And the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I come to you in a pillar of cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to you, and may believe you.' And next: 'And God led them by day in a pillar of cloud, to show them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.' And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud.
And whenever Moses entered into the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the doors of the tabernacle, and it would speak with Moses; and all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the doors of the tabernacle. And all the people stood and worshiped, each from the door of his own tent.
The people, then, saw the pillar of cloud, but it was to Moses that it spoke. But who was speaking? Plainly it was the pillar of cloud, the same who had earlier appeared to the fathers in human form. It has been demonstrated beforehand that this was not the God over all, but another, whom we call Christ, being the Word of God — who at that time also, for the sake of the multitude, was beheld by Moses himself and by the people in a pillar of cloud, because they were not able, as the fathers had been, to see him in human form.
For it belonged to the perfect to be able to foresee his incarnate manifestation that was one day to come to men; and since even then the whole people was not able to take this in, it was fitting that he should be seen by them at one time through fire, for the sake of fear and awe, and at another through a cloud, as one legislating for them in a shadowed and veiled manner; and likewise also to Moses, for their sake.
The Lord said, 'Behold, I send my angel before your face, that he may guard you in the way, that he may bring you into the land that I have prepared for you. Give heed to yourself and listen to him, and do not disobey him; for he will surely not draw back from you, for my name is upon him.' And in another place he said to Moses, 'Go, and lead the people to the place I have told you; behold, my angel goes before your face.' And again he said to Moses, 'Go up, depart from here, you and the people.'
And next: 'And I will send my angel before your face.' That these words could not be the words of an angel, but only of God, is plain to everyone. But of what God, other than the one who had been seen by the forefathers, whom Jacob plainly addressed as 'angel of God'? And this was for us the Word of God, being also called Son of God, and himself named God and Lord. From the Decalogue.
'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods besides me.' And next: 'For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God.'
'And you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will surely not hold guiltless him who takes his name in vain.' Here too the Lord himself teaches the foregoing things concerning another Lord. For having said, 'I am the Lord your God,' he adds, 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God' — the second Lord thus instructing his servant concerning the Father and God of all.
One might find countless other passages throughout the whole of the sacred Scripture uttered in a similar manner, in which God speaks the oracles as concerning another God, and the Lord himself as concerning another Lord.
And the Lord said to Moses, 'This word too, which you have spoken, I will do; for you have found grace before me, and I know you beyond all others.' And Moses said, 'Show me your own glory.' And he said, 'I will go before you first in my glory, and will call, by my name, "Lord," before you; and I will show mercy on whomever I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.' And after other words he continues, saying: 'And he came down in a cloud, and stood there with him, and called by the name "Lord." And the Lord passed by before his face, and called out, "Lord, Lord, God, compassionate and merciful, longsuffering and abounding in mercy, and true, and keeping righteousness, showing mercy to thousands, taking away lawlessness and unrighteousness and sins, and will by no means clear the guilty, bringing the sins of the fathers upon the children, and the children's children, to the third and fourth generation."' And Moses made haste, and bowed down to the earth, and worshiped.
Observe, then, in what manner the Lord himself, who came down, called out in the cloud, and, standing by Moses in the name 'Lord,' invoked another besides himself, calling on 'Lord' twice, as is customary, by reduplication — as though proclaiming as deity both his own and everyone else's master, namely his own Father. And that in this it is not Moses, as one might suppose, but the Lord himself who calls the Father 'another Lord,' is shown by his own prior word, when he who was dealing with Moses says beforehand, 'I will go before you first in my glory, and will call out by the name "Lord."'
Having said this, then, the Scripture next adds, in narrative form: 'And the Lord came down in the cloud, and stood there with him, and called by the name "Lord."' It is, then, the Lord himself who comes down to fulfil his own promise, and, as the passage says, goes before the face of Moses.
And the Lord himself calls out, saying, 'Lord God, compassionate and merciful,' and so on — plainly instructing his servant both as to who he himself is, and as to the knowledge of the greater Lord. This will be shown to you in the passage where, praying on behalf of the people, Moses recalls that it was the Lord who had spoken these foregoing words — not that they were his own — in the words: 'And now let your hand be exalted, O Lord, in the manner you spoke, saying, "The Lord is longsuffering and abounding in mercy, and true, taking away lawlessness and unrighteousness and sins, and will by no means clear the guilty, rendering the sins of the fathers upon the children, even to the third and fourth generation."'
Observe, moreover, in what manner, in these words, the Lord himself, having called the Father 'longsuffering and abounding in mercy,' adds, calling him also 'true' — in agreement with what is said in the Gospels, by one and the same Savior of ours, 'that they may know you, the only true God.' He calls the Father, then, the 'only true God' in a most devout manner, rendering the fitting reverence to the unbegotten nature, of which the divine oracles teach that he himself is the image and offspring. From Numbers. How the divine Scripture teaches that God is visible to Israel, hinting at the Word of God.
