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| The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God's Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XXVI.—The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating
God’s Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ.
But God also swears. Well, is it, I wonder, by the
God of Marcion? No, no, he says; a much vainer oath—by
Himself!3035 What was He to do,
when He knew3036 of no other God;
especially when He was swearing to this very point, that besides
himself there was absolutely no God? Is it then of swearing
falsely that you convict3037 Him, or of swearing
a vain oath? But it is not possible for him to appear to have sworn
falsely, when he was ignorant, as you say he was, that there was
another God. For when he swore by that which he knew, he really
committed no perjury. But it was not a vain oath for him to swear that
there was no other God. It would indeed be a vain oath, if there
had been no persons who believed that there were other Gods, like the
worshippers of idols then, and the heretics of the present day.
Therefore He swears by Himself, in order that you may believe God, even
when He swears that there is besides Himself no other God at all.
But you have yourself, O Marcion, compelled God to do this. For even so
early as then were you foreseen. Hence, if He swears both in His
promises and His threatenings, and thus extorts3038
faith which at first was difficult, nothing is unworthy of God which
causes men to believe in God. But (you say) God was even then
mean3039 enough in His very fierceness, when, in His
wrath against the people for their consecration of the calf, He makes
this request of His servant Moses: “Let me alone, that my wrath
may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make
of thee a great nation.”3040 Accordingly, you
maintain that Moses is better than his God, as the deprecator, nay the
averter, of His anger. “For,” said he, “Thou shalt
not do this; or else destroy me along with them.”3041 Pitiable are ye also, as well as the people,
since you know not Christ, prefigured in the person of Moses as the
deprecator of the Father, and the offerer of His own life for the
salvation of the people. It is enough, however, that the nation was at
the instant really given to Moses. That which he, as a servant, was
able to ask of the Lord, the Lord required of Himself. For this purpose
did He say to His servant, “Let me alone, that I may consume
them,” in order that by his entreaty, and by offering himself, he
might hinder3042 (the threatened
judgment), and that you might by such an instance learn how much
privilege is vouchsafed3043 with God to a
faithful man and a prophet.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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