History of the Work of Redemption in Vol I of the Works - Edwards - IV - Period I continued

Required readingHistory of the Work of Redemption in Vol I of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Part III and IV of Period I.

My summary.

This week we look at the history of redemption from Moses to David.  The key redeeming features in this period are:

(i) the redemption of the church of God out of Egypt;

(ii) that this people were separated to be God's peculiar people, so all other people upon the face of the whole earth were wholly rejected and given over to heathenism;

(iii) God's giving the moral law in so awful a manner at mount Sinai;

(iv) God's giving the typical law, those precepts that did not properly belong to the moral law;

(v) God's giving to the church the first written word of God;

(vi) God was pleased now wonderfully to represent the progress of his redeemed church through the world to their eternal inheritance, by the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness, from Egypt to Canaan;

(vii) the shortening of man's life;

(viii) preserving that people, of whom Christ was to come, from totally perishing in the wilderness, by a constant miracle of forty years' continuance;

(ix) God's giving a further revelation of Christ the Redeemer in the predictions of him;

(x) the remarkable pouring out of his Spirit on the young generation in the wilderness.;

(xi) God's bringing the people of Israel by Joshua, and settling them in that land where Christ was to be born, and which was the great type of the heavenly Canaan, which Christ has purchased;

(xii) God's actually setting up his stated worship among the people, as it had been before instituted in the wilderness;

(xiii) God's wonderfully preserving that people, from this time forward, when all the males went up, three times in the year, to the place where God's ark was;

(xiv) God's preserving his church and the true religion from being wholly extinct in the frequent apostacies of the Israelites in the time of the judges;

(xv) God's preserving that nation from being destroyed, although they were so often subdued and brought under the dominion of their enemies;

(xvi) Christ's appearing in the form of that nature which he took upon him in his incarnation;

(xvii) the beginning of a succession of prophets, and erecting a school of the prophets, in Samuel's time.

What grabbed me

I enjoyed the significance Edwards placed on having the written word of God: 'The written word of God is the main instrument employed by Christ, m order to carry on his work of redemption in all ages. There was a necessity now of the word of God being committed to writing, for a steady rule to God's church. Before this, the church had the word by tradition, either by immediate tradition from eminent men inspired, that were living, or else by tradition from former generations, which might be had with tolerable certainty in ages preceding this, by reason of men's long lives. Noah might converse with Adam, and receive traditions from him; and Noah lived till about Abraham's time: and the sons of Jacob lived a considerable time to deliver the revelations made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to their posterity in Egypt. But the distance from the beginning of things was become now so great, and the lives of men become so short—being brought down to the present standard about the time of Moses—and God having now separated a nation to be a peculiar people, to be the keepers of the oracles of God; God saw it to be a convenient time now to commit his word to writing, to remain henceforward for a steady rule throughout all ages. And therefore, besides the book of Job, Christ wrote the ten commandments on tables of stone, with his own finger. After this, the whole law, as containing the substance of the five books of Moses, was by God's special command committed to writing, which was called "the book of the law," and was laid up in the tabernacle, to be kept there for the use of the church, Deut. xxxi. 24-26.'

What an advantage it is to be entrusted with the very words of God!

Next week's reading

Read Part V of Period I.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.