In Numbers, Moses praying says, 'That you are the Lord in the midst of this people, who are seen eye to eye, you, O Lord' — for which Aquila renders, 'that you are the Lord in the inward part of this people, who see eye in eyes, you, O Lord'; and Symmachus, 'that you are, O Lord.'
And in Exodus it is said: 'And Moses went up, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the place where the God of Israel stood.' For which Aquila has, 'and they saw the God of Israel,' and Symmachus, 'and, in a vision, the God of Israel.'
Because of the saying, 'No one has ever seen God,' one might perhaps suppose the present wording to be in conflict with reason, as though positing as visible the one whose nature is invisible. But if you should understand these words also as referring to the Word of God, who appeared to the fathers in many parts and many manners, just as we have previously demonstrated, you would no longer seem to fall into contradiction. It teaches that the 'God of Israel' seen here is that very one who also appeared to Israel when a man wrestled with him — the very one who first changed his name from Jacob to Israel, saying it was because of God; at which time also Jacob, perceiving his divine power, called that place 'Form of God,' saying, 'For I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved' — none other than the Word of God, as we showed at the proper time. From Joshua the son of Nun. How the Word of God, who dealt with Moses, appeared, like the ancient forefathers, also to Joshua, the successor of Moses, in the form of a man.
And it came to pass, when Joshua was in Jericho, that he looked up and saw a man standing opposite him, with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up to him and said, 'Are you for us, or for our adversaries?' And he said to him, 'I have now come as commander-in-chief of the host of the Lord.' And Joshua fell on his face to the ground, and said to him, 'Master, what do you command your servant?' And the commander-in-chief of the Lord says, 'Joshua, loose the sandal from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy ground.'
These very same words were spoken by the Lord to Moses also, at the beginning of the vision at the bush, as the Scripture shows: 'And when the Lord saw that he drew near to see, the Lord called to him out of the midst of the bush, saying, "Moses, Moses, do not draw near here; loose the sandal from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy ground."'
It was, then, one and the same God who dealt with both, as is shown from the command given. But now to Joshua he appeared as commander-in-chief of his host, whereas to Moses he appeared through the angel who was seen. Now of the hosts beyond the heavens, and the powers above the world, and the invisible spirits, and the divine angels and archangels who minister to the King of all and the universal Ruler, God — according to what is said in Daniel: 'A thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him' — who could be the commander-in-chief highest of all, other than the Word of God, and the firstborn Wisdom, and the divinely-begotten offspring? Fittingly, then, he is also here called 'commander-in-chief of the host of the Lord,' just as elsewhere he is called 'Angel of Great Counsel,' and 'co-enthroned' with the Father, and 'eternal and great high priest.'
It has been demonstrated that he is the same who is both Lord and God, and Christ, anointed by the Father with the oil of gladness. To Abraham, then, appearing by the oak, he showed himself in the form of a man, in a calm and peaceable manner, prefiguring from that time his saving presence among men. To Jacob, as to one who was an athlete and combatant about to wrestle with enemies and to contend, he showed himself as a man. To Moses and the people, he led the way in the form of cloud and fire, presenting himself both fearsome and overshadowed.
But since Joshua, the successor of Moses, was about to be drawn up in battle against enemies — the former inhabitants of the land of Palestine, foreign and most impious nations — he fittingly appeared with a sword drawn and sharpened against the enemy, showing almost by the very sight that he himself, with an invisible sword and by divine power, was about to go against the impious, campaigning and contending together with his own people. For this reason he also, in due course, proclaimed himself 'commander-in-chief of the Lord.' From Job. How the Word of God, the Creator of all things, similarly to the fathers, both gave oracles to Job and is said to have been seen by his eyes.
And the Lord said to Job, through a whirlwind and clouds, 'Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding: who set its measures, if you know?' And next he says: 'When the stars came into being, all my angels praised me with a loud voice; and I enclosed the sea with gates.'
And again: 'Or did you take clay from the earth and mold a living creature, and set it speaking upon the earth? And have you taken away the light from the impious, and crushed the arm of the proud? And have you come to the spring of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep? And do the gates of death open to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of Hades cower when they saw you?'
And at the end of the whole oracle Job answers the Lord, saying: 'Hear me, Lord, that I too may speak; I will ask you, and you teach me. I had heard of you before by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you; therefore I have despised myself, and have melted away, and I count myself earth and ashes.'
