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Their reply to His question as to why they wished to stone Him was:
"For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou,
being a man, makest Thyself God" (verse 33).
The Jews did not understand His claim to mean `a god'! They were acting in (what
they considered to be) obedience to Lev. 24: 16:
"And he that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, he shall surely be put to death, and all
the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the
land, when he blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, shall be put to death."
It is clear from the Ten Commandments that only God Himself can claim to be God,
and be `guiltless':
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (1st Commandment, Exod. 20: 2).
"Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will hot hold
him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (3rd Commandment, Exod. 20: 7).
In the eyes of the Jews the Lord Jesus Christ had been misusing the name of Jehovah,
their God. Hence He must be stoned.
There is a considerable volume of further evidence such as we have been considering.
What can be made of the statement in Isa. 44: 6,
"Thus saith Jehovah the King of Israel, and His redeemer Jehovah of Hosts; I am the
first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God."
Here it is also noteworthy that Jehovah of Hosts is the kinsman-redeemer. Does God
need a kinsman-redeemer? The context seems to make it clear that the kinsman-redeemer
is needed by Israel. Here is (if we may so put it) a Jehovah who is kinsman to a human
nation. That same One, with Jehovah the King, makes the claim (with which we have
already dealt) "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God": not
"We are the first", etc.
Again, in Zech. 14: of the coming of the day of the Jehovah, and in verse 3 we are
told:
"Then shall Jehovah go forth, and fight against those nations . . . . . (and verse 4) And
His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives . . . . .".
With these statements compare Rev. 19: 11-16, and Acts 1: 11. The Lord Jesus
Christ will return to the Mount of Olives, and it will be He Who goes `forth to fight
against those nations'. The conclusion must be that here, again, Jesus Christ and Jehovah
are one and the same.
The use of the word `person' in connection with the definition of the relationship
between Father, Son and Holy Spirit has not been helpful, for `person' in modern usage
signifies `individual'. This, however, was not the significance of the Latin `persona';
persona was the mask an actor wore in a play to represent the character he depicted. That