THE INSPIRATION OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS AND PSALMS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

HE moment we open the Bible the eye rests upon the words, "God said." These words occur ten times in the first chapter of Genesis, and the same words, or the equivalent expressions, "the Lord said," "God," or "the Lord spake, saying," "thus saith the Lord," " the word of the Lord came," are found 501 times in the Pentateuch, 292 times in the historical book and Psalms, 1111 time in the Prophets, or 1904 times in the Old Testament, besides almost innumerable allusions to the words contained in these ancient Scriptures, as in fact the words of Jehovah.

It is undeniable that from the time of Moses to the time of Malachi, those who claimed to be the revealers of the divine will usually commence the message, which they declared they were commissioned to deliver, with some such preface as "Thus saith the Lord." Then follow certain words, sometimes many and sometimes few, sometimes addressed to an entire nation, sometimes addressed to a group or family, sometimes addressed to individuals; and it is admitted that the persons uttering the words wished them to be understood as directly received from God himself, and plainly declared that they were so received. There is not an intimation that they were communicating only the thoughts of God, or that they were giving in substance what He told them to reveal, but there is a positive assertion that they were repeating the words which He commanded them to speak.

The question at once arises, were these men mistaken? Were they deceived? Were they deceivers, coming before their hearers with a proclamation that God had directed them to make certain statements in certain forms of expression, and yet, after all, He had given them no such direction? If this be so, there is manifestly an end of the Bible and of revelation, and not one of their statements upon any subject can be worthy of the slightest credit. Very frequently they used words touching events that were still in the future when they spoke or wrote, and they did not hesitate to enter into the minutest details concerning these predicted events, foretelling, for example, the very name of Cyrus, the precise number of years that should be spent in Egyptian bondage and in Babylonian captivity, and giving more than one hundred particulars with regard to the birth, life, death and character of the promised Messiah. Later Scriptures affirm that every one of these particulars was literally fulfilled, and if these later Scriptures tell the truth, it is evident that the very words in which the predictions were made must have been communicated to the ancient prophets. Inspired thoughts, apart from inspired words, could have been of no force in the numerous instances of this kind found all through the Old Testament.

But again, there are very many artless narratives purporting to give accounts of personal interviews between the Creator and his creatures. Thus we are told that " the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it," (Gen. ii. 16, 17). "And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him. Where art thou? . . . And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? (Gen. iii. 9-13). " And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother?" (Gen. iv. 9). " And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark," (Gen. vii. 1). "And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land," (Gen. xii. 7). "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect," (Gen. xvii. 1). The same direct and personal intercourse between God and man addressing each other in customary converse and articulate human speech appears in almost every chapter of Genesis, embracing a period of about 2500 years of the world's history.

In like manner, when we turn to Exodus, we see it recorded that "God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM," (Ex. iii. 14). That "afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel," (Ex. v. 1). " Then the Lord said unto Moses," (Ex. vi. 1). "And the Lord said unto Moses," (Ex. vii. 1). "And the Lord spake unto Moses," (Ex. viii. 1). "Then the Lord said unto Moses," (Ex. ix. 1). " And the Lord said unto Moses," (Ex. x. 1). "And the Lord said unto Moses," (Ex. xi. 1). " And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying," (Ex. xii. 1). "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," (Ex. xiii. 1). "Then said the Lord unto Moses," (Ex. xvi. 4). "And the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying," (Ex. xix. 3). "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," (Ex. xx. 1, 2). " And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables," (Ex. xxxii. 16). " And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend," (Ex. xxxiii. 11).

Is all this, and much more like it, true, or is it false? Did Moses and others only imagine that the Lord spoke to them, or did they pretend that He had spoken to them in order to maintain their power by the appearance of divine authority and sanction? Or did they mean that He did not speak to them but merely excited their thoughts to nobler conceptions and sublimer aspirations, so that their exalted ideas were the same in practical effect as if He had spoken in actual words? If there is any deception or delusion about it, evidently there is nothing in the Bible upon which we can rest with the least degree of certainty and confidence, for the writers prove themselves to be impostors or fanatics, worthy of nothing but contempt; and at best we are left to vague conjecture as to the value of its testimony upon any subject. On the other hand, if these repeated declarations are to be taken in their natural and obvious import, it is definitely established that God can communicate and that He has communicated not only His thoughts but His words to men, and that His words at any rate are unquestionably inspired.

