Scriptures, in the holy place to the Lord God of Israel, but filthiness was in the holy place. The people had forsaken the Lord and turned their backs upon the Lord; they had burnt incense to other gods and made altars in every corner of Jerusalem. Sensitive to these fearful evils, the king brought in the priests and the Levites, opened the doors, cleansed the house, offered a sin offering, and made reconciliation with the blood upon the altar for all Israel. Afterward he utterly destroyed all the images and groves. This was according to the law of the Lord.
Moreover, they found they had not kept the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel for a long time in such sort as it is written. So the king sent to all Israel and Judah that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. This was heartily responded to. "So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel [nearly three hundred years] there was not the like in Jerusalem." 2 Chron. 30:26.
Not many years had passed before the sin of Judah became very great again, helped on by the great wickedness of King Manasseh. So when young Josiah came to the throne, carved images, molten images, groves and the altars of Baalim were very abundant in Judah. The young king destroyed these and set to work to repair the house of the Lord. In it the priest found "a book of the law of the Lord" given by Moses. This book was read before the king. "And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes." 2 Chron. 34:19. He saw they were all justly exposed to God’s wrath. So weighty was the authority of the Word of God to the king's soul that he read it to all the people great and small, "and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord." v. 30.
Josiah
Josiah and the children of Israel kept the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. "And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." 2 Chron. 35:18. Great was the blessing and joy of those who so acted on the Word of God.
From these few examples which we have selected from the ancient scriptures, it is clear that a divine revelation was recognized by the faithful from the time of Moses, as that which had proceeded out of the mouth of God. Can we fail to notice when these sacred writings were despised, how markedly God's displeasure was manifested, and what misery the people had to undergo before any were awakened to their state, and they turned again to the living and true God? On the other hand, when what God had said was hearkened to, and the people acted upon it, what remarkable blessing and comfort always followed! Could there be more striking proofs given of the scriptures of the Old Testament being a divine revelation? C. H. Mackintosh
The Scriptures: Part 7
The books of Ezra and Nehemiah set before us very strikingly, in many ways, the blessedness of returning to God and acting obediently to His Word in an evil time. Ezra, like others we have seen, not only sought the law of the Lord for himself to act on, but he spread the truth among others; "he taught Israel statutes and judgments.”
The priests and Levites had their places, "as it is written in the law of Moses." They also kept the Passover on the day it was ordered in the Holy Scriptures, and also the feast of unleavened bread seven days, as it was written, "with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful." They also found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. The people acted on this at once. They made themselves booths and sat under the booths, for since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, the children of Israel had not done so, and there was very great gladness. How encouraging to us are all these examples of the blessing which is always connected with obedience to His Word!
We shall call attention to another instance before closing our remarks on the blessing connected with obeying God's Word, and the terrible consequences of despising it. Jeremiah lived in a day when truth was trodden down in the streets, when the people had forsaken the Fountain of living waters and had hewed unto themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which could hold no water. A sense of this gave the faithful prophet much suffering, yet he speaks of having much gladness and rejoicing. How was this? He says, "Thy words were found." It would seem they were so seldom heard that he had to search for them. "I did eat them" not merely look at them and admire them, but receive them into his heart by faith, "and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." Observe, they were not his own thoughts or circumstances, but God's thoughts as revealed in His holy Word.
There was another man who lived at the same time, not a man in poverty and seclusion, but in wealth and prominence; it was Jehoiakim, the king.
The king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them. But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.
Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words. Jer. 36:21-32.
What a very solemn thing to reject the Word of God! How fully all these instances exemplify the words of Jehovah, "Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." 1 Sam. 2:30.
How important it is to have in constant remembrance the fact that we have a revelation from God and that "forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." This alone is the authority for faith; we receive the divine testimony and set to our seal that God is true. The infallibility of the Word of God stands, in widest contrast with the traditions and commandments of men. In the days of the prophets, the great point of controversy was whether God's Word was to be believed and acted on or not. And even to this day as we may consider the New Testament, the point still is whether man, either a rationalist, a ritualist, or an infidel is to be believed to the rejection of the divine authority of Scripture.
C.H. Mackintosh