That Scripture is divided into two main parts no one is ignorant. They are the twofold testimony of God, contrasted, but complementary to each other, the Old and New Covenants, as the word " Testament" should rather be. Upon this contrast, and the character of each, the significance of numbers puts its confirmatory? seal, assuring us also of our possession of the perfect number of the books themselves,-none lost, and none supernumerary.
The books of the Old Testament are thirty-six in number; in our Bibles, thirty-nine; but the division of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into two books each was not found in the old Hebrew, and is plainly arbitrary when examined. The simplest division of 36 is into 3 by 12. Put these into meaning according to the symbolism of these figures, and what do we find? 3 is the divine, and 12 the governmental number; taken together, they speak of God in government. What more precise definition could we have for the books of the Law?
The books of the New Testament are twenty-seven in number, and this is the cube of 3; it is 3 times 3 times 3, the most absolutely perfect number that can be-the only one into which the symbol of divine fullness and manifestation alone can enter." God in government" is God hidden; clouds and darkness are about Him:though His glory be seen, it is, as with Moses on the mount, not His face; but in Christ we see His face; and the number 27 means God in His fullness revealed, in the perfection of His Godhead-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in the gospel of His grace.
Thus, at the outset, the numerical structure vindicates itself. There is another division, however, of these books, not setting aside this, of course, but underlying it. I do not in the least doubt that we have in Scripture five Pentateuchs; the books of Moses being the pattern of the structure of the whole Bible. Thus again the seal is set upon what in the present day unbelief is calling most in question. But to pursue this, we must examine briefly the characters of these books.
And here the typical aspect is the most important. As another has well said of the first four, " After Genesis, and the earlier chapters of Exodus, there is very little of which the object is historical in the previous books of Moses. And even in Genesis and the beginning of Exodus principles and types are the most important aspect of what is related. As to the history of Israel, the apostle tells us this expressly in i Corinthians 10:11. And this appreciation of the character of these books greatly aids us in understanding them." (Synopsis 1:286, 2:)
Deuteronomy does not, indeed, give types proper, but it gives principles, not history, though this is recapitulated for a purpose.
We have seen that the books of Moses illustrate, as all Scripture does, the significance of numbers, but we must look more closely at them; for while every five is not, as it seems to me, a Pentateuch, it will be found that where this number is wrought into the structure of a part it is really so. Of this we shall have many instances.
Genesis is, then, the beginning of a foreknown and divine work; God in it the almighty, all-sufficient Creator; election showing this when man is fallen and departed from Him; first, that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual; life His gift, true life above all His. Thus Genesis is the seed-plot of the Bible, for " known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world."
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, all express divine sovereignty in election; the first-born is uniformly set aside, as in Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben; life in its various stages and aspects is exhibited in its successive biographies; and in these the individual work of God in man, the dispensations also to their close being typically presented. The Genesis sections of other books will be found in general thus the widest and fullest in character, the counsels of God being told out in them :He is put in His place as the fitting introduction to all else.
Exodus is the book of redemption whether by purchase or power;-by blood, from judgment; by the passage of the sea, from the old bondage. This marks the difference between the typical and historical aspects. Historically, in the wilderness the people came under the law; but this typically is but the throne or government of grace for the redeemed, as the mercy-seat declares for us. Obedience is in this way but the sign of accomplished redemption,-the willing obedience of faith.
Its principles are, ruin in responsibility, and redemption in grace, and that to God who has redeemed us.
Leviticus brings us to the sanctuary, to learn there what true sanctification is-the holiness that suits God's presence. The sacrificial work which maintains us there is at the same time the pattern of the perfection in which He delights. " I am Jehovah" and "that ye may know that I am Jehovah " is its constant language. Jehovah is God in relationship in grace, and thus takes that title first properly in Exodus, but relationship is what determines responsibility.-"You only have I known of all the families of the earth ; therefore I will punish you for your iniquities."
Sanctification every way, by sacrifice and by the Spirit,-positional and practical – is the key-note to Leviticus.
Numbers is plainly the probation in the wilderness, and this brings out the entire failure on the part of man, but on the part of God also priestly grace by which His people are brought through. As in Exodus we are redeemed out of the world, and in Leviticus are with God in the sanctuary, so here we go through the world. It is so plain as to need little comment.
Deuteronomy, finally, is the summing up of all this, and the principles of divine government, which they are to learn as lessons for the land when they enter there, and in conformity to which is all blessing to be reached. For us at the end of our course here, the judgment-seat of Christ will sum up thus, the divine ways be really learnt, and our wisdom forever.