But let us see how clearly this inspiration of words, when uttered by His commissioned servants, is proved at His first appearance to Moses, who recoiled from the task which was set before him, and " said unto the Lord, O, my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? . . . Now, therefore, go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say." (Ex. iv. 10-12). Here, it will be observed, God promises to be not only with his mind but with his mouth, and to teach him not only what to think but what to say. He was not required to rely upon his own choice or culture for the selection of suitable language with which he was to address the Israelites and Pharoah; but notwithstanding his lack of eloquence, and although he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue, he would experience no difficulty in delivering his message, because he would speak what his divine Teacher told him to utter.

Does not this at once account for a fact, otherwise unaccountable, that the same Moses who "was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth," afterward said to the children of Israel, "Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it,"? (Deut. iv. 2). Would such a man assert such a claim for the value, the sacredness, the immutable perfection of the least word, unless he knew that it was not his word but God's? Again he says, " These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates," (Deut. vi. 6-9).

Surely they were not the words of Moses alone which were exalted to this place of supreme excellence and of divine authority, and of vital moment to the present and eternal interests of the people and their children, and which led the man, who had long before renounced all ambition, to repeat the solemn warning, " What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it," (Deut. xii. 82). He remembered the promise of God at the commencement of his painful and self-denying work, "I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say;" and he knew that the words he uttered were the words of God, which man must not seek to improve, nor to change in the least syllable or letter. Among the last acts of his sorely tried and toilsome life, he " made an end of writing the words of this law," [that is, as contained in the Pentateuch,] "and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord" as an inspired witness of God's truth, (Deut. xxxi. 24). We must conclude with the lowest of infidels that Moses was a cunning and cruel trickster who played upon the superstition of his brethren, or we must acknowledge that his words were given by inspiration of God.

There is another man mentioned in the Pentateuch who was unlike Moses in every respect. This was Balaam, " who loved the wages of unrighteousness," and who was willing enough to curse Israel for the sake of the reward offered by Balak, King of Moab. The monarch was impatient with the prophet for so long delaying to obey his summons, not knowing that words had been put into the mouth even of a dumb ass to rebuke that prophet for his madness, "and Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? Wherefore camest thou not unto me? Am I not able indeed to promote thee to honor? And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee; have I any power at all to say anything? The word that God putteth in my mouth that shall I speak," (Num. xxii. 37, 38). He did not say the thought that God putteth in my mind, but the word that God putteth in my mouth; and the subsequent part of the narrative shows that he uttered words he did not wish to utter — words he was compelled to pronounce in obedience to a mightier and an irresistible power — words that condemned himself—words that foretell his doom at the second coming of Christ as he exclaims, "I shall see him but not now; I shall behold him but not nigh" — words that reach on to the final catastrophe at the close of the present dispensation, causing him to cry out in terror: " Alas, who shall live when God doeth this?" It is certain, therefore, that whether the words of the" true prophets were or were not inspired, the words put into the mouth of the ass, and the words of the false prophet were inspired, for he was the unwilling medium of their utterance. So it was in the historical books, when Saul sent messengers to take David, and "the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. And when it was told Saul he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he also to Ramah, . . . and the Spirit of God was upon him also," (1 Sam. xix. 20-23). Clearly it is not a question here of inspired thoughts, but of words that flowed from lips subject to the external and overpowering will of the Holy Spirit like the keys of an instrument under a master hand, compelling them to yield the sound he wishes them to produce. Or look again at the old prophet of Bethel, who invited the prophet of Judah to eat bread with him. The latter had been charged by the word of the Lord, saying. Eat no bread nor drink water in the land under Jeroboam's rule; but he yielded to the entreaty and accepted the invitation of his brother. " And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back, and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying. Thus saith the Lord," and then immediately announced the doom of his guest, although not wishing to speak what \ he was compelled to say, (1 Kings xiii. 20). These will doubtless be accepted by all Christians as proofs and examples of verbal inspiration, but they are not more remarkable than the fact that the Lord spoke to the child Samuel words, the very meaning of which the child could not fully understand, or the fact that "the word of the Lord came unto Nathan," (1 Sam. iii. 11; 2 Sam. vii. 4), or many similar facts recorded in the same books.

