THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE THE often canvassed

THE

INTRUSION

AND THE DECALOGUE

MEREDITH G.

KLINE

often canvassed subject of Old Testament Ethics

still

beckons the investigator onward in search of a more

adequate solution of its peculiar complex of problems. In

this search no other standard of righteousness is available

one who would think his Maker's thoughts after Him than

the

standard which emerges in the description of the words

and

ways

of God which have been inscripturated. But if it

is in this

very

connection that the problems appear, what is

the

investigator to do? What, indeed, but to recognize that

problematic as the divine activity seems to his ethical sensi-

tivities, perverted as they are and so often confused by faulty

interpretation

of the Word, it yet conveys a revelation of law.

will

give

himself again to the

exegesis

of the Word in the

conviction that the solution of the ethical problem must be

one

and the same as its accurate and adequate formulation.

The attempt is, therefore, made here to seek a solution in

terms of a somewhat fresh formulation of certain distinctive

elements in the religion of the Old Testament.

THE CONCEPT OF INTRUSION

is by tracing the unfolding eschatology of Scripture

that

we can most deftly unravel the strands of Old Testament

religion and discover what is essential and distinctive in it.

For

eschatology antedates redemption. It appears imme-

diately after creation. Farther back we must not force it

lest we distort eschatology from the consummation doctrine

of divine revelation into the eternal tension of a Barthian

imagination and reduce the creation to a myth.

Creation

is not eschatological. But it does provide the

pattern

for eschatology. It does so necessarily, for the

creature must pattern his

ways

after his Creator's. Since the

Creator

rested only after He had worked, it was a Covenant

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of Works which, immediately after Creation, was profferred •

to Adam as the means by which to arrive at the Consumma-

tion. In the sense that it was the door to the Consummation,

the Covenant of Works was eschatological.

That door, however, was never opened. It was not the

Fall in itself that delayed the Consummation. According

to the conditions of the Covenant of Works, the prospective

Consummation was "either/or". It was either eternal glory

by covenantal confirmation of original righteousness or eter-

nal perdition by covenant-breaking repudiation of it. The

Fall, therefore, might have introduced at once a Consum-

mation of universal damnation. The delay was due rather

to the principle and purpose of divine compassion by which

there was introduced the Covenant of Grace, with its historical

corollary Common Grace, as the new way of arriving at the

Consummation. For the thesis of this article it is especially

significant that the delay and Common Grace are coterminous.

In saying this we would not lose sight of the positive character

of Common Grace in contributing toward the eschatological

program, as it does, for instance, in providing the field of

operation for Saving Grace and its material as well.

Moreover, there is positive significance in the favor enjoyed

under Common Grace by the unbeliever who is ultimately

to prove reprobate because, for one thing, his present experi-

ence is, equally with his imminent experience in the Consum-

mation age, meaningful; and, for another, the aggravation of

his guilt by continuing unrepentance in the face of God's new

mercies provides the positive ground for a more dreadful

revelation of God's wrath in the hour of Messianic Judgment.

Indeed, the fact of delay in

itself,

which as the consequent

of a successful probation in paradise could have been only

negative, must be regarded as being in part positive when

considered against the actual background of the Fall, for it

now provides for a differently complexioned Consummation —

one with a more intensive and extensive revelation of the

divine perfections — from what could have been realized

without it. It is not the delay of mere postponement, but the

delay of gestation. But it is at the same time true that the

Consummation and commonness are mutually exclusive. In

this limited sense, therefore, Common Grace may be called

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE 3

the antithesis of the Consummation and, as such, epitomizes

this world-age viewed under the aspect of a delay during

which the Consummation is abeyant.

This change in covenants from Works to Grace does not

change the canons of eschatology. The creation pattern still

reigns. However, though rest must still follow after work,

that work must now be performed vicariously and as a

soteric accomplishment by the God-man. Moreover, as

already suggested, there is a difference in the Consummation

reached via the Covenant of Grace. It is no longer "either/or"

but "both/and". Whereas the Covenant of Works was uni-

versalistic, all being in Adam either for the tree of life or for

death, the Covenant of Grace is characterized by non-univer-

salistic election. Some are in Christ for salvation, but some

continue only in fallen Adam unto a condemnation of more

stripes. Hence man's apocalyptic prospects now include both

a glorified paradise and a lake of fire. And whereas eschatology

was ready to spring to its goal in one leap by the Covenant of

Works, it advances only by slow steps under the Covenant

of Grace.

Or, changing the figure, the appearance of the Consumma-

tion is now a birth-process in the post-lapsarian world and is,

therefore, painful as well as slow. Because of the Fall, it is

with sorrow that the creation brings forth so that it groaneth

and travaileth in pain together until now. But it is the

Consummation-child himself who particularly interests us,

and we suggest that he might as well be named Perez. For

he breaks through beforehand, making a breach for

himself.

