And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us-John 1:14.
If we turn to the New Testament we find that there, under another image, the
same strain of thought as in the Old Testament is presented. The Word of
God, who from everlasting "was with God, and was God" [John 1:1], is
represented as being the Agent of Creation, the Source of all human
illumination, the Director of Providence, the Lord of the Universe.
"By Him were all things created" [Col. 1:16]. So, surely, these two halves
make a whole: and the Angel of the Lord, separate and yet so strangely
identified with Jehovah, who at the crises of the nation's history, and
stages of the development of the process of Revelation, is manifested, and
the Eternal Word of God, whom the New Testament reveals to us, are one and
the same.
This truth was transiently manifested in the Old Testament. The vision of
Joshua (see Joshua 5) passed, the ground that was hallowed by His foot is
undistinguished now in the sweltering plain around the mound that once was
Jericho. But the fact remains: the humanity, that was only in appearance,
and for a few minutes assumed then, has now been taken up into everlasting
union with the Divine nature, and a Man reigns on the Throne and is
Commander of all who battle for the truth and the right.
The eternal order of the universe is before us here. It only remains to say
a word in reference to the sweep of the command which Joshua's vision
assigns to the Angel of the Lord. "Captain of the Lord's host" [Josh. 5:15]
means a great deal more than the true General of Israel's little army. It
does mean that, or the words and the vision would cease to have relevance
and bearing on the moment's circumstances and need. But it includes also, as
the usage of Scripture would sufficiently show, if it were needful to adduce
instances of it, all the ordered ranks of loftier intelligent beings, and
all the powers and forces of the universe.
These are conceived of as an embattled host, comparable to an army in the
strictness of their discipline and their obedience to a single will. It is
the modern thought that the universe is a Cosmos and not a Chaos, an ordered
unit, with the addition of the truth beyond the reach and range of science,
that its unity is the expression of a personal will. It is the same thought
which the centurion had, to Christ's wonder, when he compared his own power
as an officer in a legion, where his will was implicitly obeyed, to the
power of Christ over diseases and sorrows and miseries and death, and
recognized that all these were His servants, to whom, if His autocratic lips
chose to say "Go," they went, and if he said, "Do this," they did it [Matt.
8:5-10].
So the Lord of the universe and its ordered ranks is Jesus Christ. That is
the truth which was flashed from the unknown like a vanishing meteor in the
midnight before the face of Joshua, and which stands like the noonday sun,
unsetting and irradiating for us who live under the Gospel.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr.Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
" Everything is wrong until God makes it right."
