MEDIATORSHIP by John Thomas

"THE LAW" is a term applied in the Scriptures to that system of things enjoined by Jehovah upon the Twelve Tribes of Israel through Moses. "The Law was given through Moses (John I:17), and hence it is styled "the Law of Moses"; (Mal.4:4; Joshua 8:31,32; 23:6; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6; 23:25; 2 Chron. 23:18 30:16; Ezra 3:2; 7:6; Neh. 8:1; Dan. 9:11,13; Luke 2:22; 24:44; John 7:23; Acts 13: 39; 15:5; 28:23; 1 Cor. 9:9) not because it originated from him as the French code did from Napoleon, or certain laws of Greece from Draco and Solon; but because it was transmitted through him as the medium of communication between the Lord of the Universe and the descendants of Abraham in the chosen line of Isaac and Jacob, whom He surnamed Israel, of whom He condescended to become the King. "He gave them a fiery law" (Deut. 33:2), which He caused to be delivered to Moses for promulgation. He did not leave His throne in the light to commune with Moses in His own proper person; for "no man shall see him and live" (Exod. 33:20; 1 Tim. 6:16); but He imparted His will to the angels of His presence, who do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word"; and these, as faithful ministers of His pleasure (Psa.103:20,21), handed to Moses His high, and holy, and just decrees, with all the sanctions of Sinai recorded in "the Book". Thus "the law was ordained by angels in the hands of a Mediator" (Gal. 3:19), who was Moses, occupying middle ground between Israel and their King.

Terrified with the thunder-tones in which the Decalogue was delivered, which made even Moses quake with fear, they besought Jehovah to speak to them only through the medium of their brother. In making this request they proposed a Mediatorship, and suggested the appointment of Moses to the office. They had acknowledged themselves Jehovah's nation, and now they wished that the communication between them should be through an intermediate person with whom they could confer without terror. The proposal pleased Jehovah, who said "they had well spoken what they had spoken", (Deut. 18:17) and their request was consequently complied with. From this time the Mediatorship became an ordinance in Israel; Moses was the first that held the office, in which he officiated as a priest, prophet, legislator and king. After the nation was planted in Canaan, the high priests acted in the character of mediators, being Jehovah's supreme magistrates over the people, for the pontificate was always above the kingly office, though many of the kings treated the high priests with indignity. Moses was the only complete representative of a mediator that has yet appeared in Israel. He was Jehovah's representative in all His relations to the nation. David and Solomon shared the mediatorship with Zadoc the high priest, but it was only as kingly, not priestly and legislative, representatives of Jehovah. They were mediatorial administrators of Moses' law; and representative men in the offices they sustained -- Jehovah's representatives, individually representative in their historical outlines of the Mediator like unto Moses, who shall hereafter appear as king in Jeshurun.

No other nation besides Israel has received a law "ordained in the hand of a mediator" (Gal. 3:19) The constitutions and laws of the nations have been given to them by evil men who have subdued them; or by men no holier, whom they may have chosen to rule over them. Hence their organizations are evil, and the spirit which actuates them, satanic. The supreme power is one, and the people is another, and there is no mediator -- "no daysman betwixt them that might lay his hand upon them both". (Job 9:33) Their laws and institutions being human, purely so, they have no intercourse with God; for if they spoke to Him and He should answer, seeing that they have no mediator, they would be as terror- stricken as Israel of old, and cry out, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die!" (Ex. 20:19) Never did a people before hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire and live; nor besides Israel has any nation heard Him speak at all. Jehovah speaks only to Israel, in Israel, and through them; and if the nations are addressed, it is through the mediation of the tribes; for what Moses was to them, so are they to the world at large.

Mediation being an Israelitish institution, and there being no other between Jehovah and the population of the earth; and it being admitted that no man can come to God save through a mediator approved of Him; it follows that both individuals and nations can obtain access to "the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (Heb. 8:1) only through the mediation which pertains to Israel. Now this mediation is through the Mosaic law. Obviously so; because according to that law there is no acceptance except through sacrifice offered in Jerusalem by the priesthood of Levi. So long as Jerusalem is trodden under foot of the Gentiles, this is impossible; Israel, therefore, like the rest of the nations, although they trust in Moses, are as destitute of mediation as though the mediatorship pertained to the Chinese and not to them. If blindness had not happened to them, they would certainly see this; for it is written in Moses, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them". (Gal. 3:10) But what one thing, not to mention all things, do they observe in the letter or spirit of it that is written therein? They practice circumcision. But that is not of the law; yet by the practice they become debtors to do the whole law. By offending in the least they are guilty of the whole; for Moses curses every Israelite who continueth not in all.

Cursed, then, are they of Moses in whom they trust; yet were they ever so willing to obey him, they are circumstantially prevented. The Turks possess their holy city and land, [at the time] (written in 1853) and by the sword are prepared to suppress every attempt to re-establish the Mosaic commonwealth. Alas for Israel! They are "without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an image, without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hosea 3:4), and the king, prince, sacrifice, image of the invisible God, they will not receive! But if Israel's case is forlorn, that of the nations is worse; for while Israel refuses him who speaks from the right hand of God, the Gentiles, who profess to acknowledge him, pay no regard to what he says. Redemption awaits Israel (Dan. 12:1); but anger and wrath, and sore distress, to all the world besides. How shall this trouble be eschewed?