That is, the Covenant of Grace all along the line of its ad-

ministration, more profoundly in the New Testament but

already in the Old Testament, is an intrusion into the period

of delay of the power, principles and reality of the Consum-

mation. By virtue of this Intrusion, the Covenant of Grace

is more pervasively eschatological than the Covenant of

Works, which envisaged the divine introduction of the Final

State as its goal but did not experience any such anticipation

of it. For fixity is of the essence of Consummation and fixity

is the contradiction of probation, which was of the essence

of the Covenant of Works.

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THE INTRUSION AND

TYPOLOGY

Breaking through

first

of all in the Old Testament period,

the

Intrusion finds

itself

in an age which is by the divine

disposition of history, or, more

specifically,

by the divine

administration of the Covenant of

Grace,

an age of preparation

for a later age of fulfillment and finality. Its appearing, there-

fore, instead of being in all its heavenly finality is amid

earthly forms which at once

suggest,

yet

veil,

its ultimate

glory.

Not to be obscured is the fact that within this tem-

porary periphery of the Intrusion there is a permanent core.

The pattern of things earthly embodies an actual projection of

the

heavenly reality. It is the Consummation which, intruding

into

the time of delay, anticipates

itself.

As for the peculiar forms of the Intrusion in the Old

Testament age, they have a pattern coherent and compre-

hensive — for things must

always

be done decently and in

order in the house of God. Taking an Old Testament stand-

point

among these forms as belonging to the reality that is,

we may say that they also point to a reality that was (as

archetype in the heavens) and that is to come (in the

Messianic age). They are antitype

in relation to the reality

that

was. They are symbol in relation to the core of the

present Old Testament Intrusion of that reality. And they

are type in relation to that reality as it is to come.

When the Old Testament forms are

viewed

as type, the

New Testament age is to be

classified

along with the eternal

state as their antitype,

so epochmaking in the unfolding of

the

Intrusion is the revelation in the Son. This is the case

even though the apocalypse of Jesus Christ and his kingdom

still

in the category of Intrusion rather than perfect Con

αντίτυπα

των

αληθινών

(Heb.

9:24).

Some

confusion

arises

in the

terminology

through

the

double

use of

the

word

"antitype"

to signify

both

that

the Old

Testament

is the

copy

the

prior

heavenly

pattern

and

that

the New

Testament

reality

cor-

responds

to the

earlier

Old

Testament

pattern.

Thus,

not

only

are

both

Old

Testament

and New

Testament

antitype

(though

different

senses),

but

the Old

Testament

both

type

and

antitype

(again

from

different

points

view).

Possibly

were

better

then

to style the Old

Testament

forms

simply

"copies"

as viewed in

relation

to the

things

in the

heavens.

Cf.

Heb.

9:23,

ύχοδβίγµατα

τ&ν tv

rots

ούρανοίς.

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE

summation, as is signalized by the fact that the New Testa-

ment age is still characterized by Common Grace, the epitome

of the delay. The identification of the New Testament age

with the Consummation keeps pace with the stages in the

exaltation of the Son of Man, and while we see Him sitting on

the right hand of power we have not yet seen Him coming

in the clouds of heaven.

It follows that for every aspect of Old Testament typology

there is not yet a corresponding antitype. Certain features

find their antitype in the New Testament and, indeed, only

there in some cases (e. g., the sacrifice of the Passover lamb);

but the fulfillment of other Old Testament types is realized

only in the world to come (e. g., the actual possession of the

promised land by the people of God). While, therefore, the

Old Testament is an earlier edition of the final reality than

is the New Testament, and not so intensive, it is on its own

level a more extensive edition, especially when considered

in its own most fully developed form, viz., the Theocracy.

Integral to the foregoing is the conception of typology as

an attribute of the anticipatory Intrusion of the Consumma-

tion into the era of delay. Typology then is primarily escha-

tological; and secondarily it is pedagogical because it is an

attribute of the Intrusion in the age which was a preparation

for the Messianic fullness of time. To give a definition:

Typology is the prospective aspect of the peculiarly Old

Testament forms of the Intrusion. Typology is not then

coextensive with the Old Testament Intrusion, for that con-

tained core-elements which were not peculiar to the Old

Testament (e. g., the Holy Spirit's application of salvation

to the elect and His operations of revelation and inspiration

in the production of the Old Testament Canon). Nor can it

be said without qualification that typology is coextensive

with the symbolic periphery of the Old Testament Intrusion,

for there are symbols which in whole or part give visible

representation to spiritual elements in the core of the Old

Testament Intrusion and to that extent have no prospective

reference (e. g., the sign of circumcision).

Such signs of

The word "prospective" is used here for the earlier and later, not of

mere continuity but of progress from lower to higher. The above state-

ment, therefore, is not a denial but, in effect, an affirmation of the essential

6 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL

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realized eschatology

are

sacraments whereas types

are

signs

of unrealized

eschatology.

The

following rule

may be

used

for distinguishing

the

typical elements

in the Old

Testament:

Whatever

in the Old

Testament

both inexplicable

terms

of Common Grace alone

(i. e.,

whatever

is of the

Intrusion)

and

not

essentially unchanged when later seen again

in the

an ti typical

age

introduced

Christ

(i. e.,

whatever

is not

the

core

of the

Intrusion

sacramental

thereof)

typical.

adopting this formulation of typology we necessarily confine the

phenomenon

to the Covenant of

Grace.

