The tragedy of Calvary. Part 4.

The tragedy of Calvary: or the minute details of Christ's life from Palm Sunday morning till the resurrection and ascension taken prophecy, history, revelations and ancient writings

by Meagher, Jas. L. (James Luke), 1848-1920

Moses and the Burning Bush Byzantine Mosaic

God under the form of fire directed Moses how to deliver the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery, opened the Red Sea, led them through the deserts, dwelled in the tabernacle and the first Temple, and spoke to the prophets, telling them what to do and say when they re proved the people and foretold Christ. Hundreds of texts tell us that God spoke face to face with these holy men of Israel. When they said, " Thus said the Lord," it was the Shekina, the "Holy Spirit."

During the day it was a cloud, and a fire during the night. When it was oppressively hot in their wanderings, the Shekina, spread over them as a great cloud, with its shade cooling the burning heat of the sun. It went be fore them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. When it moved they followed it, when it rested they camped, and then it brooded over the Ark of the Covenant, on the mercy-seat, between the Cherubims gold wings, in the tabernacle and first Temple.

It spoke to Samuel, Nathan, David, and the prophets and holy ones of Israel, directing them how to form the ceremonies, offer sacrifices typifying and foretelling the long looked for Redeemer, and under its direction they built up the Hebrew commonwealth and religion. God was their King. You will find in the prayers of the synagogues, in the liturgy of the Passover, the words so oft repeated, "Jehovah our King." It was a perfect Theocracy. God ruled them through His Shekina. They were His people. He was their God and King.

But they were always a worldly, carnal people, and they asked Samuel to give them a king. They did not want God to be their King any longer, and the Shekina said to Samuel, " For they have not rejected thee but me, that I should not reign over them." (1. Kings viii. 7.) Saul was made their king, usurped the priesthood by offering sacrifices, (1. Kings xiii.) David was chosen in his place, and Solomon his son built temples for his wives' idols, sacrificed to them, (III. Kings xi.) and broke the contract between God and Israel, and the Shekina spoke no more.

The great Temple was doomed because of that sin of idolatry. Jeremias, under God's direction, took the Ark of the Covenant, gold within and without, sign of God's contract with his people, and buried it on Mt. Nebo where Moses died, there to remain till the Jews accept their Saviour. (II. Mach. ii.) The Shekina spoke no more. But it revealed that when the Messiah came it would appear and speak again. Rabbi Jonathan, writing on the prophet Aggeus i. 8. says, " I shall be glorified, said the Lord," (In Hebrew, "Lord Is "Yegara") means " I will cause my Shekina to dwell in it in glory " and Zach. ii. 10. means, " Lo I will come, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." "I will come and I will dwell in the midst of thee," and viii. 3. is " I will be revealed, and I will cause my Shekina to dwell in the midst of thee."

Ezechiel's vision of the Temple, (Ezech. xliii. 7-9.) Jonathan paraphrases as follows: "Son of man, this is the place of the house of my glory, and this is the place of the dwelling of my Shekina, where I will make my Shekina dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever."

Since the destruction of the first Temple, the Shekina directed no more Israel, but told the prophets to denounce them and revealed the things they foretold about the Saviour. But they lived on in hope that when the Redeemer came, they would be again received by God as his people. Malachi in the fifth century before Christ was the last of the prophets, and for more than 400 years Israel was left without a divine teacher, during which time the Scribes, Pharisees and Rabbis misled them. It was revealed that when the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, would come the Shekina would again appear and speak face to face. The Rabbis taught that He was in Herod's Temple, but was neither seen or heard.

The night Christ was born: " The brightness of the Lord shone round about " the shepherds," (Luke ii. 9.) Angelic host sang the Hymn of " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will," (Luke ii. 14.) and then for the first time in nearly 500 years man saw the Shekina. When Christ was transfigured on Tabor's heights, (Matt. xvii., Mark ix.) the Holy Ghost, the Shekina, surrounded the top. When the Lord was preaching in the Temple during Passion week before his death, the Shekina spoke from the Holy of Holies. (John xii. 28.) The moment of His death, the Shekina was felt leaving the Temple, while voices cried out: "Let us go forth hence." (Shemoth R. 2, 10. Ber. 3 s. p. 7.)

Jewish writers represent it lingering on the western wall of the Temple, towards that Sion where was held the Last Supper, (Yalkut on Isaias Ix.) and they tell of the Lord mourning over the destruction of his Temple, bemoaning the people in their desolation, (Yalkut v.; II. Par. 359.) his hair wet with dew. (Isaias Ix. i.) In the Targum we find these words: "It is a tradition from our Rabbis that in the hour when the King Messiah comes, he stands on the roof of the temple, and proclaims to them the hour of their deliverance has come, and that if they believe, they will rejoice in the light that has risen on them, as it is written. " Arise, be enlightened for the light has come." Tliis light will be for the Jews alone, for it is written: " For darkness shall cover the earth.' Then he goes on to describe the glories of the Messiah and of His kingdom. (See Shemoth R. 2, at War, p. 7.)

When the Lord ascended, a cloud, the Shekina, surrounded Him: " And a cloud received Him out of their sight." (Acts i. 9.) When the Apostles, gathered in the Cenacle on Pentecost Sunday, the Shekina rilled the room, 2 and rained down tongues of fire on the Apostles, inspiring each with the language of the nations he was to preach to.

The Jewish writers say, that about this time the Shekina took up its abode on the summit of Olivet, whence Christ had ascended, and there for three years and a half, they heard him day and night, in entreating tones begging them to come back to their God, saying: " Come back to me, O my people, O come back to me!" Then the Holy Presence was silent and never spoke again. (Acts ii.)