These books have thus an individuality, a connection, and an order which mark them fully as divisions made by no human hand. And this is emphasized by the way they are used as the model of many similar divisions throughout Scripture. I have elsewhere shown how Isaiah 53:and the fifteen psalms of degrees (Ps. 120:-134:) are instances of this structure. The latter we may again look at; the former I shall briefly speak of here, as it is indeed a most perfect example, as well as of the numerical structure in general.
The prophecy of Isaiah 53:begins, it is admitted, with Hi. 13:the whole contains, therefore, fifteen verses; and these are, again, five threes; every three verses being a separate division of the subject. Moreover, every division is characterized in the completes way by the number thus attaching to it, the verses here being not arbitrary, but having full justification in the inspired writer.
Thus the first three verses give us the divine counsels as to Christ-"My Servant"-announced by God Himself, the ordained plan of Him who is excellent in counsel, mighty in working. The after-history is but the fulfillment, even by the hands of those who mean no such thing. How sweet and suited to begin thus, where all begins, with the infinite mind of God, and thus to reach the peace that passeth understanding of One forever above the water-floods.
First, we have (52:13-15) the wisdom of Jehovah's perfect Servant, and the exaltation to which it leads; then the suffering beyond any among mere men, expressed in the marring of His face and form; then, thirdly, the result in cleansing for the nations, whose highest would be brought to reverent silence in His presence, wondering with no idle wonder now at the gracious words proceeding from His lips.
In the second three (53:1-3) we have another speaker. The prophet identifying himself with the nation of Israel, speaks of their rejection of God's testimony to Christ, as the repentant generation of a future day will speak of it. Yet is He Jehovah's arm-the power of God in grace for deliverance from another Egypt; to God and man (in ways how different!) a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground; among men a man of sorrows and rejected.
Then the third section (4-6) brings the divine meaning of these sorrows before us, misconstrued as they were by men. Just as Leviticus gives us in the forefront of it those gifts and sacrifices which are the foreshadowing of the self-same precious work, so we are here in the sanctuary with God, to learn the true meaning of these sufferings of Him who was bruised for our iniquities, and upon whom was the chastisement of our peace. These three verses are indeed the centre of the whole.
The next, or fourth, section (7-9) speaks of another thing. They describe the trial of the perfect Servant, bringing out in His case that absolute perfection. Thus we have now His personal conduct under this unequaled trial; how, "oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth," and how His grave was " with the rich man after His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth." Thus neither the sin of the powerful nor of the weak was His; while the government of the tongue marked Him as the perfect man of whom James speaks, under the severest pressure.
Finally, the fifth section (10-12), in a beautiful Deuteronomic strain, tells of the result (according to the holy ways of divine government,) of that perfect walk on earth, and absolute self-surrender for the divine glory and purpose in blessing toward man.
Thus closes the prophecy, marked, moreover, in its regular structure of 5 by 3 verses, with these two numbers-the human and the divine. And if 3 be the number of divine manifestation, and 5 be the human number, as we have seen, then these threes contained within this inclosing five are just as simply as beautifully significant of One in whom " God was manifest in flesh"
I have taken this, then, as one of the clearest and most beautiful examples of the Pentateuch being the model and key to the structure of other scriptures. We are now to inquire if the Bible as a whole, in its grand divisions, is not framed according to this pattern. I believe we shall find clearly it consists of five Pentateuchs, the seal being put once more in this way upon the book as a whole and the individual parts of it.
Looked at in this way, we have-
1. The Pentateuch itself, or Books of the Law.
2. The Covenant-History, or History springing out of this.
3. The Prophets.
4. The Psalm-Books.
5. The New Testament.
But we must remember that there are two divisions here, and that the New Testament is not really a fifth part, but stands alone, as complete in itself; or, as a second, or Exodus (redemption), part of the whole Bible.
I have now to show that each of these divisions, or of the last four, is a proper Pentateuch; that its five divisions (not books necessarily, for it is evident that three of these have much more than five books,) answer respectively in character to the five books of Moses.
The Covenant-History
These books comprise those styled by the Jews the " earlier prophets," with Ruth, Chronicles, and the three books of the captivity, which they placed in their third class of Chethubim, or Hagiographa, along with others utterly discordant in character; an arrangement in which I see no gleam of spiritual light. That which I mainly follow is perhaps of no more ancient date than the Septuagint. Yet this may well represent an older one. It is disfigured by the mixture of Apocryphal with inspired books, yet its naturalness and simplicity speak loudly for it, including in one division all the purely historical books, and in their historical order also. Ruth thus follows Judges, of which it is, as rightly held by many of the Jews themselves, an appendix; while Chronicles should fitly close the whole, as a Deuteronomic rehearsal, which reaches (in the genealogies) to the return from Babylon.