For if typology is by definition

attribute of the

Intrusion,

it cannot be a feature of the Covenant

Works,

in which the Consummation did not intrude itself but was

present

only as a goal on the

horizon.

Accordingly, the opinion that

Adam's

rôle in the Covenant of Works was typical (in the specific

sense)

of the rôle of Christ in the Covenant of Grace is

erroneous.

That

Adam is styled τύπος του μβΧλοντος (Rom. 5:14) does not

overthrow our conclusions. We cannot arrive at an understanding of

the

nature of typology by an undiscriminating compilation of passages

containing the

word

τύπος. In fact, that

word

is not used anywhere

in the New Testament in the specific

sense.

What Paul teaches in

Romans 5:14 and context is that God has dealt with

mankind

according

the principle of federal headship under the Covenant of Works

and of Grace. This parallelism in the rôles of the first and last Adam

adequate explanation of Paul's application of the term τύπος to the

former.

is also manifestly impossible to include within the scope of typology

defined as a phenomenon emerging in the administration of the Covenant

Grace and, moreover, one which prefigures the actual consummating

that Covenant, anything standing outside the Kingdom of God

hostilely

intent on preventing its perfection. Even on more general

grounds this should be evident. For the very idea of antitype denotes

attainment or, more specifically, expression in a higher sphere; but

Satan,

though he strives with the increasing tempo of desperation, never

attains.

The kingdom of

Satan

is one of ever-compounding frustration

whose disintegration is in direct proportion to its energizing. When,

therefore,

it puts forth its extreme effort and the apocalyptic

Beast

ascends

from the abyss, it does so only to be

cast

with

Satan

into the

lake of fire and brimstone and its never-quenched torments (Rev. 11:7;

17:8,

11;

20:10).

Within

the orbit, therefore, in which God suffers

Satan

to move there

found

no place for an antitype.

Satan

may imitate typology but

identity of Old Testament Circumcision and New Testament Baptism

in function and meaning.

In some

cases

the sacramental and typical may be

found

as different

aspects

of one complex sign.

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE

cannot get beyond imitation. His Antichrist is at most only a counter-

feit antitype of, let us say, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Antiochus then

is only a pseudo-type or, better, no type at all. It is true that various

enemies of the Covenant people figure in the typical judgments of the

Old Testament as the objects of the divine wrath (e. g., Pharaoh's hosts

at the Exodus). But it does not follow that these foes can be isolated

from the specific historical instances as types in themselves of the general

hostility of the world against the church or of Satan's hordes which

gather together against the Lamb and His army in the last hour (Rev.

19:19;

20:8), as though there were a self-contained typology within

the Satanic enterprise. On the contrary, both earlier and later foes of

God's Kingdom operate on essentially the same level in the continuing

Satanic enmity to the Christ of God, while it is only the judgment of

God against these foes which ascends to a higher level as it moves on

from its Old Testament expressions to the revelation of Jesus Christ

from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance.

To summarize thus far: Perez makes the breach in the Old

Testament; that is, the Consummation intrudes itself there.

This Intrusion has realized eschatology as its core while its

symbolic surface, the sacramental aspect thereof excepted,

forms a typical picture of eschatology not yet realized. In

the recognition of the true character of core and periphery

and in the further recognition that the core is always present

within the periphery lies the proper understanding of much

in the Old Testament.

For instance, it is only so that the true nature of the

Abrahamic Covenant can be perceived. As the core of that

covenant there was a vital and indissoluble spiritual relation-

ship whereby the Lord was a God to His chosen. That was

realized eschatology. But there was also the periphery of

unrealized eschatology represented in a pattern of types,

namely, the outward organization of Abraham's seed as a

nation in the promised land. In this connection it might be

well to illustrate the application of the test for types suggested

above. It was not by reason of any principle inherent in

Common Grace that the earthly prosperity of the theocratic

nation continued in direct proportion to the national religious

well-being. Such ordering of the earthly blessings of God's

people can be ascribed only to the Intrusion. Moreover these

blessings are peculiar to the Old Testament and so are unlike

the spiritual core of the Abrahamic Covenant which continues

essentially unchanged in the New Testament, though in-

8 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

tensified by the Messianic outpouring of the Spirit. When

they reappear in the age of antitypical fulfillment, it is in the

radically transformed character of the permanent kingdom

of the new heavens and new earth. They thus satisfy both the

requirements for types and are to be regarded as constituting

the typical periphery of the manifestation of the Intrusion

in the Abrahamic Covenant.

THE INTRUSION AND ETHICS

It is now possible to address ourselves directly to the ethical

questions in the Old Testament. As this field is surveyed there

emerges a divinely sanctioned pattern of action in conflict

with the customary application of the Law of God according

to the principles of Common Grace operative within the era

of delay. But this conflict should not now appear strange, for

it serves to bring into still clearer relief what we have found to

belong to the essential nature of the Old Testament, i. e., the

Intrusion of the Consummation, which is the antithesis of

Common Grace. Our purpose then is to display this ethical

strand as an integral and congenial element within the Old

Testament, and, therefore, as an occasion not of uneasiness

for the believer but of glorying in his God, who in Old Testa-

ment days as in these last days showed Himself One sovereign

and omnipotent in salvation and in judgment.