Among the last words of David we have the following striking testimony: "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue," (2 Sam. xxiii. 2. He does not say, The spirit of the Lord thought by me, but spake by me; nor does he say, the truth of God was in my mind, but His word was in my tongue. That is, what he spake, he spake as the mouth-piece of the Spirit, and the word which his tongue proclaimed was the word of God. Hence it is not surprising to find scattered through the Psalms such strong expressions as these: "The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times," (Ps. xii. 6). " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes," (Ps. xix. 7, 8). "Forever O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." "The entrance of thy words giveth light." "Thy word is true from the beginning," or as Dr. Clark renders it, "true from the first word," (Ps. cxix.). "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name," or above any other manifestation of the divine character in creation, reason and science, (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). There is one Psalm containing 176 verses, and the word of God under some one of its various precious titles is mentioned in each of these, except one verse, and mentioned in such terms of praise, as so incomparable in its excellence, as so manifold in its perfections, as so unerring in its guidance, as so adapted to all the need of all humble souls, it is simply impossible to regard it as the word of any man or men; and it is simply impossible that the writer who said of himself, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," could have claimed such high authority for his own commandments, and exhibited such profound reverence for his own words.

Long after David's day, the view of inspiration that still prevailed among God's people is shown in the prayer of Nehemiah: "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven." . . . "Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them." . . . "Many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit in the prophets," (Neh. ix. 13, 20, 30). The testimony against Israel through the whole of their previous history, for more than a thousand years, is here declared to have been the testimony of the Holy Spirit in God's prophets, and as this book is the last but one in the canon of Old Testament Scriptures, Nehemiah becomes an important witness for the truth, that the words which his forefathers had heard, were divinely inspired. In the old book of Job, that takes us back to a time preceeding all known human history, Elihu, who is evidently a type of Christ, and who says to Job, "Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead," begins his remarkable address with the statement, "There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding," (Job xxxii. 8). Albert Barnes well says, "This evidently refers to a spirit imparted from above; a spirit from the Almighty. The parallelism seems to require this, for it responds to the phrase, 'the inspiration of the Almighty' in the other hemistich. The Hebrew expression here also seems to require this interpretation. It is, the Spirit Himself; meaning the very Spirit that gives wisdom, or the spirit of inspiration. . . . The word 'spirit' here, therefore, refers to the Spirit which God gives, and the passage is a proof that it was an early opinion that certain men were under the teachings of divine inspiration."

Thus all through the historical books of the Old Testament, from first to last, there is a claim by those who were commissioned to speak in God's name, that they spoke the words of God, and their words were received or rejected as the words of God.

The woman of Zarephath said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. " (1 Kings xvii. 24). Of Zedekiah it is said, "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord," (2 Chron. xxxvi. 12). Similar allusions to verbal inspiration, found in every part of these books, are too numerous to mention; and every one who knows how untrustworthy is human history, especially in its details, and how difficult it is to find two witnesses, perhaps equally intelligent and conscientious, precisely agreeing about a simple question of fact, will at once recognize the necessity for verbal inspiration in the narratives of the Bible, as well as in its doctrinal and prophetical teachings. It has already been seen that, no matter in what form the message has been delivered or the story recorded, the messenger from God spoke or wrote words that came from God through human lips and pens; and it is for this reason alone such power is ascribed to the word, and such care is taken to guard it against the rash intrusion and profane tampering of uninspired critics. " When thou goest it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." " Every word of God is pure; . . add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar," (Prov. vi. 22; xxx. 5, 6).