The five divisions here are easily apparent:-
1. Joshua.
2. Judges and Ruth.
3. The books of the kingdom-Samuel and Kings.
4. The books of the captivity-Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
5. Chronicles.
Joshua is the Genesis of their national existence in the land, the new beginning, in which abundantly the power of the Almighty is seen fulfilling the counsels of electing love in behalf of the people.
Judges gives, on the other hand, spite of repeated revivals and deliverances, their utter failure easily fall into five divisions, the Minor Prophets being counted as one book by the Jews, and forming by themselves, I doubt not, one of these, while Lamentations is a true supplement to Jeremiah. The order is thus:-
1. Isaiah.
2. Jeremiah, with Lamentations.
3. Ezekiel.
4. Daniel.
5. The Twelve Minor Prophets.
Isaiah is undoubtedly the Genesis of the prophets. In scope, he is the largest; the sovereignty of God in electing grace is his constant theme, and in this way he again and again appeals to creation and the Creator. He is eminently the prophet of divine counsels.
Jeremiah gives the utter ruin of the people, with whose sorrow his heart identifies him, as in Lamentations, in which he is the expression of the Spirit of Christ, afflicted in all the afflictions of His people. In his personal history, he often typifies the Lord, and filled with the sense of the relationship of the people to God, takes a mediator's place in their behalf. He is the prophet also of the new covenant.
Ezekiel gives the leprosy of Israel, upon which he is called to pronounce as priest, the glory then departing, the leper (1:e.) being put outside the camp. In the end of the book, the leprosy having come fully out, Israel is restored and glory returns. It is strikingly the Leviticus of the Prophets, the very phrase which constantly seals the commandments of Leviticus being found in the repeated phrase of Ezekiel,-" That ye may know [or, ye shall know] that I am the Lord."
Daniel, again, like the historical books of the captivity, gives the sifting of the people among the nations (Am. 9:9), in which, nevertheless, the abundant care of God will be shown toward them, with His judgment of the failed Gentile powers finally in their behalf. ("Daniel" is "God my Judge.")
The twelve minor prophets rehearse the ways of God toward Israel and the earth in holy government (12 is the governmental number). I give them in the order of the Septuagint, which here also I cannot but prefer to that of the Hebrew. Like other twelves, they divide into four sections of three each, which will be found to answer to the fundamental idea of their corresponding numbers.
1. Hosea, Amos, and Micah, kindred in subject, develop the state of the people which necessitates judgment; Hosea dwelling especially upon the violation of covenant-relationship, Amos on the moral condition, to which Micah adds the rejection of Christ; while in the sovereignty of God they are saved finally by that against which they had sinned :in Hosea, by the relationship they had violated ; in Amos, by the tabernacle of David they had rejected (for Amos treats the ten tribes as the people); in Micah, by the Christ they had smitten.
2. Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah speak of the Gentile enemy in three different ways, which all manifest His mercy to His people. First, Joel shows God's use of the northern foe to bring Israel to repentance and to blessing; then Obadiah shows the inveterate enemy destroyed; while Jonah declares the message of judgment, but, in effect, of mercy, which Israel, herself humbled, and brought up from the depths, will be the means of communicating to the Gentiles.
3. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah bring out more the character of God as shown in His judgments, and all flesh brought into His presence. In Nahum, the Assyrian is His enemy, the pride of whose heart abuses the mercy of a long-suffering God unto destruction. Habakkuk shows us the exercise of heart under this government of God, who chastens His people often by those worse than they,-an exercise which results in a faith which in all circumstances rejoices unfailingly in God. While in Zephaniah the day of the Lord is on all; but after judgment has done its strange but necessary work, God will be free to exhibit toward a humbled people, turned to serve Him with a pure language, the love which is His own proper character, and in which He will rest forever.
4. Last, come the prophets of the returned captivity, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, answering strikingly to the three historical books of the same period respectively, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. Ezra and Haggai speak mainly of the temple, Nehemiah and Zechariah of the city, Esther and Malachi of every thing broken down and gone, save providential care which still carries on all to the accomplishment of unrepenting purposes. All three prophets contemplate clearly the day of Christ, and have an outlook of blessing for the earth. Haggai declares the shaking of all things, but the coming of the Desire of all; Zechariah sees the Lord come and reigning over all the earth; Malachi speaks of the uprising of the Sun of Righteousness.