THE INTRUSION AND THE FIRST TABLE

There is a marked difference between the relevance of the

Intrusion concept in the application of the first and second

tables of the decalogue.

The point will be developed below

As used here these terms do not have precisely their usual significance,

for I am unable to accept the traditional logical or numerical divisions of

the decalogue. The customary logical categories, i. e., our duty to God

and our duty to man, seem to be a misapplication of our Lord's words

(Matt. 22:37-40), for to state the heart of all Old Testament law is not

identical with giving the logical structure on which the decalogue is

organized. I take the position that the first table is concerned with man's

direct glorifying of God (i. e., by worship) and the second with man's

indirect glorifying of God (i. e.

by patterning his life after the ways of

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE 9

that the relationships governed by the second table are

mutable and, more particularly, that they undergo certain

changes when they enter the sphere of the Consummation.

It will be maintained further that these changes ground a

new application of the laws which legislate for them. The

Consummation then, together with its Intrusion into the age

wherein Common Grace is operative, is most significant for

the application of the second table. But in the creature's

obligations toward the immutable God, which are the exclusive

concern of the first table, there is no such mutability. In

particular, the termination of the principles of Common Grace

at the Consummation introduces no change in that relation-

ship.

Hence, there can be no ground for a different application

of the first table because of the Intrusion of the age to come

during the Old Testament dispensation.

There is, however, variableness in the sanctions annexed

to these laws of the first table. The violation of them by a

covenant member in the New Testament dispensation is

subject to ecclesiastical discipline, but the sword may not

be wielded by either church or state in punishment of offenders.

On the other hand, in the Consummation the portion of those

who are unable to fulfill these laws will be "the second death".

In consonance with this principle, in the Old Testament

Theocracy where the Consummation is typically anticipated,

death is prescribed for violations of these laws {cf., e. g., Lev.

24:16;

Deut. 13:6; 17:2-7). The difference between the Old

Testament and New Testament cannot be explained simply

by an appeal to the civil aspect of the Theocracy because, for

one thing, the ordinary state had no more authority in the

Old Testament than in the New Testament period to enforce

the first table. In respect to these sanctions, therefore, the

ethics of the Old Testament conflict with principles operative

under Common Grace. The Intrusion appears most vividly

God),

and, moreover, that the Sabbath law belongs in the second category.

This yields the numerical divisions 1-3 and 4-10. The justification of such

a disposition of the fourth word lies outside the scope of this article, for, as

I understand the matter, it would require an extensive examination of the

sacrament concept. For the present also the relation of the Sabbath to

the Intrusion will not be treated, except to state that the Sabbath might

well be called the symbol of the Intrusion.

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in those cases where the infliction of death is not the act of a

theocratic official but of God (e. g., Num. 10:1, 2; 16:31-35;

II Kgs. 2:24).

The discussion of this feature at this place does not imply

that variableness in sanctions is peculiar to the first table

of the Law. There are several laws in the second table the

violation of which was punishable by death in the Theocracy

and these further illustrate this matter (cf., e. g., Ex. 21:15-17;

31:14-35:2; Lev. 20:10; Num. 15:32-36; Deut. 19:16, 19;

22:22).

THE INTRUSION AND THE SECOND TABLE

The second table of the decalogue deals with laws of intra-

creational relationships. In contrast to the laws of the first

table, which enunciate principles invariable in their applica-

tion, these laws of the second table are subject to change in

their application because the relations they govern are

subject to change.

Biblical laws have been classified according to their ground

as laws founded

1) on the nature of God; 2) on permanent

relations of men in their present state of existence; 3) on

temporary relations of men or conditions of society; and

4) altogether on positive commands of God.

Discussing

the question of how far the laws contained in the Bible may

be dispensed with, Hodge says that the laws of group 1 are

immutable; that the laws of group 2 may be set aside by the

authority of God; and that the laws of groups 3 and 4 are

mutable, the positive laws of the Old Testament being, as a

matter of fact, now abolished together with those laws of

Although in dealing with the second table appeal might more plausibly

be made to the civil aspect of the Theocracy to explain the use of the

sword, exception would have to be made even here in the case of the

Sabbath law. But, more fundamentally, such an appeal is obviated at

every point by the fact that neither the Theocracy as a whole nor any

aspect of it can be equated with the ordinary state so as to warrant the

automatic transfer of the functions of the one to the other.

7 See C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. Ill, pp. 267-269; cf. W.

Brenton Green, "Ethics of the Old Testament", Princeton Th. Rev.,

April 1929, pp. 179-181.

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE

group 3 which were designed exclusively for the Hebrews

living under the Theocracy.

It is to be observed, however, that these categories are

not mutually exclusive and that, therefore, there may be

more complexity in the application of a given law than this

simple formulation of the problem of mutability suggests.