That the foregoing words belong to the Lord the Creator is easy to discern, not only from what has been set forth, but also from what will appear to you as we proceed. But that the words, 'You came to the spring of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep,' and 'Do the gates of death open to you in fear, and do the gatekeepers of Hades cower when they see you,' foretell our Savior's descent into Hades, we shall demonstrate at the proper time; for now we merely note this much, that it is more fitting to attribute the matters of this passage to God the Word than to the God of all.
Job, then, next testifies, like the fathers, that he had beheld with his own eyes this very Lord who had dealt with him at the beginning through the whirlwind and clouds, saying: 'Hear me, Lord, that I too may speak; I will ask you, and you teach me. I had heard of you before by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you; therefore I have despised myself, and have melted away, and I count myself earth and ashes.'
But how could the Most High God, beyond all things, the unchangeable and unbegotten essence, be beheld by a soul clothed with flesh and by mortal eyes — unless indeed we say that here too it is plainly God the Word, descending from his own proper greatness, variously shown forth as Lord, who is present, as one may learn from the very oracles themselves, in which the Lord again, speaking to Job concerning the devil as concerning a dragon, undertook to say, 'Not because it has been prepared for me.'
For to which Lord does it befit us to think the dragon belongs, other than to God the Word and our Savior? — who long ago cast down the ruler of this age, who was besieging the race of men, loosing the pangs of death; which he himself also shows when he says, 'You came to the spring of the sea, and walked in the tracks of the deep; the gates of death open to you in fear, the gatekeepers of Hades, seeing you, cowered.'
These things, then, were fittingly said to Job after the great trial and contest which he had endured, teaching him that he had contended only for a part, since a greater and mightier war and contest was reserved for the Lord himself, at the time of his coming unto death. From the Psalm. How the present Psalm also knows two Lords.
For you, O Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge. No evils shall come upon you, and no scourge shall come near your dwelling. For he will command his angels concerning you, to keep you in all your ways; they shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon underfoot.
These very words the devil used in his temptation of our Savior. Observe, then, in what manner the Psalm speaks to the Lord himself: 'For you, O Lord, are my hope; you have made the Most High your refuge.' 'For you yourself,' it says, 'O Lord, my hope, have made your refuge the God who is greater than yourself, the Most High and God over all, and your own Father; on account of whom no evils shall come upon you, upon you, my Lord, and no scourge shall come near your dwelling.'
For even if impious men should attempt to scourge you, once you have become man, or even to hand you over to death, yet no scourge from God will come near your dwelling — that is, your body, which you have plainly put on, having become man for our sake. In keeping with these things, you shall apply to him what is declared throughout the whole Psalm, which we ourselves shall also examine in due course. From Hosea. Concerning God the Word and the Father, as concerning Lords.
'I will not utterly forsake Jacob to be blotted out, for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in you; and I will not enter into a city; I will go after the Lord.' These words, then, and through them, God the Word, having become man, speaks to those who confess him to be holy but not God, saying, 'I am God,' and not man, 'the Holy One in you.'
Then, having called himself God, he indicates the Lord and God over all as his own Father, adding, 'I will go after the Lord.' And the words, 'I will not enter into a city,' would be a disavowal of the common and popular manner of life of men — the very thing about which, turning his own disciples away, he says: 'Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.' Amos, son of Amos. Concerning our Savior, as concerning the Lord, and the Father, as concerning God, and the destruction of the nation of the Jews.
'I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you became as a brand plucked out of the fire; and yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.' Here too, the Lord himself says that a certain God brought about the overthrow of Sodom, plainly being another than the one indicated by himself.
And also at the overthrow of Sodom two Lords are set forth, when 'the Lord rained fire from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrah.' Whatever overthrow Sodom endured, then, on account of its outlandish impieties, such things, he says, you also, O these people, shall suffer, and yet you have not returned to me even so. Now it is customary with Scripture to indicate the future as though it were past; so that the present passage too must be understood in the same way — the past tense 'I overthrew' being used instead of the future 'I will overthrow,' and 'you returned' being set down instead of 'you will return.'
These things are directed toward the nation of the Jews, and were fulfilled upon them at no other time than after their plot against our Savior. Their temple, indeed, and the place once holy, has now come to such a state that it in no way falls short of the overthrow of Sodom. Yet, though they have suffered things consistent with the prediction, they have not, even to this day, made their turning to the Christ of God, on whose account they have suffered these things — as this too is fittingly foretold by the prophecy in hand, which says, 'And yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.' From Obadiah. Concerning the two Lords, the Father and the Son, and the calling of the nations.
The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord to Idumea, 'I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent an envoy to the nations.' — 'The Lord God has heard a report from the Lord.' And this too concerned the calling of the nations. From Zechariah. How God the Word, being Lord, confesses that he has been sent by the greater Lord.
