By Water & Blood

Book 5, Chapter 13

From Exodus.

That the Almighty God, being He that answered Moses by an Angel, teaches that He was seen by the Fathers, not by means of an Angel, but by His Son.

[Passages quoted, Exod. iii. 1, 2, 4, 5, 14; vi. 2-4.]

IN the case of the Prophets, Isaiah, say, or Jeremiah, or those like them, a man was seen, and God prophesied |258 through him that was seen, as by an instrument; and now the Person of Christ, now that of the Holy Spirit, and now that of Almighty God, answered through the prophet. So we must suppose the Most High and Almighty God now prophesies the things before us to Moses who is under (240) instruction by the angel that appeared to him. The intention of which must have been of this nature: "To you, O prophet, as one being instructed and not fit for aught but angelic visions, hitherto I have willed to send my angel; and I make my Name clear to thee alone, teaching thee that I am what I am, and that my Name is the Lord; but I not only showed this to thy fathers, but I gave them a greater gift, I appeared to them." I have already shewn Who it was that appeared to the fathers, when I shewed that (b) the angel of God was called God and Lord. It will naturally be asked how He that is beyond the universe, Himself the only Almighty God, appeared to the fathers. And the answer will be found if we realize the accuracy of Holy Scripture. For the Septuagint rendering, "I was seen of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, being their God." Aquila says, "And I was seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a sufficient God," clearly shewing that the Almighty God Himself, Who is One, was not seen in His own Person; (c) and that He did not give answers to the fathers, as He did to Moses by an angel, or a fire, or a bush, but "as a sufficient God": so that the Father was seen by the fathers through the Son, according to His saying in the Gospels, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." For the knowledge of the Father was revealed in Him and by Him. But in cases when He appeared to save men, He was seen in the human form of the Son, giving an earnest before the time to the godly of that salvation which should come (d) through Him to all men; whereas when He was going to be the avenger and chastiser of the wicked Egyptians, He appeared no longer as a sufficient God, but as an angel ministering punishment, and in form of fire and flame, ready at once to devour them like wild and thorny undergrowth. So they say that the bush darkly refers to the |259 wild, savage, and cruel character of the Egyptians, and the fire to the avenging power of the chastisement that overtook them. (241)

CHAPTER 14 (b)

That God the Word appeared in the Form of a Cloud to Moses and All the People, as in Human Form to the Patriarchs.

[Passages quoted, Exod. xix. 9; xxxiii. 9; Num.xii. 5.]

The people then beheld the pillar of cloud, and it spoke (c) to Moses. But who was the speaker? Obviously the pillar of cloud, which before appeared to the fathers in a human form. And I have already shewn that this was not the Almighty God, but another Being Whom we name, as the Word of God, the Christ Who was seen for the sake of the multitude of Moses and the people in a pillar of cloud, because it was not possible for them to see Him like their (d) fathers in human shape. For, surely, it was reserved for the Perfect to be able to see beforehand His future Incarnate appearance among men, and since it was impossible then for the whole people to bear it, He was seen now in fire in order to inspire fear and wonder, and now in a cloud, as it were in a shadowy and veiled form ruling them, as He was also seen, by Moses for their sake.

CHAPTER 15    (242)

That it was not an Angel, who gave Answers to Moses, but Some One More Excellent than an Angel.

[Passages quoted, Exod. xxiii. 20, 21; xxxii. 34; xxxiii. i.]

IT will be plain to all that these could not be the words of a mere angel of God. But of what God could they (c) be, but of the One seen by the forefathers, whom Jacob |260 clearly called the Angel of God? And He we know was the Word of God, being called both the Servant of God, and God Himself and Lord.