271. Revelation 12:1. The moon is a type of the revelation God made and the ordinances he instituted under the Old Testament, or of me Old Testament constitution and administration, and is so used (Revelation 12:1). See notes in loc.
And it is made use of in Scripture also as a type of the church; it is so in the festival of the new moon. See notes on Numbers 10:10.
[JE identifies the new moon as "a type of the beginning the new and glorious dispensation introduced by Jesus Christ, wherein the gospel was to be clearly and plainly preached and proclaimed unto all nations. The moon is a lively image of the church, as she borrows all her light from the sun; so doth the church receive light from Christ, the Son of Righteousness." He contrasted the old moon, the church under the Old Testament, with the new moon, the church under the New Testament.]
The former received light from "Christ yet to come," and the latter "from Christ already come."
[JE associates "the conjunction of the sun and moon in the time of the change" with the incarnation of Christ, and he cites Arthur Bedford's judgment that Christ's conception probably occurred in the Virgin Mary at the "time of the change of the moon" ("Blank Bible"). ]
The church under the Old Testament, in the institution
of that festival, must be supposed to be represented under the type of the moon before its conjunction with the sun, i.e. Christ the Sun, from whom the church borrows her light. The gospel light granted to the Old Testament church in its different successive ages was very much like the light of the moon in the several parts of the revolution it performs, which ends in its conjunction with the sun.
The first calling of Abraham, the father of the nation and founder of their church, as separated from the rest of the world by God's revealing, and establishing, and sealing his covenant to him and his seed, and bestowing the privileges of it upon them, and also the first institution of the administration of the church of Israel by Moses, may each of them be looked upon as the beginning of the moon's course in this revolution, wherein it sets out in the beginning of its month for a conjunction with Christ, its sun, at the conclusion of it.
Christ's coming, and so mercifully and remarkably appearing to Abraham from time to time as his friend, and sometimes in the form of a man, as if incarnate, eating and drinking with him, and doing such great things for him and by him, and particularly his entering into covenant with him as the father and founder of this church, may be looked upon as this moon's first conjunction with the sun, or with Christ, from whence in her revolution she set out for the other conjunction at Christ's coming by his incarnation and resurrection.
Abraham was not only the natural, but in some sense the spiritual, father of the church (as he is called in the New Testament, the father of believers), and therein is a type of Christ, and was in some respect a father instead of Christ, till Christ came.This sentence is a later interlineation. After this, that nation and church at first was very small and weak, but they gradually grew greater and more and more flourishing till Solomon's time, which was about the middle of the space between Abraham and Christ, or the middle of the revolution from one conjunction to another.
And then it was full moon; then both the nation and church were in their greatest glory. But from that time they were gradually diminished and dwindled, first by the nation's dividing into two kingdoms, and then by the captivity of the ten tribes, and then the captivity of the kingdom of Judah, and then after that by various calamities they suffered after the captivity, under the Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchies, until at last the scepter departed from Judah, and they were put under a Roman governor; and their light was as it were put out, as the moon when she is just come to her conjunction with the sun.
But as the calling of Abraham, the father of the church and nation, may be looked upon as the beginning of the revolution with respect to the being and prosperity of the nation or church itself, so Christ's revealing himself to that people by Moses, the teacher of the church and the father of the prophets, by whom the administration they were under was first instituted, and who gave the first written revelation to it, may be looked upon as the beginning of the revolution with respect to the light that church had by prophecy and revelation by God's word, as written in the Old Testament, which Old Testament revelation is, as has been already observed, compared in Scripture to the reflected light of the moon in the night, to serve in the absence of the sun.
Christ's coming, as he did to the children of Israel in Moses' time, his appearing first to him in the burning bush, and in such a wonderful way redeeming them out of Egypt—which was, if I may so say, the Old Testament redemption—redeeming them and revealing himself to them by Moses, and entering covenant with them by Moses (their great prophet, and king, and intercessor, like to Christ, and that was instead of God to Pharaoh, and instead of Christ to the people, and was as it were the Old Testament Christ; and therefore that church is called his "body," by Jude, Jude 9 of his epistle), his coming down out of heaven to dwell amongst the people, whereby he as it were bowed the heavens and came down [Psalms 18:9], and the mountains flowed down at his presence [Isaiah 64:3], his speaking to the people with an audible voice, his speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend, his appearing in the form of a man to the seventy elders [Numbers 11:24–25] (when they saw the God of Israel, and did eat and drink, which is spoken of as a new thing); and afterwards leading them into Canaan, and working such wonders for them by Joshua, who bears the name of Jesus and was called the shepherd and stone of Israel in Jacob's blessing of Ephraim [Genesis 49:24], and was to the people in Christ's stead, as their leader and captain of salvation—I say, these things were as it
were the first conjunction of the moon with the sun, whence she set out in her revolution, when the gospel light, or the revelation of Christ and the great truths respecting him, was but very small and dim, being almost wholly hid under types and shadows.
After this it gradually increased; the prophets that were afterwards in Israel were more clear than Moses was in what they taught of gospel truth. The succession of prophets began in Samuel, and David had much of the spirit of prophecy. Gospel light was much more full and clear in the revelations made by him than it had been in any revelation the church enjoyed before. But in the revelations that were given by the prophet Isaiah, gospel light is fullest and clearest of all, beyond what we have in any other Old Testament revelation.
This was at about the middle of the space between Moses and Christ. In Isaiah, the Old Testament church enjoyed gospel light as it were reflected from a full moon. There was no prophet afterwards that spake so fully of Christ, and afterwards the spirit of prophecy diminished. It continued in a smaller degree till some time after the captivity, and then wholly ceased in Malachi, or a little after his time; and the minds of the people became more [and] more darkened as to their notions of Christ and his kingdom, till Christ's time when they were exceeding corrupt and carnal, [and] expected a temporal messiah. They were under blind guides that led 'em into the ditch, and had in a great measure made void the commandment of God by their tradition, as the light of the moon ceases as she approaches to her conjunction with the sun.
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