Notes on the Pentateuch by C. H. M. Numbers, Chapter 12

For more than one hundred years, pastors, teachers, and students of the Bible have benefited from Mackintosh’s deeply devotional commentary on the first five books of the Bible. His reflections are borne out of prolonged reflection and pastoral sensitivity—not abstruse theological concepts or an abstract engagement of the text. Mackintosh coaxingly invites readers to place themselves within the stories of the Pentateuch and confront the issues faced by the characters—to walk the garden with Adam and Eve, to connive with Jacob, to travel with Joseph, and to wander with the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. The Pentateuch expresses the most basic human sentiments and exposes the tension between promises and fulfillment, good and evil, and belief and deception. Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch shows how these books lay the groundwork for God’s redemptive history. Charles Henry Mackintosh (1820–1896) was notable for his work in philanthropic work during the Irish Potatoe Famine which affected much of Ireland, Scotland, and England at the time. He converted to Christianity through correspondence with his sister and through reading John Darby's Operations of the Spirit.