Revelation

The Song of Moses

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 20-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 188

Dictation Name: RR129K20

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Revelation 15, The Song of Moses.

“15 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”

As we have seen in our study of Revelation, the book is full of symbolism drawn from the Old Testament history and from the fact of creation. Now, to understand the 15th chapter, it is important that we recognize it harks back strongly to two great feasts of the Old Testament. The first is the feast of tabernacles, the second the feast of Pentecost.

Now the first of these, the Feast of Tabernacles, was a harvest festival. It celebrated Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness, and its entrance into the Promised Land. It commemorated the events from the time Israel left Egypt, its mighty deliverance at the Red Sea, its providential care through the wilderness, and its victorious entrance into Palestine. Each year during the feast of tabernacles the Israelites gathered together, they again returned to desert living, that is in tents and booths, to commemorate the wilderness journey; and they celebrated it together with every gentile who was in their midst. The Feast of Tabernacles was a harvest festival that harked back to all the labor that preceded harvest, the wilderness journey. It was a type, since it was a victory celebration as well as a harvest celebration, of the ingathering of the peoples into the kingdom of God. And so the Gentiles were welcomed to the feast who were in their midst.

The Feast of Tabernacles was also a reminder that they were all pilgrims and strangers on earth. That life was in a sense a wilderness journey. Now the symbolism of this wilderness journey was basic to a great many aspects of Biblical thinking as well as theology through the history of the church. The wilderness journey symbolized man’s journey from the time of his conversion out of Egypt, the land of bondage, of slavery, of sin, to heaven; the Promised Land. It also symbolized man’s journey out of the world of the fall into the kingdom of God, into the establishment of Gods order among the nations.

It also was used very markedly in American History, in that we cannot truly understand American History unless we realize that from the time the Pilgrims and the Puritans left England’s shore, all of the settlers whether they went to New England or to Virginia or elsewhere, they spoke of themselves as being Pilgrims who were leaving Canaan’s shores for the Promised Land. And they spoke of America as the New Zion, because they were self consciously attempting to bring about that which God, they believed, had ordered them to do. To establish God’s order, to bring about the reign of Gods law. And so the exodus of people from England to America was spoken of as the pilgrimage journey from Egypt to New Zion.

Now this chapter very definitely echoes the feast of Tabernacles, in that the Feast of Tabernacles harked back to one of the great songs of the Old Testament, the Song of Moses; which is here called the Song of Moses the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. So that Moses song was Christ’s song, because Moses victory was Christ’s victory.

Now what was the song of Moses? It is a long song, it appears in Exodus, it was sung by Moses after the Red Sea crossing, when they stood on the shores of the Red Sea and looked back and saw the waters descend and cover the host of Egypt, and their armor, their bodies washed up on the shores of the Red Sea. And Moses composed their song which the women sang as they danced with joy: “Sing unto the Lord, glorious is he. Horse and the rider he has hurled into the sea.”

It was therefore, a victory song. Now, in the first portion of the fifteenth chapter of Revelation, the first vision, we have the echoing of the feast of tabernacles. The first vision is of the glass sea, or better, transparent sea, mingled with fire.

Now, as we saw earlier, the sea is very clearly identified for us in Revelation as a symbol of the world, of history. And as it is seen by man, it is dark, murky, and turbulent. And out of it ascend powers, the powers of the earth, culminating in the beast, the great one world entity that attempts to create a paradise on earth apart from God. But as the sea, that is, the world and history, are seen from the throne of God, it is spoken of as a sea of glass as clear as crystal, as totally transparent. The meaning of this is that the world and history are completely transparent from the throne of God. That is, there is no mystery, no dark corner in the universe from the throne of God, who knows the end from the beginning. As the creator, as the governor, as the planner, as he who has issued the decree; He knows all things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world, from the foundation of the world, the counsel of Jerusalem declared.

So that all history is totally known to God, so that as He surveys history from the throne, it is a sea of glass, that is, it is totally transparent. There is no brute factuality in the universe, that is, there is no fact that is in and of itself.

Now from the standpoint of modern philosophy, all factuality is brute factuality; that is, it is totally meaningless, it has just happened by chance. So that all factuality is isolated, it has no meaning to anything else. It simply exists. But from the standpoint of the throne of God, of scripture, there is no brute factuality. Everything has been created by the sovereign and Triune God, and therefore its meaning is only discernible in terms of God.

A few of us had the privilege two or three years ago, of hearing one of the greatest of modern geneticists, Doctor Walter Lammerts, who has won I think more prizes in genetics than any other geneticist. And he remarked that it was a very simple matter for him, to have had an advantage over geneticists, he believed in creation. And as a creationist he did not see the facts of the universe in terms of brute factuality. He knew that there were God-given meanings there, that there were boundaries as well as laws. And moving in terms of that, he was able to proceed with his experiments in breeding with a certainty that others did not have. There is no brute factuality in the universe.

And as a result, as we survey the world from Gods perspective, we are summoned by Revelation, whatever the adversity of the hour, whatever the difficulties we face, to face them with a confidence of the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Thy ways, Thou king of saints. Who shall not fear Thee oh Lord and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art Holy, for all nations shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy judgments are made manifest.”

Thus, in the song of Moses, every line of which echoes the Psalms and the Prophets, the great victory is declared. This victory was set forth at cavalry. Christ overthrew the power of sin and death. And therefore we are summoned in the confidence of that victory to join in the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, in anticipation of the full and final victory, when all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.

Christ shall be the king of the nations. That is, all of them shall be made subject to His word, and to His law. This then is the certainty of history. This is what Revelation is declaring to us. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

So that as we face the events of today, knowing indeed the fearfulness of evil, we must then affirm that because there are no brute facts, no brute factuality in Gods universe; because every created fact serves God; then no fact can be a hindrance to God, because all facts are God given facts and are to be interpreted in terms of the glory of God, and our glory in Him.

As a result, we must say whether it be Communism or Fabianism, or Existentialism, or whatever else the world may present, it comes to us from the hands of God. It has been created by God. It can only fulfill His purpose. And even as the Sanhedrin in their moment of glory, when they thought they had finally frustrated God, and had sentenced the Son of God to death, “It is better for this man to die, then for the nation to perish.” ‘It is better for our humanistic purposes to flourish than to be threatened by God.’ At that moment, John tells us, they most fulfilled the prophecy of God, and that indeed He was to die, to give His life a ransom for many, and to overthrow the power of sin and death.

And so it is that as men in their evil purpose most to overthrow the work of God, they little dream that they bring it into fulfillment. For He confounds them as they dream to confound Him, and He brings all their works to nothing; and they store up their wealth, as the psalmist says, that the people of God might inherit it.

When this section speaks in the first verse of another sign, it is with reference to the two signs which proceeded it in the twelfth chapter, the first and third verses. The first sign was the woman, or the true people of God, the true church of God. And the second sign was the dragon or Satan, and his two beasts; the dream of a one world order, and the dream of a one world religion. The third sign is a vision of the fullness of judgement in the hand of God’s messengers. The vision of the transparent seat, the universe is completely transparent and subject to the triune God. The sea is of glass mingled with fire or judgement.

Now, in the second portion of this chapter, the second vision; we have the tabernacle in heaven in verses 5-8. The true sanctuary is unveiled or opened. The opening of the sanctuary was accomplished by the incarnation, the atonement, and the resurrection, for as Saint John declared in the first chapter, the eighteenth chapter of his gospel: “The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” He hath opened, unveiled Him, exegeted Him. The light shines forth, and the glory of the presence as it shines into the entire world, making transparent the sea or the world, and laying bare the sins of the nations; sends forth judgement.

The seven angels represent the fullness of judgement as it goes forth, and the seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God. And the seven angels are clothed in pure and white linen, having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

This description echoes the description of Christ Himself, in the first chapter, the thirteenth verse. The angels go forth, that is, judgement goes forth, in the royal authority of Christ the king, and also in His priestly authority; in that as the king of the nation’s Christ sends forth judgement upon all nations, and as the great high priest, as the intercessor, he intercedes for the saints against their oppressors.

This second vision echoes the feast of Pentecost. Now Pentecost has reference to the giving of the law. We forget that nowadays, because the word Pentecost has been so misused by the Pentecostals. So we think of Pentecost as something different from that which it originally was. But the Feast of Pentecost celebrated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, 50 days after their departure from Egypt.

Now when, at the feast of Pentecost, the law was given; we are told by Moses that the mountain did quake. That the people were warned not to come near to the mountain, lest they be killed. Lightning, thunder, the judgement of God was symbolized in these things as it went forth against a sinful people.

Now in the New Testament, we again have Pentecost. It is associated in our thinking with the descent of the Holy Spirit, which is true, but we cannot understand Pentecost apart from the meaning of Pentecost. Now the promise of God throughout the Old Testament was, that with the coming of Christ: “I will pour out my spirit upon you, and I will write my law in the tables of your hearts.” So that now, because of the coming of Christ, and because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the law of God no longer resided only on tablets of stone, no longer only in terms of a written word, but now is written upon the tables of our hearts, so that we as the people of God, our new nature, the new man within us, is the righteousness of God; is Jesus Christ. And therefore the table, the law of God, rests within us.

Now because we are not perfectly sanctified, the old man is still active in us. And yet, the basic aspect of our life today is the new man, Jesus Christ. And therefore as we read the law of God, the new man within us responds in terms of the law of God. We are no longer enemies to God, we are no longer alien to His word, we hear it with a response. So that the feast of Pentecost in the New Testament commemorated the giving of the law as well as of the Spirit.

But the law of God remains in terms of the original Pentecost judgement, lightning, thunder, death, to all who do not submit to it.

And so, as the world faces God in its sin and its apostasy, we see in this vision that judgement goes forth. This is the meaning of Pentecost to the ungodly world, to the nations. Because Christ is king, therefore judgement shall go forth from the throne to the ungodly, and the nations shall be destroyed. “The mountain did quake” we are told by Moses. And Saint Paul tells us in Hebrews 12 that this was a symbol of the whole of the shaking of the great empires and nations of the Old Testament; they were all shaken and destroyed to prepare the way for the coming of Christ. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He comes whose right it is.” Saint Paul declared that beginning with the shaking, the destruction of Jerusalem, there would be a great shaking in the gospel age. And all the powers that attempted to create a paradise on earth without God would be shaken, the ground cleared, so that Christ’s order might be established on earth.

And so the song of the church is given to us, and we are required to move in terms of this song, in any and every age, whether it be a time of persecution, or a time when the enemy is erecting his towers of Babel. We are to sing: “Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are Thy ways, Thou king of saints. Who shall not fear Thee oh Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy judgments are made manifest.”

The judgments of God shall be made manifest. And the nations which today build their towers of Babel in contempt of God, shall be humbled and brought low. And His word shall prevail, and the people of God shall sing not only with faith, but with assurance of a present victory the Song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we give Thee thanks that Thou hast given unto us a song of victory. The assurance our God that because Thou art on the throne, the ungodly shall not prevail; that Thy word shall triumph, and the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ. Give us the faith therefore our Father to move in the confidence of victory, and to rejoice, and to know our God that Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us. So that we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper, I shall not fear what man may do unto me.” Our God how great Thou art, and we praise Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now, first of all with respect to the lesson? Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony]

There is no truth to it. Just as with Christmas and with Easter they try to paganize it, and convince us that it goes back to pagan festivals, so they try to do so with Thanksgiving. Now…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, you can say that we are like the pagans because we have two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth. In other words, you can reduce this to an absurdity. Certainly the pagans often had banquets and feasts, and they had harvest festivals, but the entire motive was different, the function of it was different, it was a fertility festival. And they sowed the harvest with fertility rites, with sexual rites in the field, they reaped the harvest again with a banquet and sexual rites. This had no relationship with our Thanksgiving.

Now, you very often hear the ridiculous statement that when the first settlers arrived, first they fell upon their knees and then they fell upon the Indians. Well, this is ridiculous. The very fact that at the first Thanksgiving the Indians were invited is a reminder to us of the fact that they were celebrating the Biblical feast of tabernacles. At the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles, the Gentiles in their midst were to be invited. It was to be a symbol of the ingathering of all peoples. And here they were on an alien shore, and who was the gentile in their midst, the stranger? It was the Indian. And he was to be in-gathered, and so he was invited to the Thanksgiving feast, and he was told of its meaning.

Now, we are not told this because they don’t want us to know. It would be very easy for them to know it; they prefer to give us a caricature. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Gentile comes from a word that means peoples. Now, this was a designation for other peoples than yourself, and the Jews or the Israelites spoke of the others as Gentiles, the Peoples. This was the term. And whenever you have in the Old Testament the term peoples, it can be translated also Gentiles. And in terms of the Old Testament, all non-Israelite peoples were Gentiles. In terms of the New Testament, all non-Christian people are Gentiles. The word Gentile simply means peoples, foreigners, strangers; so that as the Pilgrims and Puritans used it, of course the Indians, the Turks, the Negro’s were gentiles; that is, they were people other than themselves, other than Christians.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I didn’t get that?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, the word gentleman comes from the same root word.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] I can’t quite hear you…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Oh, the relationship of the… yes go ahead.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, you are getting to a very fundamental problem. Now, a statutory law is not to be confused with the Biblical law. The common law is not to be confused with natural law. Now, natural law, which goes back to the Greeks, maintains basically that all men are naturally good, that is the presupposition. And that men have, naturally, a law common to all men that is a part of their being, and that is a part of the world of nature.

Now, we do believe that there is a law over nature, rather than a law in nature; in other words, God has a law for all of nature, for all of the world. But it is a different thing to say it is inherent in nature, as a product of nature.

Now, the common law is not natural law. The common law is Biblical law. One of the best scholars on this subject, most of them are Germans, incidentally, in the field of common law; the English scholars because of their deism in the 18th century insisted on declaring common law and natural law to be one and the same. But the German scholars have pointed out that the English common law is simply old Christian law, Biblical law.

Now, in terms of this the concept of common law in America in particular where it developed very, very strongly; no statutory law was necessary. In other words, if a man stole you didn’t have to have a particular saying that it is illegal to steal cows, because the Bible said “Thou shalt not steal.” As it stands today, you have to cover everything. So that when cars first came along, the first car thief’s could get away with it because there were laws against horse thief’s and cow thief’s, but no laws against car thief’s, you see. Every jot and tittle has to be covered in statutory law by a regulation. And you go in terms of the strictness of the letter, and if you don’t get it according to the absolute letter the man goes scot free. And we are under statutory law, we have bypassed common law.

But, under the old common law in the United States, which flourished through the Civil War era and lingered on to about 1900, is still technically a part of the law of the land, but it isn’t taught to lawyers or to people in schools, so that we are ignorant of this. You didn’t need a statute. ‘This man is a thief, he has stolen.’ And you appealed under the common law to the fact of his theft.

And if a man had committed a crime and the judge didn’t know exactly how to deal with it, he went to the Bible, and I have read decisions of judges a hundred years ago, where they went to the Bible and demonstrated: ‘Well, this and that is condemned, therefore what you have done is a crime.’

Common law, in other words, went in terms of certain principles: Thou shalt not kill, steal, bear false witness, commit adultery, and so on. And in terms of these principles it dealt with the specifics, without requiring that the specific be covered by voluminous legislation.

Today of course, because we are getting into statutory law, our law is beginning to break down. Because if you have to cover everything specifically, you constantly need endless legislation to cover every particular type of a crime, every variation of a crime, or the man can go scott free, which happens continually.

So when you have a move from common law to statutory law, you have a steady breakdown of law; and common law is not natural law, common law is Biblical common law. In the same way, you see, even as the courts used to declare: ‘The law of scripture is the common law of the land’, they said: ‘Christianity is the common law/religion of the United States.’ It was the legal foundation, and nothing contrary to it could be tolerated. Even though no particular church was an established church.

The common law was very definitely and systematically subverted, because it was Christian law. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, sociological jurisprudence is the same as our statutory law, and it is the theory behind it. It means that there is only positive law, that is, enacted law. There is no law of itself. In other words, there is no law that says murder is wrong, no moral law. There is only man made law. The only reason that murder is wrong is because the state has passed a law against it. The only reason why theft is wrong is because the state has passed a law against it.

This sociological jurisprudence is the only kind of jurisprudence we have today, and in effect what you have to say is, that every law school today is teaching atheism. And it is unfortunate that we haven’t awakened to it. The lawyers who are still Christian are Christians because they have never really gone into the theory of what they have been taught, and of course the minute you go into law school, you are given a specialized course; you go into corporation law, or you go into trial law, criminal law, and so on; so you are specializing and you never analyze the theory they are actually teaching behind all of this.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] It means that they are going to work for a one world type of sociological jurisprudence, and this is exactly what they are doing now. In other words, to say: “Since there is no absolute law, why not come together? After all, we make the law, let’s make it together.” And the whole point of the U.N. Charter is to lay down certain principles of jurisprudence, as well as a charter. In other words, ‘there shall be no discrimination with respect to race, color, or creed.’ In other words, when you eliminate creed you are eliminating religion, and the right of religion to say that :”We are the people of God, and you are lost and you need to be saved; so therefore, listen to the word of God.” And to say: “Our teaching with respect to law is true. There is an absolute moral law.” No, you see. This is ruled out. It is denied. Jurisprudence now has a purely humanistic foundation. Law is what man makes it, there is no morality, in and of itself.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Humanism is a religion, it is the most common religion today, it is the established religion of the United States today, and of the courts and of the schools. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Exactly, it is bringing that kind of moral chaos today, and we are seeing it all around us. All we have to do is to look back and to remember what it was like to live in the cities 40 years, when locked doors were not too common; and on farmhouses, you didn’t lock your doors, you didn’t lock your cars, you weren’t afraid to walk the streets. But today it is very different. I recently got a book from the conservative book club, and to me it illustrated as well as anything the moral anarchy we are going into; because this book was on how to protect yourself today. And I put it down at one point, because it made me too sick. It was giving instructions on what to do in case of rape, this was a chapter for women, and what to do if you have been raped. Now, could you have imagined, 20 and 30, or 40 years ago that this would have been necessary instruction, that a conservative book club would feel was imperative reading for the good people of this country? But that is the situation we have come to.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, but you see, this is no problem. If there is no such thing as a moral wrong, there are only mistakes. And what are mistakes? This is the rationale you see, in Soviet planning. So they make a mistake, and it costs several million lives? There is no moral wrong about it, it is only a mistake in planning. And when you are conducting a scientific experiment in social planning, of course experiments often turn out wrong. How many experiments fail before you come up with a success? So, in social planning, in law making, of course you are going to make mistakes. This is a valid part of the scientific process. So, you have no regard for those, you take them for granted.

This is their rationale, and they have no hesitation in so defending it.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] The whole concept of humanistic law will create a world-wide collapse and breakdown if it ever gets that far. It won’t work. It can only lead to chaos. But of course they are creating that chaos very rapidly. It is an impossibility, it is a visionary dream, it is a doomed dream.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Very good point, and our time is almost up so we will conclude with this. This is important. The churches by and large have become anti-nomian, that is, anti-nomos, anti law. They emphasize the grace of God, but it must be law and grace; and the puritans had an excellent phrase wherein they spoke of ‘the grace of law’. There is a grace even within the law, because it is the grace of God that we are given the law. But it is grace and law.

Now, when you have no teaching of law, what becomes the emphasis? Grace disappears, because grace without law is meaningless. The grace of God is operative because the law of God as judgement condemns us. So when you eliminate law you eliminate grace, and what takes its place? (Now I am going to go into this incidentally, in greater detail, in my February newsletter)

Love. Love becomes the messiah, love becomes the savior. So, because the churches have abandoned the law of God, and a development of the implications of law in every aspect of society, they have therefore abandoned grace, and now their gospel is love. An anarchistic love, which means the toleration of all things, the love of all things. It means the enthronement of evil.

Because if you are going to love everything equally, it means you are going to hate the righteous, you are going to hate law, because law is discriminative. You are going to hate holiness, because holiness puts a difference between good and evil. You are going to love everything, without discrimination, which means the triumph of evil.

And this is why the churches today are derelict. Because there is no backbone in the pulpit, as far as the preaching is concerned. There is no law. And there has to be law, and of course, when we complete Revelation, we shall go into a very lengthy study of the meaning of law in the Bible, because this is basic.

Alright…

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Right.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, the cross of Christ is the perfect representative and representation of the absolute law of God, the absolute justice; and also the grace of God. Because at one and the same time, you have the full requirements of the law of God: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The death sentence against mankind for their apostasy. And at one and the same time, the grace of God unto salvation, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He is our representative, assumes for the elect the judgement of God, and dies in His person. So that the love of God is manifested as well as the justice of God. The law as well as the grace. And if you deny the cross, you deny the law of God as well as the grace of God, both go. This is the foundation.

Well, let us conclude now.