Exod. xxiv. 11. They saw God, and did eat and drink.
GOD is every where present, but no where visible, unless he please to draw aside the veil, and reveal himself to us. It is in heaven alone that his unveiled glory is continually seen. There have however in former times been many occasions whereon he has discovered himself to men, sometimes in human, sometimes in angelic form, and sometimes in a bright appearance, in which no similitude could be traced, and of which no representation can be made. The manifestation of which the text speaks, seems to have been of the last kind. It was vouchsafed to a great many persons at once : and while they beheld his presence, they feasted before him.
In discoursing upon this interesting event, we shall notice,
I. Their vision —
The circumstances of the vision are particular, and deserve an attentive consideration —
[The persons to whom it was vouchsafed were Moses, and Aaron with his two eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the " elders of Israel," who are also called " nobles." Who these nobles were we cannot absolutely determine ; but it is most probable that they were persons of consequence in the dif- ferent tribes, who were selected to represent the nation at large ; and, if six were taken out of each tribe, they might in round numbers be called seventy, though strictly speaking they would amount to seventy-two.
The time at which they were thus favoured, was after they had consented to the covenant which God had made with them. Subsequent to the publication of the moral law from Mount Sinai, God ordained a variety of statutes, which were peculiar to Israel as a nation ; and at the same time made with them a national covenant, partaking of a covenant of works, and partly of a covenant of grace. In this, they undertook to serve God; and God undertook to protect and bless them. This covenant had been confirmed by a sacrifice, in which the different parties had met, as it were, and given their consent to it. God was represented by the altar ; and the twelve tribes were represented by the twelve pillars which Moses had erected near the altar a, as well as by the seventy elders, who had been chosen out from among them. The blood of the sacrifice had been sprinkled on them all ; on the altar, the pillars, and the people. The book of the covenant also had been sprinkled with itb, to shew, that, though God did not relax the demands of his law, he would not be extreme to mark the unallowed violations of it. After this covenant had been thus made and ratified, God called Moses and the others to come up higher on the mountain ; and revealed to them his glory.
The manner also in which God revealed himself, is worthy of notice. There had been a manifestation of the Deity prior to this : but O ! how different from it ! That display which God made of himself at the giving of the law was in " blackness and darkness, and tempest; and attended with such tremendous thunderings and lightenings, that all the people, yea, and " Moses himself, exceedingly trembled and quaked." But, in this vision all was light and serene, and calculated to inspire the beholders with joy and confidence. The appearance of the Deity was beyond the brightness of the meridian sun ; and underneath it " the pavement, as it were, upon which he stood, was like the sapphire " stone, or like the azure sky, bespangled with stars0.
Thus the vision altogether was suited to a new-covenant state, wherein the people were introduced into communion with their God, and honoured with these astonishing tokens of his love and favour.]
Such a vision is now vouchsafed to us under the
Gospel —
[We shall not indeed behold God precisely as they did ; for such visions have long since been discontinued. But there is a spiritual view of the Deity, which we may, and must, par- take of; and which, we are authorized to say, was typified by the vision before us. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the