“Ye have despised Jehovah which is among you.” Numb. xi. 20.
The Egyptians “have heard that thou, Jehovah, art among this people; that thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face; and that thy cloud standeth over them; and that thou goest before them by day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.” Numb. xiv. 14. Thus Moses argued to avert the destruction threatened on occasion of the murmuring at the report of the spies. The passage clearly imports that it was Jehovah himself who was seen face to face, and who went in the cloud.
So when a portion of the people resolved presumptuously to proceed, Moses says, Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you. Numb. xiv. 42; Deut. i. 42.
“The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp.” Deut. xxiii. 14.
In the future misery and desolation of the people they will say, “Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?” Deut. xxxi. 17.
When the Israelites were about to cross the Jordan to Jericho, Joshua, referring to the miracle by which they were to pass over dry-shod, says, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you.”
Moses is directed to exclude lepers, “that they defile not the camp in the midst of which I dwell.” Numb. v. 3.
“The sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah; and Satan came also amongst them.” Job i. 6. The context shows that a local personal presence is intended.
“God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.” Ps. xlvi. 5. “Great is the Holy One in the midst of thee.” Isa. xii. 6. “I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee.” Hosea xi. 9. “Thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us; leave us not.” Jer. xiv. 9.
Joel, predicting the millennium, says, ii. 27, “Ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else.” See Zeph. iii. 15–17: “The King of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.” And Zech. ii. 5, x. 11, and viii. 3: “For I, saith Jehovah, will be the glory in the midst of her. Lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. And many nations, &c. Thus saith Jehovah, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called, A city of truth; and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, The holy mountain.”
Jesus himself stood in the midst, &c. Luke xxiv. 36, John, &c. In the midst of the seven candlesticks. Rev. i. 13; ii. 1. In the midst of the throne stood a Lamb. Rev. v. 6.
The angel Jehovah appeared in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Exod. iii. 2. Jehovah spake out of the midst of the fire. Deut. iv. 12.
“Jehovah said unto Moses, Lo, I come to thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee. Be ready, … for the third day Jehovah will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. … And on the third day, in the morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount. … And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with the Elohim; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because Jehovah descended upon it in fire. … And … Moses spake, and (the) Elohim answered him by a voice. And 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. … And Elohim spake, saying, I am Jehovah, thy Elohe. … Thou shalt have no other Elohim before me.” Exod. xix., xx.
If the acts here attributed to Moses are literally described, so also are those of Jehovah. If Moses literally went up to the top of the mount, the narrative no less plainly avers that Jehovah came down to the top of Sinai. He came down visibly—in the sight of the people; was personally and locally present.
On another occasion, chap. xxiv., he said unto Moses, “Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders, and worship ye afar off; and Moses alone shall come near Jehovah, but they shall not come nigh. … Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the Elohe of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work. … They saw (the) Elohim, and did eat and drink.”
No terms could well express more distinctly a personal appearance, in the form seen by Abraham and others. His person was manifest to their senses. They ate and drank in his presence, who in the same form partook of a repast with the patriarch, and walked and conversed with him as one human person does with another.
“Jehovah called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. … And Moses went into the midst of the cloud.” Exod. xxvi. 16, 18. The cloud then was such that Moses could subsist in and be enveloped by it.
“And Jehovah said, I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.” Levit. xvi. 2. In this and similar instances a local personal appearance is evidently intended. No such phraseology would be suited to indicate the omnipresence, or merely the spiritual presence of Jehovah. See Deut. xxxi. 15.
“And the cloud of Jehovah was upon them by day when they went out of the camp. And it came to pass when the ark set forward that Moses said, Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Jehovah, unto the many thousands of Israel.” Numb. x. 35, 36.
On these occasions the cloud visibly rose above the tabernacle, and advanced before the children of Israel; and again descended and rested on the tabernacle. The address of Moses seems unintelligible, unless Jehovah was personally present.
“And Jehovah came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle. … And he said, With Moses will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently; … and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold.” Numb. xii. Surely a local personal presence is here intended.
“At the door of the tabernacle before Jehovah, I will meet you, to speak there unto thee; and there I will meet with the children of Israel; and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory; and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their Elohim. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their Elohe, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them.” Exod. xxix. 42–46. “Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel.” Numb. xxxv. 34. “I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places wherein I have walked with the children of Israel,” &c. 2 Sam. vii., and 1 Chron. xvii.
So of the phrases, “dwelleth between the cherubim,” “sitteth between the cherubim,” and the like, which imply the local personal presence of Jehovah.
The local presence and agency of the Messenger Jehovah, as Captain of his hosts, and dictator to Joshua of all the steps taken by him in the conquest and destruction of the Canaanites, is clearly indicated throughout the book of Joshua.
Joshua had, for forty years in the wilderness, as minister to Moses, been familiar with the personal presence, the agency, the miraculous power, and the voice of the Messenger, in the tabernacle, in the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, on mount Sinai, and on many peculiar and special occasions.
His name properly signifies Saviour. The Hebrew word Jehoshua is equivalent to the Greek name Jesus, or Saviour.
On the occurrence of the war with Amalek, shortly after the passage of the Red Sea, Joshua was appointed by Moses to command the army of the Israelites. He led out the chosen men of war, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur took their station on a neighboring hill, where Moses held up the rod of God, as a token that all the success under Joshua, in the destruction of the Amalekites, was owing to the superior power of Jehovah exerted specially