'Thus says the Lord Almighty: After his glory he has sent me against the nations that plundered you.' Then a little later he adds, saying: 'And you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.' If both the one sending is Lord Almighty, and the one saying he has been sent is likewise Lord, there are, then, two. And plainly the one who has been sent — 'The Lord Almighty,' he says, 'has sent me against the nations.'
'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall take refuge in the Lord in that day, and shall become a people to him, and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you' — and so on. To which, after other words, he adds: 'And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and they shall boast in his name, says the Lord.'
These words too are like the former, proclaiming the presence of Christ among men, and the saving calling of the nations that came about through him. 'I myself, the Lord, will come,' he says; 'but at my presence, no longer the Israel of old, nor yet a single nation on earth, but many nations shall take refuge in the greater and mighty Lord, my own God and the God of all — upon whom the nations who take refuge shall obtain such great benefit as even to be styled and to become a people of God, and to dwell in the midst of her who is called "daughter of Zion."' It is thus the custom of the sacred writings to call the church of God on earth, being as it were a daughter of the heavenly Zion, by this name.
And this is also what the oracle proclaims as good news, saying, 'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold, I come and will dwell in the midst of you.' For we believe that God the Word dwells in the midst of the church, just as he also promised, saying, 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age.'
'And where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' 'When I,' he says, 'the Lord myself, have come and dwelt in the midst of you, then you shall receive a greater knowledge concerning God Almighty, since I, the Lord, ascribe the cause of my mission to men to the Father who sent me.'
'And you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.' And next, concerning another Lord and God, the Lord himself adds, in this manner: 'And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and they shall boast in his name, says the Lord.' Who, then, would those be who boast in the Lord?
'And the Lord showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the face of the angel of the Lord; and the devil stood at his right hand, to oppose him. And the Lord said to the devil, "The Lord rebuke you, O devil; the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you."'
Again, here too the Lord says that another Lord will rebuke the devil — it is not the Lord who is speaking who himself does the rebuking, but he mentions another Lord. By these words I hold that the demonstration concerning the two Lords is plainly established: the Father, and God of all; and the one who, after the Father, has received the lordship and mastery over all created things. From Malachi. How the Almighty God calls Christ the Angel of the covenant, and calls this same one also Lord.
'Behold, I send forth my angel, and he shall survey the way before my face, and suddenly there shall come to his temple the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire. Behold, he comes, says the Lord Almighty; and who shall endure the day of his coming?'
These words too are like the former. For the Lord God Almighty himself says that a Lord will come to his temple, speaking concerning another; and this plainly signifies God the Word. After this he also names him 'angel of the covenant,' whom the Lord Almighty himself also teaches that he sends before his own face, saying, 'Behold, I send my angel before my face.'
But this same one, whom he called "my angel," he next again names "Lord," adding, "and the Lord will suddenly come," and "the angel of the covenant." And that he might again foretell this same one, he adds, "Behold, he comes, and who will endure the day of his entering in?" — signifying his second and glorious coming. And he who proclaims all these things is the Lord Almighty, the God of the universe.
And unto those who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise, and healing shall be in his wings. He who has often been named Lord and God and Angel and Commander-in-chief, and Christ and Priest, and Word and Wisdom of God and Image, is now himself called this "sun of righteousness." This very one, then, the Father who begot him promises will arise not for all, but only for those who fear his name, giving them as the reward of their fear toward him the light of the sun of righteousness. And this would be God the Word, who said, "I am the light of the world"; which was "the true light that lights every man coming into the world."
This one, then — not the sensible sun, nor the sun that is visible to all rational and irrational creatures alike, but the divine and intelligible sun, the cause of all virtue and righteousness — God says shall arise, on the present occasion, only for those who fear him, hiding it from the unworthy. Concerning whom he says elsewhere also, "And the sun shall set upon the prophets who lead my people astray." From Jeremiah. How God the Word, being Lord, sends up a prayer to the Lord the Father, foretelling the conversion of the nations.
O Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the end of the earth, and they shall say, "Truly our fathers possessed false things, idols, and there is no profit in them." Shall a man make gods for himself, and these are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will make known to them in this time my hand, and I will make known to them my power, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
The Lord prays to another Lord, namely the Father and God of all, in the words with which he begins, "O Lord, my strength," and what follows. And he clearly foretells the change of the nations from their much-erring idolatry to piety toward God. And this prophecy is shown most plainly to have been fulfilled after the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ among men.
But since, through the whole thirty prophetic chapters, we have learned that our Savior and Lord, the Word of God, is a second God after the Most High and God over all, we shall now pass on to another topic concerning his dispensation, establishing from those same sacred books of the Hebrews that this same God must come among men.