r God was revealed as taking
no part in, and as being ignorant of, future human actions: the Lord
gave him two signs and said, "And it shall come to pass that if they
will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign,
that they will believe the voice of the latter sign; but if not, thou
shalt take of the water of the river," etc. Indeed, if any one considers
without prejudice the recorded opinions of Moses, he will plainly see
that Moses conceived the Deity as a Being Who has always existed, does
exist, and always will exist, and for this cause he calls Him by the
name Jehovah, which in Hebrew signifies these three phases of existence:
as to His nature, Moses only taught that He is merciful, gracious, and
exceeding jealous, as appears from many passages in the Pentateuch.
Lastly, he believed and taught that this Being was so different from all
other beings, that He could not be expressed by the image of any visible
thing; also, that He could not be looked upon, and that not so much from
inherent impossibility as from human infirmity; further, that by reason
of His power He was without equal and unique. Moses admitted, indeed,
that there were beings (doubtless by the plan and command of the Lord)
who acted as God's vicegerents--that is, beings to whom God had given
the right, authority, and power to direct nations, and to provide and
care for them; but he taught that this Being Whom they were bound to
obey was the highest and Supreme God, (or to use the Hebrew phrase) God
of gods, and thus in the song (Exod. xv. 11) he exclaims, "Who is like
unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?" and Jethro says (Exod. xviii. 11),
"Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods." That is to say, "I
am at length compelled to admit to Moses that Jehovah is greater than
all gods, and that His power is unrivalled." We must remain in doubt
whether Moses thought that these beings who acted as God's vicegerents
were created by Him, for he has stated nothing, so far as we know, about
their creation and origin. He further taught that this Being had brought
the visible world into order from Chaos, and had given Nature her germs,
and therefore that He possesses supreme right and power over all things;
further, that by reason of this supreme right and power He had chosen
for Himself alone the Hebrew nation and a certain strip of territory,
and had handed over to the care of other gods substituted by Himself the
rest of the nations