Truth

And the Lord said unto Moses, > “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.”

And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first: and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up into Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, —“Yahweh, Yahweh-Ail, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the (disobedient); visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children unto the third and fourth.” And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped (Exod. xxxiv. 1, 2-4, 8).

The law and the testimony, “written and engraven in stones,” is laid by Jehovah at the foundation of the Mosaic “Kosmos,” or constitution. Concerning the law, Paul says, “which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law” (Rom. ii. 20). Christ taught His disciples, saying: > “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled” (Matt. v. 17, 18).

“Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness, to every one that believeth” (Rom. x. 4). When Christ had fulfilled the law in every point, the “heaven and earth,” under that constitution of things, as given through Moses, did pass away. The apostle Paul, speaking of the changed order of things, saith: “Having abolished in his flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph. iii. 16).

Thus the power of the Abrahamic Covenant was made manifest through the name of Yahweh and His Anointed One. The righteousness of the law is more perfectly revealed through the Gospel of Christ. And as the foundation of the Mosaic heaven and earth was laid in the law and the testimony,—so the foundation of the new Creation in Christ Jesus is laid by the Spirit in “the Word of the truth of the Gospel,” that Jesus preached; Paul testifying that, “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. iii. 11). In his epistle to the Ephesians, addressing all true believers, he saith: “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone” (Eph. ii. 20).

Peter, in his first epistle, tells us that, “the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets” (1 Pet. i. 10, 11). The apostle Paul, addressing the Lord as “that Spirit,” saith: “And thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands” (Heb. i. 10). The apostle John, concerning “the Word,” “the Light,” and “the Life,” saith: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John i.).

In the light of these testimonies, Christ, as “the truth,” is shadowed forth in this record of the name. Of the truth, as centered in the name of Yahweh, the Psalmist bears testimony, saying: > “I will praise thy name, for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word, above all thy name” (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). > “His truth endureth to all generations” (Ps. c. 5). > “God shall send forth his mercy and his truth” (Ps. lvii. 3). > “Mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (Ps. lxxxix. 15). > “Let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me” (Ps. xl. 11). > “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me” (Ps. xliii. 3). > “Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth” (Isai. xxv. 1). > “O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?” (Jer. v. 3).

Concerning Christ, the Spirit saith: “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Ps. xci.). Referring to the judgments administered by the Anointed in the future Age, the Psalmist saith: “He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth” (Ps. xcvi. 13). “Thy righteousness is an everlating righteousness, and thy law is the truth” (Ps. cxv. 142).