The like evidence as to the local, personal presence of Jehovah on such occasions, results from the use of the word translated came down, descended, where his presence or the local exercise of his prerogatives is mentioned. Thus, with reference to Babel and the dispersion: “Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower. … So Jehovah scattered them abroad,” &c. Gen. xi. 5. So on the occasion of his first visible appearance to Moses: “Melach Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon Elohim. And Jehovah said, I am come down to deliver them,” &c. Exod. iii. Again: “Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and Jehovah called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up.” Exod. xix. 20. And when Moses took the two tables of stone up to the top of Sinai, “Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.” Exod. xxxv. At the consecration of the seventy elders, “Jehovah came down in a cloud, and spake unto Moses.” Numbers xi. 25. At the sedition of Miriam and Aaron, “Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said, Hear now my words.” Ibid. xii. 5. These and various other passages clearly import a personal descent in a visible form; and no less clearly indicate, by the titles, occasions and acts narrated, that it was the delegated One, the Word, to whom all such manifestations refer, conformably to the allusion to the ascension of Christ, Ephes. iv.: “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens.”
The word translated appeared, in all the instances of local personal manifestation, literally means appeared visibly, was seen; as Gen. i. 9: “Let the dry land appear;” Gen. viii. 5: “The tops of the mountains were seen;” and vii. 1: “Thee have I seen righteous;” ix. 14: “The bow shall be seen;” xxxi. 42: “Elohim hath seen mine affliction;” xlviii. 3: “El-Shadai appeared unto me at Luz;” literally, was seen by me. Judges xiii. 22: “We have seen Elohim.” Exod. xxiv. 10: “And they saw the Elohe of Israel.”
This will be further illustrated by reference to particular instances mentioned in the book of Genesis. “And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah who appeared unto him.” Chap. lxii. 7. That this was a visible manifestation, is indicated not only by the obvious import of the terms employed, but by Abram’s building an altar, and consecrating the locality as a place of worship, and of typical offerings to Jehovah.
Again, chap. xvii. 1: “Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am El-Shadai; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And Abram fell on his face; and Elohim talked with him, saying,” &c. After changing his name to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah, announcing a covenant with him, hearing his prayer for Ishmael, and giving sundry promises and directions, “Elohim left off talking with him, and went up from Abraham.” The language, and all the circumstances and details of this interview, imply a local, personal, visible presence of Jehovah.
The next instance, chap. xviii., is that in which “Jehovah appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre,” in the likeness of man; was entertained by him, walked and conversed with, and heard his requests in behalf of the righteous in Sodom: which undoubtedly was a local, visible, personal appearance of Jehovah the Word.
In the 26th chapter we read that Isaac went to Gerar, “And Jehovah appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt,” &c. Afterwards he removed to Beersheba, “And Jehovah appeared unto him, and said, I am the Elohe of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee,” &c. “And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there.” At these interviews the same promises substantially respecting his descendants were made to him, that had been made to Abraham, with the same introductory formula concerning the appearance of the Divine speaker; and considering that Isaac built an altar and fixed his residence at Beersheba, worshipped, doubtless presenting typical offerings on the altar, and consecrating that as the place of his future worship in the confidence of its being thereafter a place of Divine manifestation, there seems to be very ample ground to conclude that these were local, personal, and visible appearances, similar in their form, as they were in their object, to those vouchsafed to Abraham.
The first instance to be noticed in the history of Jacob, is referred to in chap. xlviii. 3: “And Jacob said unto Joseph, El-Shadai appeared unto me at Luz, and blessed me,” &c. The occasion was that of his vision of a ladder: “And Jehovah stood above it and said, I am Jehovah Elohe of Abraham;” see chap. xxviii. Subsequently, chap. xxxv., he was directed to return and reside at that place. “Elohim said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and make there an altar unto El, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-El; because there (the) Elohim appeared unto him, when he fled,” &c. The repetition of the word appeared in these passages, its implied significance as a reason for building an altar, the occasion referred to, and the object of speaking of it to Joseph, indicate a memorable personal, visible appearance at the place specified.
“And Elohim appeared unto Jacob again, and said unto him, I am El-Shadai; and Elohim went up from him in the place where he talked with him,” chap. 35: which can hardly be taken for any other than a local and visible presence.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Doctrines, Worship, and Faith of those earliest mentioned in Scripture—Reference to the History of Moses, Noah, Joshua.
Waiving for the present a notice of many analogous instances in other parts of Scripture, it may be observed that there are, in the history of the patriarchs, a variety of statements and expressions which, from the occasions to which they relate, the connections in which they occur, or the things specified, naturally imply the local personal presence of the Divine speaker, especially when considered in connection with the instances in which it is clearly shown that he was visibly present. In the course of that history there are numerous intimations that the worshippers of Jehovah had places appropriated to their religious services, where they offered prayers and sacrifices, and where, by an audible voice, he held immediate and familiar converse with them. Thus in the first recorded instance of worship, Gen. iv., we read that Cain, and Abel also, “brought an offering unto Jehovah. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect; and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?” It is apparent from this narrative, and from their dissimilar occupations, that they prepared their offerings not in concert, but separately from each other; that they brought them to the same place at the same time; that they respectively offered them to Jehovah; and that he was present in such a way as to be recognized by them, for he immediately indicated to their apprehension and conviction his acceptance of one and rejection of the other, and spoke directly and pointedly to Cain. After his slaughter of Abel, and probably on his resorting again to the place of worship and Divine manifestation, Jehovah spoke again to him, and pronounced a curse upon him for his crime; to which Cain replied, as though not unaccustomed to speak to Jehovah, and said, among other things, as though conscious that he was excommunicated and banished from the consecrated place: “From thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. … And Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah.” Strongly implying that he had been accustomed to the visible presence, and had seen Jehovah, and that banishment from that place forbade the hope of such vision of him again.
It is evident from the details and circumstances of this scene, and from references to it in other parts of Scripture, that there was no want of intelligence