FAITH, LOVE, AND ETERNAL LIFE IN THE PENTATEUCH

According to the Bible, faith is not a blind leap into the darkness but a rational and confident step into the light of the evidences. It had always been this way. When God encountered Moses through a burning bush, He instructed him to return to Egypt to liberate His Israelite slaves. However, after being humbled as a shepherd for 40 years, Moses was reluctant, but raised an important objection. Why should the Israelites believe that he had had a genuine meeting with God? Perhaps Moses just imagined it or was deceiving the Israelites.

God didn’t tell him to tell the Israelites, “Just believe!” Instead, He provided Moses with proofs that God was actually going to lead them out of Egypt:

·       The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—“that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” (Exodus 4:2-9 ESV)

These and many other miracles were not only performed before the Israelites but also before nations. Whenever Israel’s faith was beginning to flounder, Moses would remind them of these undeniable signs and proofs witnessed by the entire nation.

As impressive as are the miracles and revelations of the Bible, I find that the things that God didn’t say equally impressive. In contrast with other religious writings, the Bible never told Israel that they were superior to others. Instead, He continued to warn then against thinking this way (Deuteronomy 7:6-8; 8:17-20; 9:4-7). Nor did God ever compliment their spiritual progress. Instead, He criticized Israel far more than He did other nations. This makes the Bible highly unusual among religious literature.

God is also a God of secrets (Deuteronomy 29:29). Nevertheless, they are still embedded in His revelation to Israel, the Bible. While God had revealed to Israel that they would be blessed for their covenant faithfulness, they would also suffer for their unfaithfulness. However, the Law, the Books of Moses, never made explicit mention of a hell or a promised heaven for their faithfulness. Such a revelation was conspicuously absent. Nevertheless, these Books offer cryptic evidence of the existence of an afterlife. Jesus had pointed out one evidence of this during God’s encounter with Moses at the burning bush. Against the Sadducees who denied the existence of an afterlife, Jesus thundered:

·       “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32)

From the Scriptures, Jesus reasoned that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still existed because God is (not “was”) still their God. However, the Five Books of Moses offer other hints of the existence of an afterlife. Because of Moses’ sin, God would not allow Moses to enter into the Promised Land. Instead, He informed Moses: “you are about to lie down with your fathers” (Deuteronomy 31:16).

Did this mean that he would be buried alongside of his ancestors? This was not possible. Instead, he was to be buried by God in an unknown location on Mount Nebo:

·       “And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:50-52)

How would Moses be “gathered to [his] people” if no one knew where he was buried?

·       and he ]God] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:6)

If Moses couldn’t have been physically “gathered to [his] people,” it must have been spiritually! This means that Moses and his ancestors still existed, as Jesus had indicated.

One last indication of eternal life in the Pentateuch (Five Books of Moses): It is God, not the Levites (the priests), who would make atonement for Israel’s sins. The sacrificial system imposed under the Mosaic Law seems to have been adequate in accomplishing a superficial, this-life, forgiveness of sins. However, it seems that, ultimately, a deeper forgiveness, requiring a more substantial atonement was necessary, an atonement or ransom that only God could provide.

God had instructed Moses to teach a song to Israel that would convict them of their unfaithfulness and its consequences. However, the song ended with hope, a promise of atonement, even for the entire world:

·       "Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people." (Deuteronomy 32:43 NASB)

The Levites couldn’t have provided this atonement, otherwise, there would not have been a need for God to provide it (Job 33:24). However, the atonement (ransom) that God would provide would make the difference between eternal life and death:

·       Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. (Psalm 49:7-9)

This had remained God’s greatest secret. There was only one object upon which even the High Priest could not look without being smitten with death. It was the atonement cover of the Ark, located in the Holy of Holies, surrounded by the wings of the cherubim, lest anyone see it. It represented the only thing that could satisfy (propitiate) His wrath and utterly eradicate our sins. In view of such a secret, it is not surprising that the High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year, on the Day of Atonement, and only after providing the most careful preparations:

·       And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony [the Ten Commandments], so that he does not die. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. (Leviticus 16:12-14)

The mercy seat, which covered the Law, protecting us from the death required by our sins (Romans 6:23), represented the Gospel, the Good News, the hidden Glory of God, awaiting its revelation at the Cross:

·       And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:23-24)

Amazing, God’s glory was a matter of experiencing the most excruciating and humiliating death. However, only this would prove God’s love for us.

Why did the Father conceal this great mystery until the Cross? Perhaps this story might help. After I had become a supervisor at the NYC Department of Probation, I idealistically thought that if I was totally transparent with my subordinates about my commitment to fairness and justice that they would reciprocate. However, they mistook kindness for weakness and tried to take advantage. Consequently, I had to bring charges against two of them. As a result, they hated me, and I hated them.

In contrast, Joseph waited for just the right time to reveal himself to his brethren who, perhaps 30 years earlier, had sold him into slavery. I trust that God also had His reasons for waiting.