Introduction
What is revelation?
Revelation is when someone makes something known that was previously unknown.
What does revelation mean in theology?
This is when God reveals Himself to His created people. Girdlestone writes (very bottom of p107):
…it is an incontrovertible fact that the fundamental idea of the Hebrew religion is that Jehovah is a God who reveals Himself to His creatures; that He has not left the human race to grope their way to the regions of religion or morality as they best can, but that from the beginning He has taken His children by the hand, cared for their welfare, made known to them His will, and marked out for them the way to happiness.’ In accordance with this undeniable fact, the Divine Being is represented as speaking by word of mouth with His creatures.
Orr records (p76) this thought:
A genuine Theism can never long remain a bare Theism. At the height to which Christianity has raised our thoughts of God, it is becoming constantly more difficult for minds that reflect seriously to believe in a God who does not manifest Himself in word and deed. This is well brought out in a memorable conversation which Mr. Froude had with Mr. Carlyle in the last days of his life. “I once said to him,” says Mr. Froude, “not long before his death, that I could only believe in a God which did something. With a cry of pain, which I shall never forget, he said, ‘He does nothing.’ ” This simply means that if we are to retain the idea of a living God, we must be in earnest with it. We must believe in a God who expresses Himself in living deeds in the history of mankind, who has a word and message for mankind, who, having the power and the will to bless mankind, does it. Theism, as I contended before, needs Revelation to complete it.
How does God reveal Himself to human persons?
God has many different ways He does this. The first and most obvious is that God speaks directly to people just as two people might speak directly to each other. The first instance of this we see immediately after God created Adam and Eve:
And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. (Gen 1:28-30)
There are numerous other instances of this in the Old Testament. God also spoke directly to His people by way of vision as Isaiah (Is 6) and several times to Ezekiel (1, 8, 40).
How else has God revealed Himself to His people?
God revealed Himself to ancient Israel using the Urim and Thummim. It is not clear exactly what these were; but in some way, God used these to communicate his will to His people. We may assume that whenever Scripture speaks of Israel asking for the Lord’s will in any matter, these Urim and Thummim were in use.
- For instance, we read that Israel did not ask Yahweh’s advice before making their agreement with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:14).
- After Joshua died, Israel asked YHWH who should lead their armies (Judges 1:1; 20:18).
- When the Israelites couldn’t find Saul, they asked God where he was (1 Samuel 10:22).
- David often asked God for specific direction (2 Samuel 2:1; 5:19, 23).
Has God ever revealed Himself to people via dreams?
God spoke to Abimelech in a dream (Gen 20:3, 6), Jacob (Gen 31:11), and Laban (Gen 31:24). Furthermore, there is the promise of God that in the last days, “…I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” (Joel 2:28)
Did not God use angels to reveal His will to His people?
Yes, the Angel Gabriel spoke to Daniel (Daniel 8:16; 9:21), Zacharias (Luke 1:19), and John on the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:1).
What are we taught in Micah 6?
In this chapter, God teaches us that even historical events reveal something to us about God. In this verse, God reminds Israel of what He did to Balak and Balaam. He then states the purpose of these events which were “…in order that you might know the righteousness of the LORD.”
My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled And what Balaam son of Beor answered him, And from Shittim to Gilgal, In order that you might know the righteousness of the LORD. (Mic 6:5)
Robert Girdlestone writes (p9):
The leading idea of the Old Testament is that it records a revelation of God both in speech and action, especially the latter; in other words, that God has revealed Himself both by what He says and by what He does.
Where else is it clear that history itself is meant to reveal God to us?
We find over seventy times in the Old Testament, some form of the expression, then they will know that I am YHWH. Almost always, some historical event is in the context which reveals to someone the true existence and character of YHWH. Corresponding to this expression is the line in Ezekiel, “I YHWH have spoken; I will do it” where God puts His reputation on the line as it were and challenges people to watch and see whether what He has said would actually come to pass (cf Deuteronomy 18:22).
It seems that most of these references are in Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Yes, very true. Ezekiel was the prophet who did the most to teach us that historical events reveal to us God’s existence and character. Consider God’s wrath which He will pour out on Gog. God says that the purpose for such wrath is to display His holiness before the watching eyes of the nations:
You [Gog] will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. (Ezek 38:16)
and in the last verse of the same chapter:
I will show My greatness and My holiness and make Myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am YHWH. (Ezek 38:23)
In the next chapter, God announces:
I shall set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. “And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward. “And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. (Ezek 39:21-23)
How can historical events reveal to us something about God?
In and of themselves, they cannot. They can only be a revelation to us if they are accompanied by God’s interpretation of that event. We see something of this in Amos 3. Ladd writes:
Here is the biblical mode of revelation: the revealing acts of God in history, accompanied by the interpreting prophetic word which explains the divine source and character of the divine acts. Deeds—words; God acts—God speaks; and the words explain the deeds. The deeds could not be understood unless accompanied by the divine word; and the word would seem powerless unless accompanied by the mighty works. Both the acts and the words are divine events, coming from God. In fact, it would be better to speak of the revealing deed-word event, for the two belong together and form an inseparable unity. The New Testament and Criticism, 27.
In one sense, isn’t everything in creation a revelation of the glory of God?
It is indeed. Bavinck writes:
All that is and happens is, in a real sense, a work of God and to the devout a revelation of his attributes and perfections. That is how Scripture looks at nature and history. Creating, sustaining, and governing together form one, single, mighty, ongoing revelation of God. No nature poetry has surpassed or even equaled that of Israel. To the devout, everything in nature speaks of God. The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. God’s voice is in the great waters. That voice breaks the cedars; it rumbles in the thunder and howls in the hurricane. The light is his garment, the heavens his curtain, the clouds his chariot. His breath creates and renews the earth. He both rains and causes his sun to shine upon the just and the unjust. Herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, indeed, all things come not by chance but by his fatherly hand. The Bible’s view of nature and history is religious and hence also supernatural. Reformed Dogmatics 1:307.
Does not God rule all history? Why is Israel’s history a revelation of God and not Egyptian history or US history?
Because the events which make up Israel’s history were accompanied by divine revelation which teach us the significance of these events. No other history has this.
Writing
At what point, did the people of God begin to write down God’s revelation?
Writing is so common today that it is difficult for us to understand the primitive times. In these times, writing was very different. What you wrote with, what you wrote on, writing in pictures or in letters, and writing with ink or something else were all things that were evolving. The kind of writing with which they were most familiar was writing on the tablet of the heart. (Proverbs 3:3; Jeremiah 17:1; 2 Corinthians 3:3) Committing things to memory was much more practical and useful in those days. Nevertheless, we do find the beginning of writing already in the Old Testament.
What are the very earliest references to writing we find in the Bible?
We find one reference to writing in Genesis, one in Exodus, several in Numbers, and several more in Deuteronomy. Hengstenberg writes at length about this here; also Havernick chp3.
Genesis
Start with Genesis.
Here we find reference to a book in Genesis 5:1. There were probably many such “books” which contained official registers, records, lists, genealogies, etc.
This is the book of the generations of Adam… (Genesis 5:1)
This “book” would have been a tablet of clay on which were written these records.
Exodus
What about Exodus?
When Israel first started out on their wilderness journey, they were attacked by the Amalekites. After the Amalekites were defeated, God commanded Moses to write down what happened in a book and to preserve this memory for future generations (Deuteronomy 25:17; 1 Samuel 15:2).
And YHWH said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua…” (Exodus 17:14)
This is certainly an early reference to writing and is interesting for three reasons:
First, this shows the existence of writing at a very early period in biblical history.
Second, the implication here is that such a historical record already existed at this time, and Moses was simply commanded to add this account to it. Perhaps this book was the same book as is later called the “book of the wars of YHWH” in Numbers 21:14.
Third, whether this book already existed or not, without a doubt, Moses used it when he later wrote the Pentateuch.
Did Moses know how to read?
That Moses could read is clear from Exodus 24:7 where he read the book of the covenant to Israel.
What is meant here by book?
At this time, this would have probably been a scroll or a clay tablet with letters pressed into it.
What other reference to writing is in the book of Exodus?
Consider:
- The men called foremen (Exodus 5:6) were actually more like scribes or accountants. They would have kept a written register of the work which the Israelites did. The word itself שֹׁטְרָיו comes from the Hebrew verb to write (see here) which implies that these men would have been trained to write.
- God commanded Moses to take two onyx stones and to engrave on them the names of the tribes of Israel, six names per stone, arranged in the order of the births of the original sons of Israel. (Exodus 28:9) This is especially interesting in light of the fact that God strictly forbad the carving of any kind of carved image, sacred pillars, or sculptured stones. (Leviticus 26:1)
Numbers
What references to writing are in the book of Numbers?
We read that God commanded Moses to summon seventy men who would serve as elders over the nation of Israel. (Numbers 11:16) The names of these elders was written down, and we are told that Eldad and Medad’s names were included on this list.
So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. Also, he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and stationed them around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered בַּכְּתֻבִים, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp. (Numbers 11:24-26)
The word registered here is the word written; see here. Other references to writing in Numbers are:
- Moses kept a written record of their progress through the wilderness. (Numbers 33:2)
- The priests were commanded to write curses on a piece of leather as part of the trial of an alleged adulteress. (Numbers 5:23)
Deuteronomy
What references to writing are found in the book of Deuteronomy?
The most significant reference is here:
You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)
Consider also:
- Moses wrote out the book of Deuteronomy. (Deuteronomy 31:24)
- In Deuteronomy 29:27, 29 where it appears that some book was already in existence, and Israel is warned to not treat it lightly.
- God commanded Israel to write down (Deuteronomy 31:19) the song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32).
Why do you say that Deuteronomy 11 is the most significant reference?
Because it shows that literacy was widespread and not confined to just the priests or some other scholarly group in Israelite society.
Joshua
What references to writing are found in the book of Deuteronomy?
In this book we find:
- Joshua writing the words of the law. (Joshua 24:26)
- Joshua writing the law on the altar stones. (Joshua 8:32)
- Caleb attacked a city of Canaan called Kiriath-sepher (Joshua 15:15) which translates to city of the book. See this record of archeological work done there.
- Joshua sends out spies and commissions them to present a written report of their findings. (Joshua 18:3-4, 9)
Judges
What was the task of the men mentioned in Judges 5:14 who came from Zebulun and who wielded the staff of office?
Evidently, there was a professional class of men called סֹפֵר who knew how to read and write and would have functioned as a kind of secretary to the king. source Here they are called those men “who wield the staff of office.”
From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; from Machir commanders came down, and from Zebulun those who wield the staff of office.”
Why is Judges 8:14 important?
This verse shows that the ability to write was not just limited to some professional class of scholars. Here, a young man captured at random knows how to write:
Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres. And he captured a youth from Succoth and questioned him. Then the youth wrote down for him the princes of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men. (Judges 8:13-14)
Job
Does not Job speak of writing?
He does. He says in response to Bildad,
Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron stylus and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! (Job 19:23-24)
This writing would likely have been done on some kind of monument which was set up for a permanent memorial.