THE PSALM-BOOKS
The fourth Pentateuch consists of just five books, and in these we find as distinctly the human utterance as in the Prophets the divine. The testing of man is notably their theme, and in these five books all his exercises, sorrows, and joys are told freely out; – wrong thoughts as well as right thoughts; infidelity as well as faith. 5, the human number, is found, not only in the books, but often in their divisions also, as in Job, Proverbs, and especially in the Psalms proper, which is thus divided in the Hebrew. The books should evidently be arranged thus :-
1. Psalms.
2. Job.
3.Solomon's Song.
4. Ecclesiastes.
5. Proverbs.
The Psalms are the Genesis of this division :full of the divine counsels, varied and copious in matter, they manifestly occupy the place which Isaiah does among the prophets.
Job is the book of the "penitent," the need of repentance taught to one pronounced of God the best man on earth, grace meeting him there to double to him his original portion.
The Song Of Solomon gives us the heart in the presence of the Lord, occupation with an object too large for it, as another has said.
Ecclesiastes, the world an object too little for the heart, death stamping it with vanity, man's wisdom incompetent for solution or escape.
Proverbs furnishes the maxims of divine wisdom, the path of blessing under the government of a holy God.
The correspondence with the Pentateuch here needs no enlarging or insisting on.
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Lastly, we come to the New Testament, a second division of Scripture, as we all recognize; not a fifth, and yet as distinctly a Pentateuch as any other. Its divisions are,-
1. The Gospels.
2. The Acts.
3. The Epistles of Paul.
4. The Epistles of the Four-James, Peter, John, and Jude.
5. The Revelation.
The Gospels are, without any doubt, here the new Genesis-the "beginning" to which the apostle John constantly recalls us. They are four in number;-the three synoptic, and that of John, which stands by itself.
Matthew :the gospel of the kingdom; the sin-offering aspect of Christ's work. Mark :the gospel of service, and the trespass-offering. Luke :the gospel of the peace-offering, and the Manhood.
2. John :the gospel of the burnt-offering, and the Godhead.
The Acts are the Exodus -the deliverance from the law.
The Epistles of Paul bring us to God, establishing us in His presence according to the value of the work of Christ, and in Christ, and so to walk. They are fourteen in number-7 by 2, (the testimony of the perfect work accomplished,) and divide into two parts:-
I. Those which speak of our place in and union with Christ, and of the power of this for us, which are only jive in number:-
I. Romans, which speaks of justification, and deliverance from sin and law ;-
2.Galatians, of the essential contrast of law and grace, and of God's design in the former;-
3.Ephesians, of our heavenly and Church-place; while-
4. Colossians brings in the fullness of Christ thus known for our life on earth, and-
5.Philippians shows its power in practical occupation with Him.
II. We have the epistles which speak of practical fellow-ship' with one another, which (three being double] fall into six divisions:-
1. Thessalonians, the Christian condition and character as belonging to the family of God.
2. Corinthians, as belonging to the Church.
3 Hebrews, as perfected worshipers.
4. Timothy, as in the house of God.
5. Titus, the fruits of true doctrine.
6. Philemon, Christianity the true exalting power.
The Epistles of the four other apostles are all connected with life and walk.
1. Peter gives the path through the world.
2. James, the principle of justification by works.
3. John, the features of eternal life.
4. Jude, (the Malachi of the New Testament,) the faithlessness of man and the faithfulness of God.
Lastly, the book of Revelation gives us the review and judgment both of the world and Church's course, with the blessing and the curse at the end. It is without doubt the New-Testament Deuteronomy.
This is what appears to me the general outline of Scripture, and seems to put every book in its place, and the seal of divine perfection on every part. Nothing is in defect; nothing redundant. The Pentateuch, vilified by the unbelief of the day, and torn to pieces by rationalism, is seen to be, not only a perfect whole, but the key to the structure of the whole Bible. The significance of numbers reveals harmony and design every where, even in the minutest portions, and prepares us for a closer inspection of the books in their internal structure, of which more than a glimpse has been already afforded us, and which should give a precision and definiteness to our apprehension of their contents, which must have been surely in His purpose in fashioning them after this manner. If carelessness and unbelief on our parts have long missed the clue, let us take the shame of this; it is none the less there. Let us now look at the books in detail, and. see to what it will lead.