Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, Theological treatise · Chapter 23 · Questions · Question 44 – Question 51
QUEST. XLIV. Who is understood here to be this Angell.
Vers. 20. BEhold I send mine Angell before thee. 1. Cajetane understandeth this Angell to be Moses: but that cannot be, for he brought not the people into the land of Canaan, as this Angell should and did, vers. 23. Simler. And this Angell should not spare their misdeeds, vers. 23. but Moses often spared their iniquities, and prayed for them, chap. 34. Oleaster. But Cajetane addeth further, that Moses should have brought them into the land of Canaan, but that, ipse peccando impedimentum praestitit, he procured the let himselfe by his sinne: and so this is to be understood conditionally. But Tostatus taketh away this answer: Prophetia cum impletur secundùm divinam praedestinationem intelligitur, Where a prophecie is fulfilled, it must be understood not conditionally, but according to Gods certaine predestination. And therefore seeing here the Lord brought them by his Angell into the land of Canaan, and yet he did not bring them in by Moses: it followeth that Moses could not be that Angell.
2. Tostatus therefore thinketh, that this Angell must be understood to be Ioshua, for he brought them into the land of Canaan: neither did he spare their iniquities, for he punished Achan, Iosh. 7. And Gods name was in him, both because he was an Israelite, which is interpreted one prevailing with God, Rabanus: and he is called Ioshua, which is the same with Iesus, a Saviour: and his name being before Oshea, God tooke one of the letters of his owne name Iehovah, the first letter jod, and put it to his name, and so made it Ioshuah, which signifieth a Saviour, Tostat. So also Lyranus.
Contra. 1. But by name is here understood, not any title or appellation consisting of syllables, but power and authority, and the essence of God, which was not in Ioshua, Genevens. 2. And the peculiar and proper name of God is Iehovah, which was never given unto any mortall man, Gallas. 3. Neither did Ioshuah punish all their transgressions, though he met with some publike and notorious offences, Simler. 4. And if Ioshuah should have beene this Angell, car…isset populus ductore Angelo, &c. the people should have wanted this Angell their guide, as long as they sojourned in the wildernesse, Calvin. 5. And further, the Lord saith to Moses, Mine Angell shall goe before thee, Exod. 32.34. But Ioshua went not before Moses; he came after and succeeded him, Calvin.
Borrhaius here understandeth both Ioshuah as the type, and Christ the great Angell of God, secundum veritatem, in truth. But this cannot agree unto Ioshua at all, no not as the type of Christ; for the reasons before alleaged.
4. Lyranus and Lippomanus doe interpret this place of a created Angell, the same which went before them in a pillar of fire: and in that he saith, My name is in him, the meaning is, Quicquid loquitur, … nomine loquetur, &c. Whatsoever he speaketh, he shall speake in my name, Lippoman.
Contra. 1. That Angell which went before the people in a cloudy and fiery pillar, was no created Angell, but God himselfe: for he is called Iehovah, chap. 13.21. Gallas. 2. Whereas the Lord said to Moses, that he would not goe himselfe with them, but send his Angell, chap. 33. 2. and yet afterward being intreated by Moses, granted that his presence should goe with them, chap. 33.14. hence it is evident, that th… was not such an Angell as he said he would send, and not goe himselfe, but such an Angell wherein his presence should be, Simler.