Two of these categories may be involved as multiple aspects

of one law which may then have both a mutable and im-

mutable aspect. To illustrate, though laws five through ten

are grounded on permanent relations of men in their present

state of existence, they are also founded on the nature of

God. For they simply apply to specific cases the grand prin-

ciple that man must reflect the moral glory of God on a finite

scale. This principle is immutable because it concerns the

relationship of man to God. On the other hand, the relations

governed by this immutable principle are themselves mutable.

In the present age we may say that the essence of these

laws is that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and the

answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor?", is the

parable of the Good Samaritan. But beyond this life that

parable will no longer serve as the answer to that question.

Then Lazarus must not so much as dip the tip of his finger in

water to cool the tongue of him who is in anguish in the

flame. The Law of Heaven requires that Lazarus pass him

by on the other side. Not to take pleasure in his anguish,

mind you (for Lazarus has been renewed in the image of God

not of Satan), but none the less to pass him by whom heaven's

Lord must command, "Depart from me, thou cursed". The

neighbor relationship envisaged in the parable of the Good

Samaritan has, therefore, a terminus ad quern dit the limit of

the present state of existence. The unbeliever is the believer's

neighbor today; but the reprobate is not the neighbor of the

redeemed hereafter for the reason that God will set a great

gulf between them. God, whose immutable nature it is to

hate evil, withdrawing all favor from the reprobate, will

Himself hate them as sin's finished products. And if the

redeemed in glory are to fulfill their duty of patterning

their ways after God's, then they will have to change their

attitude to the unbeliever from one of neighborly love to one

of perfect hatred, which is a holy not malicious passion. Just

12 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

because the grand principle which underlies laws five through

ten is immutable, the application of these laws must be

changed in accordance with the changes in the intra-creational

relationships for which they legislate.

We conclude, therefore, that such aspects of laws as are

founded on intra-creational relations are mutable and that

since such relations are dealt with in laws five through ten

we might expect to find unusual applications of them produced

by the Intrusion in the course of Old Testament redemptive

history. As a matter of fact, an examination of Scriptural

history and prophecy discloses that God, who has established

these relationships and has authority to change them, has in

the past, and will in the future alter them, the changes

(which involve variant application of laws five through ten)

being of the following varieties:

Changes introduced as pedagogical and remedial meas-

ures,

as for example, the toleration of polygamy in the Old

Testament period. Such permission was in condescension to

the spiritual state of the Old Testament people of God, in

order gradually to instruct them and bring them to more

vigorous spiritual health.

Changes introduced at the Consummation. For example,

God will then so change the constitution of things that there is

no marrying or giving in marriage and thereby the seventh

commandment will lose all pertinence. The change in the

neighbor concept discussed above is another case in point.

Changes introduced in the Old Testament dispensation

by the anticipatory Intrusion of the an ti typical age. These

are of two types: a) anticipations of God's judgment on the

reprobate; b) anticipations of God's salvation of the elect.

Numerous ethical problems of the Old Testament find their

proper formulation and, hence, solution in terms of this

principle.

It is, of course, the third of these varieties that we desire

to pursue further here, and it might be well to forestall possible

misunderstandings by making certain observations at once.

First, the demands of Intrusion Ethics in the Old Testament

are not of a lower or laxer order. Quite the contrary, it was

only in union with the highest outreach of faith that there

could be true compliance with the demands of this ethic.

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE 13

Second, this concept of Intrusion Ethics is not prejudicial

to the permanent validity of the moral law of Moses. The

distinction made is not one of different standards, for the law

of Moses is recognized as the final authority at all times, in

this world and in that which is to come. The distinction

arises in the application of this constant standard under

significantly different conditions. It is evident that such a

distinction must be made between the period of Common

Grace in general and the age of the Consummation. The

only proposal beyond that made here is that there are anticipa-

tions of that distinction, and, to that extent, an anticipatory

abrogation of the principles of Common Grace, during the

Old Testament age. Finally, this concept of Intrusion Ethics

does not obscure the unity of the Covenant of Grace through-

out its various administrations. It does bring into bolder

relief the basic structure of that Covenant in its historical

unfolding and in so doing inevitably displays its essential

unity.

INTRUSIONS OF JUDGMENT

The Imprecations in the Psalms

Treating first the variety of Intrusion which anticipates

God's judgment upon the reprobate we come upon the old

problem of the imprecations in the Psalms (see e. g., Pss. 7,

35,

55, 59, 69, 79, 109 and 137). It is necessary in justification

of the imprecations to point out that the welfare of man is

not the chief end of man; that we sinful creatures have no

inherent rights which our holy Maker must respect; that

accordingly, God may, without violating any obligation, take

any man's life at any time and in any way; and that it is one

with this for God to inspire the psalmist to pray that He

should do so in a particular instance, the prayer itself being

altogether proper since divinely inspired. It is also helpful to

indicate that the psalmist expresses hatred of others and

prays for their destruction not in a bitter spirit of personal

vindictiveness but out of concern for the honor of God's name,

which has been despised, and from love of God's Kingdom,

which has been opposed in that enmity displayed by the

14 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

objects of the imprecations toward the psalmist as one who

represented God's Kingdom. However, when all this has

been expressed by way of explanation and defence, the

significance of the imprecations has not yet been fully

appreciated.