Escape there is none save for those who obey the truth. The door is not yet shut; "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved"; but mark the words which follow -- "He that believes not shall be condemned". What is that thing which, when not believed, brings condemnation to man? The context answers this question in two words -- "THE GOSPEL" (Mark 16:15,16; Rom. 1:16). So that you may even be baptized, or rather immersed, but if you believe not "the gospel" you cannot be saved. The gospel announces to every man, both Jew and Gentile, who believes it, access to Jehovah and His restored kingdom through His son Jesus, on his accession to the mediatorship in Israel.

The law of Moses was ordained by angels in the hand of the mediator. But that law as originally ordained has been impaired by the manifestation of some of its antitypes; and being therefore no longer an exact representation of the knowledge of the truth, and incompatible with the nature of things as modified by the appearance of the prophet like unto Moses, it needs to be amended. This emendation is ordained by Jehovah in the hand of a mediator, as well as the original promulgation of the law. Moses received it from the angels as the ministers of God; but Jesus, who is greater than Moses, "being a son over his own house", in which Moses was only a servant (Heb. 3:5,6), receives the amended law direct from Jehovah; for, says God, "I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them (Israel) all that I shall command him; and whosoever will not hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him". (Deut. 18:19) Angels brought the words of God to Sinai, and there delivered them to Moses for him to speak to Israel; but the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended from before the throne, and abode on Jesus. He needed no angels to tell him what to speak, for the Father dwelt in him by His spirit, and moved his tongue to utterance. "The Father is in me. I speak not of myself; the Father dwelling in me doeth the works." (John 11:38; 14:10) Though that Spirit forsook him when he yielded up his life upon the cross (Matt. 27:46,50; Luke 23:46), it was only till he rose again by its life-imparting energy (Col. 2:9; John 1:16). The fullness of the Godhead now dwelleth bodily in him and of that "fullness have we all", says an apostle, "received, even grace for grace" (Ex.3:5) (John 1:16). When he shall depart from "holy ground" to revisit the arena of suffering and reproach, angels will escort him to his kingdom, full of Jehovah's words of truth and mercy to His people; for he shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but he will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall they know that he is the Lord their God dwelling in Zion his holy mountain: Jerusalem shall then be holy, and strangers shall pass through her no more" (Joel 3:16,17).

Thus will he utter his archangel voice from Zion, amid the echoes of Jehovah's trumpet sending forth its blasts as on Sinai in the days of old. That trump will awake the dead (1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7, 8). And where will be his foes? Though gathered together to battle against Jerusalem a mighty host, of what account will they be, when the crashing thunder of that dead-awakening shout, rattling through the flaming heavens, shall boom upon their ears? Madness will seize upon them, and upon their horses blindness and astonishment. The burden of Jerusalem will be heavy upon them, and a cup of trembling to them all (Zech. 12:1-7;14). But drink it to the dregs they must; for their wickedness will be great (Joel 3:13). Jehovah's first interview with His nation at Sinai was attended by a terrific demonstration preceded by the overthrow of Israel's enemies. Under the sanction of this display of power and glory He presented Moses to the people as His representative over them. But the time is not very remote when the crisis that is now forming will necessitate a second interview between Jehovah and the Tribes. They have to be delivered from those that hate them; and to be impressed with a spirit of prompt obedience and submission to the Moses-like prophet, who is to be the mediatorial representative of Jehovah in their midst for a thousand years to come. Nothing short of a Sinaitic demonstration will accomplish this; for Israel is as stiff-necked a people today as thirty-four centuries ago. The battle of Armageddon and the war which it inducts with all the attendant manifestations of power and great glory, will inaugurate, with all subduing majesty, Jehovah's king in Zion, the hill of His holiness. The mediatorship will then have reappeared in Israel under the new covenant, dedicated upwards of eighteen centuries before by the blood of the Mediator, who speaks the words commanded of the Father in sending forth the amended law from Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3); not to Israel only, but to the residue of men who then seek after the Lord, and to all the nations called by His name (Acts 15:17). Great, glorious, and free, will Israel then be in the midst of enlightened, obedient, and happy nations. The Kingdom of God, for which Jesus taught his apostle to pray, will have come to Zion, and his Father's will performed on earth as it is in heaven. As the woman's seed he will have bruised the serpent's head, and have delivered his brethren from evil, because the kingdom is his, the power and the glory for ever, amen.

Thus then will the amended law be ordained by Jehovah in the hand of Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, even the law initiated by Moses for a single nation; but perfected and adapted to a consociation of all nations, by the prophet like unto him, the future king and lord of all the earth (Zech. 14:9). When that which is perfect hath come, the ordering of things terrestrial will have obtained the permanency of a thousand years, as exhibited in the following descending series: