ing upon the head of Judah, Jacob
prophesied: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the
gathering of the people be."[107] That by Shiloh is meant the Christ is
evidenced by the fulfilment of the conditions set forth in the
prediction, in the state of the Jewish nation at the time of our Lord's
birth.[108]
Moses proclaimed the coming of a great Prophet in Israel, whose ministry
was to be of such importance that all men who would not accept Him would
be under condemnation; and that this prediction had sole reference to
Jesus Christ is conclusively shown by later scriptures. Thus spake the
Lord unto Moses: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to
pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him."[109] The system of sacrifice
expressly enjoined in the Mosaic code was essentially a prototype of the
sacrificial death to be accomplished by the Savior on Calvary. The blood
of countless altar victims, slain by Israel's priests in the course of
prescribed ritual, ran throughout the centuries from Moses to Christ as
a prophetic flood in similitude of the blood of the Son of God appointed
to be shed as an expiatory sacrifice for the redemption of the race.
But, as already shown, the institution of bloody sacrifice as a type of
the future death of Jesus Christ dates from the beginning of human
history; since the offering of animal sacrifices through the shedding of
blood was required of Adam, to whom the significance of the ordinance,
as "a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father",
was expressly defined.[110]
The paschal lamb, slain for every Israelitish household at the annually
recurring feast of the Passover, was a particular type of the Lamb of
God who in due time would be slain for the sins of the world. The
crucifixion of Christ was effected at the Passover season; and the
consummation of the supreme Sacrifice, of which the paschal lambs had
been but lesser prototypes, led Paul the apostle to affirm in later
times: "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."[111]
Job in the day of dire affliction rejoiced in his testimony of the
coming Messiah, and declared with prophetic conviction: "I know that my
rede
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