5. Wherefore this Angell is none other but Christ, that great Angell of Gods counsell, whom God sent into the world: as appeareth evidently by these reasons: 1. The text saith, My name is in him: Pro naturali divinitate, eodem quo & ego, censetur nomine, In respect of his Deity, which he hath by nature, he is called by the same name that I am,Quaest. 91. in Exod. Rupertus▪ Ferus. 2. Augustine taketh him to be the same Angell which wrestled with Iacob, and changed his name, Gen. 32. which was God himselfe, Christ in humane shape wrestling with Iacob: for Iacob is called Israel, because he had prevailed with God. 3. This is the same Angell which is called the Angell of Gods covenant, Malach. 3.1. Ferus. But herein he is deceived, he thinketh this to be majorem Angelum, a greater Angell, than that Angell which went before them in a cloud: whereas he is the very same Angell. 4. This Angell is called Iehovah, chap. 13.21. Iun. Piscator. 5. They are bidden not to provoke this Angell: But it was Christ whom they tempted and provoked in the wildernesse, 1 Cor. 10.9. and Heb. 3.9. Simler. 6. Angelus iste judex statuitur. &c. This Angell is appointed their Judge, if they did offend, He will not spare your misdeeds, Calvin. 7. Againe, he saith, If thou hearken unto him, and doe all that I speake, &c. signifying, parem ab illis secum obedientiam flagitare, that he requireth of them the same obedience with God himselfe, as being of the same power, majesty, authority: as our blessed Saviour saith in the Gospell, Ioh. 10. I and my father are one, Marbach. 8. Iudicium occultorum eidem tribuitur, &c. Unto this Angell is given the judgement of secret things: hee will not spare▪ &c. Simler. Pelarg. Etsi enim Magistratus non omnia delicta vidit & novit, &c. For although the Magistrate doe not see and punish all offences: yet God seeth, and in time will be avenged, Osiander. 9. This was the same Angell, which here performeth that which was promised to Abraham long before, I will curse them that curse thee, Gen. 12.3. as here he saith, I will be an enemy to thine enemies: and that was Iehovah, Gen. 12.1. Pellican.
QUEST. XLV. Why in this place the prohibition of idolatry is inserted.
Vers. 24. THou shalt not bow downe to their gods, &c. 1. This Law is annexed to the former exhortation of obedience; because idolatry is the very root and foundation of all iniquity: and the whole Law and Commandements of God were neglected by Idolaters, so that nothing was more contrary to their obedience to the Law, than idolatry, Simlerus. 2. And seeing they were to cast out the inhabitants of Canaan, which worshipped Idols, they are charged also together with them, to cast out their superstition and idolatry, Tostat. quaest. 81. 3. Quia proclives sunt animi hominum ad superstitionem, &c. Because the mindes of men are prone unto superstition, therefore this precept is often here repeated; that they should not serve other gods, nor doe after their workes, but abolish and destroy all monuments of superstition, Gallas▪ Ferus. 4. And three things are forbidden touching idolatry: First, they must not bow unto them, give them any externall signe of reverence: then, they must not serve them, by sacrificing unto them, erecting temples, altars, and such like, Oleaster. Thirdly, nor doe after their workes, that is, follow other their superstitious rites and ceremonies; and generally, tota eorum conversatio prohibita est, their whole conversation was naught, and therefore is forbidden, Tostat. quaest. 81. 5. And because it was not sufficient to decline from superstition, si religione car…as, if thou want religion, therefore as they are forbidden the worship of false gods, so they are commanded to serve the Lord, vers. 25. Gallas.
QUEST. XLVI. What manner of promises are here made and why.
Vers. 25. ANd he shall blesse thy bread, &c. 1. This must be here observed, that these promises here made are only temporall, because the people then were carnall, and only sought such things. In the new Testament, Christ doth not promise these terrene and temporall blessings to his Apostles: non quia illis haec invidebat, &c. not because he did envy them these things, but because he had greater blessings for them: like as the father, when his sonne is come to age, doth no more entise him with apples, but bestoweth an inheritance upon him, Ferus. 2. Posset abs que praemii ullius promissione praeciper…, &c. God might if it pleased him, command without promise of any reward; for he is debter unto none, and when we have done all which we can, wee doe no more than our duty: but God to stirre up our dulnesse propoundeth ample and large promises, Marbach. 3. And these blessings of plenty, health, fruitfulnesse, long life, are here mentioned, because they should acknowledge God the Author and giver of all these blessings, which the Idolators asked of their Idols, Gallas. 4. First, God promiseth to blesse their increase and store, their bread and water; both to give them abundance, and to blesse the use thereof unto them: for otherwise, without Gods blessing, abundance will soone come to nothing: and because plenty is nothing without health; Secondly, he saith he will take away all sicknesse: then, because all this would not availe, if they had no heires, it is added, that none should be barren: and beside, long life is promised: for to enjoy these things but a short time, were no perfect blessing: and lastly, victory is promised over their enemies: for all these blessings had little helped, unlesse they might have had quiet and peaceable possession of the land, Ferus.
