Required reading
Commence Notes on the Bible in Vol 2 of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'There is frequent mention in that part of the Pentateuch, (which is expressly styled the law,) of several tribes of Israel and their names, and of the patriarchs who were the heads of the tribes.'
My summary
Today we begin a new work from Edwards.
Edwards starts showing us that the Pentateuch was written by Moses because of express statements of Scripture about Moses writing:
(i) the book of the covenant
(ii) the book of the law;
(iii) the histories of the acts of the Lord;
(iv) the journeys of the Israelites;
(v) the great acts of God.
What grabbed me
I liked the comment on the connection of law with history:
'There is such a dependence between many of the precepts and sanctions of the law, and other parts of the Pentateuch, that are expressly called the law, and that we are expressly told were written in the book of the law, and laid up in the sanctuary; I say, there is such a dependence between these and the history, that they cannot be understood without the history. Many of the precepts, as was observed before, (p. 117.) were appointed to that end to keep up the remembrance of historical facts; and that is expressly mentioned in the words of these laws themselves. But such laws obviously cannot be understood without the history. Thus this is mentioned as the reason of the appointment of the feasts of tabernacles, viz. that the children of Israel might remember how they dwelt in tabernacles in the wilderness. Levit. xxiii. 43. Now this required the history of their travels and sojourning there. So the law concerning the Amalekites, Moabites, and Amorites, appointed in commemoration of what passed between the congregation of Israel in the wilderness in their travels there, and those nations, cannot be understood without the history of those facts; and these require the history of the travels of the children of Israel, and of the things that led to those incidents, and that occasioned them. So that great law of the passover that is said in the law to be in remembrance of their redemption out of Egypt, and the many particular rites and ceremonies of that feast, are said expressly in the law to be in remembrance of these, and those circumstances of that redemption. Now it is impossible to understand all these particular precepts about the passover without a history of that affair: and this requires the history of their bondage in Egypt, and the manner how they came into that bondage; and this draws in the history of the patriarchs. The preface of the ten commandments cannot be understood without the history of the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, and of their circumstances there, in the house of bondage; nor can what is given as one reason of the 4th commandment in Deuteronomy be understood without an account how they were servants in the land of Egypt, and how they were delivered from their servitude. We very often find this mentioned as an enforcement of one precept and another, viz. God’s deliverance of the people out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and out of the iron furnace. See Levit. xviii. 3. xix. 34. xxii. 33. xxv. 42, 55. xxiii. 43. and xxvi. 13, 45. Numb. xv. 41. Deut. iv. 20. vi. 12. vii. 8. viii. 14. xiii. 10. and xx. 1. Which shows how necessary the history is to understand the law. The many precepts about the poor bondman and stranger that are expressly enforced, from the circumstances of the Israelites in Egypt, absolutely require a history of their circumstances there. And there are in the enforcement of the laws, frequent references to the plagues and diseases of Egypt, threatenings of inflicting those plagues, or promises of freedom from them, which cannot be understood without the history of those plagues. The law of no more returning again into Egypt, Deut. xvii. 16. requires the history of their coming out from thence. The law concerning not admitting the Moabites and Ammonites into the congregation of the Lord, because they so treated them in their journey, could not be understood without the story of their treatment, and that required an account of their journey. The law concerning sins of ignorance. Numb. xv. 22, 23, 24. depends on the history for its being intelligible: Numb. xv. 22, 23, 24. “and if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations, then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance,” &c. Here is a reference to God’s revealing himself from time to time, in a long series of revelations to Moses, which cannot be understood without the history.'
God acts. Then we act.
Next week's reading
Continue Pentateuch in Notes on the Bible in Vol 2 of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'He that can observe the facts of the history of the Pentateuch after this manner mentioned and referred to in the writings of several ages of the Israelitish nation...'
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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