At the west wall of the Temple, over which the Shekina rested before going to Olivet, the Jews mourn and weep each Friday eve after sunset, when the Sabbath begins, praying for the restoration of their Temple and government.

In the Scriptures and Hebrew writings before the time of Christ, we find words and expressions which show us that they had a knowledge of the Trinity—a more or less dim revelation of the Three Persons in God. Often we run across the word Yeoara, meaning the: " unapproachable Deity " in himself : "the excellent glory," "the Eternal," existing in himself. Philo and the Kabbis use the word in the sense of the Eternal Father.

The tragedy of Calvary. Part 3.

The tragedy of Calvary: or the minute details of Christ's life from Palm Sunday morning till the resurrection and ascension taken prophecy, history, revelations and ancient writings

by Meagher, Jas. L. (James Luke), 1848-1920

The word Bible comes from the Greek, Biblia, " The Books," first used by St. Chrysostom, "The Golden-mouthed," in the fourth century, when he was preaching these magnificent explanations of the Sacred Books in Constantinople and Antioch. Up to that time, they had been called the Scriptures, " Writings." The word Testament means a will, by which a person disposes of his property after death, for the benefits of redemption were given mankind after Christ's death.

The Old Testament was called the Covenant, for it contains the agreement, or contract, between God and the Hebrews. At the death of the Saviour it was extended to all mankind. We will use only the Old Testament texts in the following pages for the New Testament did not exist at the time of Christ.

The Jews divided the Old Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the Sacred Writings. The Law was composed of the first five books of the Bible which were writ ten by Moses, viz., Genesis : " The Generation " or " Beginning " of all things; Exodus: " The Going out" of Egypt; Leviticus: Regulations relating to priests and Levites; Numbers, called by the Hebrews Bemidbar : " In the desert," from the leading word of the opening sentence; Deuteronomy, a Greek word meaning the " Second Law," giving what happened in the wilderness from the be ginning of the eleventh month, for five weeks, to the seventh day of the twelfth month, forty years after the Hebrews went out of Egypt. These works, written by Moses, form the sacred Torah," the Law," among the Jews.

The Prophets comprise the books of Josue, Judges, Kings, or Samuel, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel; the poetic books Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the twelve minor prophets from Osee to Malachias, with the " Five Rolls " formed of Canticles, called Solomon's Song, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, then came Daniel, etc., comprising the rest of the Old Testament.

There is no doubt but these books were written by the persons whose names they bear, although some writers in our day, following what; is called Higher Criticism, try to make out that they were composed by writers long after their time, because they contain words, expressions, and things which took place ages after they were written. They do this in order to prove that God never spoke by the prophets, or foretold what would come to pass in the future. But this is all false.

If the Five Books of Moses were written long after his day, how could the Jews have known or practiced his religion ? How could they have been deceived regard ing him or the prophets and their history ? The only solution is to say, that these sacred books of the Hebrews were composed by the persons whose names they bear, and at the times given in Jewish history.

Christians and Jews receive these Books of the Old Testament as being inspired, that is " breathed into " by God himself. In that the Bible differs from all other writings: "Because having been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and have been delivered as such by the Church herself." (Vat. Sess, III.) From Christian countries to pagan lands mill ions of copies of these Books are sent each year. In every place where he has passed the Jew comes carrying with him these holy writings.

For sublimity of ideas, poetic feeling, difficulty of under standing, these Books are incomparably superior to any other writings. They have various meanings. You must read between the lines, you must penetrate beyond the literal sense, and there you will find that they all point to a future glorious age, to a great Personage called the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Shilo, the Prince, God born of a Virgin, the Prince of David's dynasty, who will come and establish an empire over all the earth. It would take too long to go deep into this matter.

In these Books, hidden in names of places, men, and things, run revelations Jehovah gave of the coming of this Messiah, the glories of His kingdom, but hidden in such a way that you will find them only after deep study. Many are lost in translations, hidden to the ignorant, but shine forth with such wonderful clearness as to startle the reader learned in Hebrew and divinity. Behind the writings seem to scintillate the face of the Holy Spirit,

Learned men are discovering wonders in the Bible, cryptograms are seen, and perhaps all its treasures will never be discovered. No human mind could write even a page and fill it with such mysteries.

The original Hebrew, in which most of the Bible was written is most lofty. The writers are filled with the wonders, importance and holiness of the truths they pour forth with an intensity of feeling, magnificence of style, sublimity of poetry and grandeur of subject, no one can dream, who has not read the original.

The burden of their story is the Christ, the sins of the Jews, the destruction of their government, the scattering of the whole race into every quarter of the globe, for the crime of killing their Messiah. Every one of the prophets who foretold most clearly the coming of the Redeemer was persecuted and suffered martyrdom, because he told his countrymen what God, through his Shekina, had revealed.

The Shekina comes from a Hebrew word, Shekina, "to dwell," "habitation," meaning to "appear," and you will find it in hundreds of places in the Talmuds, and in Hebrew writings. (Talmud, Baba Bathra, fol, 23 a.) It means "the Majesty of God," "The Divine Presence," "the Holy Spirit," " resting," "dwelling" in tabernacle and Temple. Said the Lord: "I will appear in a cloud over the oracle." (Levit, xvi, 2.) The term is first found in the Targums as the " Word of the Lord." The Rabbis say it was the " Spirit of God." The word Shekina is not found in the Bible, but in all the ancient Jewish writings. They tell us that the Shekina spoke to Adam before the fall, and condemned him after his sin, guided the patriarchs before the flood, directed Koe, called Abraham out of Ur, (Gen xii) spoke to him in Palestine, and four centuries later for the first time spoke to Moses from the burning bush." "And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." (Exod, iii 2.)