Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

in safety. Here was promised a constant repeated testimony of the care, power, and faithfulness of Jehovah their God, an encouragement to their faithfulness to Jehovah as his people, Such an extraordinary fruitfulness of every sixth year in the promised land, was a very remarkable evidence of the particular providence of Jehovah over Israel his people; it gave them assured hope of his peculiar favour and blessing; and that He who had given them the Land of Promise would secure to them the possession of it, if they continued to do his statutes and to keep his judgments. Thus this constitution was honourable to the God of Israel, of useful instruction and encouragement to the sons of Abraham, as heirs of the promise.

The ritual yet further appoints another Jubilee sabbath of fifty years, upon the revolution 50 years. of every seventh sabbath of the land. Thus

the law And thou shalt number seven Levit. sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times xxv. 8. seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Here is another solemn remembrance of Jehovah, the Creator of all things, and in particular as the King of Israel. There is an apparent wisdom in this ritual to make many of the same rites both political and religious; for the true state of the Hebrew nation being a theocracy, the constitutions of that govern

11.

10.

Levit.

xxv. 23.

ment are both civil and religious in many points relating to Jehovah, both as their God and King; both which characters, so united, were of consequence to enforce the authority of Jehovah, and the obedience of the Abrahamic family.

This great sabbath of the jubilee was to be sanctified as other sabbatical years, in which they were not to sow or reap, but to leave the whole fruits of the land in common: but what was the peculiar rite of the jubilee was this; And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. The Hebrews had a portion of land divided to each family by lot. This portion of the promised land they held of God, and were not to dispose of it as their property in fee-simple. Therefore the law directs, The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. Hence no Hebrew could part with his estate in the Holy Land but for a term of years only, from one jubilee to another.

There is one evident reason for this constitution, as it served to preserve both the numbers and the strength of the Hebrew church and nation, an instance of the wisdom and care of Jehovah, as their

God and as their King. This made a strict care to preserve the genealogies and descents of their families, a very concerning interest, when their titles to their estates and successions depended upon them: and so the genealogies of families might be depended upon for many ages; as from David, suppose, to Zerobabel, and from Zerobabel to Jesus Christ; and it had this great advantage, to put them in mind the land they inhabited was not their possession in property; Jehovah was the true proprietor of it: they held it of him by homage and fealty, and were to hold it by indefeasable title, they continuing in their allegiance; otherwise, they were to remember God could cast them out of the land, as he did the Canaanites before them; For the land is mine, says God, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. The further uses of these constitutions will appear in a more proper place.

Part III.

The ritual of Moses had fixed the pre- Passover.

sence of the Shechinah in the most holy place, and confined the ritual worship to this presence. There was then but one temple and one altar, and but one place for the ritual worship, throughout the whole Hebrew nation. It was fit, on many accounts, that the whole nation, in whose names the public worship was performed, should appear before the Presence as often as would be convenient; the ritual, there

fore, appoints a personal attendance three times in the year: Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out of Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty. And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the xxiii. 14, field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.

Exodus,

15.

These three feasts were the principal in the Hebrew ritual. They were appointed at very convenient seasons of the year, in spring, summer, and autumn. They are represented by Mr. Reland, as bringing to remembrance three signal blessings of great importance never to be forgotten-bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt, giving them the law, and putting them into possession of the Land of Promise*. Rites of such consequence deserve a particular attention.

To begin with the passover: while the

* Institutis tribus festis majoribus, paschate, pentecoste, et festo tabernaculorum, in memoriam trium beneficiorum insignium, quæ Deus in populum Israelitarum contulit, egressum ex Egypto, lationem legis, et possessionem terræ.-Reland, Ant. Heb. p. 444, 445.

OF THE HEBREW WORSHIP.

OF THE

LIBRARY UNIVERSITY

CAT

TIA.

children of Israel were yet in Egypt, God commanded Moses, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. This month, afterwards called Nisan, which answered nearly our March, and the spring equinox, was made the first month of their sacred year; or all their festivals and holy convocations were to be reckoned from it, though still the month called Tisri answering our September, and the autumnal equinox, was left the beginning of their civil year:

They are directed, in the tenth day of this month, to take a lamb for every house, without blemish. They were to kill this Exod.xii, lamb on the fourteenth day, in the even- 1 to 10. ing, and to sprinkle the door-posts of the house with the blood of it; to eat the flesh of it rost with fire, and unleavened bread and bitter herbs; to let nothing of it remain unto the morning, or if there did, to burn it with fire. The reason why it was called the Lord's Passover, is thus given: when God should pass through the 12, 15, land of Egypt to smite all the first-born, when he saw the blood upon their houses, he would pass over them. Such was the first passover. But the law directed this day should be a memorial, and kept a feast to the Lord throughout all generations. The rule for keeping this feast in aftertimes directs, Seven days shall ye eat un

14.

« AnteriorContinuar »