QUEST. XLVII. What is understood by the hornets.
Vers. 28. I Will send Hornets, &c. 1. Some doe understand this literally, that as God sent frogs and lice upon the Egyptians; so against the Canaanites, he armed waspes and hornets to shew his power, quod per minuta animantia suis auxiliatur, that he can helpe his by weake and small beasts, Theodoret. So also Procopius giving this note, Deum à coelo de improviso suis missurum auxilium, That God of a sudden can send helpe unto his out of heaven. So also Cajetan. Simler. Calvin. Gallas. Pelarg. Quaest. 93. in Exod.But Augustines reason may here be urged against this sense: Non hoc logimus factum, &c. Wee doe not reade any such thing to have beene done, neither in Moses time, under Iosua, the Judges, or the Kings, that hornets were sent against the Canaanites; only the booke of Wisdome, hoc dicit imple…um, saith this was fulfilled, chap. 12.8. Thou sendedst forerunners of thine host, the hornets to destroy them by little and little. But this may also be understood of that feare and terrour which God did smite the Canaanites with, before the comming of Israel.
2. R. Abraham, and Aben Ezra, by hornets, understand a certaine disease which did consume the Canaanites, where they hid themselves in their caves. But the text saith, that these hornets drave them out; not that they wasted and consumed them.
3. Pellican maketh a metaphoricall sense: Ita attonitos eos reddam, ut etiam vespae siat …is superiores; I will so astonish them, that even flies and waspes shall be able to overcome them, &c. But Ioshua found the contrary, when he was discomfited and fled before the men of Hai, that he had not to deale, as with flies and waspes.
4. Therefore I prefer Augustines sense, Vespae istae aculei timoris intelligendae sunt, &c. These waspes or hornets, are to be understood to be those prickes of minde and terrours which made the Canaanites give place to the Israelites. So also Lyranus saith, they were, Anxietates animi eos pungentes tanquam aculei, Perplexity of minde which pricked them as sharpe pricks. And this to be the meaning, the former verse sheweth, I will send my feare before thee, vers. 27. the accomplishment whereof is declared, Iosh. 24.12. I sent my hornets before you, which cast them out before you, the two Kings of the Amorites, not with thy sword, &c. that is, the feare which God sent upon them, not their sword, discomfited them, Iunius, Piscator. As Rahab confesseth, When we heard it, our heart did faint, and there remained no more courage in us, Iosh. 2.11. So also Borrhaius.
5. Rupertus maketh this allegoricall sense, by the hornets, Quos scimus de aquino stercore nasci, &c. Which wee know to be bred out of dung, are to be understood those base and contemptible meanes, whereby God overcame the power of Satan, &c. He meaneth the Apostles, who were counted as vile and base, whereby the Gospell of the kingdome was published and propagated. But the former sense is to be insisted upon, as the most fit, and consonant to the Scripture.
QUEST. XLVIII. Why God did not cast out the Canaanites all at once before the Israelites.
Vers. 29. I Will not cast them out from thy face in one yeere. 1. No, nor yet in 400. yeeres were they all cast out, till the reigne of David and Salomon: which the Lord did for divers causes: one is here expressed; lest the land should have growne to a wildernesse, if it had beene dispeopled all at once, and so husbandry and tillage would have beene neglected, Gallas. And the wilde beasts in the solitary places would have increased, as Wolves, Lions, Beares, which would have beene a great annoyance to the people, Tostat. qu. 84. 2. Another cause was, for their rebellion and murmuring, for the which they were punished to wander up and downe in the wildernesse 40. yeeres, Simler. 3. Eorum culpae imputandum est, &c. It is to be imputed to their owne fault, that the Canaanites were no sooner cast out, because they were slothfull and negligent therein themselves, as Ioshua telleth them, If yee goe backe, and cleave to the rest of these nations, … 23.13.&c. and shall make marriages with them, know for a certaine, that the Lord your God will cast ou… no more of these nations from before you, &c. Calvin. 4. Neither would God cast them out all at once, Vt essent, qui peccantes arguerent, & ut …rudirit in eis Israel; That there might be some, which should correct those which sinned, and that Israel might be nurtured by them, Rabanus. For God used those nations, as whips and scourges for his people when they fell away from him; as he stirred up the King of Canaan against them, Iud. 4. 5. Another reason was, that the people might have some alwayes to exercise them, that they should not be given over to sloth and idlenesse, but be trained up in warre: this cause is touched, Iudg. 3.1. That he might prove Israel by them, as many as had not knowne the warres of Canaan, Marbach. Pellarg. But this reason is not mentioned here, Ne impatientia defecissent, &c. Lest they might through their impatience have fainted, Lippom. 6. And further, God would not, Vt citra praelia dominium terrae acquirant, That they should without battell get the dominion of the land: for those things which are hardly gotten, we doe the more set by, Pracopius. 7. Hoc etiam utile fuit ad cohibendum eorum praceps defiderium; This was also profitable to stay their preposterous desire; that they should wait the Lords leisure, and thinke not all at once to have their desire. Like as now many wish, that the Gospell might be quickly propagated over the world, which although it be much to be desired, yet we must commit and commend the successe thereof unto God, who seeth just cause, though it be not revealed to us, why it pleaseth not him at once herein to satisfie our desire, Gallas.
QUEST. XLIX. Of the bounds and limits of the land of promise.
Vers. 31. I Will make thy coasts from the red sea, &c. 1. This Sea called the red, or reedy Sea, in Hebrew Suph, cannot be the dead sea, as Pellican thinketh, into the which Jordan did runne: for no where in the Scripture is the name of the sea Suph, the reedy or red Sea, given unto it, but onelyonly to that sea which lieth upon Egypt, which was divided before the Israelites. 2. Here foure bounds are set of the Land of promise: the East bound, which is the red sea, Mare rubrum, quod ab orients intellige, &c. The red sea, understand to be on the East, Gloss. interlinear. Not that it boundeth all the East side, Sed frous orientalis terrae Canaan tangit in aliquo mare rubrum, &c. But because the East side of the land of Canaan confronteth in some part upon the red sea. The sea of the Philistims, which is the great Ocean, called the Mediterranean sea, did bound it on the West: the desert toward Egypt, which was the wildernesse of Shur on the South: and the river Euphrates on the North. 3. But in other places of the Scripture, the land of Canaan is otherwise bounded, as Gen. 15.18. two bounds only are described, one the South from the river of Egypt, which was a little river on the North end of Egypt, where it is joyned to the countrey of the Philistims: the other on the North, the great river Euphrates. So Deut. 11. vers. 24. these limits are described, the desert on the South, and Lebanon which is on the North▪ Euphrates on the East; and the uttermost sea on the West, Tostat. So Iosh. 1.4. From the wildernesse and Lebanon, unto the great river Perah: here Euphrates, in Hebrew called Perah, is the bound on the East: and so it is: pertenditur tamen versus Aquilonem; yet it extendeth toward the North, Oleaster. And therefore in this place it is set downe as the bound Northward. But this divers description, limiting and bounding of Canaan, is all one in effect. 4. Yet the Israelites enjoyed not all this countrey, till the time of David and Salomon, as 1 King. 4 21. it is said, that Salomon reigned over all Kingdomes, from the river Euphrates, unto the land of the Philistims, Iun. And the reason, why they obtained the whole land no sooner, was because of their sinne, Simler. 5. Now this bounding and confining of the land of Canaan, was profitable for these two ends: first, that the Israelites might know against whom they might lawfully fight: for to those countries which were not within the said limits and bounds, they could pretend no right nor title: Secondly, it was necessary to know the compasse and circuit of the land, for the more equall distributing and dividing of it among the tribes, Tostat. quaest. 85.
QUEST. L. Whether it be lawfull to make a league with nations which are enemies to true religion.
Vers. 32. THou shalt make no covenant with them. Here this question will be moved, whether it be altogether unlawfull to make any league or covenant with Infidels, or such as are enemies unto true religion, as the Israelites were forbidden to have any society with the Canaanites.
1. The affirmative part, that it is lawfull, may seeme to be confirmed by the examples of Abraham, that was in league with Aner, Eshcol and Mamre, Genes. 14. of Isaack, that made a covenant with Abimelech, Salomon with Hiram, the Macchabees with the Romans.
Answ. 1. Particular examples cannot infringe a generall Law, Legibus vivendum est, non exemplis; We must live by Lawes, and not by examples. 2. Aner▪ Eshcol and Mamre, were not Idolaters: there might be some true worshippers of God among the Canaanites in those dayes, as appeareth in Melchisedech, that dwelt among them. 3. Abraham and Isaack made no covenant of mutuall helpe, but only compounded a peace concerning their limits and bounds, which was not unlawfull, for Paul willeth us, as much as in us lieth to have peace with all men.Rom. 12.18. 4. Of the same kinde was the league which Salomon made with Hiram, which was a bond of peace and amity, not of mutuall helpe and society. 5. The example of the Macchabees doth not move us much; for their facts cannot simply be approved, and they had no good successe of that league, which they made with the Romans.
2. Wherefore the negative is more agreeable to the Scriptures, that no covenant is to be contracted or made with the wicked.
1. Iehosaphat is reproved by Iohn the Prophet, for joyning in league and friendship with Aba… the idolatrous King of Israel, 2 Chron. 19.
2. The Prophet Isay rebuketh the Jewes, because they sought unto the Egyptians for helpe: Wee … the rebellious children, &c. which walke forth to goe downe unto Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, &c. chap. 30.2.
3. For the same cause the Prophet also reproveth the Israelites, They are gone up to Asshur, &c. Ephraim hath hired lovers, Hosea 8.9.
4. Paul forbiddeth the Corinthians to flee for helpe unto the tribunals of Heathen Judges, but rather willeth them to suffer wrong among themselves, 1 Cor. 6. And he biddeth, Not to be unequally yoked with Infidels, 2 Cor. 6.14.
5. For all such leagues are unprofitable and in vaine; for how should they keepe faith with men, who are unfaithfull to God?
3. But yet all kinde of entercourse is not forbidden betweene Christians and Infidels, and such as are of contrary religion: For then (as the Apostle saith in the like case) wee must goe out of the world: yet these conditions must be observed in such leagues:
1. Wee must not promise to aid and assist the wicked, or binde our selves unto mutuall helpe, for therefore was Iehosaphat blamed: Wouldest thou helpe the wicked, and love them that hate the Lord? 2 Chron. 19.2.
2. Neither must we sue unto Infidels for helpe; for that were to distrust the Lord: if they offer their helpe upon good conditions, it is lawfull to use it, as sent of God; but we must not seeke for it.
3. Ancient leagues which have beene made in former times with such, are not to be broken: for the Gospell condemneth truce-breakers.
4. A league for removing of hostilitie, for entercourse of merchandise, and continuance of peace may be made with nations of strange religion, Simler.
QUEST. LI. What it is to sinne against God.
Vers. 33. LEst they make thee sinne against me. Every sinne indeed is against God, because it is a breach of his Law, but idolatry in a more speciall regard is committed against God. 1. Like as a double offence may be done toward the Magistrate and Lawgiver: either in generall, when his Law is transgressed, though anothers person is touched, as in theft, murther: or in particular, when beside the breach of the Law, the person or state of the Magistrate is touched as when treason is intended against him, or his goods stollen. So likewise men trespasse against God: first in generall, when his Law is violated, though our neighbour only be hurt, as in all the precepts of the second Table: secondly, more specially, when beside the transgression of the Law, actus immediate dirigitur in Deum, the act is immediately directed against God, as in the breach of the first Table, and principally in idolatry, Tostat. qu. 86.