Another important side of the picture can be brought into

view by the observation that normally the believer's attitudes

toward the unbeliever are conditioned by Common Grace.

During the historical process of differentiation which Common

Grace makes possible, before the secret election of God is

unmistakably manifested at the great white throne, the

servants of Christ are bound by His charge to pray for the

good of those who despitefully use and persecute them.

Our Lord rebuked the Boanerges when they contemplated

consuming the Samaritans with fire from heaven. We may

not seek to destroy those for whom, perchance, Christ has

died.

But in the Judgment the Lord will not rebuke James and

John if they make similar request. Then it will be altogether

becoming for the saint to desire God's wrath to descend upon

his unbelieving enemy. No longer will there be the possibility

that the enemy of the saint is the elect of God. Then the

grain harvest will be ripe for the gathering of the Son of Man

and the clusters of the vines will be fully ripe for the great

winepress of the wrath of God.

It appears then that we must distinguish an Ethics of the

Consummation from an Ethics of Common Grace, and the

imprecations in the Psalms confront us unexpectedly with a

pattern of conduct which conforms to the Ethics of the

Consummation. Since it is intruded by inspiration it consti-

tutes a divine abrogation, limited and in advance, of the

ethical requirements normally in force during the course of

Common Grace. What is required is that we cease stumbling

over this as though it were a problem and recognize it as a

feature of the divine administration of the Covenant of Grace

in the Old Testament which displays the sovereign authority

of the Covenant God. It is also bright with promise for the

future of His kingdom and people for, to make explicit the

obvious, this ethical intrusion appropriately attaches itself

to the activity of persons and institutions which were types

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE

of things which were to come in the age of the Consummation.

The ethical principles themselves are the core of Consum-

mation reality within the periphery of things typical.

The Conquest of Canaan

Another familiar problem is that of justifying the Israelite

dispossession and extermination of the Canaanites over against

the sixth and eighth Words of the Decalogue. Defense might

be attempted by comparing the function of the ordinary

state when, acting through its officers against criminals within

its borders or through its military forces against offending

nations outside, it destroys life and exacts reparations. Such

action is not in disregard but in fulfillment of the terms of

Common Grace, for in God's dealing with mankind in Com-

mon Grace He has authorized the state as "an avenger for

wrath to him that doeth evil".

Now it is true that Israel's army was also an avenger for

wrath, but while an analogy may be recognized between the

two things compared, the conclusion cannot be avoided that

radically different principles are at work. For if Israel's

conquest of Canaan were to be adjudicated before an assembly

of nations according to no other standard than that of Com-

mon Grace, it would have to be condemned as an unprovoked

aggression and, moreover, an aggression carried out in bar-

barous violation of the requirement to show all possible

mercy even in the proper execution of justice. It will not

avail the counsel for the defense to claim that by a divine

promise originally made to Abraham and often since reiterated

to his descendants the land was rightfully Israel's; nor to

insist that the iniquity of the Amorites was full and cried to

heaven for judgment; nor to advise the court that the conquest

was undertaken and waged according to specific directions of

God to Moses and Joshua. Such facts would have no legal

significance for the international tribunal judging solely by

the principles of Common Grace.

It will only be with the frank acknowledgment that the

ordinary standards were suspended and the ethical principles

of the last Judgment intruded that the divine promises and

commands to Israel concerning Canaan and the Canaanites

16 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

come into their own and the Conquest can be justified and

seen as it was in truth — not murder, but the hosts of the

Almighty visiting upon the rebels against His righteous throne

their just deserts — not robbery, but the meek inheriting

the earth.

It was earlier maintained that the Intrusion Ethics required

of him who would obey its demands the highest outreach of

faith. Thus in the case of the Conquest, to show mercy to

Canaanite women and children would not have been rising

above a condescending, permissive decree to the heights of

compliance with a loftier standard. It would have been

falling, through lack of faith, into the abyss of disobedience.

As a matter of fact, was it not the great men of faith, a Moses,

a Joshua, a Caleb, who prosecuted the Conquest with vigor;

and was it not in consequence of spiritual declension in

Israel that they soon began to spare and make peace with

those Canaanites who were left in the land to try them?

The Conquest, with the pattern of Old Testament action it

exemplifies, was not, as so often stigmatized, an instance in

the ethical sphere of arrested evolution but of anticipated

eschatology.

Other Examples

Ethical anticipations of the Judgment of the reprobate are

found in cases involving all the rest of commandments five

through ten excepting the seventh for the reason that "every

sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that com-

mitteth fornication sinneth against his own body" (I Cor.

6:18).

According to the fifth commandment, Rahab owed obedi-

ence to the civil authorities of Jericho. When information

was requested of her concerning the enemy spies it was, by

normal standards, her duty to supply it. Nevertheless by

faith she united herself to the cause of the Theocracy and so

played her part as an agent of the typical Judgment, denying

to the obstinate foes of God that respect for their authority

which was their due under Common Grace. For so doing,

Rahab receives inspired approbation (Heb.

11:31;

Jas. 2:25).

By the same token the enemies of the Theocracy lost the

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE

ordinary right to hear the truth as that is guaranteed by the

ninth commandment. In so far, therefore, as the theocratic

agent did not deny God (or to put it differently, did not

violate the immutable principles of the first table of the

Decalogue) he might with perfect ethical propriety deceive

such as had hostile intent against the Theocracy. There is,

accordingly, no necessity from the analogy of Scripture to

avoid what seems the plain impression of certain passages

to the effect that such deception was practised with divine

approval (e. g., the deception of Pharaoh by the Hebrew

midwives — Ex.

1:15-21)

or even by express divine command

(e.

g., Samuel's deception of Saul — I Sam. 16:2).

In the abstract it is possible to distinguish between losing

the right to hear the truth and the speaking of an untruth,

and then to hold that the theocratic agent might not deceive

even though the enemy of the Theocracy had forfeited his

right to be informed of the truth, But in the actual historical

struggle the two may, at times at least, become inseparable.

Saul, for example, had no right to be told that David was being

anointed to replace him. Now if we abstract Samuel's con-

duct that day in Bethlehem from its historical setting, we

might explain his silence concerning his primary purpose

simply as a withholding of information. But that would,

indeed, be an abstraction, not the reality. For Samuel's

action was in the living context of Saul's actively hostile

interest in it; his strategy was framed with the specific intent

of parrying the thrust of that enmity. To do that success-

fully mere silence would not suffice since his action cried out

for an explanation and Saul was bound to have one. Only

the positive step of creating a false impression could achieve

Samuel's purpose, and he took that step by making prominent

the sacrifice. Certainly, in the text

itself,

the command to

take along a heifer and supervise a sacrifice is given as the

immediate response to Samuel's desire to avert Saul's suspi-

cion. That Samuel actually planned to sacrifice once he had

been so directed is irrelevant. The point to be observed is

the immediate purpose of the Lord in commanding him to

sacrifice in the first place.

It was noticed above that an analogy exists between the

right of the state to wield the sword and Israel's conquest

18 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

of Canaan, even though the justification of the latter is not

inherent in the principles of Common Grace. So in the present

instance an analogy obtains between the deception employed

by a theocratic representative against an active opponent of

the Theocracy and the deception practised by the ordinary

state,

for instance, through the agency of a military officer

in a skillful tactic, while engaged in a warfare justified by the

principles of Common Grace.

Implied in the cases of Intrusion Ethics which are by

ordinary standards violations of the eighth Word may also

be similar violations of the tenth. The discussion of the

imprecations in the Psalms has already indicated that even

the inward feelings of the theocratic agents might be brought

by inspiration within the sphere of the Intrusion's ethical

standard. Must we not, then, also regard, for example, the

Hebrew man of faith engaged in the Conquest as coveting

the land of the Canaanites, at least in the degree that he was

obeying God's battle charge from his heart and with under-

standing? While this would ordinarily be to sin against one

who was his neighbor, this was one of the instances where

the neighbor concept operative under Common Grace was

abrogated by divine ordering in favor of the neighbor concept

of the Judgment and beyond, according to which God's ene-

mies are not the elect's neighbors. When the Old Testament

believer, at the Lord's command, took his typical stand

beyond Common Grace, to covet the property of the unbe-

liever was to be in harmony with God's purpose to perfect

His kingdom.

INTRUSIONS OF SALVATION

It remains to trace the other branch of Intrusion Ethics,

namely, anticipations of the ethical principles entailed in

God's saving His people.

The Theocracy and the Nations

Apropos of the fifth Word, it is in this New Testament age

not a legitimate function of a civil government to endorse and

support organized religion. This applies equally to the Chris- ·

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE 19

tian Church, for though its invisible government is theocratic

with Christ sitting on David's throne in the heavenlies ruling

over it, yet its visible organization, in particular as it is related

to civil powers, is so designed that it takes a place of only

common privilege along with other religions within the frame-

work of Common Grace. It is quite otherwise in the Con-

summation for then every dominion and power in heaven, on

earth and under the earth must do obeisance to the Christ

of God. Moreover, it is this ultimate state of affairs which

is found intruded into the Old Testament dispensation in

connection with the Israelite Theocracy, which typified the

perfected Kingdom of God.

While this typical Kingdom of Heaven was in existence

the other nations on earth stood in a peculiar relation to it.

So,

for example, it is of interest that "the Lord stirred up

the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a procla-

mation throughout his kingdom", in which he professed to

have received a charge from the Lord God of heaven to

build Him a house in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1 ff.). Later Persian

monarchs also gave positive support to the building and main-

tenance of the Temple of the Restoration and, moreover,

contributed from government funds for its ritual. The famous

Cyrus cylinder reveals that Cyrus' policy towards the religion

of Israel was in keeping with a general policy of restoring

exiled nations and their religious cultus, but that does not

affect the point that it was by divine instigation that Cyrus

actively supported the organized religion of Israel. This

procedure is obviously not normative for civil governments

in the New Testament dispensation, but is an example of

the intrusion of Consummation Ethics attaching to the

Theocracy as a type of heaven into which "the kings of earth

do bring their glory and honor" (Rev. 21:24).

The "Sacrifice" of Isaac

When Abraham was commanded of God to slay Isaac it

seemed to him to be in contradiction to previous revelation

concerning human life, which was later to be codified in the

sixth Word of the Decalogue. However, it is the Creator's

prerogative to assign such significance to His creature as He

20 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

will, and it is man's duty to accept the divine interpretation.

The more unaccountable to man the divine interpretation be,

the better calculated it is to bring to the fore in man's con-

sciousness the necessity that he think and live covenantally,

that is, in the obedience of personal devotion to his God.

As God gave a special meaning to one of the trees of the

garden, which it did not possess according to the ordinary

constitution of things, making it the tree of forbidden fruit;

as God gave a peculiar significance to certain meats in the

ceremonial of the Old Testament, making them unclean; so

now God effectively redefined the life of Isaac, making it the

life to be sacrificed.

Confronted with a test which accents the purely covenantal

nature of the obedience which must well from the hearts of

his spiritual seed, the father of believers must not apply an

abstract principle which forbids human sacrifice. For the

child of the Covenant must listen only to his Father's voice.

If Abraham does substitute that dictum of an idol ethic for

the living voice of his Father at this juncture, he will find

consistency demanding of him in the Judgment that he refuse

the Atonement which his Father has provided. For the

ethical principles operative in the Father's sacrifice of His Son

in the fulness of time are the same as those involved in the

"sacrifice" of Isaac. The latter, indeed, constitutes an intru-

sion of that ethic within the Old Testament and, as expected,

it attaches to an event which typifies the Cross. At the same

time,

the fact that what was actually sacrificed by Abraham

was the divinely provided substitute, advises us of the in-

adequacy of sinful human life to serve as an atoning sacrifice.

Since the Father speaks to His children today only in the words of

the completed Scriptures, we are never tested in the peculiar manner of

Abraham's trial of faith; that is, there are now no immediate divine

revelations whose authority we might defy by idolizing previous revelation.

It is, however, also true that the "now", the present dispensation, is not

a closed and perpetual order but an age open to imminent invasion and

termination by the coming of the day of the Lord. The child of the Cove-

nant, therefore, must live in expectant hope of "the appearing of the

glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" and, when confronted

with that ultimate theophany, he must be ready to heed the new demands

of his God though they annul Scriptural requirements in force during the

age just a moment ago waxed old and vanished away.

THE INTRUSION AND THE DECALOGUE 21

It tells us that God had not intended to interpret Isaac's

life as the life which must actually be sacrificed, but only to

try Abraham, whether he would by faith recognize God's

right to do so.

The Marriage of Hosea

The interpretation of the marriage of the prophet Hosea

(Hos.

1 and 3) has been perplexed by the ethical problem

with which certain views are believed to be entangled. While

accepting the view that only one woman is intended through-

out, and she a harlot before the marriage, it is not our purpose

here to defend this view in detail whether in its realistic,

visionary or symbolical variety, but only to point out that

there is no insoluble ethical problem preventing its adoption.

According to the Mosaic Law, prostitution was one of the

violations of the seventh commandment which required ex-

clusion from the theocratic congregation (Lev. 19:29; Deut.

23:17).

It was certainly implied in this that a harlot might

not be espoused by a Covenant member. Nevertheless, in

contradiction of this ordinary requirement, the Lord com-

manded Hosea to marry the harlot Gomer. In so doing, God

was again anticipating an ethical principle entailed in His

saving the elect. In this case there is intruded the principle

operative when a Bride formed from a multitude of defiled

sinners is received by Christ as His own.

Like Abraham, therefore, Hosea must not be enslaved to

an abstract ethical standard. He must keep himself from

idols and be ready to hear his Father when He speaks. If he

is not prepared to take Gomer now, then when the Lamb

appears for the great marriage-feast, the idol will demand

of Hosea in the name of consistency that he accede not to

the reception by the holy One and undefiled of sinners such as

he to be His Bride.

Enough has perhaps now been presented to display how,

in union with the phenomenon of typology, during the Old

Testament dispensation there was an anticipatory exercise of

the ethic of the world to come. Ignorance of this is fraught

with danger for the formulator of Christian Ethics for he will

be liable to found matters of Christian duty upon cases of

22 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Intrusion Ethics in the Old Testament. So he will become

unwittingly guilty of assuming the prerogative of God to

abrogate the principles of Common Grace. One further

similar caution in closing: the recognition that the hour

cometh when it will be our duty to hate the unbeliever must

not diminish and ought to intensify our efforts to show him

the love of Christ in the hour that now is. When our Father

shall say, "It is done", we must listen to His voice. But if

we are listening to Him today, we are still seeking by His

grace to be Good Samaritans.

Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia