L I B R A^ R Y Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J, Case ■;£) 5 (2,4S ^*^'S'0n...... Booh :.r V ■<^ivf •' ■.-' '*V; .•V""T-< MESSIANIC PROPHECY. PRINTED BY MURRAY AND GIBB, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON, HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DUBLIN, ROBERTSON AND CO, NEW YORK, .... SCRIBNER, WELFOKD, AND ARMSTRONG. MESSIAmC PROPHECY: Ets ©rtgtn. Historical Cljaracter, anb J^elation to Neto Testament Julfilment. / BY D^R. EDWARD RIEHM, PKOFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, HALLE. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, I WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE AUTHOR, P.Y THE EEV. JOHN" JEFFEESOK EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1876. Extract feom a Letter written by the Author TO THE Translator. " It gives me great pleasure to hear that you have taken the trouble to translate my treatise on Mes- sianic Prophecy into the English language. I have found that many believing theologians in Germany, who were suspicious of criticism and severe historical exegesis, have testified that they are reconcilable both with faith in divine revelation under the Old Testa- ment economy, and the acknowledgment that all divine prophecy is Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus. It was the third section especially which had this result. I shall be glad if the treatise wins the same testimony from English readers, for thereby the way wiU be pre- pared for an understanding and reconciliation between the orthodox and the historico-critical direction of Old Testament science. Prof. D. Ed. Eiehm." AUTHOR'S PREFACE ROM the most various quarters the wish has been frequently expressed, that the three articles on Messianic Prophecy- written by me for Studien icnd Kritiken, in the years 1865 and 1869, should be made accessible to a wider circle by being published in a separate volume. It has come, too, from men whose judgment I could not fail to respect, partly on account of their superior acquaintance with the subject and its existing literature, and partly because their wishes assured me that my desire to contribute some- thing towards the reconciliation of contradictory prin- ciples in the sphere of Old Testament interpretation had not been altogether in vain. I hesitated, however, to accede to their requests, in the hope that the essential contents of the articles might find a place in a larger work on Old Testament theology ; but being compelled by other literary responsibilities to postpone for some time the execution of that work, the con- tinued demand for the articles, sustained as it was by favouring circumstances, led me to decide upon their separate publication. Since the appearance of the viii Author's Preface. first two articles, I have five times delivered lectures on " Prophecy and Messianic Prediction," and again considered in special discourses every Messianic scrip- ture in detail; and I have cherished the hope of being able to recast the work, so that, with respect to Messianic prophecy itself, it should be more compre- hensive and complete, while at the same time the exegetical results would have been more firmly estab- lished. But this also I was constrained to give up, not entirely however for the reason that it required more time than I had at my disposal, but because its accomplishment demanded essential changes in the distribution and arrangement of the material, and the result would have been, not the republication of the original articles, but the issue of a new work. Besides, if it be the will of God, my intention to publish a complete Old Testament theology is only postponed, and the substance of this volume will be used then in its true relation and order, though, perhaps, in briefer compass than any revision would have secured. These considerations have led me to allow my treatise to retain essentially its original form, and to content myself with here and there giving clearer and more complete expression to my views. It is evident that the theological and exegetical literature of the Old Testament, which has appeared in the meantime, has received marked attention. May this little work in its new form still further contribute to establish the con- viction, that if the principles of grammatico-historical exegesis be fully adopted, and " every well-grounded AiUhor's Preface. ix result of the historical criticism of the Old Testament writings and narratives be acknowledged, the divine revelations and interpositions in the history of Israel, preparatory to the coming of Christ and His kingdom, will not be darkened, but will appear in a brighter light, because presented before our eyes in tangible historic reality." Dr. Ed\yard Riehm. Halle, June 3, 1875. CONTENTS. PAGE mTRODUCTION, 1 FIRST SECTIOIT. The Okigin of Messianic Prophecy, 11 1. Its Source in Eevelation, 11 2. The Method of Divine Communication, . . . 14 3. The Organic Genetic Connection of Prophecy with the Fundamental Ideas of the Old Testament Pteligion, . 31 (1.) The Idea of the Covenant, 34 (2.) The Idea of the Kingdom of God, .... 50 (3.) The Idea of the Theocracy, 59 SECOND SECTION. The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy, . . 77 Variety in its Form, and the Reason of it, . . . 78 1. Its Historical Colouring, . . . . . . 84 (a) Founded in its Design, . . . . . 84 {b) And in its Origin, especially in the Limitation of the Prophetic Foresight, . . . . . 87 (c) Illustrative Proofs, 99 2. The powerful Influence of Historical Relations upon the Contents of Messianic Prophecy, . . . . 117 (a) Their Influence upon the Development of the various Germs of Messianic Knowledge, . . 117 Reflections on Predictions of the Messiah, . . 120 Reflections on other Elements of Messianic Prophecy, 133 {h) The Parallelism between the History of the King- dom of God and the Development of Messianic Prophecy, 137 Xll Contents. THIRD SECTION. The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to New Testament Fulfilment 1. Its Historical Features, 2. Its Specific Old Testament Features, . . . , 3. Old Testament Conceptions still adhering to all Mes sianic Predictions, ...... (a) Jerusalem, the City of God, .... (6) Israel the Central Point in the Kingdom of God, 4. The Measure of Knowledge of Redemptive Purposes manifested in Messianic Prediction, (a) In relation to the ultimate Position of the People and Kingdom of God, ..... (&) In relation to the means of Deliverance, especially with respect to the Person of the Messiah, (c) In relation to the AVork of the Messiah, . {d) In relation to the Conditions and Historical Course of the Completion of Messianic Salvation, 5. Messianic Prophecy as a Revelation of Christ, and a History of Salvation in its relation to Him, 6. The Union of Prophecy and Fulfilment in individual concrete Historical Features, 7. The Fulfilment of Messianic Prophecy in the Church and Kingdom of Christ, Conclusion, PAGE 149 151 158 163 164 166 191 192 197 201 206 212 222 225 230 NOTES. Notes to Introduction, . . 234 Notes to First Section, . 236 Notes to Second Section, . . 245 Notes to Third Section, . 256 Notes to Conclusion, .... . 267 INTEODUCTION. E use tlie term "Messianic prophecy" in that wide sense in which it is common to include all the Old Testament predictions concerning the final completion of the king- dom of God and the connected glorification of His people. Messianic prophecy in the narrower sense, — namely, the prediction of an ideal king and ruler of God's people springing from the house of David, with whose advent the beginning of the last dispensation is connected, — cannot alone be the subject of inquiry, since it is most intimately connected with the general question. Not only so, but among Christian theolo- gians it has always been firmly held that all the Old Testament predictions of blessing in a future dis- pensation have their fulfilment in and through Christ. Sharing in this conviction, we appropriate the generally accepted wider meaning of the phrase " Messianic prophecy." There needs no special proof to show that the view we have pointed out as firmly held by us is re- peatedly taught most -emphatically by Christ and His 2 Messianic Propheci/. / apostles. Every one remembers the saying of Christ, that the writings of the Old Testament testify of Him (John v. 39) ; that His sufferings and death, His resurrection and His glorification, are predicted in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms (Luke xxiv. 44) ; that what is there written of Him must be fulfilled (Matt. xxvi. 54 ; Luke xxii. 37) ; and that the Scripture cannot be broken (John x. 35). Every one knows how the apostles declared, that what God had spoken by the mouths of His holy prophets had been fulfilled in the advent, life, and work of Christ, in the salvation which He brought, and in the kingdom which He founded ; and especially how Paul af&rmed that God had promised before by the prophets the gospel of His Son (Eom. i. 2) ; and that all His promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. --^ 1 20). The more closely the doctrines of the ISTew Testament writers have been examined, the clearer it has been seen of what fundamental significance is the testimony that the new covenant is the completion of the old, and the fulfilment of its predictions ; and especially how the apostolic doctrine of the importance of the person and work of Christ, even in its fullest development, recognises as its foundation and starting- point the belief that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament (i). / As the ISTew Testament justifies the proposition, so also does the Old, so far as its Messianic predictions pass beyond the limits of its own sphere. It not only proclaims the extension of the theocracy, then Introduction. 3 limited to Israel, so as to include all nations in a uni- versal divine kingdom, but it distinctly teaches that at " the end of the days " there should be a thorough internal transformation, and an essential change in the nature of the relations existing between God and His people. There wiH then be no Levitical priesthood, no special prophetical class ; for all Israel will be a nation of priests (Isa. Ixi. 6), and will be endowed with the gift of prophecy (Joel ii. 28). All, without distinction, wiU be acquainted with Jehovah, and will be taught of Him, so that no one wiU need to be instructed by others (Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Isa. liv. 13). The law will not be written upon tables of stone, but wiU be inscribed upon the heart (Jer. xxxi. 33). Men shaE. no more remember the ark of the covenant, since the gracious presence of God among His people will not be con- fined to the Holy of Holies, but in all Jerusalem He will dwell and reveal Himself, and there Israel shall assemble for worship ; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and it shall be called the throne of the Lord (Jer. iii. 17). The provisions of the covenant will be entirely chanc^ed ; God will make a new covenant with His people, different from that w^hich He made with their fathers (Jer. xxxi. 31-34). And all this will be the result of a last great manifestation of mercy and full revelation of His grace, signalizing the close of all pre- ceding dispensations, and throwing them completely into the shade. Who can deny that the end which Old Testament prophecy had in view when it passed the limits o^ the old covenant was really no other tlian 4 Messianic Proiohecy. that which, according to the New Testament and the history and personal experience of every true believer, is increasingly realized in Christ ? All Old Testa- ment representations which look beyond the borders of the Mosaic economy point to this issue, namely, that the kingdom of God will find its perfection in the full forgiveness of sins, the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, everywhere poured out, and in the bring- ing of every individual member into fellowship with V God, — a blessing then no longer limited to Israel. The general position, that all divine predictions are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, requires a more strict definition. The relation of Old Testament prophecy to its fulfilment, as recorded in the Xew, must be subjected to a closer scrutiny. The time has gone by in which a dogmatic interpretation can find all evan- gelical truths in the Old Testament, only less clearly expressed, and hidden under the veil of symbol and type. The propriety and necessity of a rigorously historical examination and exposition has been generally acknowledged ; but at the same time — and the Chris- tology of Hengstenberg is partly to be thanked for it — the conviction upon which we proceed is beyond con- troversy available, with increasing power and in ever widening circles, for the establishment of the Christian faith. How stands now the strictly historical expo- sition of Old Testament prophecy in relation to this conviction ? Does it not appear as if it undermined the same, or at least in a suspicious manner loosened the bond which, by the correspondence of prediction Introduction. 5 and fulfilment, binds the Old Testament and the New together ? Theological science has in our day endea- voured to find a satisfactory answer to the question — . In what manner and to what extent has Old Testa- ment prophecy anticipated the gospel of God concern- ing His Son ? Certainly an important inquiry ! for the answer we give decides whether and how the con- sciousness of Christ concerning the relation of His office and work to the entire earlier revelation is historically justified and sustained ; whether the won- derful dealings of God with mankind, and especially with Israel, had a definite end, and whether that end was Jesus Christ. It decides also the measure of importance which we Christians are to attach to the Old Testament. Important as the inquiry is, it is not less difficult. Many, from different standpoints, have attempted its solution, and have given us valuable contributions towards the desired result ; but that the truth may be fuUy brought to light, there is stiU ample room for the exercise of united efforts and various gifts. And this work, though not claiming to be comprehensive or exhaustive, but merely a connected discussion of the three points which are of greatest importance to a general understanding of the subject, may not be with- out its value. In order to obtain a just view of the relation of prophecy to its fulfilment, we must take the right means of ascertaining the contents of the prophecies themselves. This is certainly not done by those who 6 ■ Messianic Proiohecy. are accustomed to inquire only what the Spirit of God intended in any given prediction, without troubling (2) themselves to ascertain the sense which the prophets themselves attached to their utterances, and in which they wished to be understood by their contemporaries ; for how is the sense intended by the Divine Spirit ascertained ? Only by studying the prophecies in the light reflected upon them by their fulfilment. It is desirable and proper for the practical religious use of the Old Testament, which essentially depends upon what the prophecies say to us, that unhesitatingly, by means of our full New Testament knowledge, the germ should be unfolded and developed. But it is neces- sary for scientific investigation, and especially for a satisfactory answer to our inquiry, to discover whither each individual prophecy, as a member of the whole body or a stage in the whole period of development, tends. Certainly it cannot be denied tliat it is only when we survey from the standpoint of the fulfilment of the counsels of God in Christ Jesus the whole combina- tion of Old Testament prophecy and the progress of its historical development, that we can come to a full understanding of the teleological significance of any single prediction ; but it is a settlement of the relation of prophecy to its fulfilment, a fixing of the direction in which the former relates to the latter, and not an explanation of the contents of the prophecy itself, that we gain by this means ; for what we do not learn until the period of fidfilment cannot he in the ^prophecy itself. In this respect, only the sense in which the predictions Introduction. 7 were necessarily understood at the time tliey were spoken can be of any value. It is therefore confusing when, from the standpoint of fulfilment, the contents of a prophecy are referred to Christ and His kingdom as the true and divinely intended sense ; and if we do not entirely reject the interpretation, we must at least be on our guard against receiving it as the contents of the prediction, when the relation of the latter to the former is to be decided. We have already renounced the knowledge of the real contents when prophecy and fulfilment are not kept perfectly distinct, and what we have learned from the one is put into the other ; or when we make the relation of prophecy to its fulfil- ment, when we have already more or less explained it by fulfilment, the exclusive subject of our researches. Many differences between those who attach the highest importance to agreement between prophecy and ful- filment, and those who preferably fix their attention upon the historical character of prophecy, depend solely on the fact that the former miss the true question in the manner indicated, and have not a distinct and accurate conception of the problem involved. The meaning first given to prophecy when considered in the light of fulfilment, and the sense in which the prophets themselves and their contemporaries under- stood it, or the historical sense, must be regarded as per- fectly distinct, and only the last can, strictly speaking, be the contents of any prediction ; and this alone can come into consideration when we are endeavouring to ascertain the relation between the utterances of the 8 Messianic Prophecy. prophets and their fulfilment ; and it is of the highest importance that, from this view of the case, we receive a scientific reply to our inquiry (3). In what sense the prophets themselves desired their predictions to be understood by their contemporaries, has confessedly to be elucidated by psychological and historical exposition. Unanimously, as in our times, from the most various quarters the need of this method is acknowledged ; some theologians are hindered by a certain timidity and anxiety from fully admitting the result in individual cases. Especially is it so with those passages which have been long regarded in the Church as Messianic predictions, but which modern exegesis robs of that character. This hesitation conies to light also when the question is whether this or that really Messianic passage has a direct reference to the person of Christ or not, and most of all is it shown in the assertion of their Messianic contents. In ejeneral, they recognise the division between Old and jSTew Testa- ment knowledge, yet shrink from the confession that little New Testament doctrine is contained in those passages in which they are accustomed to find proof of the connection between Old Testament prediction and New Testament fulfilment. It may be asked whether there is not in this hesitation a little contempt for the germ origin of revelation, and, as it seems to us, an un- becoming censure upon the divine method of teaching. It is our duty to free ourselves thorouglily from the delusion that divine revelation and prediction can only be found in the Old Testament when we find expressed Introdiiction. 9 therein New Testament truths. This timidity has its origin in the idea, that in order to recognise the con- nection between the two, the attention must be fixed upon isolated parts of it ; but he who, on viewing a magnificent temple, an acknowledged masterpiece of architecture, confines his inspection to portions of it, and does not look at it as a whole, thoughtlessly ex- pects to find in its separate parts more beauty and per- fection of form than they have in themselves. But he who takes a survey of the whole can recognise without hesitation the imperfections and incompleteness of the single parts which in their order and harmony contri- bute to the production of one magnificent whole. So it is here. He who looks at the Old Testament economy as a whole, and has gained a full and decided conviction that the old covenant is designed to find its completion in the new, and that the development of Old Testament religion was a progress towards Chris- tianity, will, in the interpretation of every Messianic prediction, recognise only such a revelation of God's merciful purposes as the rules of a severely historical method of exposition show it really to contain. It is not our intention in this place, by means of such researches, to ascertain the contents of individual prophecies, but rather to present the results of exegeti- cal labour ; and this being done, our next endeavour will be, by means of an inquiry into the relations in which the contents of individual prophecies stood to the re- ligious condition of Israel, to the development of the Old Testament religion, to the historical events, condi- 10 Messianic Proioliecy. tions, and relations of the time of their origin, and to the mental peculiarities of the prophets by whom they were uttered, as well as by an examination of their mutual relations to each other, — to understand Messi- anic prophecy in the Old Testament as an historical phenomenon ; and then only, w^hen we have gained a knowledge of its historical character, can we, by a com- parison of the same with N'ew Testament fulfilment, secure a satisfactory reply to our chief question. Accordingly, w^e shall first communicate the result of our inquiries into the historical character of Messianic prophecy, having regard as may seem necessary to the labours of others. riEST SECTIOK THE ORIGIN OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY. 1. Its Source in Bevelatioii. \^ order to understand the nature of an historical phenomenon, we must, first of all, go back to the commencement of its existence. We have therefore here to occupy ourselves with the origin of Messianic prophecy. How did it originate ? How did Israel, and especially the prophets, become connected with it? If a rigid and spiritless supernaturalism takes its stand on the answer, " through the revelation of God," or "by the enlightening operation of the Di\dne Spirit," it certainly expresses a truth, but does not reply to our question. It is a truth, because the Messianic pro- phecies must naturally have the same origin as is affirmed of the prophetic utterances generally, namely, the operation of the Spirit giving a revelation from God ; and in our opinion, it is impossible, without re- cognising the reality of the revelation, to regard them as historically intelligible. For those who consider the prophets simply as specially wise and good men, who instructed the people in their own religious beliefs and views of truth, and endeavoured to bring them to 12 Messianic Prophecy. bear upon individual and national life, and, to this end, among other means published the fears and hopes by which, partly from their faith in God's righteousness and government of the world, and partly from their patriotism and political sagacity, they were influenced, and who therefore object to every extraordinary operation of the Spirit of God on the minds of the prophets, — for those, Old Testament prophecy in its essential nature will always remain an incomprehensible historical pheno- menon. Tor it is an undeniable fact, and affirmed upon every page of the prophetic writings, that the prophets themselves had the clearest and most profound con- sciousness that they did not utter their own thoughts, but those revealed to them by God; not their own words, but the words of God put into their hearts and into their mouths by Him. This is indeed the distinction which they make between themselves and false prophets ; they were sent of God, and had a distinct commission to communicate His purposes, while others ran without being sent, and prophesied when He had not spoken to them; they spoke rather from the visions of their own minds, rx\j\\ '•sp ^h ^"inT n^h pTn, from the deceit of their own hearts, and in their own words they promulgated divine oracles ; in a word, they are Ciziprp ''N^n^ (Jer. xxiii. 16, 18, 21, 22, 26, 28, 31 ; Ezek. xiii. 2, 3, 6, 7, 17). Certainly this distinction sprang from the clear consciousness of the genuine prophet, that he, as a faithful servant of his God, always and in everything that he said, had only one end in view, namely, to establish the divine authority in the kingdom and among Tlie Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 3 tlie people ; while the false prophets, for the promotion of selfish interests, flattered their inchnations and passions (Jer. xxiii. 22). In the general direction of prophetic teaching it was manifest whether or not any one was really called by Jehovah to the prophetical of&ce, and engaged in His service, and honoured by revelations from Him. This distinction could only be made by the real prophets from the clearest consciousness that their predictions were not C33po, not the product of their own reflections, wishes, hopes, or fears, but were given to them by God. And what life and energy did this consciousness throw into their addresses ! what power it exercised over the men themselves ! It is well known to every reader of the prophetic writings, not only. how almost every paragraph begins with a ^^, "\ "njDi^ r\^, nm ^n^l or ends with a "' D^^^ but also how their addresses commonly overflow with God's own words, they themselves speaking in the first person in His name. And not only have they the confident assurance that what they published in His name will certainly happen, but in their belief there was in this published word a divine power which would just as certainly secure its own fulfilment, and that their words, by the natural operation of a hidden law, had in them an ever present operative power (Jer. i. 9, 23, 28 ; Isa. Iv. 11). Upon themselves the consciousness that they had received a direct commission from God exercised such an overwhelming influence, that all personal resistance was in vain (Jer. xx. 7, 9). On the other hand, there was in it a power which fitted them with unyielding courage 14 Messianic Prophecy. to face every danger, and to fulfil their commission though king, princes, priesthood, people, and a host of false prophets were against them (Jer. i. 17, xx. 9). Many other proofs might be adduced to show that the prophets had a clear and immovable conviction that they made known only that which God had communi- cated to them for the purpose (i). Those who desire to understand Old Testament prophecy historically, can only do justice to this consciousness of the prophets when they recognise it as having an objective founda- tion, against which they should struggle all the less in the presence of many an occurrence predicted long before, and which lay beyond the limit of human fore- sight; for example, the destruction of Sennacherib's army "not by the sword of a mighty man," Isa. xxxi. 8. The sceptical may be also pointed to the fact that history itself, with its ever living and convincing testi- mony, has justified the prophets. 2. The Method of Divine Communication. "VYe hold, and that most firmly, the doctrine that all predictions were communicated to the prophets by divine revelation ; but how little this does towards a Teply to the inquiry concerning the origin of Messianic prophecy, will be seen when we ascertain in what, according to their own testimony, these communica- tions generally resulted to the prophets themselves ; and in doing so we shall, in harmony with our general design, limit ourselves to the most necessary remarks, The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 5 cliiefly referring to the discussions of Bertheau and Oehler, but especially to those of the latter (2). With these theologians, we must declare ourselves against those views which find the characteristic of prophetic inspiration to be ecstasy, and suppose that the usual mode of revelation was the vision. The principal representative of this class is Hengstenberg. In the second edition of his Christology^ his views are con- siderably modified (3). It is said the prophets did not find themselves at the time of revelation, and when they spoke under the influence of the Spirit, in a con- dition of unconsciousness, according to the Montanist view ; but in the highest degree their state was that described by Steinbeck, when he says, " The inspired not only realized life in a higher degree, but his thoughts were quicker and clearer." Still their condi- tion is said to have been an unusual and extraordinary one ; they were in an ecstasy ; that is, by a sudden and overpowering operation of the Spirit of God upon their minds, their whole natural Kfe, their perceptions and desires, the impressions of the senses, and the intel- lectual consciousness — reflection — were in an unusual manner thrown into abeyance, and their inner sense so powerfully excited, that they directly heard or saw what was to be revealed to them. The external senses were quiescent ; the intellectual consciousness, the i/oO?, was overpowered by the irvevixa, but in such a way that its activity was heightened and strengthened, and it endeavoured as far as possible to follow the intellectual phenomena in their flight, but ever at a modest dis- 16 Messianic Trc/plucy, tance behind, failing to raise itself to the height of immediate recognition, and standing mainly in a subordinate relation to the power of the inner percep- tions. From this view of the nature of prophetic inspiration, it follows that all prophetic perceptions -^were seen in vision. In their ecstasy they saw history, and in their addresses they only described what under the influence of the Spirit they had seen. It is on this account that we so often find them suddenly passing from one subject to another, the imagery itself passing in rapid succession before their mental eye. The proof of the correctness of this view, which I have given almost in Hengstenberg's words (4), is found ^ partly in examples of prophetic inspiration of the lowest class, Baalam, Saul, etc. ; partly in single ecstatic conditions in which prophets and apostles have found themselves ; partly in certain expressions and phrases from the oldest prophetic period, in which the lowest class of prophetic inspiration prevailed, stiU. remaining in use, but in consequence of the development of prophecy no longer to be literally understood ; and to some extent in phrases describing rare and extra- ordinary situations which are applied to the ordinary experience of the prophets, "^^l^, ^""^^y ^7^^; P^C^ and others of a similar kind. The chief defect of tliis view is, that it does not distinguish between the various grades and kinds of prophetic inspiration, and therefore cannot meet the real condition of the case. It has been justly remarked, that from the fortieth to the sixty- sixth chapter of Isaiah, and indeed in most of the The Origin of Messianic Pwphecy. X 7 predictions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and others, there is no trace either of a description of pictures seen in ecstasy, or of " an unusual and extra- ordinary condition of the prophets themselves." These discourses, though indicating powerful agitation and convulsion of the body, do not indicate sudden seizure by a higher power, but rather a continued divine operation ; an activity heightened by communion with God, in which there was the freest use of human gifts, and the fullest exercise of their own capacities and powers (5). Hengstenberg admits that the eschatolo- gical discourses of Christ in Matt. xxiv. and xxv. are very similar to the Messianic predictions of the prophets, in respect to the characteristic peculiarity that both group together, and represent as continuous, events in them- selves separated by wide spaces of time : he admits, further, that these discourses are " in nowise of a visionary character," and that " the ecstatic states are nowhere to be found in Christ," What, then, can justify the position that essentially similar predictions of the prophets must have been revealed to them through the instrumentality of visions or the ecstatic state ? And what must have been the mental state of those prophets who prophesied not merely now and then, but to whom prophecy was peculiarly the work of a life, and in which for a long series of years they were constantly engaged? (Jer, xxv. 3.) In consequence of the continued and almost uninterrupted return of the abnormal state in which the miads of the prophets would be placed by the sudden and overpowering h 18 Messianic Prophecy. operation of the Spirit of God, the mental condition of an Isaiah or a Jeremiah must have been wanting in genuine health ! Against the doctrine that ecstasy was the characteristic of prophetic inspiration, we may venture, in presence of the information we derive from the Old Testament, and especially from the prophetic writings, confidently to affirm that the more the con- dition of prophetic inspiration was one of ecstasy, the lower was it in grade ; ecstatic conditions coming but seldom into its more fully developed and riper mani- festation, appearing rather in the earliest times, and at the first call of the prophet to receive divine communications (fi). That ecstatic conditions come within the sphere of genuine prophecy cannot be denied, for both the Old and the N'ew Testaments^ clearly affirm it. In the lowest kind of ecstasy the person has no longer any control over himself ; the essential functions of personality, self-consciousness, and self-direction are suspended : he has lost his power of recollection, and no longer does what he does by his own choice : he is the unconscious, powerless instrument of the controlling Spirit, and when the ecstasy is over he has no distinct remembrance of his experience. We have examples of such ecstatic states in what is narrated of Saul and his messengers in 1 Sam. xix. 20, and in the yXcocraaL^^ \aXelp of 1 Cor. xiv. It is evident that these condi- tions — though for the individual religious life of the ecstatics they might be of great importance, and pro- ductive of the most blessed results (1 Cor. xiv. 18) — The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 9 are not necessary to revelation ; they are beneath the character of prophecy strictly so called, for the Apostle Paul expressly distinguishes between those who spoke only TO) iTveviiaTL and not tc3 voi\ and places the latter^ above the former, because with them the vov^ was active, and they were in a position to speak for the edification of the Church (7). There comes now into view another phase of the ecstatic state, in which there is no such suspension of the natural powers by the operation of the Spirit, in which personal activity steps back but is not bound, in which the decisions of the will may be affirmed against the power of the Spirit (1 Cor. xiv. 32). The continuity of self-consciousness is not interrupted though the connection of the mental life mth the external world is for a time suspended, and intercourse between self-consciousness and the external world ceases, and the mind with an exceptional activity is entirely occupied in the perception of objects foreign to its sphere of thought (s). In this case, when the ecstasy is over, there remains a more or less clear recollection of what has been seen or heard. Even the ancients have (9) noticed the analogy between the ecstatic state and dreams ; and it is an interesting fact that the latter come before us in the Old Testament itself as the vehicle of divine communications : only in the dream there is a temporary suspension of the relation of the mental Hfe to the external world by the physical condition of the sleeper, while in the ecstasy there is a concentration of the whole inner life upon the perception of objects not existing in the 20 Messianic Projyhecy. world of sense, produced by the power of the Spirit. As apostles (Acts x. 9-12 ; 2 Cor. xii. 14), when re- ceiving divine communications, found themselves in this kind of ecstasy, so also did Old Testament prophets, and especially when in supersensuous visions God Himself was presented to their mental eye in sensible form, or when the condition and fate of the people of God were in symbol caused to pass before them. Though many of the visions recorded in the later prophetic writings may be only a fanciful clothing and veiling of the thoughts, and though in other cases, as for example in Ezek. i., xl, xli., and xlii., what the prophets saw in the spirit they may have described more minutely ; this, however, is an undoubted fact, that both ecstasy and visions belong to the early history of the prophets and the dawn of prophecy. But it is equally certain that in the later periods these two conditions were not the usual and ordinary medium of divine communication. It is only of isolated predictions that the prophets say they had received them in a vision. Isaiah, it is well known, speaks only of a single occurrence of this kind with which his consecration to the prophetic office was connected (Isa. vi.) ; and only in Isa. viii. 1 1 can we else- where find any indication of the ecstatic state. On the other hand, the expressions most in use to desig- nate the mode of revelation, as well as the prominent features of the discourses and predictions of the prophets themselves, point to something less extraor- dinary and more within the circle of experience as the The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 1 means of divine communication. We remember the words, "That which I have heard of the Lord of hosts/' and, " I have heard from the Lord God of hosts " (Isa. xxi. 10, xxviii. 22 ; Jer. xlix. 14 ; Ezek. iii. 17 ; Hah. iii. 2) ; also the ""• ^^], that is, the secret, con- fidential communication of Jehovah ; etymologically, the thing whispered or suggested, the discourse spoken in a dull or suppressed tone. The name of the prophets is also significant — ^<''^J^ one in whom God con- fides, and to whom He communicates His purposes (lo). If we would determine the most usual method of divine revelation to the prophets, we must proceed from those expressions most commonly used, and not from those which are much more rare, as ptn, n^rn, and others which have evidently been transferred from the vision to the prophecy. Thus the method of revela- tion with respect to God is to be described as inward speaking, and in relation to the psychological function of the prophets as an inward perception of His words (ii). What signification have we now to give to these expressions ? what ideas to associate with them ? There is this word of God, a ^ "il'n, that is, a word in man (Hab. ii. 1 ; Zech. i. 10, 13, 14, ii. 2-8, iv. 1, 4, 5, V. 5-10, vi. 4; Num. xii. 6-8). That man may perceive it, God must awaken (Iji^ "i^yn) or open (IT^ n7j, nriQ) his ears ; that is, he must arouse into activity his powers of spiritual perception (Isa. 1. 4, 5). The prophet then hears the voice of God speaking to him, inp :r\J>2. (Ps. xxxvi. 3) (12). God puts His word into his heart in such a way, that if he 22 Messianic Prophecy. makes tlie attempt to keep it to himself, it is like a burning fire witliin him (Jer. xx. 9). Thence also the representation that he must as food eat the word of the Lord (Jer. xv. 16 ; Ezek. ii. 8, iii. 3). Following such intimations, we shall certainly not go far wrong if, from this inward voice of God, and the correspond- ing inward perception of His word, we infer the pro- duction in the mind of the prophet, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, of an immediate certainty concern- ing the will and purposes of God. This certainty does not spring from reflection ; it is not entirely originated in the usual manner from the prophets' own mind, for clearly they are conscious that it is given them of God. As the trusted servant hears from the lips of his master his wishes and intentions, so the prophets receive from the mouth of God a revelation of His will. The whole proceeding does not come within the sphere of subjectivity, but consists in the actual inter- course of the living personal God with the person of the prophet, and as such it is everywhere represented. Nor, on the other hand, is the production of this certainty concerning the divine will associated with the ecstatic state or a condition similar to it. It is true the object of this assurance will often appear before the mind of the prophet in the plastic form of intuition, and all the more as the imagination is aroused to a corresponding activity. By the intense concen- tration of the soul on this intuition it may arrive at the condition of ecstasy, and through the excitement of the imagination to ecstatic visions. But this is by The Origin of Messianic Propliecij. 2 3 no means common. The whole process, mysterious as it is in itself, is not beyond the range of our psycho- logical knowledge. Two analogies from the sphere of our religious experience will serve to bring this matter nearer to our understanding. One is the manner in which we come to certain living convictions of faith, self-evident Christian beliefs. They are not the result of reflection, or, if this is at all found in association with them, it is clearly not the product of man's own mind, but comes rather, in each individual case, from the enlightening operations of the revelation of God ; it results from the immediate inwrought assurance of the Holy Spirit through the so-called testimonium internum spiritics sandi " Flesh and blood," said the Saviour to Peter after he had made the confession, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," — " Flesh and Uoocl hath not revealed it unto thee ; hut mij Father which is in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 17, xi. 25). There can be no doubt that the greatest part of the contents of the prophetic discourses are to be traced to an essentially similar method of revelation, especially all those portions intended for the vindication of the will of God as declared in the law, or for the enforce- ment of the fundamental principles of the Old Testa- ment faith and their application to special circumstances, or for the further development and confirmation of existing religious knowledge. Within this sphere falls a large proportion of the Messianic prophecies. The analogy between the mode of communication to the prophets and this inward assurance of saving truths by 24 Messianic Prophecy. the Spirit of God is all the more complete, as in both cases the operation of the Spirit is indissolubly asso- ciated with the energy of the spoken or written testi- mony of God's word as with its correlate. It is well known how often the discourses of the prophets are connected with those of their predecessors, and grow out of them. It may be said that our remarks do not meet the specific character of the prophetic writings ; it may be especially pointed out that the Old Testament teacher of wisdom w^as assured by the Spirit of God concerning religious and moral truth, also that he would desire to communicate to others religious know- ledge gained in this way, and to make it practically available ; and yet in those writings of the Old Testa- ment which come within the sphere of didactic poetry we nowhere find those emphatic, ever-recurring enforce- ments of the doctrines, admonitions, and warnings, as spoken by God Himself to the hearer or reader, or those frequent instances of deepening conviction passing into the very words of God, and speaking in His name, which characterize the prophetic discourses and writ- ings (13). This striking difference has its foundation in the fact that the prophet is conscious of a distinct call by which he has been made Jehovah's instrument, the interpreter of His will, the bearer of His communica- tions to His people, and that he has, above others, been entrusted with a definite mission to his contem- poraries ; while the teacher of wisdom is conscious only of a general call felt by every man who is in the possession of truth not to keep the treasure to himself, The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 20 but to mal.e it tiseful to others. The latter, therefore does not find himself prompted to his instructions and admonitions hy the feeling that the events happening before his eyes demand of Mm the fulfilment of a definite duty laid upon ta hj Ood, as is the case with the prophet. Naturally, therefore, will his thoughts be rather the product of his own reflections and the fruit of his experience, and as such wiU come to his consciousness when the Spirit of God has sealed to him their truth. To the consciousness of the prophe , on the contrary, whatever God has assured to him will, on the ground of his special divine mission, emne as then given him of God wherewith to fulfil the vocation to which he has been called. Now, if we take this conscious prophetic caU into account, those assurances produced by the direct operation of the Spirit of God and by the testimoniun internum spiritus sandi. respect- ing what in a given case was to he declared as the WiU of God, would be wholly similar, and would suffice to explain the specific character of the prophetic dis- courses, so far as their contents are of the nature indicated above (u). Of course this conscious caU to the prophetic office could not be realized with any very extraordinary vividness, unless there feU to their share disclosures which the Spirit of God gave to no other men. Apart from the certain experience that Jehovah gave to them, as His trusty servants, revelations of His counsels and that they had, beyond all others, a knowledge of the future, a clear consciousness of their divine mission 2 6 • 3Iess ia n ic Prophecy. is hardly conceivable ; still, it is true also that mainly it did not consist in the prognostication of future events, for their discourses would then have lacked the element needed to establish them in the eyes of their contemporaries as prophets really sent of God. For this certain knowledge of the divine counsels respecting the future ^\TOught in the mind of the prophet by the Spirit of God, we have an analogy in the sphere of religious experience, an analogy to which Oehler has recently drawn attention (15). It is the assurance of answered prayer, especially when thereby it reaches decisions about the affairs of outward life, or things connected with it. Such decisions are not attained by reflection, and certainly do not originate in the human mind. They are produced by the direct operation of the Spirit of God upon the mind of the suppliant, and come to his consciousness as an answer to prayer from the Being to whom he has spoken. The conviction that it is not imaginary, but is an actual occurrence, as real as any event with which he has to do, is just as firm and deep as similar convictions in the mind of the prophet that God has spoken to him. It is well known that in the Psalms, in consequence of the inward perception of an answer to prayer, the most distressing complaints and tear- ful supplications have often passed into joyful con- fidence and jubilant songs in praise of the divine goodness, and sometimes in such a remarkable manner, that for the transition to fail of beiag a parallel to the intrinsic nature of prophecy seems psychologically The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 7 conceivable only on the supposition that deliverance from peril, or at least a change for the better, had taken place in the condition of the suppliant (ig). Oehler has pointed out that this analogy is all the more deserving of notice, since, when the prophets received revelations from God, their intercourse with Him is frequently represented as being peculiarly prayerful (Jer. xxxii. 16, xlii. 4; Hab. i.). It is re- cognised, indeed, as a condition of the bestowment of the revelation (Jer. xxxiii. o), and we find the expression T^\V, to answer, used both of the hearing of prayer and apocalyptic communications (Jer. xxiii. 35-37, xxxiii. 3 ; Mic. iii. 7 ; Hab. ii. 2). The gift of prayer is a common, gracious bestowment ; but some petitioners have a special anointing, by virtue of which, even during prayer, they frequently know whether they are heard or not, and are often assured of a gracious answer concerning things which have to do with their external life. So also the assurance wrought in the mind of the prophet concerning the divine counsels presupposes a special charisma ; but the capacity which in such cases is sanctified and elevated by the com- munication of the Spirit of God, is that power of pre- sentiment which is undoubtedly possessed by some persons in a very high degree, and which comes nearest to the prophetic charisma when it comes into activity through the power of deep moral convictions (17). If this is the case with the usual method of divine revelation, it becomes clear to what extent genuine prophecy demanded as a necessary presupposition 28 Messianic Prophecy. a normal moral and religious revelation of the prophet to God (is), and why, as remarked above, the moral and religious nature of a man's actions, who wished to be regarded as a prophet, decided w^hether he had received a revelation from God, or only pretended to have done so. We can understand also, that in the representation of anything of which the prophet had been assured by the Spirit of God, his own mental peculiarities would be fully seen, for the operations of the Spirit must of necessity correspond with the receptive mind ; and we can easily conceive how, in representing that of which the prophet had been assured by the Spirit, his own mental peculiarities must declare themselves in full measure, for the receptive faculty of his mind must necessarily correspond with the operation of the Spirit, in order that the assurance may come ever to his own consciousness ; and its communication to others is possible only when he makes it the object of his reproductive activity, through w^hich reflection, ima- gination, and all mental gifts find expression in the measure and manner which his individuality dictates. In this respect the word of God which he proclaims is also the word of the prophet ; that which in its ultimate origin comes not i3?^, still does so in a certain sense. At length it is clear, then, — and this is chiefly the point in question, — that the new knowledge of the prophet derived from divine revelation, though given directly by the Spirit of God, is yet never unconnected ivith that which already exists in his own mind, but is rather, and that without prejudice to its newness, brought forth from The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 9 the prophet's existing mental treasure ; hy the operation of the Spirit of God it is organically brought to the light of his consciousness. For how could the Spirit of God produce a certainty in the mind of the prophet about that which was to him wholly strange and absolutel}' new, and which he could not recognise in its internal connection and harmony with the general contents of his consciousness ? A knowledge which is not some- how genetically connected with the hitherto existing consciousness, could only be produced in the mind of the prophet by a process of magic, or be placed there by external mechanical agency. But neither the knowledge nor the certainty of God's purposes can be originated in this w^ay. The law which prevails in the sphere of natural life prevails not less in the sphere of spiritual life, namely, the law that in an external, mechanical way nothing can be taken up into the living organism, nor be received into the processes and activities of life. In the former case, as in the latter, it can only happen through the receptive activity of assimilating processes ; and these in our case are possible only when the new knowledge given by the Spirit of God springs not altogether from an external source, but has its roots in the continued consciousness of the prophet, though in its initial existence and at the moment of revelation unknown to him. In this way the organic connection of the knowledge revealed by the energy of the Spirit with the existing contents of the prophetic consciousness may in various degrees be essentially genetic, so that the predicate of new- 30 Messianic Prophecy. ness may be affirmed, now in a lower and now in a higher degree. Objectively considered, it may be simply the unfolding of a germ thought which already lay in the mind of the prophet, only this unfolding is not perfected by means of his own conscious under- standing and reason. At the moment of revelation the results come to him, not even as conscious issues of the knowledge already in his possession ; and not until afterwards can he perhaps, reckoning, as it were, from the given factor, by reflection come to a clear perception of the connection between the new knowledge and the old. This organic connec- tion may consist also in a reconciliation of contradic- tions hitherto present in the prophetic consciousness, by means of the newly revealed knowledge; or it may appear as the solution of an enigma, filling up, so to speak, a chasm in the complexity of the prophetic in- tuitions. Especially if his perceptions were not purely ideal, but concrete historical contents of the future, could they not in their own nature stand in a purely genetic indicative relation, in the way of logical development, to the knowledge already existing in the prophet's mind. Wherever a special prophetic charisma, resting on the foundation of the power of presentiment, is prominently active, there may be affirmed of it in a higher sense the quality of newness. But even such knowledge can only be received into the consciousness of the prophet in a manner corresponding with the laws of the human mind. It will never, therefore, come into the existing contents in any external manner, but must so spring The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 31 out of the same that the new growth shall draw its necessary nourishment through many minute vessels from the parent stem. As a whole, such knowledge will be new, but in its individual features it will betray a genetic connection with that which existed before in the consciousness of the prophet. The view thus taken of the nature and law of spiritual life seems to be the only one honourable to God. It would certainly be an unwarrantable repre- sentation of Him, to suppose that the result of His revelation to the prophet was such that it was in his mind as a dead and lifeless possession. No ! The Spirit of God is not always beginning His work afresh. He gives Himself rather to the work of developing the germs of already existing truth, and through the mutual influence which, by virtue of their own vital power, they exercise upon each other in the course of development to evoke new truths ; and this it seems to us is the only method of revelation worthy of God (19). 3. The Organic Genetic Connection of Prophecy with the Fundamental Ideas of the Old Testament Religion. From what has been said, it appears that the question about the origin of Messianic prophecy is truly and perfectly answered when it is accurately pointed out how it originates psychologically, how it comes to have its roots in the general consciousness of the projyhets, and is educed from the same according to the laws of organic development. If the inquiry has refer- 32 Messianic Prophecy. ence to any single Messianic prediction, there would come then under consideration not only what the prophet, as a man who stood on the high places of the religious development of his times, had received into his consciousness by virtue of his acquaintance with the law, with the history of his nation, with the predictions of his predecessors, and the laws of the kingdom of God ; but also his knowledge of the then existing position and relations of things, his observations and experiences among his own people, his knowledge of the history of the world around him, and the political relations of his times. With the reply to the inquiry into the origin of Messianic prophecy generally, there comes under review, of necessity, only the consideration that the prophets above all others were those who had "the law "^ of their God in their hearts " (Ps. xxxvii. 3 1 ; Isa. li. 7 ; Deut. XXX. 14) ; or to express it otherwise, they above others were the supporters and representatives of the religion of Israel. And though the essential contents of Messianic prophecy are in some recognised measure not the concrete historical future, but ideal in character, yet will the organic connection of revealed knowledge with the religious knowledge already existing in the con- sciousness of the prophet, objectively considered, be purely genetic; that is, the revealed knowledge will far ^ outweigh the simple germs which, though they have not been fully unfolded by the conscious understanding and reason of the prophet, already exist. It will thus be seen that Messianic hopes and predictions might and did necessarily spring from the inmost life of the The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 3 divinely revealed religion of the Old Testament dis- pensation. In the very nature of this religion we find the ground for those hopeful prospects and constant aspirations toward an ultimate state of exaltation and honour foreordained in the immutable counsels of God to be enjoyed in " the end of the days," which are so characteristic of it, and which make it, among all the religions of ancient times, the religion of hope. In general, it may now be said that this ground lies in the idealism of the Old Testament religion ; that is, by divine revelation ideas were planted in the minds of the people of Israel, so lofty, and rich, and deep, that in the existing religious condition they could never see their perfect realization ; ideas which, with every step in the development of the religious life and knowledge, only more fully disclosed their own depth and fulness, and which must therefore necessarily have led them to look to the future for their fidfilment. The more vividly a pious Israelite realized the contrast between the idea and the reality, — and who would be more deeply conscious of this than the prophets, distinguished as they were by the intensity of their religious life and the wealth and purity of their reHgious knowledge ? — the more their faith, and hopes, and desires looked to the future abolition of this contrast, and the complete realization of the idea. The most powerful of these ideas, from which Messianic knowledge has sprung, we have now to look at more closely. There are three which demand our special attention: the idea of the Covenant, the immediately connected idea of the King- 34 Messianic Fro]jhecy. dom of God, and, as a germ for Messianic prophecy in its narrower sense, the idea of the Theocracij. (1.) The Idea of the Covenant. The idea of the covenant is fundamental in the religion of the Old Testament (20). It is the centre of unity to the faith and religious knowledge of the people of Israel. As Creator of the world, God intended to enter into covenant with Israel ; His purpose was in- dicated when the finished work of creation was crowned by the sanctification of the seventh day ; for the essen- tial idea of the Sabbath is, that on it, as a holy day, the covenant of Israel, the holy people with the holy God, was consummated (21). From the beginning to the end, God conducted the government of the world as the covenant God, with a view to the manifestation of His purposes of mercy towards Israel. This is the o-round-thouo-ht both of the history and prophecy of the Old Testament writings, and especially does it prevail in the history of the origin of the human race and in the lives of the patriarchs. By the gradual separation of Israel from other nations, by the call of Abraham, and the conclusion with him of a covenant of promise, and by the entire history of the patriarchs, was the way prepared for the carrying out of Jehovah's purpose, and the completion of the covenant m the setting up of the kingdom of God in Canaan. This separation between the history of men generally and the history of the patriarchs is pointed out by Noah, when he The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 5 expressly distinguislies Jehovali as the God of Shem, Gen. ix. 2 6 ; and also by the repeated promises given to Abraham and the other patriarchs, especially that recorded in Gen. xvii. 7 ; and at length the covenant is concluded by the deliverance of Israel from Eg}^t, and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, Ex. vi. 2, xix. 4-6, xxiv. 3-8. After this we find the idea of the covenant very commonly expressed in the words, that Jehovah will be a God to Israel, and that Israel shall be to Him a people (Gen. xvii. 7 ; Ex. vi. 7, xix. 5, xxix. 45; Lev. xi. 45, xxii. 33, xxv. 38, xxvi. 12, 45; Num. XX. 41; Deut. iv. 20, vii. 6, xiv. 2, xxvi. 18, xxvii. 9, xxviii. 9, xxix. 12) (22). What do these ex- pressions contain ? "When the Lord says, " I will be a God to you," He is not speaking of the obligation of Israel to worship Him as the God of the nation. In none of the passages quoted will the words bear this sense ; in every one of them we have the language of pro- mise (23). It is affirmed that Jehovah, the one true and invisible God, as Creator of the heavens and the earth, is Lord of nature and of history ; that what He is as God in the majesty of His holy and glorious being, and in the fulness of His grace and truth. He will manifest to the people of Israel for their salvation. To this people He will make known, for the good of the whole world, that He is the living God, the God of salvation, from whom comes all blessing, all help, all deliverance, the God who will enter into loving communion and intercourse with the creatures made 36 Messianic Pro;phecy. in His own image. In a special sense He was the God of the Israelites ; as such He had declared Him- self in delivering them from Egypt, and that deliver- / ance was to Israel the initial revelation of his God- head. After that, the people knew that Jehovah was God, and that they were to be separated from the nations to be a holy and a peculiar people. Most of the above-cited passages might be mentioned in proof ; in addition to these, the reader may refer to 2 Sam. vii. 23, 1 Chron. xvii. 21, and the frequently recurring declaration of Jehovah, " I am the Lord thy God, w^hich have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage" (Ex. xx. 2; Lev. xix. 36). Through- out the Old Testament the deliverance of Israel from /^ Egypt is regarded as the historical declaration of their election. In the religious consciousness of Israel, it takes essentially the same position as in our Christian consciousness is assigned to the deliverance accomplished for us by Christ Jesus (24). It was the commencement of God's gracious relation to Israel. The design which He had in view in bringing them up out of Egypt was ^ first declared when, on the ground of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, He took up His abode in their midst (Ex. xxix. 45; Lev. xxvi. 11; Ezek. xxxvii. 27); and its permanence was shown when, after He had given them the Holy Land, He set up His kingdom among them, continuously to manifest to them His majesty and condescending grace. His gracious pre- sence He proved by blessing the land with great fruitfulness, by enabling its inhabitants to dwell in The Origin of Messianic Pro'phecy. 3 7 I)eace, secure from the attacks of beasts of prey and human foes, by giving them victory over all their enemies, and greatly increasing their numbers (Lev. xxvi. 3-10; Deut. vii. 13, xi. 10-13, ii. 25, xi. 24, 25, vii. 21, ix. 3, xx. 3, 4). All these temporal blessings had their higher spiritual signification, inas- much as they were pledges of the ever present grace of God. Israel was near to Him ; He could be con- sulted in seasons of dif&culty; they could hear His word, see the revelation of His power and grace, and were heard by Him when they called upon Him, and in this way were distinguished above all the nations of the earth (Ex. xxxiii. 16 ; Deut. iv. 7). As their King, He gave them the most righteous laws and maxims (Isa. xxxiii. 22; Deut. iv. 8 ; Isa. xlii. 21); and as a Judge He dispensed justice in their midst through His chosen instruments, under the guidance of His Holy Spirit (Isa. Ixiii. 1 1 ; Hag. ii. 5). On the other hand, as God's peculiar treasure, Israel is a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. xix. 4-6). Only as the Holy One could He enter into the covenant; and in aU His relations with Israel He protects the speciality of His nature. His glorious majesty, and His spotless purity. His people must therefore come out from the nations that serve false gods, and dwell apart from them (Num. xxiii 9). The essential difference between Jehovah and other gods, and His opposition to all idolatry, must find its earthly counterpart in the difference between Israel and all other people ; and as God is separate and independent, so must they be 38 Messianic Proplucy. placed wholly under the forming influence of the divine power. Therefore, as the Sanctifier, Jehovah sets Israel apart to be a holy people (Ex. xxxi. 13 ; Lev. xx. 8, xxi. 8, xxil 16, 32 ; Ezek. xx. 12, xxxvii. 28 ; compare also Lev. xx. 26), and under the sanctifying influence of His presence among them they are to abide for ever. It was their duty to hold themselves apart as much as possible from everything that would dishonour the covenant God wdio dwelt among them ; from personal uncleanness (Lev. xi. 44, xx. 26, xxi. 8), and from moral pollution (Lev. xix. 2 ; Amos ii. 7). Not only were they to be holy in a negative sense, but, from the consideration that God was holy, they were urged to positive purity ; this was the great end of the law (Lev. xix. 2), which in its essential nature is a revelation of the moral purity of God in the form of commands, and its aim was so to mould the national life of Israel, that there might be seen in it more and more of- the divine holiness, and that in the fullest sense they should become a holy people. It w^as only as such they could come near to God and realize the honours and privileges of a nation of priests (25). But the continuance of this relation is dependent on Israel's hearkening to the voice of the Lord and keep- ing His commandments (Ex. xix. 5), for on the giving of the law the covenant itself was founded (Ex. xxiv. 8). Otherwise, Jehovah cannot show Himself as the God of their salvation. In case of a departure from their stedfastness and a breach of the covenant, they must expect the withdrawment of the promised blessings, Tlie Origin of Messianic Pro-phecy. 39 and the infliction of a series of heav}^ penalties, ending in their dispersion among the heathen; for the closer relation into which He entered with Israel involves the consequence that their neglect of His glory and pro- fanation of His holy name would be met with greater displeasure than in the case of any other nation (Lev. X. 3 ; Josh. xxiv. 19, 20 ; Amos iii. 2). Still, the choice once made was not to be abrogated on account of Israel's unfaithfulness and the necessary consequent punishment ; the promise which God had made to the fathers was not to be annulled on account of the guilt of one or more generations; and the gracious purposes for the manifestation of which He had chosen .-;; Israel were still to be carried out, for God is not a man that He should repent (1 Sam. xv. 29). "Hath He said, and shaU He not do it ? or hath He spoken, and shaUHe not make it good?" (:N'um. xxiii. 19.) Though man may be unstable and changeable in his conduct towards God, there is no change in Him (Mai. iii. 6), and nothing that He has purposed can ever become im- practicable on account of the conduct of His creatures; He wiU certainly find ways and means for the fulfil- ment of His promises. If His displeasure must turn against Israel, the fulfilment of the covenant may be suspended, but it can never be abolished, for He cannot cast off His chosen people for ever (Lev. xxvi. 44, 45 ; 1 Sam. xii. 22 ; 2 Kings xiii. 23). He can- not allow the sentence of destruction to go forth against them as against the heathen, in view of the covenant into which He Himself has entered with them, and the 40 Messianic Prophecy. promise which He sware unto their fathers, in virtue of which they are and remain His peculiar people. The sentence against them must be one of chastisement, with the loving design of bringing them back to Him- self (Jer. X. 24, 25, xlvi. 28; Ps. Ixix. 28, 29); and this design He will know how to accomplish (Lev. xxvi. 40 ; Deut. xxx. 1-6). Their stiffnecked resist- ance may give way before the power of chastisement, or it may be overcome by the softening, subduing influence of the memory of His favour (Ezek. xvi. 61-63, XX. 43, xxxvi. 31). "When this condition has been reached, or even while it is being reached, the covenant once more comes into operation. God reveals Himself to Israel, and delivers and honours her. That this should be the result, is demanded by His truth (Ex. xxxii. 11-14), by His holiness, and by His righteousness; by His holiness, because the punishment of Israel consisted in her subjection to heathen nations, and it seemed as if human power could prevail against the kingdom of God and hinder the carrying out of His purposes, and appeared to furnish a ground for the supposition of the heathen, that the God of Israel was powerless to protect His inheritance, or that He was changeable as men, and no longer cared for it. Had He left His people in the hands of the heathen. His glorious majesty and His mighty power w^ould have been discredited, and His holy name dishonoured; there- fore His honour demanded that He should take back His inheritance, and for the sake of His holy name deliver His people. In the protection and security of The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 41 Israel, and in the punisliment of His enemies, must His holiness be vindicated before all peoples (Num. xiv. 13-20; Dent. ix. 26-29; Ezek xx. 41, xxxviii. 16, 23; Isa. xlviii. 9-11, lii. 5, 6). His righteous- ness also demanded that, as soon as the design of chastisement was answered, and they returned to Him, He should deliver them from the oppression of the heathen; for, according to the most common conception. His righteousness is that attribute of His character by virtue of which He always adheres in His dealings with men to the straight course prescribed on the one hand by the good pleasure of His will, and on the other by the well-being of His people. His conduct, therefore, towards them, while in harmony with His purpose that ^e wicked should be subdued and the good be raised ta honour, must, to express His righteousness, always be in f ccordance with His covenant relations ; and as soon as they ceased to resist His will. His righteousness demanded that they should be restored to His favour. That which in one aspect of it is grace in its widest sense, is from another point of view righteousness, as may be seen from Hos. ii. 21, Ps. ciii. 17, and many other passages, in which, with special reference to the people of Israel, the nj^nv is united with the ^pn or the i^^^^^, or stands in parallelism, as in Ps. xxxiii. 5, xxxvi. 5, 6, xl. 10, 11, Ixxxix. 15, xcvi. 13, cxvi. 5, cxlv. 17. In like manner the deliverance of Israel from the power of the heathen is represented as a fruit of His judicial righteousness; for in comparison with her heathen oppressors Israel is relatively righteous, 42 Messianic Prophecy. as far as lier people worshipped the only true God ; and though the number might be small, such worshippers were always the strength of the kingdom (1 Kings xix. 18). As the righteous Judge, God could not permit the wicked to destroy men more righteous than themselves (Heb. i. 13). As in His government He avenges the good for the violent deeds and deceptive wiles of the wicked (Ps. xxxi. 1, Ixxi. 2, cxxix 4), He must, by delivering the Israelites from their op]3res- sors, help them to that justice against idolaters w^hich, as a people worshipping the only true God, they might expect (Isa. xl. 66, xli. 10-16). We have thus, as far as was necessary for our pur- pose, given the contents of the idea of the covenant. It is therefore easy to see how Messianic prophecy, in the wider sense of the words, must necessarily have been unfolded from it. It must have sprung from the difference between the idea and the existing reality which obtained on account of Israel's unfaithfulness, — a difference which would come with increasing power to the consciousness of the pious and enlightened Israelite in proportion to the development of religious know- ledge and the intensifying of religious life. The first portion of this statement needs no further remark, for it is obvious from the mere idea of the covenant that in seasons of apostasy, when suffering from present or threatened judgments, the gaze of all in whose hearts the Old Testament faith still lived must have been fixed upon the better times of the future, in which God's gracious purposes concerning Israel should be The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 43 fully realized. However great tlie apostasy, however severe the punishment, the election of Israel, the un- changing faithfulness of God, His holiness and His justice remained always the firm anchor of the hope that there would be at last a day of deliverance, in which the nation would enjoy the full blessings of the covenant. The other point requires a closer consideration. With the progress of religious knowledge and the develop- ment of religious life, the feeling that the idea of the covenant had received but a very imperfect fulfilment in the kingdom of God, as founded by Moses, must have become stronger. There appeared before the eyes of the people of Israel a position from which they were yet far distant, but w^hich, in virtue of the purpose of God, they were destined ultimately to reach. In the tabernacle and in the temple God dwelt in their midst, revealed Himself to them in w^ord and deed, and guided them by His Spirit. They w^ere a nation of priests, and stood near to God by intercourse and fellowship with Him. But as there was a visible divine kingdom founded upon the natural basis of the Israelitish State, the membership of which was given to Israel after the flesh, this common relation was for the people on the whole an external one, bound up with the mediation of the Levitical priesthood. The idea that they were a nation of priests had for the individual only a very limited application. Circum- cision and the fringes on their garments (Num. xv. 37-41) were for every Israelite the external signs of his relation to God and of his priestly character : every 44 Messianic Prophecy. year, at the renewal of tlie covenant in the feast of the Passover, he exercised his priestly calling ; on Sabbaths and festivals he came near to the Most High, especially on the three great feasts, when every male appeared before the Lord, and, partaking of the peace-offering, thankfully rejoiced in the external perfection of his fellowship with God. But he only ventured into the outer court of the dwelling-place of Jehovah ; from the Holy Place itself he was excluded. Only at a reverential distance was he permitted to worship at the throne of the Most Holy God, and by the penalty of death was forbidden in any stricter sense to fulfil the priestly functions. The bearers of the priestly ofiice strictly so called, the mediatorial representatives of the people, were chosen by God Himself ; the sons of Aaron, in virtue of their election to the priesthood, were holy in a higher sense ; they belonged to God, and possessed the privilege of approaching Him ; and through them alone could the offerings of the people be presented. Of this class one only had the right to enter into the Holy of Holies, and this privilege was confined to one day in the year ; and then he must not enter without the atoning blood, which he was to offer for his own sins and those of the people. Thus in the very arrangements, according to which the external intercourse of Israel with God was carried on, they were constantly reminded that the covenant was in- complete. Their fellowship with God in the temple service was only the representation of the communion of the heart : and the external forms of the church into The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 45 which every Israelite was bom were only to repre- sent a more spiiitual service. It was intended, by the instrumentality of the law and by means of specially appointed organs, more fully to make known the will and purpose of God. But in how small a measure was this prospect realized ! Notwithstanding all the demands and threatenings of the law, we see the repeated apostasy of the nation. In spite of all the prophetic discourses, we see the constant sinking of the divine service into empty ceremony, performed in an undevout, worldly, and carnal spirit. Only a few came into sincere, spiritual intercourse with God ; and these few had against them the. great and powerful secular party. It is self-evident that every pious man who had the law of his God in his heart (Ps. xxxvii. 31 ; Isa. H. 7), and his delight in the illuminating, gladdening, and quickening commandments of Jehovah ; that every one who from personal inward experience knew how the God of grace and salvation could guide the solitary by His Holy Spirit (Ps. li. 12, 13, cxliii. 10), how inwardly near His mercies were, how He heard them and answered when they called upon Him, and what a blessing it was to be able to call God their portion, — that every pious man who realized this inward communion with God must have seen what sort of a fulfilment of the idea of the covenant was most essential. And it lies in the nature of the case, that the sharper the contrast between the little company of the truly pious and the men of worldly views, the more com- pletely would the inner devotion introduce a division 46 Messianic Tro-phecy. into the Old Testament economy. In the minds of the pious, the merely carnal and external fulfilment of the covenant would, in importance and worth, constantly give way before a sense of the value of spiritual communion with God. They felt that in existing con- ditions and relations, when so many had forgotten Him, and gave themselves no concern about His command- ments, it could not be said, " I will be their God, and they shall be my people," and that only w^hen the whole nation was brought into a Kving fellowship with Him could this promise be really fulfilled. With a vital faith in Israel's election, with love to their fellow- countrymen, to God and His kingdom, they were compelled to await the future, when the gxacious purposes of Jehovah toward the nation would, by means of the enlightening, sanctifying operation of the Spirit of God, be accomplished, and the covenant brought to its full completion. But these pious Israelites were not without much trying experience in their own spiritual relations with God. The divine displeasure which overtook the nation was deeply felt by them for other reasons than love to their own people. It was to them a disturb- ance of their own personal relations w^ith the Most High. The conviction that they themselves were in a state of grace was based ultimately upon the conscious- ness that Israel was chosen of God, and every suspen- sion of the covenant with the nation must have more or less disturbed the certainty of their own position. Hence the painful complaints which we hear during The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 47 times of exile, that God liad cast off His people ; com- plaints which show that in the hearts of the good there was a deep sense of being forsaken of Him. Their happiness was, however, more seriously disturbed by their own sins, and increasingly so as their knowledge of the will of God extended; for the obligations im- posed upon them by the covenant seemed to become greater, and thus their consciousness of guilt became deeper. They could not, since the intensifying of the religious life during the prophetic period, attain to a firm and joyful assurance of the forgiveness of sin by means of the Old Testament sin-offering, but only by faith in the sin-forgiving grace of God (Ps. xxxii.). Both the law and the prophets proclaimed to them "the Lord' God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for- giving iniquity, transgression, and sin" (Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7; Num. xiv. 18 (26); Isa. i. 18, Iv. 7; Mic. vii. 18). But this sin-forgiving grace had not yet been mani- fested in a really efficient manner. Faith had not yet found in it for all cases a firm foundation; and when in times of trial and doubt the necessity was felt of falling back upon such a support, it was found only in the election of Israel and the history of the past ; and the deeper the consciousness of sin, the less this founda- tion sufficed. The certainty of forgiveness was there- fore neither perfect nor continuous. In many humble souls the desire often remained unsatisfied, and so the pious of the Old Testament, for the sake of their own relations with God, desired and hoped for such a fulfil- 48 Messianic Prophecy, ment of the covenant as would blot out their sins, and by the powerful and permanent influence of the Spirit of God on their hearts, preserve them from any new inter- ruption of their joy in God and fellowship with Him. And this was the very design with which God had chosen Israel, and He would surely, according to His covenant promise, reveal His Godhead and become their deliverer. With the knowledge of the need of salvation the knowledge of God as a Saviour increased, and there was a clearer insight into the purposes of grace and the plan of His kingdom. With ever in- creasing distinctness must the devout men of the old covenant have perceived that, if Jehovah was really to be a God to Israel, and Israel in the fullest sense His people, there must be a revelation of His glory far sur- passing everything in the past; a new manifestation of grace and mercy removing the obstacle to a full and lasting covenant, and blotting out sin perfectly and for ever by the exercise of His forgiving grace. They must have had a growing conviction that God would one day take up His abode among His people in an entirely different and much more glorious manner, so that they would be truly near Him, and enjoy the priestly privilege of enjoying immediate intercourse with Him, and beholding His glory. That this might come to pass. He Himself must circumcise the hearts of the people (Deut. xxx. 6), and put His law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jer. xxxi. 33) ; He must give them a new heart and a new spirit, — His Spirit, — and so influence them that they would walk The Origin of Messianic Prophecij. 49 in His commandments (Jer. xxxii. 39; Ezek xi. 19, 20, xxxvi 26, 27). N'owhere, not even in the priesthood, was there such an immediate and powerful work of the Spirit of God upon men, such a heartfelt personal confidence in Him, and such living and constant communion with Him, as ^ among the prophets (Amos iii. 7). To the Israelite, and especially to the prophets, this was a striking illustra- tion of that to which the nation would one day attain. The people of God are what they should become, and the idea of the covenant is fully realized when the Spirit of God is no longer poured upon special indivi- duals, but upon the whole people ; when all should be prophets, all disciples of Jehovah, and all governed by His Spirit. " Would God," says Moses, in that remark- able narrative recorded in Num. xi. 16-30, "that dXL\ the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" (Joel ii. 28, 29 ; Ezek. xxxix. 29 ; Isa. liv. 13.) This .conception of the condition to which Israel should ultimately attain led to the idea, that in virtue of its election the nation was destined to fulfil the same divine vocation towards mankind generally as the prophets had done towards their own people, and that one day, armed with the power of the Holy Spirit, the nation, as the trusted servant of Jehovah, would make known the word of the Lord ; an idea which confessedly is laid down with wonderful clearness, and in a variety of aspects, in the predictions of "the great unknown" (Isa. xl. 66). We have here nothing more to add. It has been, we d 50 Messianic Prophecy. think, satisfactorily shown that the fundamental idea of the Old Testament religion, the idea of the covenant, has heen a vigorous and powerful germ of Messianic prophecy, and that on the one side present or coming judgments, and on the other growth in religious know- ledge and the deepening of religious life, especially the sense of the need of salvation, have developed from this germ the expectation of a new and more glorious revelation of divine grace, by which in the end of the days He would lead His chosen people to their ulti- mate destiny. (2.) The Idea of the Kingdom of God. Let us now proceed to a consideration of the second and closely-connected idea, which we regard as one of the principal germs of Messianic prophecy, namely, that of the kingdom of God. Jehovah is the King of His people ; as in the sphere of nature all is subject to His will, so in the kingdom He set up amongst the Israelites His will was to be the law. All the relations of His subjects with each other were regulated by Him, and by Him all ordinances were confirmed ; and every one was required, in obedience to his God and King, to hold them sacred. In His kingdom, right was not to be put down by force and cunning intrigue. Order and peace were not to be disturbed, nor was injustice or iniquity to be permitted. It was to be a kingdom of righteousness — a kingdom in which truth and love were to unite (Ps. Ixxxv. 10, 11). That it should be The Origin of Messianic Propliecy. 5 1 and remain so was tlie design of the kingly government of God. As King, He was in a special manner also Judge (Dent. x. 17, 18; Ps. xcvi. 10, Ixxxix. 14, xcvii. 2) ; and as with human kings, so He was largely engaged in the discharge of magisterial functions ; and He gave Himself to the work of administering the ordi- nances of justice and sustaining the authority of law. He was ready to protect all, and especially the poor and the destitute, in their rig^hts, to limit all force to the sphere of equity, to render the wicked harmless by the frustration of their plans and the punishment of their deeds, and to root out the incorrigible from His king- dom. But here also the idea differs in a most strik- ing manner from the reality. It is well known how frequently the prophets denounce the unjust and avari- cious violence of the powerful, and the corruption of the judges ; how frequently in the Psalms the dis- tressed have to cry to God for help and defence against their powerful persecutors; how frequently in that kingdom, which was to be a kingdom of righteousness, the wicked have all power in their own hands ; how those who are "quiet in the land" (Ps. xxxv. 20) often find, by painful experience, that the kingdom of God is far from being a kingdom of peace ; and how, in truth, the kingdom of God and His righteousness is but little visible. N'aturally hope would turn to a period when transgressors could no longer disturb the laws and interrupt the peace of the divine kingdom. How natural the confident expectation that Jehovah Himself would one day, in the most decided manner, undertake 52 Messianic Prophecy. the government of His people, and protect them from the wicked, and make His kingdom what, according to His idea, it should he! (Isa. xxiv. 23, lii. 7; Mic. iv. 7.) Still more important is the difference between the idea and the reality, as seen in the character of the kingdom itself. It was national, confined to the narrow limits of Canaan, and to the chosen people of Israel. There only was Jehovah known and w^or- shipped, and there alone, even in better times, was His royal will obeyed ; and, at the most, the influence of His reign extended, in a limited measure, to some of the neighbouring tributary states. Yet Jehovah the God of Israel is the only true God, and all the gods of the surrounding nations are vanity (Deut. iv. 35, 39, xxxii. 39, etc.). To Him alone, therefore, belonged all honour and glory; to Him -every knee should bow, and every tongue swear (Isa. xlv. 23). Israel's I^ng, as Creator of the heavens and the eai'th, is King and Lord of the world (Josh. lii. 11, 13 ; Ps. xlvii. 7 ; Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. xxiv. 1), the God of gods and Lord of lords (Deut. x. 17); therefore all nations should serve Him, and keep His commandments. And as His king- dom embraced the whole earth, so also does His judicial authority (Gen. xviii. 25): the "earth," the "world," the " nations," are frequently represented as the sphere of His righteous judgments (27), Therefore the ordi- nances of His kingdom should prevail throughout the earth, and everywhere secure to the nations righteous- ness and peace. On the ground of his knowledge of Tim Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 5 3 JeliOYah must the Israelite claim tlie whole earth for the kingdom of his God. From the beginning there existed a power to rise above the exclusiyeness of Old Testament religion, namely, the vital germ of know- ledge, that the kingdom of God would one day find its completion in a universal monarchy embracing all people. The unfolding of this germ might indeed be hindered through the influence exercised upon religious knowledge by the national form of the existing king- dom, and the attitude of antagonism in which Israel stood towards other nations ; but by the progress of divine truth its vigour necessarily increased, until the veil of exclusiveness burst open, and it sent forth the shoots and flowers of the Messianic prediction, that in "the end of the days" all nations should fear the Lord and submit to His laws, and that the influence of His government should be such that wars should terminate, and the whole earth become a kingdom of peace (28). This was all the more sure to happen when the Israelite came to a full and clear consciousness of the unity of the human race. Although, of necessity, he considered the heathen world as forgotten of God (Ps. ix. 17) on account of its abominations, '^'^W, and its polluted worship of loathsome idols, ^'^'i^^ (Isa. xxxv. 8 ; Ezra vi. 31, ix. 11); deserving of His destroying indignation, and in massa jperditionis, — still his faith in the one God, who bestows upon all nations life and breath, preserved Him from making any essential difference in the human family. And thus, as is well known, both narratives of the creation place one human pair at the 54 Messianic Prophecy. beginning of the history of the race. Eve bears her name as the mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20) ; and all the nations which were known to Israel when Gen. x. was written, are traced to the three sons of ISToah. If this had reference to natural origin only, the represen- tation would be without sjDecial importance ; but the reference is much more a moral and religious one, and the most essential thing in it is the idea that all men, without distinction of tribe or nation, owe their exist- ence to one and the same divine purj)ose, to the same creative act, and that therefore what is noble in human nature and akin to God — the divine image — the au- thority to rule over the earth, and to enter into loving communion with God, is common to all. The Old Testament bears witness distinctly enough to the reli- gious meaning of the representation in question, when, for example, in Gen. v. 3 — comp. with v. 1 — it is ex- pressly stated that in the first procreation of the race the image of God is perpetuated, — evidently intending to fix attention on the fact that all men, from the first, are descended from him who bore the divine likeness ; or when, in Gen. ix. 5, the sanctity of human life is based on the doctrine that man is created in the divine image ; or when, as a motive for kindness to the poor and the lowly, the consanguinity of all men and their common origin is presented (Isa. Iviii. 7 ; Pro v. xiv. 31, xvii. 5; Job xxxi. 15) (29). If the historical represen- tation of the descent of all men from a single pair has this spiritual meaning, it was not far to the conclusion that one day aU mankind would arrive at the know- The Origin of Messianic Proiohecy. 5 5 ledge of God, serve Him in His kingdom, and live in communion with Him ; especially as only in this way that could be reached which the Scriptures everywhere represent as the great end of the creation and continu- ance of the world, namely, the divine glory. The idea of the covenant did not leave Israel with- out a clue to the solution of the question, how the king- dom of God ivas to he made to emhrace the whole earth. How, indeed, could the one living God reveal Himself to Israel without fixing upon Himself the attention of idolatrous nations ? How could the government of God, in carrying out His purposes concerning Israel, be so administered that Assyria with its plans of conquest is only an instrument in His hand (Isa. x. 5, 15) ; the mighty J^ebuchadnezzar only His " servant " (Jer. XXV. 9, xxvii. 6, xliii. 10), through whom He brings upon Israel the long-threatened punishment ; or Cyrus, His " shepherd," His " anointed," the man " executing His counsel" (Isa. xliv. 28, xlv. 1, xlvi. 11), whom He has raised up for the sake of His people, that by the judgments brought upon the Chaldaeans their promised deliverance might be accomplished, without fixing the attention of the nations upon what He was doing for Israel? This result of His dealings with the Jews is dis- tinctly pointed out even in the Pentateuch. " As true as I live, aU the earth shaU be filled with the glory of the Lord; because all those men," etc. (Num. xiv. 21,22) (so). It is here stated, not only that, according to the divine will, His glory should be known to the whole world, but that His displeasure should rest upon the generation 56 Messianic Prophecy. which had been brought out of Egypt, and had seen His glory, and yet had despised Him. And, according to other passages, the gracious revelation of Himself is intended to answer a similar end as the manifestation of His justice. There is the well-known assurance which, according to the sense, reads, " In thee, or in thy seed, all the nations of the earth shall bless them- selves " (Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18, xxviii. 14). For, according to the interpretation confirmed by the parallel passages, Jer. xlviii. 20, Ps. Ixxii. 17 (compare also Deut. xxix. 1 8 ; Isa. Ixv. 1 6 ; Jer. iv. 2 ; and the opposite, ]N"um. v. 21; Isa. Ixv. 1 5 ; Jer. xxix. 22; Zech. viii. 13; Ps. cii. 9), and now generally received, at least for those passages in which Hitlqmel is used, the prediction means, that aU nations seeking happiness for themselves will desire the bless- ings enjoyed by the patriarchs and their posterity; or more precisely, there is this in the words, that all nations will see in the Israelites " the blessed of the Lord," and will be constrained to recognise the fa- voured people as alone blessed of God, the true God, and that His abounding grace will attract their atten- tion, and will stir up in them a desire to share in the same blessings (si). The idea that the judgments of God, and especially the manifestations of His mercy and delivering power in relation to Israel, must fill the nations with wonder and fear, is more frequently expressed in other parts of the Old Testament than in the Pentateuch, and particularly in the prophets. Indeed, this is the peculiarity, the ground-thought of The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 5 7 prophecy. How should recent deeds of mercy, in which God displayed the fulness of His glory and delivering power before the eyes of all nations, not produce upon them such an overwhelming impression as to convince them of their idolatries and of Jehovah's supremacy, and so lead to the extension of His king- dom to the whole earth ? How, from the idea of the covenant, there beamed forth another light in aid of Israel's perception of her prophetic call, and recognition of the human instru- mentality through which the nations were to be led into the kingdom of God, has been already shown. In this kingdom, when perfected, nothing that falls within the conception of evil can have place ; for evil, according to the Old Testament teaching, exists in the world as a consee|uence and condemnation of sin. It is the immediate result of sin, that God in displeasure hides His face ; but in " the end of the days," when by full forgiveness it is for ever blotted out, and when, by the inscription of the law upon the hearts of men, they are kept from repeating their apostasy, the power of God, delivering from evil and bringing salvation and life, must be manifested in fuU measure. Everything connected with sin, and the consequent evil of the divine judg- ments, must vanish, and the peace and blessedness of the original paradisaical state be restored. Hence pictures of the first estate of the world and humanity are often found in Messianic predictions : no more sickness (Isa. xxxiii. 24); patriarchal years (Isa. Ixv. 20; Zech. viii. 4); peace among the nations and in the animal world, and 58 Messianic Prophecy. between the latter and men (Isa. xi. 6-9, Ixv. 25). The Holy Land is to be like the garden of Eden (Ezek. xxxvi. 35) through the going forth from the habita- tion of God of a river teeming with blessing, healing even the waters of the Dead Sea, and bearing on its banks trees of life, whose never-failing fruits should serve for food, and their unfading leaves for medicine (Ezek. xlvii. 1-12) ; and lastly, there is the destruction of death, and the cessation of all weeping (Isa. xxv. 8, xxvi. 1 9 ; Dan. xii. 2, 3). It may be further observed, that as God in His judgments usually revealed Himself as the Lord of nature, and caused it to suffer on man's account, and for the sake of His kingdom ; so also it has a share in the history and the perfection of the kingdom of God, and is associated with the full revela- tion of His glory in creation. The great catastrophe bound up with the last judgment, which will destroy the world, will end in its renewal and glorification, and the result is said to be " new heavens and a new earth" (Isa. xxx. 36, Ixv. 17, Ixvi. 22). In conclusion, it may be expressly remarked, that the expectation of these events necessarily resulted in a separation of the idea of the kingdom from the existing nation, and must have paved the way for the recognition of the fact, that the perfected kingdom of God would be of an essentially different character, one in which the full covenant relation would be realized in the spiritual and personal fellowship of every individual with God, — a relation which, from its very nature, cannot be confined within any geographical limits. The Origin of Messianic Pro;pliecy. 5 9 It is said that all flesh shall at every new moon and on every Sabbath come to the city of God to worship Him (Isa. Ixvi. 23) ; but, on the other hand, we read that "men shall worship Him, every one from his place ; even all the isles of the heathen " (Zeph. ii. 11) ; and thus through the thin veil of Old Testament notions there gleams forth the idea of a spiritual and heavenly kingdom. (3.) The Idea of the Theocracy. Fruitful germs of various features of Messianic prophecy lay in all the institutions of the Old Testa- ment kingdom ; for in these, as well as in the rules of life prescribed for the Jewish people, there were at the bottom ideas which originated on the one side from the religious necessities of the human heart, and on the other from the eternal law founded in the divine nature, by which all communion of the Holy One with sinful men must be controlled. But the form in which these ideas were represented and expounded was necessarily fixed by the external character of the divine kingdom. The regulations and ordinances of the Old Testament covenant could afford no real satisfaction to the religious yearnings of the human heart, and could only express very imperfectly the eternal law. At the same time, the deepening of the religious life must have aroused the expectation that the same would one day come to a more perfect expression of its idea, or that by other arrangements 60 Messianic Prophecy. God would amend it. This was especially the case with the institution of sacrifice. During the prophetic period, many pious Israelites had come to feel how little the sacrifice of animals could atone fo«^J^■o7^ with Him in the highest degree of His government, but not representation of the invisible King Himself. His being the chosen medium of the divine government, raises him to an entirely peculiar and intimate relation with God, which finds expression when it is said that Jehovah is his father, and that he is His son. To him alone, not to priests, nor to prophets, nor to any other individual Israelite, are such terms applied. The peculiar people, as a whole, are indeed thus distin- guished in virtue of their election ; and as Israel among the nations stood in a singular relation to God, so did the theocratic king among the Israelites. The general sonship of the nation had its climax in his personal sonship, in a similar manner as the sanctity and priestly character of the nation culminated in the person of the high priest. God is father to the king when He regards him with special parental care and love, as a holy and inviolable person (1 Sam. xxiv. 6, 11, xxvi. 9-12 ; 2 Sam. i. 14), takes him under His guardian- ship, and exercises over him all the care of a father ; while the king, as His son, trusts in Him and renders the obedience of a child (2 Sam. vii. 14; 1 Chron. 68 Messianic Prophecy. xxii. 10-12, xxviii. 6; Ps. Ixxxix. 27-34). But if the king fails in his obedience, he is to be chastened, yet not utterly cast off. As, for Abraham's sake, God has never permitted a decree of destruction to go forth against Israel ; so, for David's sake, will He not with- draw His favour from the king, nor permit his house to be desolate (2 Sam. vii. 14, 15 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 29)(36) ; and as the relation of God to Israel implies that He, as her Creator, has made her an independent people, and chosen her for Himself (Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Isa. xliii. 1, 15, xlv. 11), so His distinction as Father of the theocratic king involves the doctrine that his kingdom originates with Him, and that the earthly sovereign is the depositary of Jehovah's kingly power (Ps. ii. 6) (37). As the instrument by which God carried on His government, the theocratic king had to defend the kingdom against the attacks of the heathen, and to maintain its authority and power abroad, that so the people of God might live in security and peace, and take a becoming position amongst the nations of the earth. He delivered them from the power of their enemies (1 Sam. ix. 16 ; 2 Sam. iii. 18) ; he executed the sentence which Jehovah pronounced upon those who unjustly attacked them (1 Sam. xv.), and led generally the battles of the Lord (1 Sam. xxv. 28). For the exercise of this calling he was qualified by the almighty power of God. Jehovah girded him with strength, made him courageous and skilful in battle, and gave him success in all his undertakings (Ps. xviii. 29-43; 2 Kings xviii. 7). He Himself The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 69 sustained him by the saving strength of His right hand (Ps. xx. 6). His hand is continually with him, and His arm strengthens him. He scatters his foes before him (Ps. Ixxxix. 22, 29), and makes his enemies his footstool (Ps. ex. 1) ; and in the strength of his God, the king subdues or destroys all the enemies of the kingdom (Ps. ii. 8, 9, xxi. 9-12, xlv. 5, 6). In like manner he executes the commands of the invisible King with regard to the internal affairs of the kingdom ; by his magisterial activity the authority of the law is sustained ; he punishes every deflection from the divine will, breaks the power of the lawless, and helps the poor and the needy to their rights, — thus preserving order and peace, and becoming to the land like a refreshing rain. Under his government the righteous flourish (Ps. Ixxii. 1-7, 12-15; Prov. xvi. 12-15, XX. 8-26). His duty is to see that the people remain faithful to God, and honour and serve Him. He is to suppress and punish idolatry, necromancy, and worship in high places (1 Sam. xxviii. 3, 9 ; 2 Kings xviii. 4-6, xxiii. 4-8), and generally to take the chief oversight of the arrangements for divine worship (2 Sam. vi. 2 ; 2 Kings xii. 4). And for this portion of his duties he is fitted by special gifts ; as, for instance, Solomon was prepared for the discharge of the responsibilities of his office by wisdom given from above (1 Kings iii. 4-12 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 27). In virtue of the performance of these kingly duties, in war and in peace, at home and abroad, he was the mediator through whom Jehovah dispensed help, safety, and blessing. 70 Messianic Prophecy. It is self-evident that the contents of the idea of the theocracy, as hitherto unfolded, rest upon the supposition that the king was disposed, as the repre- sentative of the invisible Euler must be, to cherish towards that Being, to whom he was indebted for all his honours, the profoundest reverence (2 Sam. vi. 21, 22), confident trust, and joyful gratitude for His aid (Ps. xxi. 2, 8) ; that he would love righteousness and hate iniquity (Ps, xlv. 5, 7) ; and that, like God Himself, he would permit no wicked person near him nor among his servants, but devote himself earnestly to sustain the law, that the kingdom should become what it was intended to be, a kingdom of righteous- ness and peace (Ps. ci.) ; in a word, that by a vjilling and perfect obedience, his will should he one with that of the invisiUe King. The will of God was made known to him partly by the law (Ps. xviii. 23 ; 2 Kings xi. 12 ; Deut. xvii. 18) and partly through the prophets, by whom also, if he was disobedient,- his sin was reproved and punishment threatened. But the ideal king was one who was so guided by the Spirit of God, and so fitted thereby for His service, that from within he was led to do what was pleasing in His sight (1 Sam. x. 6-9, xvi. 13). Seeing that the theocratic king is the representa- tive of Him whose power extends over all the earth, and who is one day to be recognised as the God and King of all nations, it is a necessary consequence that he should be the first and greatest of the kings of the earth (Ps. Ixxxix. 28), and ]30ssess unlimited The Origin of Messianic Proiohecij. 71 authority. One day all kings will pay Him homage ; He must reign from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, for God is ready to give Him what, as His Son, of right belongs to Him ; and what the Almighty wills. He fails not to accomplish (Ps. ii. 8, Ixxii. 8-11, Ixxxix. 27, xviii. 43-45 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 23) (S8). As the throne of God endures for ever, so also the throne of the theocratic kingdom upon which He sits is eternal, and, through David, is promised to Him for ever ; not, of course, in the sense that the life of any individual king was to be indefinitely prolonged, though, in hyperbolical language, even this is affirmed of him (Ps. xxi. 5), but in the sense that the kingdom should belong to his house through all time (2 Sam. vii. 12-16, 29; 1 Kings ix. 5 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 4 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 29), in the same manner as the priesthood of Aaron and his sons is to endure for ever (Ex. xl. 15 ; Num. xxv. 13). We have hitherto considered the earthly king as the representative of the imisible Euler. But, on the other hand, standing as he did at the head of the people, he was their natural representative hefore God, in a similar manner as he was before the surroundino- o nations ; and as Israel was a kingdom of priests (Ex. xix. 6), he in whom the nation culminated must possess the highest priestly honours. The history testifies that the kings considered themselves as pos- sessing the highest dignities of the priesthood, though they were not entitled to exercise the older privileges of the house of Aaron, and encragre in the duties of 72 Messianic Pwplucy. the sanctuary, as we may learn from the resistance offered to Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21). Evidently, on the occasion of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, David not only wore priestly garments (2 Sam. vi. 14 ; 1 Sam. xxii. 18), but he dispensed priestly bless- ings (2 Sam. vi. 16-20), and considered himself entitled to transfer the high-priesthood to Zadok and Abiathar. We find also that Solomon communicated the priestly blessing (1 Kings viii. 14, 55), ordained religious fes- tivals (1 Kings viii. 65), and deposed and set up high priests (1 Kings ii. 26, 27). That to the king be- longed the general superintendence of all religious affairs, has already been remarked. The circumstance of Uzziah's incense implies that to him really belonged a special priestly function ; and we find, indeed, that, as head of the nation and representative before God, his sins were visited upon the people (2 Sam. xxi. 1-3; 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27, xxiv. 3, 4), just as the sins of the high priest and the priesthood generally kindled the anger of the Lord against the whole nation (Lev. x. 6). We cannot therefore be sur- prised when we read, in Ps. ex. 4, that the Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, that he is a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeh. That this refers to the existing king, is all the more certain from the words " after the order of Melchizedek," which show that the special rights and privileges of the Aaronic high priest — the offering of sacrifice — are not intended; for of Melchizedek the tradition is, that he blessed Abram, and received tithes of him, not that he offered The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 73 sacrifices : it ascribes to him only the priestly acts which are recorded of David and Solomon. Such is the idea of the theocratic kingdom. It evidently includes such lofty representations, and arouses such glorious hopes, that here also the his- torical reality remains far behind. In the earlier times of the kingdom of the house of David, when there sat on the throne theocratically disposed and powerful regents, such as David, Solomon, Abia, Asa, Jehoshaphat, one could, indeed, overlooking the divi- sion of the kingdom, feel somewhat satisfied with the measure in which the idea was realized. In those times, and even later, when kings of a similar cha- racter adorned the throne, poets could express what was contained in the idea of the theocratic kingdom from what they saw in the reigning monarchs, and by that means more fully develope the idea and bring it home to the consciousness of the people; for it is in the nature of all poetry to rise above the level of empiric realities, with their imperfections and faults, and to represent the subject as it appears to their inspired eye, transfigured and glorified by their con- ception of it (39). It was natural that, while the recollection of the government of David and Solomon was still fresh, those who found a great contrast between the former times and their own should fix their gaze upon the splendour and magnificence of the past. Indeed, the further this Augustan age re- ceded, the more frequently would the glaring disparity be felt ; when the adherents of the pure religion of A 74 Messianic Fro^lucy. Jehovali were succeeded by a race of unfaithful, un- just, and weak kings, the more perfectly did the poetry of the Psalms bring to light the theocratic idea in all its splendour, and the more fully were the hopes of pious Israelites directed to the future (40). They must have felt increasiiigly certain that the true ruler of the kingdom of God had not yet appeared, but was to be expected in " the end of the days," when the divine kingdom should be perfected. In this way, from the idea of the theocratic kingdom, was originated tlie, 2^Tediction of the Messianic King, who — for the idea was indissolubly associated with the house of David — is described as a branch from the stem of David, and as a perfect human instrument through whom the invisible King would carry on the government of His people. All the greatness of the future Messiah predicted by Isaiah and Micah is but the unfolding of the truth contained in the germ idea of the theo- cratic kingdom. With these prophets it reached its full development ; the feature of priestly honours ap- peared more distinctly in the later representation of the Messianic King (Jer. xxx. 21 ; Zech. iv. 6). As we have shown that the general contents of Messianic prophecy are to be regarded as organically unfolded from germs which the Old Testament religion originally contained within itself, so we find that in the individual features of Messianic passages there is no new knowledge which is not in organic genetic con- nection with that which already existed, and which the Spirit of God has not psychologically originated in The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 75 the mind of tlie prophet, nowhere anything which in its origin was not conditioned and limited by the power of the Old Testament faith. In this we feel assured that we do not mistake the truth, that no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. i. 21). The objective reality of / revelation is not prejudiced by the doctrine that the | y operations of the Divine Spirit are carried on in har- | mony with the laws of the human spirit ; neither will I it be injured by a full recognition of the conditioning ^ and limiting influences which the existing contents of the prophetic consciousness exercised upon the truth revealed. Without the continued revealing; and en- lightening activity of the Spirit of God, the develop- ment * of Messianic prophecy from the Old Testament faith would not have been possible. Xo plant can ever spring from the seed unless there are present the external conditions of development ; and yet the growth is organic, from the inward to the outward. So pro- phecy does not come into existence without the reveal- ing activity of the Holy Spirit. It is unfolded from within, from that which already existed in the mind of the prophet. And though there are given only , simple developments of the knowledge germs contained in the Old Testament faith, the prophetic consciousness is so quickened that these developments take place, not by the activity of the prophet's understanding and reason, but by the special operation of the Spirit of God, who carries it far beyond the common human 76 Messianic Prophecy. historical development of the religious consciousness of Israel, gives it beforehand its direction and aim, and so secures it against being involved in the confusions, delays, and retrogressions never wanting in the course of history. Only those who have lost faith in the living God can suppose that what is the product of historical development cannot at the same time be the product of the constant stimulating, deciding, personal influence of the omnipotent Jehovah. On the other hand, those who know Him, and recognise the truth that He holds the reins of this world's government, will, in the unfolding of religious truth, see the reveal- ing power of Him who alone can dispel our darkness. SECOND SECTION. THE HISTORICAL CHAEACTEE OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY. lESSIANIC prophecy forms an essential part of the utterances of the prophets. It was their mission so to influence the people, that they should become in reality what God, in His gracious choice of them, designed them to be — a people in close fellowship with Himself, a holy nation of priests consecrated to Jehovah. Eor this it was necessary that faith in the divinely ordained and splendid destiny of Israel should be brought into vic- torious antagonism with present humiliation, and that the consciousness of a great future should be kept alive among the people, and more fully developed. No pro- phet, therefore, neglected to point to the ultimate design of Jehovah. Amos, for example, though he appears before the people chiefly as the herald of coming judg- ments, must at least call the attention of the devout and the penitent to the alluring prospect of happiness in the perfect times ; and so we find generally, even in the shortest prophetic writings, a proportion of Mes- sianic prediction. 78 Messianic Pro]3hecy. VAEIETY IN THE FORM OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY, AND THE REASON OF IT. Tlie most common and essential features of Messianic prophecy remain always, and with all the prophets, the same. The judgments of God upon His faithless people, for their chastisement and reformation, and the turninf^ of at least a remnant of them to Himself; His dis- pleasure against the heathen, into w^hose hands Israel w^as given, but who, in their arrogance and design to destroy the kingdom of God, stepped beyond their power ; His deliverance of His people, and at length the spiritual salvation and external prosperity of the com- pleted covenant, wdth the presence of God in their midst, producing by His government the prevalence of righteousness and peace, — are everywhere the outHnes of the representation given of the course of the history of God's kingdom. The detail of the picture differs ac- cording to the prophet and the times in w^hich he lived. At one time there enters into the picture of Messianic salvation external, earthly happiness, the power and authority of the people of God, their safety from their enemies, the wonderful fruitfulness of the Holy Land ; and at another, spiritual deliverance, the forgiveness of sins, the moral and religious regeneration of the people by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the vital, loving communion of every individual with God. Here, these blessings are confined to the people of God ; there, the prospect is opened to all nations. One proj)het The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 7 9 ascribes the salvation of the last times to Jehovah, another associates the dawn of the Messianic era with the advent of the Messianic king, and a third attributes it to the instrumentality of the true followers of God, which He has used to accompHsh the purposes of His grace. IN'ow, His perfected kingdom appears as one answering to the existing Old Testament dominion, and, like it, has in the temple at Jerusalem its chief sanctuary, its special priesthood, its ser^-ice of sacrifice, and its sin-offering; then, it is pictured as different, inasmuch as special theocratic offices will be superfluous, its membership w^ill be changed, and the mode of worship altered. But much more frequently does Messianic prediction take the form of a change in concrete historical conditions. Israel will be secured from all attack, the oppressive yoke of Assyria will be broken, the Chaldean power will be destroyed, the people of God will return from banishment, Jerusalem and the temple will be re-built, and then the promised season of prosperity will begin. Almost every picture of the Messianic times has its own peculiar colouring. This variety in the form of Messianic predictions is partly due to the mental peculiarities and particular religious position of the various prophets themselves, and partly to the gradual progress of revelation ; but in much greater measure to the limiting influence of historical conditions upon the contents of the prophecies of each individual. The first point requires no special exposition. It cannot be doubted that, in the sphere of Messianic 80 Messianic Prophecy. prophecy, varieties of character, talents, disposition, and experience of individual prophets, would be displayed in the style of their discourses, the choice of imagery, in the predominance of the word-revelation or of the vision, in the natural simplicity or in the startling play of symbols, in the plain, homely representation of what they saw, or in the artistic detailed description, and in the now wider and now narrower circle of vision. But we have spoken of their various religious positions, and may venture a word of explanation. We do not mean such a variety as would be prejudicial to unity of spirit. All the prophets bear substantially the same testimony, and all aim at the same end ; but, without infringing upon their spiritual unity, we may remark that the position of individual prophets in relation to the law and the institutions of the Old Testament kingdom was various. They all had their standpoint not outside or above the law, but in the very midst of it, and were filled with its spirit ; but with this position, common to all, there was a possible difference in their estimate of the bearing of the law. The external forms might have for one a greater, and for another less importance. So we find, and especially with the elder prophets, that the outward form was wholly disregarded, while the moral and religious spirit was considered all-important. We do not find a word in the writings of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah to indicate that they ascribed to the ceremonial law religious significance and binding force. But how different was it with Ezekiel ! Such passages as Ezek. iv. 14, 22, 26, show how important to him The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecij. 81 was the law about meats and divers washings. And that this is not to be ascribed to the later age in which he lived, but rather to the individual religious stand- point of the prophet, seems evident if we consider his contemporary Jeremiah, who, though he has, in com- mon with him, a profound regard for the law of the Sabbath (Jer. xvii. 19-27, with which compare Ezek. XX. 12-24, xxii. 8), otherwise occupies the same posi- tion towards the ceremonial law as the elder prophets. That such a difference in religious feeling must have made itself visible in the contents of Messianic predic- tions, is evident from our remarks on the method of divine revelation. Even if the eternal truth of the new covenant had nowhere stood out from the Old Testament veil, stilL to the prophets, who more than others attached importance to Old Testament principles and institutions, that veil must have been self-evident in a high degree. And so we find that it really is, with Ezekiel, for example. His contemporary Jere- miah, it may be remarked by the way, does indeed, in his representations of Messianic times, think of the temple, the priests, and the sacrifices (Jer. xvii. 26, xxxi. 14, xxxiii. 11, xviii. 21, 22); but his predic- tions end in showing us a kingdom of the future, and more perfect times, in which there is no ark of the covenant, no law written on tables of stone, no inacces- sible holy places, no distinction between priests and people, but in which God is present in every part of the sacred city, and the law is in every heart, and all stand in equal nearness to Him, and are equally / 82 Messianic Prophecy, acquainted with Him (Jer. iii. 16, 17, xxxi. 29—34). Nothing distinguishes Ezekiel's Messianic predictions so much as the fact that he cannot embody the inner religious life of the Messianic times except in the old forms. The picture drawn by him of the future is essentially that of the Old Testament kingdom, with many of its arrangements changed ; therefore to him the regulations of the new condition of things are so important as to receive a detailed description (Ezek. xl.-xlviii.). We read that in the new temple sin-offerings will still be presented (Ezek. xl. 39, xlii. 13, xliv. 29, xlvi. 20) ; that on the first and seventh day of the first month there will be an annual cleansing of the sanctuary (Ezek. xlv. 18—20); that the distinction be- tween priests and people will be more marked than before (Ezek. xliv. 19); the ordinances of the ceremonial law concerning the holy and the unholy, the clean and the unclean, will remain in force ; the people will, as usual, be instructed in the same by the priests (Ezek. xliv. 23) ; and circumcision of the heart will be asso- ciated with circumcision of the flesh (Ezek. xliv. 9). In a word, the character of the Messianic times does not consist in all old things passing away from the kingdom of God, and all things becoming new ; but in the filling of old forms with the Spirit, without which they are dead and worthless, that so the thing signified may always be associated with the symbol, and the cere- mony ever be the expression of the heart. There cannot be a doubt that Ezekiel utters his predictions more exclusively from a priestly standpoint than Jere- The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 8 3 miah, and it is obvious that the ceremonial law had for him the greatest importance. In like manner it might be shown, from other examples, how the greater or less depth of the religious life, and the amount of religious knowledge peculiar to any single prophet, ex- ercised a decided influence on the contents of his pre- dictions. In order to see this in a most striking manner, it is only necessary to compare the latter portion of Isaiah's prophecies with those of Haggai or Malachi. The second ground of variety in the form of Mes- sianic prophecy, namely, the gradual progress of the revelation of God's purposes, would require a continu- ous history for its elucidation. We should have to point out how the true character of the kingdom of God, and the means of its perfection, were more and more clearly and perfectly recognised in the times of the prophets. But we cannot give here an expository history of Messianic prophecy, and the remarks to which we must limit ourselves will be better expressed in connection with the discussion on the third point — the limiting and controlling influence . exercised upon Messianic prophecy by contemporary historical circum- stances. The progressive development of Messianic prophecy stands in genetic and teleological connection with the course of the history of the Old Testament kingdom of God ; in genetic connection, because of the influence of historical relations just mentioned ; in teleological connection, because history, as much as prophecy, was preparing and educating Israel for its destiny, and for the reception of the Messianic bless- 84 Messianic Prophecy. ings. History and prophecy worked together for the same end, ran parallel with each other, and took equal steps. So, also, a review of the effect which the change of historical relations had on the contents of Messianic prophecy, will necessarily contain many remarks on the gradual progress of knowledge with respect to the divine counsels. This is our purpose, and we now proceed to make the liistorical character of Messianic prophecy the subject of our inquiry. To that end we fix our attention, first, on the prominent historic features in the representations of Messianic times, and then proceed to consider the more hidden genetic connection between the history and the contents of Messianic predictions. 1. The Historical Colouring of Messianic Prophecy. With respect to the remarkable historic colouring of all Messianic prophecy, we might content ourselves with referring to Bertheau's exposition (i). But since, for a knowledge of the real historical character of prophecy, nothing is so important as a correct judg- ment concerning its concrete historical features, we will not altogether avoid the discussion though nothing essentially new may be added. {a) Tlie Historical Colouring of Messianic Prophecy founded in its Design. Above all, the prophet is entrusted with a divine mission to his contemporaries. For them all his pre- The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 8 5 dictions are immediately intended, and that not for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity which would gladly lift the veil which hides the future, but rather for the ful- filment of those moral and religious obligations which were demanded of the prophet by the events and cir- cumstances of the times. These he ever kept in view, even when predicting the future : they were his start- ing-point, and to them his prophecies have a decided reference. It does not at all militate against this view, that frequently the design of prophecy, and especially of written prophecy, was, that its fulfilment should be recognised when it came to pass. The occurring events may have long been foretold by Jehovah, and may be but the fulfilment of His long-cherished purpose. Such examples we frequently meet with in Isa. xl.-lxvi., viii. 1-8, XXX. 8-11, xxxiv. 16, Hab. ii. 2, 3. It is evident that a prediction of future events is also de- signed for the future, and equally so that a prophet who, on account of the obduracy of his contemporaries, finds no entrance for the word of God, may write it out for a more receptive generation ; but this does not stand in the way of its having an immediate relation to present events and to the prophet's contemporaries. They never prophesied without the intention of exercis- ing a decided influence upon the inner life and outward relations of the men to whom they addressed themselves. What may be affirmed of prophecy in general, may be af&rmed of Messianic jpro][)hecy in ;particular. Its im- mediate design was the comfort and admonition of contemporaries in the historical circumstances then 86 Messianic Pro^pliecy. transpiring. It was intended to awaken and strengthen the belief that, notwithstanding the apostasy and hard- heartedness of the nation bringing necessary punish- ments, and the power of the external enemies of the kingdom of God, the gracious purposes of Jehovah concerning His people would ultimately be realized, and that even the events then happening, and those about to transpire, however little human eyes were able to see it, were a part of the way along which a faithful covenant God was leading His people to the blessings He had promised. In order to fulfil this its nearest aim, the Messianic predictions of hlessing to the 'pzo'ple of God must always he in dose relation to the religious condition and outvmrd situation in which the nation found itself, as well as to approaching calamitous dispensations. Whenever, therefore, their circumstances were essentially changed, a corresponding change was required in the general features of Messianic prophecy. For this reason, the later prophets never repeated in form the predictions left them by their predecessors ; but rather holding fast the main thoughts in the freest manner, and with reference to the historical position of their own times and its practical requirements, they painted a new picture of the perfect future, retaining only such features as, notwithstanding changed con- ditions, were still significant. Thus Messianic pro- phecy always remained fresh and vigorous ; it was ever renewing its youth, and was to the faithful in every change a source of consolation ; it strengthened their faith, and preserved them from the attacks of doubt The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 8 7 and despair ; and by tliose bright and bappy prospects which, in the circumstances, were best adapted to win the heart, it secured the allegiance of all those who were not absolutely unimpressible. (h) TJie Historical Colouring found in its Origin, especially in the Limitation of the Prophetic Foresight. That which is evident from the design of Messianic prophecy, has an equally sure foundation in the psy- chological laws according to which it is originated. It is not the free choice of the prophet, in view of the practical question, that he brings the Messianic salva- tion into near relation with the circumstances of his times ; he rather follows an inward necessity. He cannot do otherwise, since his predictions come into his heart and mouth through the Divine Spirit, as, on the one hand, they are organically developed from his knowledge of God, of His will and purposes, and, on the other, from his acquaintance with the historical occurrences of his age, from observation and experience amongst his contemporaries, and from his knowledge of the events of general history, and the national relations of his times. That we may further explain and establish the above statement, we must fix our eye upon the limits placed to the view of the prophets into the future. That, gene- rally speaking, there are such limits no one denies ; but the particular kind of limit is disputed, and will be, so long as the traditional and the historical view concern- 88 Messianic Prophecy. ing the date of certain prophecies stand one against the other. Certainly the controversy relates to a pro- portionably small part of the prophetic writings. We have a considerable number of the prophecies of Isaiah, the genuineness of which is generally acknowledged. The same may be said of nearly the whole book of Jeremiah and the whole book of Ezekiel; so also of the writings of the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, Nahum.Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi, and the first eight chapters of Zechariah. The differences of opinion respecting the date of individual prophecies are unimportant with reference to the reply to our inquiry. Should not this undisputed ground give us a sphere sufficiently wide for the acquisition of a well- founded knowledge of the historical character of pro- phecy, and the rules and laws by which God, in His communications to the prophets, has bound HimseK ? And shall we need, when this knowledge is achieved, to recognise unique exceptions from the rule in order to vindicate the prophecies of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. and the apocalypse of the exiled prophet Daniel ? (2). We might, perhaps, admit the possibility of such excep- tions, if with the predictions, on account of which the exceptions are made, there did not fall into the scale an entirely different class of critical reasons against the traditional view of the date of their origin, referring them to a period which is no sooner accepted than they appear like the other predictions, bearing the same historical character, and subject to the same laws. This coincidence makes us suspicious in admitting ex- TJie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 8 9 ceptions; and an obligation is laid upon us to consider the limits of prophetic foresight, and the rules and laws of divine communications, which present them- selves to us from the study of the proportionately large number of genuine prophecies as generally valid. What are these limits and laws ? In the prophetic foresight we have to distinguish hetween ttvo different elements. The one is more ideal and general, the other is of a more concrete historical nature. The germs, from which the first grows into definite prophetic knowledge, are partly the fundamental ideas of the Old Testament religion already present in the con- sciousness of the prophet, and partly the recognition of certain general relations common to all times. On the other hand, those recognitions which form the second element of prophetic foresight have their germ in the acquaintance of the prophet with the special historical features of his own age. From the fundamental law of revelation, and from the earlier divine manifestations, every prophet knew the unchanging purpose of God to maintain His king- dom upon the earth by the punishment of transgressors, by manifestations of His grace and truth to the right- eous and to those penitently returning to Him, and by discoveries of His almighty power and sacred majesty to the heathen nations who endeavoured to frustrate His designs. They knew that He intended to establish His authority for the salvation of Israel and for a bless- ing to all nations. The foresight of each prophet reached, therefore, to the end of the purpose of God. It is true \^ 90 Messianic Prophecy. that the historical destiny of His kingdom was not equally clear to all, and in their representations of the same there are evidently degrees of knowledge; but the vision of the certain final fulfilment of God's gracious purposes was not wanting to any. There are, as we have seen in the earlier stage of this discussion, certain ideas given with the Old Testament kingdom and reli- gion, from which prophecy respecting Jehovah's design unfolded itself. Of an essentially similar kind are those predictions found in many of the prophets, of a final struggle of the heathen world against the kingdom of God, which should end in the complete and permanent victory of the latter, and the destruction of the power of the aggressors. We find such announcements in various forms ; first in Joel iii. 9-19; then in Mic. iv. 11-13, V. 4, 5 ; in Zech. xii. 1-13, xiv. 3-5 ; and last, in Ezek. xxxviii. 39. Apart from their individu- ality, there are no special historical relations. Their source is purely the idea of the kingdom of God ; they are simply representations of the ever-present enmity between the heathen powers and the power of God, coupled with the experience that on account of this antagonistic position, and according to their essential nature, the course of the history of the kingdom of God would be through severe conflict to final victory and peace. With regard to the other, the concrete historical element, it has justly been observed that " prophecy does not gain its knowledge of the future from the contents of the historical present, but from the counsel The Historical Character of Messianic Pro'phecy. 9 1 of God, who presides over history, and makes seemingly contrary events contribute to the accomplishment of His purposes" (3). But how do they obtain their knowledge of the future from the counsels of God? Only in that the Spirit of God assures them that, according to the laws of the divine government, future ^ history must and will originate from the known condi- tions and relations of the present. In this way, at all events in its general features, comes to them the knowledge of Jehovah's purpose. Accordingly we con- tinually see how prophecy applies the same principles of God's government of the world and of kingdoms in the light of which its history places the past, to the present and immediate future; how the same pro- phetico-theocratic doctrine, there, governs the repre- sentation of present events, and here, the consideration of approaching occurrences and their resulting train of consequences. The Spirit of God can assure the prophets only of those historical specialities which stand in a somewhat distant connection with the pre- sent, but not of those which do not come under this description ; because, for the recognition of the latter, there is wanting in their general consciousness those points of connection which make it possible. By this law it is not we who wish to bind divine revelation ; for, to avoid the appearance of magic, it has thereby hound itself. In virtue of it, every prophet has his limits, his historical horizon, circumscribing his vision. Now it may be narrower, now wider, but alvjays reaching only so far as the present, considered in the ^ 92 Messianic Fro'phecy, light of the divine, counsels, hears in its hosom the events of the future. Within this historical horizon the divinely wrought convictions of the prophet concerning what is in the counsels of God may attain to clear and decided foreknowledge of particular events, and the prediction is then equally decided and unconditional. So prophesied, for example, Michaiah the son of Imlah, that Ahab and Jehoshaphat would be defeated by the Syrians, and permitted himself to be thrown into prison, with the declaration that he was willing to be regarded as a false prophet if his prediction were not fulfilled (1 Kings xxii. 17-36). In a similar manner Amos predicted the approaching destruction of the Damascene kingdom and the carrying away of the Syrians to Kir (Amos i. 3-5 ; 2 Kings xvi. 9). Isaiah had the fullest certainty that the kings Eezin and Pekah would not succeed in taking Jerusalem, and that in less than three years their countries would be devastated by the Assyrian armies (Isa. vii. 7, 16, viii. 4), and that the kingdom of Judah would be heavily afflicted by Assyria, from whom it had expected help (Isa. vii. 18-25, viii. 5-7) (4). He also published the deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib, and the destruction of the latter by the direct inter- position of Jehovah and the hasty flight of the remnant (Isa. X. 33, 34, xiv. 24-27, xxix. 7, 8, xxx. 27-33, xxxi. 5—9, xxxvii. 33—35) (5). On the other hand, Jeremiah predicted the fixed purpose of God to accom- plish the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish kingdom by " His servant," ISTebuchad- Tlie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 9 3 nezzar ; but he also foretold that in seventy years the judgments of God should overtake Babylon, and bring about the deliverance and return of the exiles ; and the same prophet predicted the death of the false prophet Hananiah in the course of the year (Jer. xxviii. 16). The fulfilment or non-fulfilment of these definite pre- dictions, whether they were for good or evil, is pointed out as a test of the character of the prophet (Deut. xviii. 22; Jer. xxviii. 8, 9) (e). All the facts con- tained in these and similar predictions are within the historical horizon of the prophet, and the foreknowledge of the same originated psychologically in accordance with the views expressed on a preceding page. On the other hand, concerning the further course of future history, which, as far as the prophet knew, had no immediate connection with the historical present, he receives no information from God. New developments of the history of his kingdom under wholly different conditions and relations, or occurrences of an entirely peculiar character, remain for him shrouded in the mystery of the divine counsels. It is only the next portion of the path along which God is about to lead His people to another epoch, forming a turning-point in their history, that the enlightened eye of the prophet can see more or less distinctly. But he recognises it as leading to the end which God in His gracious purpose has designed ; for the above-mentioned ideal knowledge of the history of the future may be com- pared in its relation to the concrete historical develop- ment of the kingdom of God, so far as the prophet can 94 Messianic Prophecy. survey it from his point of view, to the heavens which limit the spot of earth to be seen from some watch- tower. The latter glory, as observed above, lay before the eyes of every prophet as he gazed into the future ; only the new stages of development in the history of the kingdom which might intervene between him and the fulfilment of his hopes were hidden from him. We have thus pointed out one of the limits of pro- phetic foresight, and we confidently hope that every one who is accustomed to interpret the prophecies, not according to their real or supposed fulfilment, but according to the sense which the prophets themselves attached to their words, wiU, from an examination of the predictions admitted to be genuine, obtain the same result. What can be concluded a priori proves itself to be in harmony with facts (7). Eespecting the second limit of prophetic foresight we need not say much, as it is generally admitted. It consists in the fact that the day and the hour of the accomplishment of the divine purposes were unknown. Neither the apostles nor the Son Himself possessed this knowledge, but only the Father (Matt. xxiv. 36 ; Mark xiii. 32 ; Acts i. 7). Now it is of the nature of all lively hope to regard the blessings hoped for as near as it possibly can ; especially is it so with that hope which springs from faith in the omnipotent God, whose mere word can at once bring to pass the most /wonderful events. As, therefore, the apostles expected that Christ would soon come again in His glory, and that they themselves would behold it (1 Cor. xv. The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 9 5 51, 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16—18), so the prophets antici- pated the early dawn of Messianic times. The energy of their faith and hope brought the blessing exceedingly near, and it seemed just on the borders of their historical horizon. In this way, and not from the visionary nature of the revelation given to them, it is to be explained that the blessings of the Messianic times are always the cheerful background of the picture in which they portray coming, judgments. It is evident, from the nature of the case, that on account of its faith in the proximity of Messianic bless- ings, the prophetic consciousness did not distinguish very strictly between what belonged to the approaching history of the kingdom of God and its final completion, but organically connected them with each other, and conceived of them as indivisible. If the prophet was conscious that he could not accurately fix the coming of Messianic times, — for if we except the book of Daniel we nowhere find very accurate data (s), — he still places the events of the present, and the consequent occur- rences of the immediate future, in close relation with the ultimate destiny. He knew, therefore, that the road along which God was conducting His people was leading them to that end. How should he not, if his hopes brought Messianic blessings near to him, so depict them in his representations ? Certainly he must consider the present and the near future in the light reflected upon them by the ultimate design of Jehovah, and in that light alone could he solve the enigma presented by the history of his times. He 96 Messianic Prophecy. knows the hindrances which the present places in the way of the realization of his hopes, and the difference between the actual condition of the people of God suffering from present or approaching judgments, and that to which they are destined in the divine counsels, and he may surely rejoice as he sees its approach. The clearing away of those hindrances, and the re- moval of this difference, must therefore be an element in his Messianic predictions, if they come to him from the Spirit of God simply through a psychological medium, as representations and conceptions standing in genetic connection with his already existing know^- ledge. Without conscious design, following purely an inner necessity, the prophet gave to his pictures of the Messianic age, and to the events leading to it, more or less the historical colouring of his times. As he him- self saw the present in the light of the Messiah's age, so he reflected the glory of the latter only in those broken rays and colours in which the atmosphere, by which he was surrounded, permitted it to appear. Hence we read in Messianic predictions of the reunion of the ten tribes with the kingdom of Judah, of the restoration of the early power of the house of David, of the subjection of the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, and of the breaking of the oppressive yoke of Assyria. It is evident that in these concrete historical features we cannot, like Hengstenberg, recog- nise merely images taken from the events among which the prophet lived, in order to set forth the character of Christ's kingdom (9). At least, in the opinion of The Historical Character of Messianic Fro]}hecy. 9 7 the prophets themselves, it is not to be placed to the account of pictorial representation, when they speak of the Messiah as a king dwelling on Mount Sion. If they say that in the future times Israel shall no more look for help from Assyria or Egypt, they do not there- by intend merely to give a figurative representation of Israel's faithfulness to God. The healing of the breach between the kimii^dom of Judah and the ten tribes is to them not merely a symbolic expression of the idea that peace and love shall reign among His people. And when in their Messianic prospects the discourse is of the overthrow of the Edomites, Moabites, and others, or of judgments upon Assyria or Babylon, the overthrow is not to be interpreted spiritually ; nor are these nations merely typical of the world's power in opposi- tion to the kingdom of God. To the prophets them- selves, and to those to whom their predictions were first uttered, all such historical statements have a much more essential and immediately practical importance ; not what they figuratively represent, but the things themselves, according to the simple sense of the words, were necessary, in the eyes of the prophets and their contemporaries, that Israel might become possessed of the happiness and the glory which had been promised, and indeed these historical features contributed very much to their efi&ciency in answering their immediate end. This spiritualizing evaporation of the concrete contents of Messianic prophecy is the result of Heng- stenberg's neglect of the first duty of an expositor, namely, to place himself in the standpoint of the Old 9 98 Messianic Prophecy. Testament, and especially of the individual prophets, and there to discover the sense which he attached to his words (lo). The expectation that " the end of the days " was near, occasioned not only the admission of the historical features of the age into the picture of Messianic times ; it had also the effect of sublimating and exalting many approaching events. Coming judgments were not seldom so depicted, as if in them the last assize, the judgment of the world, was accomplished. Especi- ally was this the case when the prophecy was indefinite ; but when the prophet was more decided as to the kind of visitation, the ideal, the picture of the last great catastrophe, receded. An instructive proof occurs in Isa. ii., in the forcible picture of the day of visitation there given, when all lofty things are to be brought low, Jehovah alone exalted, and the idols utterly abolished. When compared with the more definite announcement in Isa. v. 25—30, we find that the approaching judgment is to be completed in two acts, and that the second chastening dispensation is to be in- flicted through the instrumentality of the Assyrian arms. In like manner, times of grace and blessing, which are near at hand, are frequently so depicted that their coming appears like that of the Messianic age. "We cannot here consider in detail how the contents of Messianic prophecy, uttered during the lapse of cen- turies, bear witness to our exposition. While referring in this connection to the frequently mentioned treatise by Bertheau, we shall satisfy ourselves, more for the The Historical Character of Messianic Pro'phecy. 9 9 illustration of the subject than for its complete estab- lishment, with placing before the reader a few proofs of the validity of our position. (c) Illustrative Proofs. We find that with the oldest prophets, Joel, Amos, and Hosea, whose predictions have come down to us, the historical horizon of their foresight extends only , to the turning-point of the history of the divine king- ^ dom, which dates from the encroachments of Assyrian power, and immediately behind are the Messianic ^ times. Although these prophets clearly perceived how great must be the change among the people before their hopes could be realized, still, according to their predictions, the kingdom of God was rapidly to reach its destined perfection, and the process was very simple. According to Joel, B.C. 870-850, it was most direct. In the terrible plague of locusts, and the long drought which devastated the land and brought hunger and famine, he saw a sign of approaching judgment, and indeed the beginning of the last catastrophe (i. 15, ii. 1, 11); but after the people had shown themselves willing to listen to his call to repentance, he has no further visions of coming wrath ; but without further calamities (ii), deliverance is succeeded by divine inter- positions, through which God's gracious purposes are fully accomplished. There is the reunion of the captive children of Judah and Jerusalem with the people of God, the general outpouring of the Spirit, the destroy- 100 Messianic Prophecy. ing judgments of the Most High upon the heathen assembled for their last struggle against the kingdom of God, by which Israel is to be for ever secured against their attacks. Had Joel not left out of considera- tion the kingdom of the ten tribes, he would certainly not have been able to give so facile a representation of the perfect times. Amos (b.c. 790), and his later con- temporary Hosea, whose special mission was to the ten tribes, had a clearer vision of what the near future had in its bosom for Israel. It was not upon the heathen merely that heavy maledictions were to fall, but also upon the people of God themselves, and mainly upon the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was to be destroyed from the earth (Amos ix. 8) ; and its inhabitants, as many of them as had not been put to death, were to be scattered among the nations. Thus, by the judgments of God, the evil of division was to be removed, and the less guilty kingdom received the promise that the house of David should remain. Still Judah was not to escape terrible visitations (Amos ii. 5, vi. 1 ; Hos. V. 10, 12-14, vi. 4, viii. 14, x. 11, xii. 2), which should exterminate the wicked from amongst the people of God (Amos ix. 10). The prophets also foresaw that a nation, which had only recently appeared on the stage of history, and coming from the distant north, would be the instrument of this infliction ; but this was the limit of their knowledge. Even the nation itself, then, for the first time, came within the circle of their vision, and was still to some extent in the shade. To Amos, and in the older prophecies of Hosea, its The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 101 name was unknown (chap, i— iii.), and only in his later predictions Hosea points to Asshur as the chief instru- ment of punishment, and to Assyria as the land of exile. Still it remains undiscovered in what way God will deliver His people from the power of their mighty foe. JSTeither Amos nor Hosea speaks of coming judg- ment upon Asshur, and neither of them knows anything of an approaching overthrow of the kingdom of Judah. Deeply as it is humbled, unlike the Idngdom of Israel, it does not sink under its burdens (12) ; but as soon as the double purpose of the inflictions is answered, — the restoration of union by the destruction of the more guilty kingdom, and the extermination of the wicked from the community, and the consequent reformation of the remnant of the people, — there comes the dawn of Messianic times, in which Jehovah restores the fallen kingdom of David to its ancient power and glory, and that, too, in its original unity, — a state of things in which the people of God will enjoy all those temporal and spiritual blessings which the full realization of the covenant brings with it. The immediate relation in which the contents of the Messianic predictions of these elder prophets stand to ^ the history of their times must strike every one. Joel begins with the comforting assurance that Jehovah will deliver His returning people from their present troubles; He will destroy the army of locusts. He wiU send fertilizing and seasonable rain, and bless the land with wonderful fruitfulness (Joel ii. 18-27). Towards the end he returns to what at that time was a specially 102 Messianic Fro])liccy. suitable and gratifying prediction (iii. 18). The king- (dom of Judah, after Eehoboam's time, had suffered (much from neighbouring enemies, first from the Egyp- Itians (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26); then from the Edomites, Who, entering the country, slaughtered the defenceless inhabitants (Joel iii. 19) (13) ; and yet more recently from the Philistines, who, uniting with the Arabian tribes, penetrated to the principal city, put to death the greater part of the royal family, plundered the palace and the temple, and through the medium of the Phoenicians, who followed the army as slave mer- chants, sold their captives to the Edomites and the distant Javanites (Ezek. xxvii. 19 ; Joel iii. 1-8 ; 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17, xxii. 1 ; Amos i. 6-9). Joel's threatenings are therefore specially directed towards these nations, and his predictions assure deliverance and return to the captives, and future safety to the ngdom and its capital (iii. 1-7). And then we find that all his predictions concerning the direct progress of the history of the divine kingdom to its destined glory proceed on the assumption that he has not to reproach the kingdom of Judah for apostasy from God, and that the people were ready to listen to his call to repentance. Amos was acquainted with Joel's pro- phecies, but only retains one, the remarkable fruitful- ness of the Holy Land, essentially unchanged (Amos ix. 13 ; Joel iii. 18). Certainly he speaks of the return of the captives, as Hosea does also ; but neither of them has in mind those Jews sold to the Javanites, but, in harmony with the judgments they had pro- The Historical Character of Messianic Proi^hecy. 103 claimed, those who had been carried into exile from the kingdom of the ten tribes. With regard to the remainder, we find in their Messianic prophecies the historical colouring, particularly in the prediction of the reunion of the whole kingdom of God under the royal house of David, the re-subjection of the neighbouring nations, including especially the remnant of the Edomites (Amos ix. 12), and in the announcement that in the perfect times Israel will not seek help, as now, either from Asshur or Egypt (Hos. xiv. 3) ; that in connection with these historic allusions the predictions of the elder prophets really place before us the com- pletion of the divine purposes, is evident when we think of Joel's prophecy of the general outpouring of the Spirit, or of Hosea's beautiful picture of the inward and everlasting covenant which Jehovah will make with His people (ii. 19-22, xiv. 5-7). With the prophets of the Assyrian period— Isaiah ) / and Micah — the proclamations of punishment to be/ inflicted by Assyiia upon Judah on account of itsf idolatries sound as ominously as with their pre- decessors. Both prophets declare repeatedly that only a smaU remnant would reform and escape de- struction, and, as the true Israel from which the people of God were to be renewed, would be partakers of His salvation (Isa. vi. 13, vii. 22, x. 20-23; Mic. ii.i 12, iv. 7, V. 2, vii. 18). According to Micah, the ap-' preaching judgments are to end in the overthrow of the existing kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the deportation of the people to Babylon 104 Messianic Prophecy. (i. 16, iii. 12, iv. 9, 10, vii. 13). And not only has Isaiah terrible threatenings for the times of Ahaz (vii. 1 7-2 0) ; but when King Hezekiah, by the advice of his nobles, was disposed to seek help in alliance with Egypt, notwithstanding the warning of the j)i'o- phet, he pronounces the heaviest judgments (Isa. xxxii. 9-14, xxii. 1-14, xxviii. 17-22, xxx. 12-17). But when Hezekiah turned with his whole heart unto God, He repented of the evil which, according to Jer. xxvi. 18, 19, He had threatened through Micah ; and Isaiah could announce, with a divinely inwrought certainty, that the haughty Assyrian would not be permitted to conquer the city, and that the predicted overthrow of the kingdom would not come (xxxiii., xxxvii. 22-35, X. 32-34, xiv. 24-27, xvii. 12-14, xviii. 4-6, xxix. 5-8, xxx. 27-33, xxxi. 5-9). The predictions of Isaiah and Micah in this connection are only the corresponding steps to the progress of historic development, and to the now more decided character of religious conditions ; and their vision pene- trated further into the future than that of their pre- decessors, and they saw clearly and distinctly behind Jehovah's chastisement of the kingdom of Judah the judgment by which the pride of the Assyrian was to be punished, his power broken, and the people of God delivered. In the meantime, it had been fully recog- nised that the Assyrian power, with its high-flying plans of conquest and its openly-declared intention to put an end to the independent existence of the kingdom of Judah, stood in the way of the accomplishment of The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 105 the purpose of God concerning His people. Only when Asshur's power was destroyed was there oppor- tunity for the setting up of the kingdom of God in its perfection and glory. But this Isaiah also brings everywhere into the closest connection with the ap- proaching deliverance of the people from the power of Assyria. All the purposes of divine chastisement will be realized in the immediately approaching times of judgment (Isa. x. 12). The deliverance of Israel from the yoke of Assyria is therefore the beginning of a series of gracious manifestations, by which the nation will be prepared, internally and externally, for the promised blessing (Isa. ix. 1-7, xi. 11-16, xxx. 19-26, xxxi. 7-9, xxxiii. 17-24). Xothing is said of any new intervening catastrophe. The triumph of the kingdom of God over the Assyrian power lies on the borders of Isaiah's historical horizon, and he sees it in the glory shed upon it by the breaking dawn of Messianic times. And though he, as in the first half of the eleventh chapter, draws an ideal picture of the future kingdom of God, he does not omit in his further exposition to present prominently the great deliverance occurring within his historical horizon as the sub- stantial commencement of God's last great deed of mercy ; for the second half of the chapter, in remark- able contrast with the first, contains those strikincj features of contemporary history, and those strongly marked references to national politics which so often come to the front in Isaiah's Messianic predictions. How intensely the hopes of the prophet were fixed 106 Messianic Prophecy. upon the Messianic blessings as about to he realized, he expressly tells us (Isa. xxix. 1 7) ; and it is clear that since Sennacherib's army had hurled itself against the kingdom of God and its capital city, from the nature of the case he expected the cuhninating act of divine wrath upon that power, and it is only when he has occasion to represent the divine displeasure as ending in the overthrow and devastation of Jerusalem that the prospect of Messianic times recedes to a greater distance (xxxii. 14). This occasion occurs after the kingdom had been delivered from the Assyrian power ; when Hezekiah, proud of his treasures and munitions of war, and filled with vanity at the honour shown him by the Babylonian king, contracted fresh guilt. There thus opened to the prophet toward the close of his life the sad prospect of fresh chastisements, involving the carrying aw^ay of the royal family to Babylon (Isa. xxxix. 5—7). With Micah, as w^ith Isaiah in his thirty-second / chapter, the dawn of Messianic times is at a greater distance, since he has in prospect the overthrow of the existing kingdom and the destruction of Jerusalem ; hence comes the rebuilding of the city and the re-estab- lishment of the kingdom of David as an essential part of his Messianic predictions. With him also the per- spective of future history widens and takes in the last attack of the united heathen nations which is to follow the enthronement of the Messianic king (Mic. iv. 11—13, V. 4—7). Yet his historical horizon reaches no further than that of his greater contemporaries. The Historical Character of 3fessia7iic Prophecy. 107 The destruction of the Assyrian empire is also with him the beginning of the restoration and completion of the kingdom of God (vii. 8-20), for Asshur is still at the head of the conspiracy of the united nations against the holy city, and therefore his country will be devastated by the victorious generals of the Messianic king (v. 4—6). A new turning-point in the history of the kingdom a of God we find in the succession to the throne of the idolatrous Manasseh. His zeal for idols, his introduc- tion of idol-worship into the temple at Jerusalem, the bloody persecution of the worshippers of Jehovah, and especially of the prophets, the faithlessness of the priests, the increasing multitude of false prophets, the general apostasy of the people, show how the state of affairs in the kingdom, which under Hezekiah had been so full of hope, had in a short time become worse than ever. The measure of guilt was soon filled. The prophets had therefore a new and heavy chastisement to announce, bringing ruin to the kingdom and capital, and exile and death to the people (2 Kings xxi. 11-16). And this terrible threatening was maintained even when Josiah, a more devout king, ascended the throne, the execution being only postponed until after his death (2 Kings xxii. 15-20, xxiii. 26, 27; Jer. XV. 1-4). Zephaniah speaks of the coming of this great calamity, and Jeremiah refers to it in his earlier predictions, but, like Amos and Hosea, in an inde- finite manner ; there is to come from the distant north (14) a people speaking a strange language, and 108 Messianic Prophecy. it is not until after the Chaldeans, at the commence- ment of the reign of Jehoiachin, had begun to play the part in Western Asia which Assyria had done, that they are distinctly pointed out as the instrument to be used by Jehovah for the execution of His judgments upon Israel and the surrounding nations. The astonishing contrast between the actual condition into which Israel had been brought by its sins, and the great destiny to which God had appointed it, lay clearly before the enlightened eye of the prophets. They saw the time fast approaching when, according to all human appearances, the kingdom of God would be destroyed, and when Israel in exile from the Holy Land, as once in Egypt, must bear the yoke of servitude. Before their eyes was the powerful Babylon fully prepared to defend the pre-eminence it had so suddenly acquired ; but certain as it was that this colossus must be over- thrown before the kingdom of God could rise from its ruin, the chief hindrance to the carrying out of the purposes of God's grace was not in it, but in the guilt and obduracy of Israel. The Messianic times now, therefore, appeared to be at a greater distance ; but the certainty that the people of God would yet rejoice in the magnificent realization of His restored kingdom, is not only tenaciously adhered to, but the restoration of Jerusalem is expressly and minutely proclaimed (Jer. XXX.— xxxiii.). In the time of their calamity, the con- tinuance of which, according to Jeremiah, was to be about seventy years (xxv. 11, 12, xxix. 10), Jehovah will carry out His purpose of purifying His people and The Historical Character of Messianic Fro'phec]). 109 leading them to tliorougli conversion, and He will tlien restore to tliem the fulness of His grace and truth. Babylon, which has executed His judgments on other nations, must at last drink the cup of His indignation to its dregs. With a single blow He will plunge into ruin the proud structure of worldly power, and its destruction will be the signal for the deliverance of His people from their captivity. The forgiveness of their sins, and their moral and religious renovation, wrought by Jehovah Himself, will remove all personal difficulties in the way of the full accomplishment of His gracious purposes (Jer. xxiv. 7, xxix. 12, 13, xxxi. 33, xxxii. 39, 40). They are to return to their country, rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem and other desolated cities, and once more rejoice in the gracious presence and government of Jehovah. The divine kingdom is to be re-established, and this kingdom is the final dispensation. Everywhere Jeremiah brings the com- mencement of Messianic times into immediate connec- tion with the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Chaldeans ; everywhere he speaks of the returning exiles as the people with whom Jehovah will conclude a new covenant, in whose hearts He will write His law, and who, both great and small, will be near to Him and conversant with Him. Of new calamities threaten- ing the kingdom of God after its deliverance from the Babylonian exile, and before its full development, he knows nothing. From that deliverance onward the people of God will proceed in a straight course, and in a short time reach their magnificent destiny. In the 110 Messianic Prophecy. prophecies of Ezekiel, who was a contemporary of Jeremiah, and who himself lived and laboured in exile, w^e certainly read of imminent danger to the kingdom of God " in the end of the days " after its restoration. For him, the victory of Jehovah and of His kingdom divides itself into two acts, rather widely separated from each other. The judgments which bring deliver- ance to Israel fall, first of all, upon the neighbouring nations which have already been brought into conflict with the people of God. After Jehovah has manifested Himself to be the Holy One in the signal deliverance of His people, His kingdom is established, and there is a time of security and peace (Ezek. xxxviii. 8, 11, 12); but the nations of the distant north and south and south-west have not learned to know Jehovah's power, and at '' the end of the days " they assemble under Gog to fight against Israel ; but the Lord destroys their numberless hosts, and consumes their country with fire (Ezek. xxxix. 6). Only when the most distant nations have learned the power of the living God, and the sanctity of His kingdom, is the latter assured against further attack (Ezek. xxxviii. 29). But though ''the end of the days " is thus postponed, we still find that, according to Ezekiel, the return of the exiles to the Holy Land distinguishes the commencement of that dispensation. This great act of mercy which God per- forms for His name's sake, accomplishes in this stiff- necked people what judgments had failed to do, and produces in them a penitent recognition of their un- faithfulness, and a sincere return to the Lord (Ezek. TJie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. Ill xi. 19, 20, xvi. 63, xxxvi. 25—27, xxxvii. 23, xxxix. 29) ; and when, in addition to this, the neighbouring natiofis have learned to fear His power and majesty, nothing more stands in the way of the restoration of the kingdom in all the glory of the latter days. With Micah, the Messianic King has ascended the / throne before the decisive struggle takes place between the kingdom of God and the heathen nations ; and as, in the Eevelation of John, the kingdom of Christ has stood a thousand years before Satan is let loose to lead the hosts of Gog and Magog against it (Eev. xx.), so also with Ezekiel, the people of God rejoice for some time in the blessing of complete communion with Him before, through His judgments on the hosts of Gog, they are assured of their safe possession of the bless- ing. To him also the deliverance from captivity and the return from exile appear in the glory which the dawn of Messianic times pours upon them. Much more so is this the case with the great prophet who lived towards the close of the exile, and whose predic- tions are preserved to us in Isa. xl.-lxvi. He distinctly saw that Israel needed much renewing and sifting before it could fulfil its great mission to humanity, and that, as the servant of Jehovah, the nation must deliver its testimony in the midst of patient suffering, even unto death, before it could attain to that glory to which it was destined. His predictions contain a rich historical picture of the future, representing many acts of mercy and judgment on the part of Jehovah, and much labour and suffering on the part of His servant, as intervening 112 Messianic Prophecy. between the time then present and that when Israel should stand as a royal priesthood between God and mankind (Isa. Ixi. 6, Ixvi. 21), and when the purpose of Jehovah, that every knee should bow to Him (xlv. 22), and heaven and earth should be renewed and glorified, should be accomplished (Ixv. 17, Ixvi. 22). Still he recognises in the changes introduced by Cyrus, the man chosen of Jehovah for the carrying out of His will, those birth-throes which herald the approach of deliverance and the coming of the kingdom of God. Everywhere the salvation of the people from the power of Babylon, now so near, is for him the starting-point from which the fulfilment of the divine counsels will without delay hasten onward. The nation which Jehovah in person will lead up through the desert to Canaan, repeating the wonders of Mosaic times, will be fitted for its grand destiny by the Spirit of God (Isa. xlii. 1, xliv. 3) ; it will be a congregation of holy and righteous persons, for nothing imclean shall return to the holy city (Isa. Ix. 21) ; all the inhabitants of the restored kingdom shall be taught of God, as they had formerly been by the prophets (Isa. liv. 13). Through the divine judgments upon the Chaldean empire, and the glorious manifestations of Jehovah for the deliver- ance of His people, a way is prepared for the servant of God to exercise his vocation in the heathen world, and the vanity of idols and the sole divinity of Jehovah are to be manifest to aU flesh (Isa. xl. 5, xlv. 6, xlix. 26, lii. 10, lix. 19, Ixvi. 18). Even Cyrus, from his wonderful career divinely predicted, must come to the The Historical Character of Messianic Proiphccy. 113 knowledge of the true God (Isa. xlv. 3). In a word, Jehovali ,will no more be angry with His people (liv. 9), but will glorify Himself by His unchanging mercy toward them, until at length they shall enjoy in full measure their predestined greatness, and all nations shall be brought into the kingdom. We might point out how, after the exile, wdien the predictions of deliverance to Israel and the re-estab- lishment of the kingdom had been fulfilled, but with little of the expected prosperity and power. Messianic prophecy publishes anew the shortly approaching com- pletion of the kingdom so feebly restored, and to this end clothes itself once more in the garments of con- temporary history. We might show how Haggai un- folds the prospect of a speedy divine interposition (ii. 6, 21, 22), which would shake heaven and earth, and land and sea, which would destroy all the powers of the world, and lead all nations to bring as tribute their gold and silver to adorn the temple of Jehovah, so that its magnificence would be greater than it had ever been before ; how Zechariah represents as most important the activity of the Messiah in making the temple a fit habitation for Jehovah (vi. 13); how Malachi expects His early and sudden appearance (iii. 1,5); and how, further, when under the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes Israel had to struggle for the maintenance of its ancient faith and worship, the prophets, looking into the future, saw the approaching triumph of the nation, the resur- rection of departed Israelites, the judgment of the world, and the establishment of the heavenly kingdom 114 Messianic Prophecy. upon the ruins of all earthly dominions (Dan. ii. 44, vii. 8, 9, 21, 22, 25-27, viii. 17, xi. 35, 45, xii. 1-3, 7, 11, 12); — but we refrain; for our desire to show by examples how the prophets, in the conviction that the Messianic salvation was near, brought it into the closest and most immediate relation to the historical events of their times, has been sufficiently accomplished. We have found unquestionably that there was a limit ^^ to those views given to the prophets by the Spirit of God, and that they believed the day of the Lord and the bless- ings of the last times to be much nearer than they really * were, and that God's gracious purposes, which at some future time were to be fulfilled, always came within their consciousness clad in the veil of contemporaneous his- tory. It can hardly be disputed that God might have completed His kingdom at the time and in the manner predicted, if Israel had discharged the obligations upon which such completion w^as dependent. In the counsels of the eternal and allwise God, to whom Israel's future course was fully known, the time and the hour for the accomplishment of His purposes were fixed before the foundation of the world, and only in " the fulness of the time" could the Saviour appear; for the light which He was to give to the w^orld was, according to the eternal purpose of God, of a much higher character than the atmosphere of their times permitted the prophets to see. This limitation of the prophetic foresight was no defect of the divine communication, nor w^as it an imperfection clinging to and disfiguring Messianic prophecy ; it was rather the result of the sccme divine loisclom which hid The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 115 from thfc apostles, and which hides from us, the day and ^ the hour when the Son of man will come; but which at the same time exhorts us to observe the signs of the times, and with constant watchfulness and readiness, / with firm faith and enduring hoxDe, to fix our gaze upon the end of the way of God. If Messianic prophecy had pointed to the climax of the history of His kingdom as far away in the cloudy distance, unconnected with the events and occurrences then happening, it could hardly have exercised any influence upon those to whom it was immediately given. Only in virtue of its histori- cal character, as explained above, could it accomplish its immediate design, namely, to guide the contem- poraries of the prophets in their present difficulties ; to be a light to them in the way along which God was leading them, enabling them to recognise it as the path to a higher state, and turning their thoughts and con- duct towards it. Further discoveries of the future were not necessary. The light of divine w^isdom illu- minated only the next portion of the way, and reached to the first turning-point in the history of the kingdom of God. In approaching trials there was continually seen the last judgment, and in the dawn of seasons of grace and prosperity the coming of the great Deli- verer (lo). In this way, those who first received Messianic predictions were enabled to spend their lives in patience and hope, and to labour for the coming of the kingdom of God, without being too much dis- couraged by the reign of unrighteousness within, or the triumphs of the heathen without. 116 Messianic Projjhecy. The faitli of really pious Israelites in Messianic prophecy could hardly be shaken by the fact that ]\Iessianic times were more distant than they had been led to expect, and that in consequence of entirely altered circumstances every individual particular could not be realized. There are two reasons for the sted- fastness of their faith. One is, that the predictions did not remain wholly unfulfilled in the times im- mediately following their utterance, as for instance the announcement of judgments to be executed upon Israel, first by the allied Syrians and Ephraimites, and then by Assyria ; and as by the deliverance of the people of God from the Assyrians the Messianic predictions of Isaiah were at least relatively fulfilled, so also were those of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and " the great un- known " in the deliverance and return of the exiles, and the re-establishment of the kingdom. And though this contemporaneous accomplishment of prophecy ap- peared to be only a feeble commencement of those great things which had been foretold, still they must have been regarded as a pledge that God would surely carry out His purposes as revealed through the j^rophets, thoudi He reserved to Himself the hour of their accomplishment. The other ground of confidence we find in the consideration that pious Israelites would always recognise in their own sins and the national unfaithfulness a hindrance, on account of which the holy and righteous God kept back from them the ful- ness of the promised blessing ; indeed, the prophets themselves, when the prosperity predicted by their The Historical Character of Messianic Proiphecy. 117 predecessors had really commenced, unfolded new prospects and prophesied heavier punishments, inter- rupting and postponing Messianic blessings when the people, by fresh apostasies, had contracted additional guilt. We find also that the later prophets recognised the predictions of those who preceded them as divine, and succeeding generations of the people accepted as the word of God the prophetic writings of the Old Testament canon, though they must have known that the Messianic salvation appeared neither at the time nor in the manner which the course of prophecy had led them to expect (ig). 2. The jpowcrful Influence of Historical Relations upon the Contents of Messianic Prophecy. The connection between history and Messianic pro- phecy has hitherto been but imperfectly pointed out. The historical relations of the time then present exer- cised a yet more powerful limiting and deciding influence on the contents of prophecy ; an influence which extends to its inmost nature, even to the eternal, ideal contents of the historical form. To two particulars we have now to direct special attention. {a) Their Influence upon the Development of various germs of Messianic Knowledge. In the organism of the Old Testament theocracy there existed various factors which exercised a deter- 118 Messianic Prophecy. mining influence upon the form of events and relations corresponding with or opposing the wiU of God, and upon the course of their historical development, — the congregation, the priesthood, and the prophetic of&ce, — the people, the princes, the judges ; and above all, the nobility and royalty. The influence of the various offices and ranks upon the national life during the course of centuries was by no means always alike. At different times this influence was exercised by the various factors in different degrees. Hope rested now upon the one and now upon the other for the preser- vation and good government of the kingdom of God ; and it could hardly be otherwise than that in the consciousness of the prophets those factors which exer- cised only a Limited influence upon the course of events should fall into the background, and that, on the other hand, the power which moulded the life of the nation and the affairs of the kingdom, both for the present and the near future, should come prominently into view and chiefly occupy their thoughts. We find also that the variety of circumstances in which Israel was found at different stages of its history so operated that the special attention of both people and leaders, as well as that of the prophets, was directed sometimes to the relation of the kingdom of Judah to the heathen nations, at others to its position with regard to the ten tribes ; now exclusively to the internal affairs of the country, or to the condition of public worship, or matters connected with the law, or some other national or theocratic question. The centre The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 119 around which genuine national and theocratic interests revolved was naturally that upon which the attention of the prophets was fixed, and neither could be without powerful influence upon the contents of Messianic pro- phecy. Accordingly there entered into the contents of the prophetic consciousness now this and now that idea, each containing germs of Messianic knowledge. There was the idea of the con^^res^ation of Jehovah, of the kingdom of God, of the theocratic reign, of the priesthood, and of the constant presence of Jehovah in the temple ; and in virtue of the organic, that is, the psychological origination of Messianic prophecy, these ideas must have come into prominence before others. We see, therefore, that in the course of its develop- ment from these various ideas. Messianic prophecy, in consequence of its connection with contemporaiy history, derived its chief contents from the rich fountain of Old Testament revelation, and sometimes from one and sometimes from another chief starting-point, un- veiled the blessings of the last times. There, a fruitful germ of Messianic knowledge lay like a seed-corn long buried in the earth, until at length the historical situation occurred which enabled it to spring to the light of day and display its vital power ; yonder, under more favourable relations, another realizes a more rapid development, and in a short time unfolds the richest bloom ; then comes a season of rest, its power of growth slackens and dies, until at length, when the historical conditions become more favourable for its development, a fresh growth shows that it was not 120 Messianic Prophecy. exhausted. The law which governs the development of Messianic prophecy may he formulated thus : The 'pro'phcts malic the individual factors in the constitution of the kingdom the suhject of Messianic prophecy, in pro- portion as the same exercise at the time a deciding influence upon the realization of the idea of the kingdom of God ; and in like manner they regard the various national and theocratic interests according to the measure of their importance to that kingdom a.mongst existing relations. In C07iseque7ice of this, sometimes one and sometimes another of the ideas contained in the Old Testament religion and government constitutes, during the various p>eriods of the history of the old covenant, \ the principal starting-point of Messianic predictions, and the chief source of their p)ecidiar contents. Reflections on Predictions concerning the Messiah. Let us endeavour more in detail to illustrate and prove this position ; and first of all we may glance at the history of the development of Messianic prophecy in the narrower sense from the idea of the theocratic king- dom. In the representations given by Joel of the kingdom of God in the last times, the Messianic King has no place. His predictions spring from the com- mon ground of the ideas of the nation and the kingdom of God ; and the end to which the people should attain through the perfection of their communion with Jehovah is ever before his eyes. When the gift of prophecy has become the common possession of all, that end is The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 121 reached (Joel ii. 28-32). With the prophets who came after him, predictions concerniug the coming of the Messianic King begin to appear. Amos associates the dawn of the last times with the re-establishment of the kingdom of David in its primitive power and grandeur, but still he does not speak of the person of the Messiah ; and his predictions generally are imper- fectly developed, for according to him the perfection of the kingdom of God consists in the perpetuation of the existing condition. His ideal of the future was all but realized in the prosperous times of David and Solomon (Amos ix. 11-15). The kingdom of David takes a similar position in the prophecies of Hosea, and without it he does not seem to be able to compre- hend the completion of the kingdom of God. The return of the Ephraimites to Jehovah is their return to the authority of the Davidic king ; but still the latter is not characterized as the Messiah (Hos. i. 11, iii. 5 (17). We shall grievously err, however, if we bring this advent of the Davidic king within the circle of the prophetic vision, into fundamental connection with the promising flight which it took after the accession of Uzziah, who, in addition to piety and energy, was adorned with every kingly virtue (is). Amos and Hosea distinctly saw that the kingdom of the ten tribes, notwithstanding its prosperity under Jeroboam II,, was destined to destruction. But for the evil which was to lead to that result royalty was in the main responsible, continuing as it did through every change of the reigning family, even in better times, in the way 122 Messianic Pro'phccy. of Jeroboam I., " who made Israel to sin " (2 Kings xiv. 24, XV. 9). The kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, not only rose again to a measure of importance and power in relation to its neighbour which it had not possessed since the division, but its internal con- dition became much improved ; and although the prophets had still enough to rebuke and condemn, yet, so far as the influence and vigorous government of the pious kings went, it was full of hope. Once more they experienced the happiness of the firmly established authority of the divinely chosen house of David ; at least in a great measure Judah had it to thank for the blessings enjoyed before the disruption of the kingdom. The prophets therefore saw in its full restoration one of the essential conditions of the perfection of the king- dom of God. Thus, therefore, they could in general all the more easily support the kingdom of David — although both Amos and Hosea have chiefly in view the kingdom of the ten tribes — when a Davidic king of the kind that then adorned the throne seemed suffi- cient to set aside the idolatry of Ephraim and restore the unity and greatness of the kingdom. We meet with the Messianic King for the first time v in a later contemporary of Hosea, the author of Zech. ix. 11. He tells us how He enters Jerusalem amidst the exultation of the people, and describes His person and government (Zech. ix. 9, 10). As God Himself is called Tf^'O^ P'^V (Isa. xlv. 21), so this King, as His true representative on the earth, is J^^'i^l P^'nv. His actions correspond with the divine wiU, and therefore The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 123 Jehovah at all times bestows upon Him salvation, and upon the people through Him (Jer. xxiii. 61 ; Deut. xxxiii. 29). He is meek and lowly, far from all self- seeking or violent conduct against others. Dignity and meekness, fulness of divinely bestowed power, and the most gentle and peaceful disposition, are combined in Him. By His mere word, and without any of the instrumentalities of war customary in the world, but which, by the wiU of God, are banished from His kingdom. He will establish peace among the nations, and the blessed government of this revered and power- ful Prince of peace will reach from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. ISTot long after this picture was drawn (19), we see the predictions concerning the Messianic King in their principal features reach the highest point of development in the vjritings of Isaiah and his contemporary Micah. Both prophets associate with His appearing the beginning of pro- sperous times, and point to Him as the Man in whom the kingdom of God is to find its accomplishment. They speak of Him as a human king, wonderful in person, who by virtue of His special relation to God stands far above all other men, as the instrument through whom God will carry out His purposes, as the Mediator of the Messianic salvation of the people of God and mankind in general In the time of Ahaz, Isaiah represents Him as a King who, in an extra- ordinary measure excelling human judgment, always followed the wisest counsels (ix. 5, 6). There is something divinely wonderful in His judicious activity ; 124 Messianic Prophecy. — f^yi*" X7S3, compare Isa. xxviii. 29, where n^y t^^sn is said of God. AVhile, further, God makes Him, like the ansjel of Jehovah, the medium of revelation, and through Him performs His mighty acts, He is also in Him and through Him present with His people ; and as Jehovah Himself is called the " Mighty God," so the same title is given to Him (Isa. x. 21 ; Deut. x. 1 7 ; Jer. xxxii. 18). We must think of the severity with Avhich the Old Testament faith maintained the unapproachable elevation of the holy God above all creatures, in order to appreciate the peculiar and inti- mate relation with Him of the Messianic King ex- pressed by this appropriation of a divine name. He is further represented as exercising fatherly care over the people of God (Isa. xxii. 21), and is therefore charac- terized as the Prince of peace (Zech. ix. 8—10). But His Messianic work consists in the deliverance of the people of God from the yoke of Assyria, and in the de- struction of all implements of war, in the restoration of lasting peace, in the consolidation and extension of the authority of the house of David, and in the fuU estab- lishment of righteousness in the kingdom of God (20). In a still more interesting manner does Isaiah speak of the person and work of the Messiah in one of his predictions belonging to the time of Hezekiah (xi. 1-9). Upon Him rests, as upon no one else, the Spuit of the Lord, and He is thus endowed with those gifts and graces which fit Him to be the instrument through whom Jehovah carries on the government of His kingdom. His great concern is that the people Tlie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 125 sliould live in the fear of God, in which He Himself finds His happiness. His magisterial decisions are delivered, not according to outward appearances and human testimony, but from an unfailing perception of the truth and a knowledge of the heart. His adminis- tration of justice is therefore not human and imperfect ; the Spirit of God speaks through Him, and in such a way that in His judgments He decides according to the mind of God. Especially is He godlike in His dealings with the poor and the oppressed ; His mere word suffices to strike down the oppressor and to destroy tlie wicked. As a King, He rules as one whose greatest glory is righteousness and truth in relation both to God and men. By His government of the divine kingdom it will become what it should be, a kingdom in which evil no longer exists, in which no one injures another, which is filled with the know- ledge of the Lord, and therefore of righteousness and peace. Through Him also the kingdom of God is to realize its destined extent. His residence becomes the metropolis of all nations ; they pay homage to Him, and refer their differences to Him for decision. He is also the medium of the Messianic saving operations of Jehovah, described in Isa. ii. 1—3, by which the people learn to know the law of God, and the whole earth becomes a kingdom of peace. An entirely similar picture of the Messianic King and His government is drawn by Micah, v. 1—7. After the judgments of God have swept over Jerusalem and the house of David, the latter will be raised from the deepest humiliation and 126 Messianic Prophecy. obscurity to the liigliest power and glory. Like David, the Messianic branch will spring from the ancient stem (21) in the insignificant Bethlehem. As in the re- storation of the people through their deliverance from captivity, so in the re-establishment of the kingdom of David, the history of the past repeats itself. This Messianic King will then, as the agent and represen- tative of Jehovah, the Shepherd of Israel, clothed with His omnipotent power, exercise the pastoral ofiice over the people of God in such a way that through His government, in God's great name, it shall be manifest what God is to His people. AYe pass by what Micah further says of Him, to ask how it comes to pass that these prophets have almost as completely unfolded the knowledge of God's purposes of mercy and plan of government contained in the idea of the theocratic kingdom, as anywhere else we find it ? We might reply, that when once this idea had entered the circle of Messianic expectations, the disparity between it and the historic kingdom must have been manifest to them, and thus the more general predictions of the Davidic kincrdom of the future would all the more decidedlv gather around the Messianic David. But the reply is not altogether satisfactory. If this w^ere the reason of the development of Messianic prophecy in its narrower sense, why did it not come distinctly into the foreground when the disparity was greatest ? Why not in the time of Ahaz rather than in the time of Hezeldah? (22). And why did the representations of the Messianic King grow dim — as we shall see — under the last kings of Judah ? The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 127 We can find the ground of this rich and rapid development of prophecy concerning the Messianic King, only in the greater importance which the Davidic kingdom acquired in consequence of the entanglement of the nation with the Assyrian empire. These com- plications were, for the whole course of its history, pregnant with more serious consequences than its earlier struggles with the neighbouring peoples. It was during this period that the great central event, the divi- sion of the kingdom, happened. Upon the government of the king, upon his policy and upon his situation with regard to Assyria, his dependence or independence, hung mainly the fortunes of the kingdom. We see how, according to Isa. vii., the unhappy choice made by Ahaz brought threatened punishment ; how, when Hezekiah listened more to the counsels of his nobles than to the word of the Lord, and concluded an alliance with Egypt, there followed the announcement of greater calamities (Isa. xxxii.); and how, on the other hand, his unreserved decision for Jehovah was the deliverance of his kingdom. No wonder that in such times the eye of the prophet was fixed chiefly on the kingdom. The Assyrian empire assailed the kingdom of God generally in its king, in whom its power was concentrated, and by whom it was represented. Therefore Messianic prophecy now made its future prosperity, in spite of the hindrances which the Assyrian power threw in its way, to depend on the coming of the Messianic David, in whom the theocratic kingdom should be perfected according to the existing idea. It would be easy to 128 Messianic Troiphccy. point out in detail from Isa. ix. and Mic. v. liow the Messianic kingly antliority is expressly represented by the prophets as that by virtue of which the king- dom of God could victoriously realize its highest condi- tion in defiance of the Assyrian "power. But when the prophets sketched the picture of the Messianic King, giving prominence to the idea that through His govern- ment justice and righteousness should prevail in the kingdom, and that the knowledge and reverence of Jehovah should be greatly advanced, they could not but perceive how little the efforts of Hezekiah and the best wishes of the king could accomplish. Let us now follow the further development of pro- phecy concerning the Messianic King. Unmistakeably there is a pause from the later prophets to the period of the exile. Certainly the Messiah meets us in the prophecies of Jeremiah, at the end of one of his announcements belonging to the time of Jehoiachin, respecting the wicked and unfortunate kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin (xxiii. 5—8), also in the pre- dictions of blessings uttered shortly before the destruc- tion of Jerusalem (xxx. 9, 21, xxxiii. 15); and so with Ezekiel in xxi. 32, xxxiv. 23-31, xxxvii. 24. But He no lonfrer stands, as with Isaiah and Micah, in the centre of the picture drawn by these prophets of the kingdom of the latter times ; and perhaps there is only one idea expressed in a new form, namely, when the close relation of the Messianic King to Jehovah is represented as a priestly one (Jer. xxx. 21). On the other hand, there are Messianic predictions in Jeremiali The Historiml Character of Messianic Prophecy. 129 and Ezekiel in which, as in Amos, the subject is no longer the person of the Messiah, but merely the Davidic government by a succession of kings (Jer. xvii. 25, xxii. 4, xxxiii. 17, 21, 22 ; Ezek xvii. 22-24, xlv. 8, xlvi. 16-18). We find, too, that Messianic prophecy in its narrower sense here falls back to the early stage of its development. The other prophets of the Chal- dean period — Zephaniah, the author of Zech. xii.-xiv., Obadiah, and the author of Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. — do not- speak of royalty in connection with the Messianic king- dom at all, — an important proof that in the conscious- ness of the devout of that time the idea of the theocratic kingdom had lost much of its significance. On the contrary, the chief source of the Messianic predictions of these times is once more the idea of the people of God. Does not this pause, or rather the retrogression, spring from the fact that royalty was visibly declining in power and influence ? The fortunes of the nation were not to the same extent as in the Assyrian period dependent upon the king. Even a pious king like Josiah could only postpone the approaching calamities of the State (2 Kings xxii. 15-20, xxiii. 26, 27 ; Jer. XV. 4). The last kings, moreover, so far as they were able, did their share in bringing about the ruin of the nation, though substantially it was in the hands of those great powers who w^ere struggling for empire, and to whom its rulers owed their elevation. Jehoiakim owed his authority to Pharaoh Necho ; Zedekiah, to Nebuchadnezzar ; the government of Jehoahaz was brought to an end by the first, and that of Jehoiachin i 130 Messianic Prophecy. by the last of these two monarchs. Those who had at heart the interests of the kingdom of God could not any longer look upon royalty under the influence of heathen rulers as a pillar of the sacred edifice ; at least this must have been so when the king, as was the case with Zedekiah, showed himself to be utterly powerless against his nobles. The book of Jeremiah permits us to see distinctly that he was afraid to follow out his own inclinations, lest he should bring upon himseK their dis^Dleasure (Jer. xxxvii. 17, xxxviii. 14—19). The consideration that from the circumstance of the times the kingdom was no longer the factor which influenced the course of history, is also the reason wdiy Messianic prophecy during this period did not place in the foreground the culmination of royalty in the person of the Messiah, as the chief instrument in the comple- tion of the kingdom of God, though it still speaks generally of the Messiah, and " represents the exaltation of the house of David by divine gifts and grace only as an additional blessing to be added to the lot of the chosen people " (23). In the time of the exile the hopes and prospects of the future separate themselves from the Davidic kingdom. In Isa. xL— Ixvi., that "gospel before the evangelists " in which the Messianic predictions of the old covenant in many respects reach their fullest development, there is nothing about the future Messianic King; neither is there in Isa. Iv. 3-5, where the promises of grace made to David are appropriated to the people of God. Compare 2 Sam. vii. 8-17, Ps. The Historical Cliaracter of Messianic Froj^liecy. 131 xviii. 44-47, 50, witli Isa. xliii. 10, xliv. 8. In those times when the divine kingdom was overthrown and sacrifice had ceased, neither kinghood nor priesthood, but the prophetic office alone, could be considered the centre of national and religious life, the vital factor which guaranteed the continuance and regeneration of the kingdom; and to it must the eyes of all be directed who waited for the promised salvation, if they sought a divinely given pledge for the fulfilment of their hopes. But the prophetic office was not a permanent institution. The gift of prophecy was possessed only by those whom Jehovah had called; and individual historical personages, one or more, could not be con- sidered as bearers of the Messianic salvation. Their position in the kingdom depended upon their being, as chief representatives of the idea of the people of God, more than others influenced and enlightened by the Spirit of God, while the gift of the Spirit was promised to the whole congregation. Therefore all Messianic pro- spects now associated themselves with the people, but in such a way that the nation is regarded as an agent of Jehovah charged with a prophetic mission to mankind. Instead of the Messianic King, clothed with the fulness of divine power and authority, victorious over all His enemies, we have the servant of Jehovah who with unwavering faith, enduring patience, and firm hope, bears his testimony in the midst of deep humiliation, and reaches exaltation and honour only through suffer- ing. He stands now in the centre of every picture of the future. He is the instrument through whom God 132 Messianic Prophecy. will re-establisli His kingdom on the earth in great power and glory, and wiU. carry out His purposes of mercy respecting the entire family of man (24). On the other hand, as soon as the nation was restored, and Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, was placed at its head, we see in Hag. ii. 21-23, and Zech. iii. 8-10, predictions of a Messianic King once more revive (25), and we shall have occasion to speak of the remarkable manner in which these predictions were renewed by the later prophets. With Malachi, in whose time there was no prince of the house of David, it again disappears, at last, not on account of his- torical relations, but only m consequence of acquaintance with the prophecies already existing as sacred writingSj to reappear in the book of Daniel, and throw fresh glory around the superhuman character of the person of the Messiah. After there had long been no native king, and the house of David had sunk into obscurity, the ancient prophecies having deeply implanted the expectation of a Messianic King, the Messiah is no longer proclaimed as a branch from the root of David, but as a person in human form, related to the saints of the Most High as their royal head, around whose advent is a veil of mystery, but whose superhuman character is indicated by the assurance that the Son of man — as is said of Jehovah Himself — will come in the clouds of heaven to be divinely invested with supreme authority in the eternal kingdom of God, to be raised on the ruins of all worldly empires (Dan. vii. 13, 14) (2g). The Eistorical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 133 Reflections on other Elements of Messianic Prophecy. Our review of the history of the development of prophecy respecting the Messianic King has confirmed our position. But a much more striking confirmation awaits us, if we consider at what time and under what circumstances the idea of the priesthood became more significant in its relation to Messianic prediction. During the entire period previous to the exile, the priest has now and then a place in the representations of the future greatness of the kingdom of God (Jer. xxxi. 14, xxxiii. 18-22); but never, not even in Ezekiel, is there ascribed to the priestly ofiice any co-operation in the accomplishment of the divine purposes. The reason is, that originally the priesthood was appointed mainly as the conserving force of a legally arranged condition of the national cultus and ' religious customs ; and during the time of the mon- archy it exercised no specially prominent influence upon the course of the history of the kingdom of God. The influence of the high priests Jehoiada (2 Kings xi. 12) and Hilkiah (2 Kings xxii.) was temporary and exceptional, though even here the interference of these men in the disposal of the kingdom was based less upon their office as priests than upon the personal influence derived from their official position. When, further. Messianic prophecy, from the time of the exile, shows us the nation in the attainment of its destiny as a mediatorial priestly people standing between God and the rest of mankind (Isa. Ixi. 6, Ixvi. 21), it is 134 Messianic Prophecy. still essentially the idea of the peculiar people of Jehovah (Ex. xix. 6), and not the idea of the special Levitical priesthood, that is the starting-point of this announcement. And yet the priests, and especially the high priests, as holy persons, consecrated, entrusted with the work of propitiation, the mediatorial repre- sentatives of the congregation before Jehovah, were TviroL Twv ixeXkovTcov. There lay also in the idea of the priesthood a vital germ of Messianic knowledge, which is unfolded immediately after the return from exile. The rebuilding of the temple, and the restoration of the temple worship, was at this time the centre of all national theocratic interests and efforts. In it, according to prophecy, God's care for His people was concentrated. When Jehovah guaranteed the com- pletion of the temple. He also assured the continuance and future completion of His kingdom. In these cir- cumstances, the priesthood had much greater importance with respect to the future than before. The high priest Joshua, especially, stands independently by the side of Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, as no high priest ever did before in the presence of a king ; and both, cheered by prophetic encouragements, labour with united zeal in the erection of a habitation for God, and in the restoration of the kingdom. These historical con- ditions reflect themselves in Messianic prophecy. It now makes the priests, whose official character is purity and holiness, and who in virtue of their office approach Jehovah, patterns of the whole congregation of the future, the members of which, cleansed from sin like The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 135 priests, come near to God; and the liigli priest, in particular, it presents as a type of the Messiah standing at the head of the people (Zech. iii. 8-10, vi. 11-13). The conception of the latter is decidedly that of a priestly king, not certainly in that he offers sacrifice in atonement for the sins of the people, but to the extent that he himself is in a special degree a consecrated person belonging to God, and entitled directly to approach Him, and is also the head and representative of a priestly people cleansed from guilt and sin. In this respect, not the Davidic Zerub- babel, but the high priest Joshua, is a type of the Messiah. There is yet another ground for this. The prophet Zechariah does not, as is usuaUy supposed, represent the Messiah as uniting in his o^vn person the kingly and the priestly office. On the contrary, he shows us the Messianic priest sitting by the side of the Messianic King upon His throne in the kingdom of the future, as did Zerubbabel and Joshua, working together for the weUbeing of the people of God and the interest of His kingdom. The prophet represents the government of the Messianic kingdom as a unity, but \t the same time as kingly and priestly. The unity is maintained, not by the concentration of both offices in one person, but by the elevation of the high priest to the throne of the Messiah, and their united conduct of the government (Zech. vi. 13) (27). This close connection and common government of king and priest indicate that not Zerubbabel, but Joshua, is the type of the Messiah. In the prophecies of Malachi 136 Messianic Prophecy. also we find that the idea of the priesthood has now taken a prominent place in Messianic expectations. As this prophet in his censures has special reference to the priesthood, the offerings, tithes, etc., so also he represents the chief end of the judicial coming of Jehovah to be the purification and renewal of the Levites, that so the offerings of a regenerated people, being presented by a holy priesthood, might be well- pleasing unto God (Mai. iii. 3, 4). Still another Messianic expectation originated during the exile, and found expression in subsequent times. It was, that the divine kingdom of the latter times will be set up, that Jehovah Himself may come to hold His court in the temple, and make it His dwelling for ever. The appearance of this prophecy at that parti- cular time is due to the fact that the national and theocratic interests were specially directed to the restora- tion of the temple, and the hope that it would realize its ancient glory. Even Ezekiel had spoken of the entrance of the glory of the Lord into the new temple (xliii. 2-7). The ''great unknown" had assured Jerusalem of the speedy coming of the God of Israel (Isa. xl. 9-11, Iii. 8, Ix. 1, 2, 19, 20). But it was reserved for Haggai and Zechariah so to place in the very centre of Messianic hopes the beauty and glory of the temple, that it results in the conversion of the heathen (Hag. ii. 7-9 ; Zech. vL 15). The energy of the Messiah is specially mentioned as engaged in the erection of the temple (Zech. vi. 13 compared with iii. 9, iv. 7, 10), and at the beginning of the Messianic The Historical Character of Messianic Pro'phecy. 137 times Jeliovah Himself will arise from His holy habi- tation, and take up His abode in the midst of Jerusalem for ever (Zech. ii. 14, 15, 17). But with Malachi^ this coming of Jehovah or the angel of the covenant into His temple, in which as the restorer and guardian of the covenant — hence his name — He holds His court, cutting off the transgressors from amongst His people, and taking to Himself those who are really His, is the chief idea of His prophecy (Mai. iii. 1—5, 16-18) (28). These proofs will suffice to show that, in the wisdom of God, the course of history and the change of historical relations served from time to time to unfold the various germs of Messianic knowledge contained in the Old Testament religion, and from various centres to direct attention to the salvation which was to appear in the fulness of time (29). (b) The Parallelism hetvjeen the course of the History of the Kingdom of God and the Development of Messianic Prophecy. It remains now to discuss the second point, namely, that in which the influence of contemporary history makes itself felt in the ideal contents of Messianic pro- phecy. The history of the Old Testament commonwealth is itself the progressive carrying out of the plan which God had sketched for the accomplishment of His pur- poses of mercy. By His leading and government, Israel was to be prepared for the fulfilment of its mission and 138 Messianic Prophecy. the reception of His salvation. His general government of the world, so far as it influenced the history of other nations, had for its end the realization of His purposes with regard to the Jews. In various periods of the history there came to the light of day, in a very strik- ing manner, sometimes one and sometimes another principle of the divine government, corresponding to the varying character of the moral and religious condi- tion of Israel, its external situation and national rela- tions. The moral order of the world, presiding over history and dictating its course, declares itself success- fully against the different directions and ends which human liberty pursues, so that first one and then another of its eternal truths demonstrate above all others their intrinsic excellence. The march of history is influenced here by one and there by another of the eternal thoughts of God, the sum of which forms the immutable programme of the King of kings. In its progress there comes into the light from the obscurity of the secret counsels of God, new turning-points and new views of the plan which He has laid down for the accomplishment of His gracious purposes. Indeed, history itself is the accomplishment of this plan, and in its progress continually unfolds it. The prophet recognised the divine teleology in the history of his times. To his enlightened eye, there was opened a vision into the reason and purpose of what God was doing in the present and what He was about to do in the future. Those divine thoughts, which found ex- pression in the history of his times and in the new The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 139 phases of the divine counsels which had their "beginning in the events of that history, for Him stepped forth from the dark maze of the day's occurrences with peculiar brightness. To notice the signs of the times and to point them out to others, to be the interpreter of the same to His contemporaries, and to tell what God said to His people in the facts of history, was the essential business of the prophet. With the psychological origination of Messianic prophecy it cannot be other- wise than that the divine idea, ivhich at the time of the prophet controlled the course of history, and with which therefore his mind was specially occupied, should be the ground-thought giving to Sis Messianic predictions their particular contents and character. For the same reason, new historical conditions, new " signs of the times," will give to Messianic prophecy new ideas. New perceptions of the gracious purposes of God., and of the way and manner in ivhich He luill fulfil them, will dawn upon the prophets as often as in the progress of history neia events are unfolded. Hence the parallelism pointed out in the earlier part of this discussion, and the equal steps to be observed in the progress of the kingdom of God, and the development of Messianic prediction. These remarks may be confirmed by a few examples. The attention of the reader may be first directed to the Ijredicted entrance of the heathen nations into the kingdom of God. The universalistic tendency lying in the Old Testament religion was at first restrained by its strictly national form, and by the sharp contests into which the 140 Messianic Prophecy. Jews had to enter with other nations. Israel was like an arrow hidden in the quiver for future use (Isa. xlix. 2). We find, too, that the Messianic predictions I of the elder prophets were essentially narrow. With Joel, the locality of the kingdom of God to he set up ^ on the earth is the little country of Judah ; the ten I tribes are altogether unnoticed, and there is not a word to indicate that the heathen nations will share \ in Messianic blessings. They are noticed only as enemies to the kingdom of God, exposed to His destroying judgments, which fall only upon the neigh- \ bouring nations, including Egypt; the distant Sabseans, i for example, remain untouched (Joel iii. 8). With Amos, the kingdom of the future stretches not only over the whole of Palestine, but over the neighbouring ^ countries which had once been under the dominion of David ; and for this reason with him Edom is not to be desolated, as wdth Joel, but only reduced to subjection. But here also the receiver of the Messianic blessing is Judah, under the leadership of the house of David ; Ephraim, through its union with Judah, takes its share ; but their heathen neighbours have simply to acknow- ledge the authority of the people of God and the house of David. In like manner, Hosea assigns the blessings /^ of the Messianic reign to Israel only. In Zechariah we meet, however, with an extension of Messianic pro- spects beyond the borders of Israel (ix. 9, 10). The King of peace is there represented as exercising His / benign government over other nations, even unto the ends of the earth. It is w^orthy of notice that the The Historical Character of Messianic Proi:>hecy. 141 doctrine of univer sality contained in the idea of the ^ theocratic 'kingdom comes 'prominently forward first in x this passage. Strictly speaking, the first distinct pre- diction of the entrance of the heathen into the kingdom of God is contained in those remarkable words pre- served to ns by Isaiah and Micah, which point to the mountain of the Lord's house as rising above all others, the centre of the earth to which the nations desiring salvation will go to be taught by the God of Jacob, and to walk in His ways (Isa. ii. 2-4 ; Mic. iv. 1 -5). In this there is a clear recofrnition of the fact that the re- o velation given to Israel was designed for universal man. It is an unknown, elder prophet, by no means Joel, as many have thought, who in these words for the first time claims for his God the kingdom of the whole earth, and publishes to all nations the message of His salvation. But he can hardly belong to a much earlier date; for the circumstance that the two chief prophets of the Assyrian period, Isaiah and Micah, reproduce his words, show how new and remarkable such a pre- diction still appeared, while in the older prophetical writings, as already remarked, it has no parallel. In Isaiah and Micah we find the universalistic idea fre- quently expressed, and in Isa. xix. 18-25 it is unfolded in a very remarkable manner. The prophet shows us the kingdom of the latter time embracing the whole then known world ; its three divisions under the blessed government of Jehovah, and Israel, His inherit- ance, as it were, the original nucleus forming the central point ; on one side Egypt, now belonging with its 142 Messianic Prophecy. people to God; on the other side Assyria, now also the work of His hands, neither any longer struggling for supremacy, hut dwelling together in peaceful inter- course and in the service of Jehovah. We see that as long as Israel only came into close contact with the nations in her immediate neighbourhood, — as long as the purpose of God to make the sovereignty established in Israel not merely a national but a world-wide dominion remained without indication in the facts of history, so long Messianic inoiphecy had nothing to say of the future extension of the kingdom of God to all nations. Only when the successful efforts of Assyria to establish her empire bound up the fate of Israel and the kingdom of God with the destinies of all the auctions of the known world, did this divine purpose come to the Light for the information of those who could discern the signs of the times. From that time Israel was placed, as it were, on a hill, visible to all nations from afar, the theatre of great historical events. Henceforth there is the clear. Ml recognition of the fact that God's dealings with /^ ylsrael concern all people (Isa. viii. 9, 18, iii. 7, xxxiii. (13); Isaiah brings within the circle of prediction the history of the world, and occupies himself in detail with the destiny of foreign nations, and in Messianic prophecy is included the idea of the universality of the kingdom of God. Indeed we may venture to go still further, and affirm that as Assyria was destined to interfere in the history of Israel, that unknown to herself she might be the instrument of carrying out the will of God, so also she was intended indirectly to promote the develop- Tlie Historical Character of Messianic Pro]C)hecy. 143 ment of a knowledge of His purposes of mercy; for the idea of a universal monarchy originated not with Israel, but with Assyria. By the claim of her kings to an empire which, according to their arrogant and super- cilious notions, no power human or divine should with- hold or diminish (Isa. x. 13, 14, xxxvi. 18—20, xxxvii. 11-13), the prophets were led to draw the inference from the Old Testament idea of God that such authority belonged rather to Israel's king. Wlien the universal monarchy of Assyria, already in part realized, came into conflict with the kingdom of God, so also the latter was conceived of as a universal theocracy taking the place of other kingdoms and uniting all nations in itself. Ever after, the universalistic idea of the Messianic kingdom had a prominent place in Messianic pro- phecy; it w^as so with Zephaniah (ii. 11, iii. 9), with Habakkuk (ii. 14), with Zechariah (xiv. 9-16), with Jeremiah (iii. 17, iv. 2, xii. 15, 16, xvi. 19—21, xlvi. 28, xlviii. 47, xlix. 6-39). With Ezekiel,on the con- trary, though the universal idea is not wholly absent, there still prevails — in harmony with his Levitical standpoint — the old exclusiveness. Prophecy respect- ing the participation of the heathen nations in the blessings of the Messianic salvation made the most important progress during the exile. In Isa. xl.-lxvi. we have its richest results. After Israel had really been scattered among the nations, and her devout sons in their continued intercourse with the heathen had the vanity and folly of idol- worship brought constantly before their eyes, and were made aU the more deeply 144 Messianic Prophecy. conscious of the treasure whicli had been entrusted to them in the knowledge of the only true and living God and of the victorious power of truth, not only would their assurance that at no distant time all nations would acknowledge Jehovah, and His kingdom, spread over the whole earth, be raised to the highest point ; but the consciousness would be aroused that Israel was called to be a light to the nations, to carry the knowledge of the true God to all people. Here also, then, there grew for Messianic prophecy out of these new historical relations a new idea, the rich contents of which " the great unknown " has alone developed, though his successors, the prophets after the exile, repeated the prediction of the conversion of the heathen, but without the wider and deeper expo- sition which he had given to it. A few other proofs of our last position may in con- clusion be briefly pointed out. "With the prophets of the Assyrian period (Isaiah and Micah) the idea is characteristic, that only a remnant will return and enjoy the blessings of the Messianic salvation. This ground-thought of their predictions is one of those divine purposes brought into prominence by the his- tory of the period. By the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes the chosen people were first reduced to the cities of the kinc^dom of Judah, and of them the judgments which swept over that kingdom through the instrumentality of Assjo-ia, a remnant — Jerusalem and those who had fled thither — was spared (Isa. xxxvii. 4, 32). In the Assyrian period the truth came into The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 145 the clearest light, that the most powerful empire could not destroy the little kingdom of God, nor bring to nought His purposes toward Israel ; on the contrary, it was seen that all such attempts must end in the over- throw of the aggressor. That victory belonged to the right hand of the Lord was proclaimed distinctly, both by the history of the Syro-Ephraimitish war and the campaign of Sennacherib. This is the key-note of Isaiah's Messianic predictions. To him the coming triumph of Jehovah over the power of Assyria was as clear as if it had already been an accomplished fact. The victorious power of Jehovah and His Anointed is everywhere the prominent feature of his pictures of the latter times. By it all external foes are destroyed, the impenitent transgressors are put down, and the way prepared for the establishment of the kingdom of the future. The close connection between prophecy and history is further shown very clearly by the fact that those prophecies, which give the prospect of a new covenant between Jehovah and His people, and clearly and dis- tinctly describe the kingdom of the future as differing from the one already existing (Jer. xxxi. 29-34, iii. 16, 17), were uttered by that prophet, who, unlike his predecessors, must have convinced himself of the defective nature of Old Testament institutions, and saw approaching the inevitable destruction of the existing kingdom. Jeremiah had seen that even the reformation of Josiah was insufficient to keep the people from apostasy after his death, and it was evi- k 146 Messianic Projpliecy. dent that the external law could not maintain them in continued allegiance to God. After Josiah's death, both king and priest contributed to the ruin rather than to the establishment of the State ; and the genuine prophets, in conflict with a band of pretenders to the office, were not in a position to prevent the catastrophe, though they held the power which would one day accomplish the regeneration of the people. Then it was that, beholding the destruction of the existing kingdom, they perceived the truth that the kingdom which should endure for ever must be of an entirely different character. The divine judgments Jeremiah had to pronounce were to him an assurance that old tilings were passing avmy in the existing form of the kingdom of God, and that all things were hecoming neiu. Further, during the exile, the kingdom, ruined according to outward appearances, and without ex- ternal aid or support from the servants of God, was maintained solely by the power of living faith and stedfast allegiance in the midst of the heaviest trials. And we find prophecy then announcing that only through such means could the kingdom of the latter times be ushered in (Isa. xL— Ixvi.). As in the his- tory the victorious power of Jehovah and His human instruments were absent from the scene, that according to His divine purpose a conclusive victory might be obtained by continued allegiance to Himself, and willing fulfilment of the imposed task in manifest submission ; so in the prophecy the idea now appears that faithfidness The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 14 7 unto death, and profoundest humility in suffering, is for the servant of God the path to glory. In conclusion, we may add that, from the nature of the case, the greatest sufferers during the exile were the true worshippers of Jehovah; they had most to endure from the heathen authorities, and had to bear, in addition, the hatred and persecution of apostates. These devout persons, in whom the idea of the people or servant of God was most fully realized, were cer- tainly not blameless ; they acknowledged in the name of the people, and in their own name, that the sor- rows of the exile were the just punishment of their sins (Isa. Ixiv. 4-7). But still in faith and confidence they remained stedfastly devoted to their God ; and so far as they truly represented the idea of the people of God, they had not deserved exile ; and all that they had to endure on account of their faithfulness to Him was unmerited suffering. They represented what the people of Israel, having fallen away from the divine idea and denied their calling, had deserved. Upon them, the ideal people of God, fell the penalty incurred by the faithless. Against those who in the midst of Israel were the true people of God — the relatively righteous representatives of the unrighteous — the wrath of God displayed itself. Their sufferings were a. sichstitutionary hearing of the guilt and punishment of Israel's selfivill, an expiatory offering for the sins of their people and for their sake (Isa. Ixv. 8) ; and on account of the faith and patience shown in affliction, the covenant-keeping God could not leave His people 148 Messianic Prophecy. for ever in the power of their enemies. Having regard to the patient endurance with which they bore the outpouring of His indignation against the sins of the nation collectively, He must for their sake bestow upon the nation generally the tokens of His grace. Their vicarious sufferings were a chastisement designed to accomplish the salvation of the whole people. Thus the historical circumstances of the exile give us a fresh view of God's gracious purposes ; there comes into prominence the doctrine that Israel and mankind gene- rally owe their salvation to vicarious suffering, which the innocent servant of God, in the faithful discharge of his prophetic office, will endure for the sins of others, and which is for himself the divinely ordained path to glory (Isa. liii.). ' We now see how history always co-operates with prophecy in bringing into the light one phase after another of the divine purposes, and in giving con- tinually clearer and more definite disclosures of the end of the way of God. So much for the limiting and deciding influence of contemporary history upon the contents of Messianic prophecy. We are now more fully prepared to examine its relation to New Testament fulfilment. THIED SECTION. ON THE RELATION OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY TO NEW TESTAMENT FULFILMENT. CC CEDING to our preceding researches, they misunderstand the historical character of Messianic prophecy who think they have before them in its various products the creating force of the revealing spirit efficaciously working in a direct manner, binding itself by no law of historical development, but throughout constantly producing in a supernatural manner knowledge abso- lutely new. The religion of the Old Testament commonwealth, based on God's revelation of Himself, is, so to speak, the mother earth from which it springs and from which it draws its nourishment. We recognise in it the new blossom and fruit which, by virtue of the revealing and enlightening power of the Spirit of God, it has organically unfolded from the germ which the Old Testament religion had in it from the beginning. In the course of time these flowers and fruit have presented to our eyes a rich variety of form and colour. The reason of this variety we find not only in the mental peculiarities of the prophets, but also in the forming and deciding iafluence which 150 Messianic Prophecy. historical conditions and relations exercised upon the contents of the predictions. As every prophet regarded his age in the light which was thrown upon it by the end of the way of God, so also he saw the glory of the latter days reflected only in the broken rays and colours in which the atmosphere of his own historical period permitted them to appear. In like manner it arose from the same historical conditions and relations, that Messianic predictions made their chief starting-point now one and now another of the ideas embodied in the Old Testament religion, and that through the develop- ment of the germ enclosed therein, first one and then another side of the latter-day glory was brought into prominence. And finally, the divine ideas which, as outlines of the government of the world, or as sketches of the plan of God's kingdom, decided the course of history in the times of the prophets, are the same which gave to Messianic prophecy its peculiar character and contents ; and in the measure they give light in the course of Old Testament history indicating new development, there comes to the prophets new know- ledge concerning the purposes of God, and the means by which He will accomplish them. From the vantage ground of our knowledge respect- ing the internal organic and genetic connection of Messianic prophecy, on the one hand mainly with the Old Testament religion, and on the other with the history of the period of its development, we now address ourselves to define its relation to New Testa- ment fulfilment. And here it may be well once more Messianic Pro^pJiecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 151 to remember that the contents of the prophecies, that is, the sense in which the prophets themselves under- stood them, and in which they wished to be understood by their contemporaries, is to be kept separate from the reference, intended in the counsels of God and historically revealed, to a fulfilment through Christ. Into the former nothing of the meaning must be im- ported which is first discovered by us when, in the light of the New Testament, we look back to the general course of Messianic prophecy. On the ground of this entire separation between Old Testament pre- diction and ISTew Testament fulfilment we have to consider both their difference and their unity. 1. The Historical Features of Messianic Prophecy. That Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment do not completely cover each other, or rather, that the latter goes beyond the contents of the former, is not, even from the standpoint of a one-sided super- naturalistic criticism, called in question, though the tendency to reduce the difference to the smallest possible amount by the introduction of New Testament knowledge is closely connected with such criticism, and always more or less makes itself felt in exegesis. On the standpoint indicated this at least is presupposed, that the prediction is perfectly covered by the fulfil- ment. They say that individual Messianic announce- ments are partial in their character, because the prophets were only shown that which in the existing 152 Messianic Prophecy, relations was conformable to the purpose and sufficient for the end in view, and that their predictions at all times gave expression only to that which they had seen. They are fragments, but fragments capable of being united into one harmonious picture, a complete painting of the Messianic salvation and the manner of its approach, — a process all the easier, inasmuch as in the history of the fulfilment we have the guiding threads which show us where each individual feature must be placed. The prophetic picture may have gaps here and there, and it may fail to give a distinct view of the glory of JSTew Testament times ; but in prophecy there can be no feature presented which has not in the fulfilment its corresponding lines accurately expressed. Otherwise the prophets have not really spoken the word of God, and have not written exclusively that which He permitted them to see. This is essentially Hengstenberg's view of the relation of prophecy to its fulfilment (i), and the necessary result is that spiritualistic evaporation of the concrete historical and specific Old Testament features of Messianic prophecy, the inadmissibility of which we have already sufficiently sho^vn. Having regard to the results of our previous researches, we must consider this view untenable. It seems to us that the undertaking, which aims to bring every feature of Messianic prophecy into one picture, and to trace the fulfilment of every particular in Christ, is as unauthorized as it is impracticable. The indi- vidual features of Messianic prophecy are to be under- stood in their true historical sense, as is proved by the Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 153 various forms assumed by Messianic ideas in the course of their development, in accordance with the then present historical relations. They do not resemble the fragments of a picture, — a picture which is remarkable only for the lifeless, formal, and mechanical repre- sentation of a one - sided supernaturalism, — but the varying phases of the development of a vital organism. As in the course of the growth of a plant individual leaves fall off and are replaced by new ones ; as in the animal world every organ in the course of its develop- ment always takes the form in which during its intermediate stage it can best fulfil its design, — so also does Messianic prophecy. Its concrete form was, at the period of its pubKcation, so important to the historical circumstances of its time-originated relations, that without the same its design must have remained partially or entirely unfulfilled. But this importance is transitory ; it is limited to the time during which those relations continue, and distinguishes the historical features of individual predictions only while the stage of development lasts to which it belongs. If the historical conditions became essentially changed, then these elements of prophecy must partly at least have had their relative historical fulfilment ; and, so far as this may not have been the case, it cannot subsequently, in the sense it had for the prophets and their contem- poraries, be fulfilled. Such fulfilment would have been possible only if the Messianic salvation was really as early in the purpose of God as^they expected, really in the period during which the historical circumstances 154 Messianic Prophecy. of its origin remained unchanged. Later, the presup- posed conditions for its fulfilment in an historical sense were wanting. Therefore, as soon as the historical relations have been changed, Messianic prophecy casts off those concrete features whether they have had a relative fulfilment or not, and there comes into pro- minence something new, the old with its full signifi- cance and vital power having passed away. Thus a very considerable part of the contents of Messianic prophecy is outside the sphere of JSTew Testament fulfilment, either because it has received a relative historical fulfilment before New Testament times, or remains in general unfulfilled. Does not this non-fulfilment of a portion of the con- tents of Messianic prophecy seem serious ? Predictions unattested by fulfilment appear to belong not to those which come from revelation, but to those which come from human thoughts and human words having their origin in the prophet's own mind (D^^p), and which are mixed with divine communications. But the ful- filment of prophecy depends generally upon the expressed or understood limitations which belong to the sphere of human freedom, and therefore many a prediction, though made known by the Spirit of God, remains unfulfilled (2). In this alone, however, we can never find an explanation of the non-fulfilment of a part of the contents of prophecy. No one will seriously maintain, that if only Israel had been faithful to God, the Messianic salvation would have been realized as early and in the precise manner which the Messianic Prophecy and K T. Fulfilment. 155 prophets predicted it would be, and only in tliis case could all the historical elements of Messianic prophecy- be fulfilled. The partial non-fulfilment has not common ground in the counsels of God with the conditioning of prophecy by human conduct ; for, since the blessings of salvation were to appear only in the fulness of time, the contents of prophecy could not be entirely accom- plished; and it seems to us clear, that those predictions which do not correspond to the real purpose conceived and executed by God are only a disturbing element which the prophet, in consequence of the limitations of his vision, has mingled with that which was really revealed to him. Such, in fact, must be our conclusion if to the con- crete historical features of Messianic prophecy belongs only that signification which is limited to the time of its origin. But, on the other hand, it has its permanent signification, in virtue of which it is related to the new covenant, and in which it finds its fulfilment. There are, indeed, aspects of the Messianic ideas themselves which are applied to the circumstances of particular periods. Still the temporary encloses an abiding principle ; the historical covering, an ideal germ of the eternal thought of God; and when, in the further development of Messianic prophecy, the former is taken away, the latter remains ; changed, it is true, into new forms corresponding with its altered rela- tions ; and these also, when their course is run, will reappear in new historical drapery. Thus, in the course of the development of Messianic prophecy, there is per- 156 Messianic Prophecy. formed a critical sifting process upon individual predic- tions, by which is manifested what is of essential and abiding importance as an unfolding of the divine pur- pose with respect to the final issue ; and what, on the other hand, is mere drapery, in which the revealed aspect of God's counsels must be brought to the consciousness and vivid recognition of the prophets and their contem- poraries. The first is the peculiar substance of revela- tion designed for all time ; in the second we have those elements which are either only publications of such portions of the divine purposes as relate to individual stages of the loay leading to their final completion, or are mainly temjporary instruments and vehicles of revela- tion. Their partial non-fulfilment is therefore unim- portant, and they by no means appear as a disturbing element which the prophets, uninfluenced by the spirit of revelation, had mingled with their predictions. With regard to their essential . and permanent con- tents, isolated predictions really stand in a supplemen- tary relation to each other, for the historical relations of a given time have always in a greater or less degree their peculiar character. They always have their special features, which are never repeated at any subsequent time, and in their historical peculiari- ties is always represented either one or another phase of the divine purposes which in later predictions cease to be prominent, or, at least, they are illuminated on a side to which the historical conditions of later times give no opportunity of new light. The Messianic idea, m the course of its adaptation to the manifold his- Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 157 torical conditions, also unfolds the wealth of its con- tents, and every individual prediction contributes in its measure to bringr that wealth into full recognition. "With regard to their ideal and permanent contents, the historical features of Messianic prophecy relate to Christ and His kingdom, and it is in reference to Himself only that the repeated testimony of Christ has any force, — Set ifKrjpcoOrivat, irdvTa tcl 'yefypafjujieva irepX i/jLov. The eternal conceptions of the divine mind, which are the kernel and essence of prophecy, must in the new covenant have a full realization in Christ. Through Him is found, therefore, the fulfilment corre- sponding to its ideal contents, while the historical ful- filment — if it has already been found in the Old Testament dispensation — strictly corresponds to the historical concrete setting which has contained the eternal thoughts of God in their adaptation to definite historical relations, but still only as an imperfect and preliminary accomplishment of the divine purpose. It appears, therefore, that in consequence of the historical colouring of all Messianic predictions, the Messianic type forms a considerable part of their contents. The assertion that a typic-Messianic character belongs more or less to them all, is not ^vithout foundation. By these remarks we believe our opinion of Heng- stenberg's view, as expressed above, to be perfectly justified, and especially wiU they apply to his spiritual- izing exposition of the prophecies. It is true that where we have to do with the historical tendency of Messianic prophecy to fulfilment in Christ, only the idea 158 Messianic Prophecy. contained in the historical features has essential im- portance ; so also it is erroneous to suppose that the historical form in which it is expressed is pure imagery. Hengstenberg's serious error consists in the fact that he does not sufficiently distinguish between the con- tents of prophecy and its divinely ordained tendency to fulfilment first seen in the wider course of the his- tory of revelation and salvation, and that he misunder- stands the importance of the historical sense. 2. The specific Old Testament Features of Messianic Prophecy. As it is with the historical element, so it is also with the specific Old Testament features of Messianic prophecy. They have their growth in the soil of the Old Testament religion. Prophetic knowledge of divine purposes of mercy to be accomplished in the new covenant unfolds itself from Old Testament con- ceptions, in virtue of their being originated psychologi- cally. These gracious purposes can therefore be made known only as they appear from an Old Testament standpoint; and the prophetic representations of the coming of the kingdom of God can never fully emanci- pate themselves from the conceptions of the existing condition of things. To some extent, every prophet will conceive and represent the establishment of the divine kingdom as the perfection and glorification of that already known to him ; and in some measure, also, will every prediction have a specific Old Testa- Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 159 ment colouring, decided by the source from which it , has sprung (3). These specific Old Testament elements of Messianic prophecy are by no means mere imagery in the prophetic consciousness ; they are rather the forms in which is contained the knowledge of God's merciful purposes. Certainly in many cases the pro- phet has a more or less clear consciousness of the fact that these forms do not suffice to clothe the corre- sponding ideas, and not unfrequently do features present themselves which, though borrowed from the existing state, the prophets could not understand literally, and it was manifest that the idea rather than its external form was most important ; the latter in such cases at once passed into the sphere of conscious symbolism. We may mention, for example, the prediction that all who were left of the Gentile nations after the divine judgments upon them (Zech. xiv. 16-19), should every year go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of taber- nacles, or that all nations should journey thither every Salhath and every new moon (Isa. Ixvi. 23). And in the representations of the perfected kingdom of God, which otherwise remain within the limits of Old Testament forms, we find individual features bearing such marks of transition as would hardly justify us in considering the whole as purely allegorical. With Ezekiel, for example, in whose description of the com- ing kingdom occurs the well-known prediction concern- ing the water issuing from the house of God, and changing the Holy Land into a paradise, the idea transcends, in a remarkable manner, Old Testament 160 Messianic Prophecy. forms, and permits the latter to appear merely as symbolic drapery. But in general the prophet was unable to make a conscious distinction between Old Testament forms and the divine idea contained therein. He conceived of the one in the drapery of the other, and was not in a position to draw aside the veil (4). But what he was unable to do was in a great measure accomplished by the general course of the develop- ment of prophecy, when in its prominent points the knowledge of God's gracious purposes was freed from bondage to Old Testament forms. Indeed, we usually find later prophecies placing the counsels of God and the true character of His kingdom in a clearer and more perfect light. In the Messianic predictions of the more recent prophets the germ of the eternal purpose of God is, on the whole, seen more and more dis- tinctly through the Old Testament veil. Though, for example, the oldest Messianic prophecies adhere to the national exclusiveness of the then existing kingdom, those of the Assyrian period paint it as covering the w^hole earth and embracing all peoples. But especially in Jeremiah and the later Isaiah do Messianic predic- tions reach a high point of development, at which we find a marked distinction between the Old Testament economy and the new dispensation of the future clearly understood and expressed. This, however, was only limited and conditional, sometimes because of the extent in which Messianic knowledge lay hid in specific Old Testament forms, and sometimes on ac- •^ount of the peculiar standpoint of individual prophets ; Messianic Frojphecy and JSf. T. Fulfilment. 161 for Ezekiel, the contemporary of Jeremiah, has suc- ceeded only in the very slightest degree in presenting the people of God in the future Messianic kingdom without the institutions and ordinances of the Old Testament. We find also that in the course of the development and advancement of prophecy there were periods of retrogression ; as, for instance, after the exile the subjection of Messianic knowledge to Old Testa- ment forms of representation was much greater than in the time of Jeremiah and the later Isaiah. The high degree of development in which Messianic prediction in general, or with respect to more particular infor- mation, approached nearest to ISTew Testament know- ledge, is most distinctly manifest to those who are living in the time of its fulfilment. From this point of vantage the essential unity of the entire body of Messianic prophecy, unfolded by various steps in his- tory, will be clearly perceived. By the liglit which falls from these upon the lower heights, many Old Testament elements appear to be but transient forms of the divine purposes, belonging to the historical features, not to the substance of revelation itself, — they were purely temporary or isolated means of revela- tion, having permanent importance only in virtue of their symbolic character. When, for example, accord- ing to Ezekiel, sacrifices, including the sin- and trespass- offering, will be continued (xL 39, xlii. 13, xliv. 29, xlvi. 20), Hosea and Isaiah teach us to distinguish what belongs to the veil of Old Testament phrase- ology, — the former, when he exhorts the penitent I 162 Messianic Prophecy. people to offer not sacrifices, but " the fruit of our lips," that is, praise to God (xiv. 3) ; the latter, when (excepting xix. 21) he never speaks of sacrifice and priesthood in connection with the future people of God. When, also, Ezekiel represents the distinction between the priesthood and the laity as still more sharply marked than before (xliv. 19), other pro- phecies, like those of Jeremiah, tell us that all will draw near to God and be acknowledged of Him (Jer. xxxi. 34). The later Isaiah says that Israel shall be a nation of priests, and all her children taught of God (Isa. Ixi. 6, Ixvi. 21, liv. 13); whereas, as an Old Testament element of Ezekiel's prophecies, this pro- mise is only of limited application. And though he describes most minutely the new temple to be built at Jerusalem in which God would dwell amongst His people, and though in a similar manner the prophets after the exile attach great importance to the com- pletion and adornment of the temple as a dwelling- place worthy of God, we have on the other hand Jeremiah's declaration that in the Messianic kino^dom there will be no ark of the covenant, no unapproach- able Holy of Holies, but that the holy city itself will be the throne of Jehovah, and all nations will assemble there to worship the manifested God (Jer. iii. 1 6, 1 7). In the light of this assurance the other representations appear as Old Testament forms, which, as mere drapery, the higher development of Messianic prophecy has taken away. The criticism which examines Old Tes- tament prophecy as a whole, and thus comes to a Messianic Prophecy and iV. T. Fulfilment. 163 knowledge of tlie detail of its peculiar contents, will separate a large proportion of its specific Old Testament features — its merely temporary form — from tlie thought therein contained ; and it is evident that the first must fall outside the sphere of New Testament fulfilment, while the second must find its accomplishment within. Consequently the sphere of the Messianic type — that which has its fulfilment in Christ, not according to the historical, but according to the ideal sense, as taught by Old Testament prophecy itself — includes also a great part of the theocratic representations contained in it (o). 3. Old Testament Conceptions still adhering to all Messianic Predictions. But are we to suppose that this evolution of the divine purposes of mercy — the fruit of historical de- velopment from the temporary external forms of the Old Testament — is to come to a perpetual end with the cessation of prophecy ? Was it not to be expected that those purposes would first come into the full light of day by their actual fulfilment, and therefore that the complete rending of the Old Testament veil by which they are surrounded in Messianic prophecy could not take place before that event ? So, as a matter of fact, we find it to be. Even at the high degree of development attained. Messianic prophecy could not be freed from all specific Old Testament forms. Some of them pervade the entire body of prophecy, and, in 164 Messianic Fro^lucy. the light of Kew Testament fulfilment, appear as mere drapery of the ideas, the carrying out of which had been decided in the purpose of God. {a) Jericsalem, the City of God. To this class belongs the representation that Jeru- salem, the city which Jehovah had chosen for the habitation of His name, should in the last time be the seat of the revealed and gracious presence of God upon the earth, and as such remain the centre of His king- dom. There He would dwell among His people, and from it He would exercise His authority over all nations ; there also He is manifest to the heathen, and there they worship Him. In the prophecies of Jere- miah the idea is firmly held, that the revealed presence of God will no longer be associated with the ark of the covenant and the unapproachable Holy of Holies (Jer. iii. 16, 17). And in like manner it colours all other Messianic predictions of the Old Testament, and exercises its influence to a greater or less extent upon the details of the picture of the Messianic kingdom. Certainly Jerusalem, as the place where the Mediator of the new covenant presented His all-sufficient and eternally efficacious sacrifice, where by His resurrection He proved Himself to be the Prince of life, where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon His disciples, has become the chief theatre of the fulfilment of God's purposes, and as such it is in a certain sense the cen- tral point of the New Testament kingdom, toward Messianic Prophecy and K T. Fulfilment. 165 which the gaze of aU interested in God's revelation of mercy through Christ is directed. So far, the selection of Jerusalem has been justified by New Testament ful- filment; so far, also, these representations running through Old Testament prophecy have been sealed as corresponding to the purpose of God. But only so far; neither at Jerusalem nor in any other region of the earth has the kingdom of Christ, which is " not of this world," an external, visible centre like that of the Jewish commonwealth. With the coming of Christ the hour arrived when Jerusalem as well as Gerizim lost its pre-eminence as a place where men ought to worship; when "worship in spirit and in truth" released them from aU obligation to place, times, and external forms (John iv. 23, 24). The express declaration of Christ and the actual present character of His kingdom compel us to recognise, in the statement that Jeru- salem would be the permanent seat of divine revelation and worship, mere Old Testament imagery which Messianic prophecy could not cast aside ; and for this reason, that it was in close connection with a local and earthly, though divine kingdom, — a circumstance to the consideration of which we shall have occasion to return. For the same reason the sacred city retains in the New Testament a typical signification. As the Jewish theology distinguished between the lower Jerusalem (T\]^^'h'^ Dl^'f =1*^;) and the upper (jkw^^"^ '') ^^^ heavenly Jerusalem, of which the former is only the image and symbol ; and as Philo's speculative idealism has found in the holy city an image of the world as a habitation 166 Messianic Pro])liecy. of God and sphere of revelation, or of the soul of the wise in which He dwells (e), — so the New Testament represents the heavenly Jerusalem as the antitype of the earthly, and thus points out, in opposition to the Old Testament idea of the future kingdom represented by the same imagery, the supersensuous kingdom of Christ associated with the heavenly world as a state wherein is enjoyed the essential presence of God and full fellowship with Him ; a state already existing in the Church on earth, but fully to be realized for a time only in heaven, then coming down with the second advent of Christ (7). In the new covenant this heavenly Jerusalem takes the place of the earthly, which was only a type ; and the ISTew Testament writers, casting aside the Old Testament veil, have applied the predictions concerning the glory of the earthly Jerusalem to the kingdom of Christ (Gal. iv. 27), and have found in them especially the establishment of the same in its completeness and glory after the advent ; the numerous features of which in the Apocalypse, borrowed from the last chapters of Ezekiel and from the later Isaiah, are the most striking examples. (h) Israel the Central Point in the Kingdom of God. Shall we find it otherwise with the representations, which in a similar way permeate all Old Testament prediction, that Israel, as the chosen nation, would in Messianic times retain its national peculiarities and be the sustaining centre of the people of God, exercising Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 167 royal authority, and holding the office of mediator between Jehovah and the rest of mankind ? In pro- phetic announcements of such contents, a system of interpretation which in early times was but little pre- valent, but popularized by Bengel and his school, and more recently much favoured in England and Germany, being advocated by Mich. Baumgarten, J. T. Beck, Auberlen, v. Hofmann, Delitzsch, Stier, and others, will recognise prophecies which in the future, when the Kaipol edvcov have run their course, will fulfil themselves in Israel as a nation in their full word sense. "The IsraeUtish nation is called," it is said, "by virtue of its election, to be through all time the receiver and dispenser of divine revelation, and as a royal and priestly people to stand towards the rest of mankind in the relation of a mediator with God." It is true that Israel in Old Testament times received divine com- munications. Christ and His apostles were Jews, and so far her calling was fulfilled ; but the purpose which God had in view in the choice of Israel had not thus been fuUy accomplished, nor had the promise been fulfilled that Israel should one day as a holy nation exercise its priesthood for all peoples. In the new covenant this destiny is said still to be theirs, and to them the promise still remains ; and that it does so notwithstanding their rebellion against the revelation of God in Christ, and their temporary rejection, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Eom. xi. 29). This promise looks onward to the last times, in which the kingdom of God shaU appear in its fuU 168 Messianic PwpJiecy, glory. After its present period, the time of the Gen- tile Church, when the millennial kingdom has been set ■up, Israel, converted and gathered from the dispersion, will in the Holy Land take its place at the head of mankind. The divine revelation, silenced since Israel's rejection, will once more utter its voice ; then, what the glorified priestly kings are in heaven the kingdom of priests will be on earth, and then first will the chosen people fulfil their destiny and realize their long pre- dicted glory (s). It is the natural consequence that some advocates of this view should expect in the millennium not only the restoration of the scattered Israelites to the land of Canaan, and the xe-establish- ment of Jerusalem as the chief city of the kingdom of God, but also the building of the temple described by Ezekiel, and the resurrection of the ceremonial and political law of Moses (9). Tliis conception of Old Testament prophecy, which is opposed to the orthodox, spiritualistic, and allegorizing interpretations which have prevailed since the third century, is worthy of respect as an important step in advance in modern exposition of the prophetic word of God ; a step, too, which justi- fies the true historical sense of prophecy quite as much as it does " biblical realism." To some extent this may seem doubtful. There can, however, be no doubt that in the abandonment of the common spiritualizing method, and in a nearer approach to a severely historical inter- pretation, considerable progress may be recognised ; but if no distinction is made between the temporary indi- vidual outward form and the ideal and permanent con- Messianic PropJiecy and K T. Fulfilment 169 tents, and without further ceremony the historical sense is regarded as the peculiar substance of prophecy, the pure unveiled publication of the divine purpose con- cerning the final completion of His kingdom, I can then no longer regard it as a mark of progress, but as rcto-'o- gressive Judaizing error. It is an overestimate of the importance of the historical sense which rests upon the same one-sided su;pernaturalistic conceiotion of ]jrophecy as the unhistorical spiritualizing method of interpreta- tion of the older orthodoxy. With this, therefore, it shares in the erroneous supposition that Old Testament prediction must be perfectly covered by New Testament fulfilment, and every individual feature of its contents find its corresponding accomplishment. Both are equally responsible for mingling the Old and New Testaments together; one takes New Testament knowledge into the sphere of the Old, the other brings over what belongs to the old covenant into the region of the new. We cannot here give particular reasons for this opinion. The reply to the supposition upon which the above view rests may be found in the remarks concern- ing the nature and the historical character of Messianic prophecy contained in the earlier parts of this book. We will, however, present a few general considerations, from which it ^\aLl easily be seen (lo) that it is unten- able and without foundation, and then in what follows limit ourselves to a positive statement of the case. And first, it is absolutely impossible to reconcile this view with certain consequences. Among the Old 170 Messianic Prophecy. Testament elements of Messianic prophecy are many- things which the most decided advocates cannot sup- pose are likely to be fulfilled in their full historical sense, and they are compelled to take refuge in the old allegorical interpretation. We may recall, for example, the distinct assertion respecting the difference between priests and people, and the privileges to be enjoyed by the successors of Zadok, and also the presentation of the sin-offering and of the sacrifices generally mentioned in the Messianic predictions of Ezekiel. Here the main- tenance of the above view would lead to the most palpable contradiction, not only of the clearest testi- mony of the Xew Testament, but also of the Messianic predictions of the Old Testament itself ; and here, there- fore, must the allegorical method be called in to ex- plain. But certainly the inconsistency of supposing that such features are to be interpreted spiritually while most others are to be understood literally, belongs not to Ezekiel but to his expounders, who bring with them "a false key for understanding the prophetic words " (ii). But still further, Bertheau has strikingly shown that the announcement of " the national glory of Israel " in various prophecies stands almost throughout in closest connection with that part of their contents w^hich connects itself with the historical circumstances of the time in which they originated, and that there- fore the expectation of their literal future fulfilment can only be consistently maintained on the supposition that the historical relations will be restored also. But this is impossible, for the historical events of the one Messianic PropUcy and N. T. Fulfilment 171 time exclude those of the other ; and before the restora- tion of the kingdom of Israel the strange supposition would bring back the Assyrian and the Babylonian empires ; the Philistine, the Edomite, the Moabite, and the Ammonite would once more appear upon the plan of the world's history, and once more we should have the division between the kingdom of Judah and the ten tribes. No one admits this, and therefore recourse is had to the traditional allegorical method of explana- tion. And what a fruitful source of inconsistency is this ! We are to understand literaUy that Israel will be restored to Canaan, and there, under the government of the Son of David, become a flourishing and powerful state in the centre of the kingdom of God ; but we are not to understand literally the declaration connected with it, that the remnant of Edom, of the Philistines, the Ammonites, and the Moabites will submit them- selves (Amos ix. 12 ; Isa. xi. 14). When Isaiah de- scribes the kmgdom of the future as a universal theo- . cracy embracing the known world, and consisting of three powers independent of each other, but dwelling in peaceful intercourse and equally serving Jehovah, Israel as the favoured inheritance in the midst, and ; Assyria and Egypt on each side (Isa. xix. 23-25), we| are to take what is said concerning Israel literally, and; as intended to be fulfilled in its fuU sense, but not that ^ which refers to the two latter countries. Generally, when Israel is mentioned, we are to think of the Israelitish nation ; but when other nations are named, the word of prophecy does not mean the historical 172 Messianic Propliecy. people who are known to us by that name, but it pre- sents them to us as tj^pes of the world-power which stands in opposition to the kingdom of God ! Thus this view of prophecy falls into the error of the alle- gorical method of interpretation, which it aims to improve, and on account of its incompleteness and inconsistency is still less tenable than the system it endeavours to correct. It will be clear also, from the above remarks, how much this view of propliecy mistakes its historical character. Especially does it fail to perceive, that for the prophets and their contemporaries imminent events became transfigured by the light which fell upon them from the end of the way of God, and that approaching times of salvation and deliverance were frequently pictured as if their dawn were the break of the millen- nial day. The genuine historical consideration of these predictions has evidently in such cases to distinguish between the publication of the grace and mercy of God to the people of Israel, designed for a more or less near future, under given historical conditions, and the ideal form and colour derived from the flowing^ into each other, in the consciousness of the prophet, of the promised blessing and the glory of the latter day. It will therefore, from the nature of the case, perceive that the historical fulfilment of the predictions given to Israel must be only relative to their inner signi- ficance and external glory, and considerably inferior to the picture sketched in the prophecy ; it will see also that prophecy, according to its ideal contents, must find Messianic Prc/phecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 173 a liiglier, fuller, and final historical fulfilment ; but it i will never be able to discover in that fulfilment a com- plete outward correspondence with the general word sense of the prediction ; neither will it refer the concrete elements of prophecy which relate to the approaching fulfilment in the history of Israel to that ideal content, and so wait for another and more brilliant accomplish- ment ; nor will it without ceremony take for granted that the ideal contents of prophecy also refer specially to the Israelitish nation, and will be fulfilled to it as such. There is also an utter neglect of the instruc- tion which the wider course of the history of the kingdom of God gives concerning the difference between the temporary and the final historical element in the contents of the prophetic writings, when it is said that what is predicted concerning Israel's conversion and glorious reinstatement in the beloved land has only been imperfectly fulfilled in the return from Baby- lonian exile, and the subsequent troubled existence of the Old Testament kingdom of God, and that therefore its more complete realization, so far as it is believed (12) to be still unfulfilled, is to be expected in the futuie gathering of the converted Jews into the Holy Land, and in the glory which will then cover them. Here what belongs only to the early steps of the temporary historical fulfilment is carried over to the final fulfil- ment, and what is really the beginning of tlie accom- plishment of divine purposes is put to the account of their final completion. It may further be observed, that analogy is against 174 Messianic Prophecy. this idea of the relation of prophecy to the future exaltation of the kingdom of Israel. We have seen that in Messianic prophecy there are important stages with respect to the maintenance of Old Testament forms. At the high points of its development many of these forms are cast off, and we are warned not to expect a fulfilment of certain predictions corresponding to their literal sense. Now, instead of following these tinger-posts, and judging the external forms running through Old Testament prophecy according to this analogy, this view in favour of the literal sense limits and narrows the contents of the more fully developed New Testament knowledge just as soon as it is consis- tently applied. Instead of judging the letter according to the unveiled revelations of the spirit of prophecy met with here and there, the revelations themselves are by the vindication of the letter veiled and darkened. But there remains a more perfect analogy, with which the above view is inconsistent. It has already been pointed out that, according to the evidence of the New Testament, this idea is connected with the representa- tion, that in Messianic times Jerusalem will be the habitation of Jehovah, the seat of revelation, and the central point of His kingdom ; also that this prediction, as it runs through all Old Testament prophecy, is indissolubly associated with the announcement of the future glory of the people of Israel in their own land. If, now, by the establishment of Christ's king- dom, the prediction concerning the glory of Jerusalem has proved itself historically fulfilled, — when it brings Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 175 with it the divinely ordained, partly symbolic, but yet organic historical connection of the Old and New Testament kingdom and people of God, — while it still has a symbolic meaning for Christ's kingdom, we must interpret the prediction of Israel's exaltation in the Holy Land not in opposition to, but in harmony with, this analogy. In addition, we may remember that the view of our opponents in favour of the Israelitish nation denies to the Church of Christ the greatest part of those predic- tions which have been to it a source of consolation and strength. It is affirmed that the promises given to Israel as the chosen people of God, — and they form the great majority, — are designed to apply not only in their historical sense, which we unfeignedly believe, but also in their divinely designed revealing and saving ef&cacy, to the final deliverance of Israel as a nation. The Gentile Church is to consider these promises as belong- ing to it only in an indirect manner : the only pro- mises directly available being those concerning the entrance of the heathen into the kingdom of God, to share in the blessings given to the Jews ; and this would give them the privilege of appl}dng to them- selves the prophecies originally vouchsafed to Israel for the time of her future glory. Not from " Gentile Chris- tian pride," but in grateful acknowledgment of God's mercy, as we shall soon see from New Testament evidence, will the Church protest against such a result, and also against the doctrine which leads to such heterodox conclusions. Still further ; this view, in order 176 Messianic Pro^phecy. to exalt Israel, takes from Christ Himself His rightful glory. For if the Jewish nation is permanently ap- pointed as the mediator on behalf of mankind, and is to fulfil this destiny in the millennium, and "secure for the nations in a different and more perfect manner than before the blessing of communion with God," Christ is no longer the one Mediator between God and men ; the mediatorship of Israel interposes between Him and the human family, and in such a way that the full virtue of His ofi&ce is made dependent upon Israel. And if the conversion and deliverance of Israel be "the true resurrection of the Gentile nations," then the full revelation and work of Christ as the Trvev/xa ^(ooTToiovv for the nations and the Gentile Church is conditional npon the conduct of the Jews, and upon their future faithful fulfilment of their calling. If, moreover, this view were taken of these prophecies, which its advocates are accustomed to regard as directly Messianic, while they really, at aU events in their historical sense, refer to Israel as the people of God, and of those which refer to the servant of God, it would be still more clearly manifest how such over- estimate of the importance of the historical sense of prophecy necessarily ends in dishonouring the name of Christ, and misunderstanding the all-sufficiency of His work. Many advocates of the view we are opposing do not, however, go so far, for example, as Auberlen has gone. They do not expect a fulfilment of the predictions concerning Israel's national glory in their literal sense. Messianic Prophecy and K T. Fulfilment 1V7 That many of them, in the light of New Testa- ment fulfilment, appear to be veiled in Old Testament drapery is admitted, and only the general idea is retamed, that Israel, in her dispersion among the nations of the earth, shall he maintained as a separate people that she may accomplish her final destiny, and, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfiUed, listen to the call of the gospel, and once more take her central position in the divine kingdom (is). This position is maintained partly in consideration of the fact that Israel in her dispersion has to this day a separate national existence (u), and partly from the evidence of the New Testament. The view thus modified and sustained robs the above remarks of their force, and it remains for us, therefore, to ascertain whether this altered front really has in its favour the evidence of the New Testament ; and we now turn, therefore, to positive representations respecting the subject in question. Old Testament prophecy certainly only knows "a temporary rejection of Israel, which is so ordered that, as a people, they are not destroyed, but preserved for future restoration" (lo). But for a correct apprecia- tion of this fact, two things at least must not escape our attention. The prophecies availed notliing to the Jewish nation as such, to Israel after the flesh, but were in force only so far as they were really the peculiar people of God. Hence the predictions respect- ing the sifting and purification of the nation by divine judgments, and also of the remaining remnant from 178 Messianic Prophecy. which the chosen seed should be renewed. Partly by the extermination of impenitent transgressors, and partly by the repentance of the rest and the general outpouring of the Spirit, was the collective Israel to become the true Israel to whom the promises belonged. And with this there is another truth associated, namely, that in the prophetic consciousness of the continued existence of the Israelitish nation generally, the main- tenance, relatively, the restoration of a people and king- dom of God on earth, was indissolubly connected. What, indeed, was fulfilled before the time really so happened, that Israel's unfaithfulness might not render the work of God of no effect, and so necessitate its recommencement. The maintenance of the people and kingdom of God on earth was doubtless the principal thing with the prophets, though, when they predicted the future deliverance of Israel from the power of the heathen and the restoration of the Israelitish common- wealth, they did not consciously distinguish between the two. From this it is clear that it does not correspond with the real meaning of the prophets, to conceive of the promises given to their Israel, as the peculiar people of Jehovah, as if they referred to the converted Israel as a nation, in distinction and opposi- tion to the people of God, gathered in the oneantimc out of Isi^ael and from the Gentile nations. If the predictions given before and during the exile concerning the deliverance of Israel from the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, the return to their own land, the rebuilding of the temple, and the re-establishment Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment, 179 of the ruined kingdom, are mentioned as standing in the way of the above view, it is sufficient to reply that they were fulfilled to Israel as a nation in the time of Zerub- babel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and therefore vanish from the contents of the post-exilian predictions, in which we find only a solitary announcement of deliverance and restoration to those in the east and in the west, that is, to those in all lands who were still imprisoned and dispersed (Zech. viii. 7, 8) (le). Tliis fulfilment did not long correspond, however, with the ideal picture which prophecy had sketched of the re-establishment of the kingdom of God ; a result which can only be partially regarded as arising from the fact that Israel did not fully return to Him. It arose more from the circumstance that this re-establishment had presented itseK to the prophetic consciousness as the final com- pletion of the kingdom of God. Especially did the prediction, first brought into prominence by the later Isaiah, fail of being fulfilled, that Israel, as the servant of the Lord, by its prophetic and priestly calling, should be the instrument of accomplishing God's purposes of mercy towards all nations, and should itself realize its destined priestly and kingly glory. This difference between the historical fulfilment and the much more splendid contents of the prophecies, was for the author of the book of Daniel an enigma, the solution of which was given to him not by his own reflections, but by divine revelation (Dan. ix.), and indicates that the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Chaldeans, and the restoration of the 180 Messianic Prophecy. kingdom, was only the beginning of tlie fulfilment of prophecy, and that the people of God had still to expect its full accomplishment ; and so we find that the task of prophecy after the exile was to keep alive amidst troublous times the confident hope of the future com- pletion of the kingdom of God. This hope was not in vain. A far-reaching advance on the road to the fulfilment of the predictions of the later Isaiah is discernible in the fact that Israel, in the latter centuries before Christ, and especially through the Alexandrine Jews and the translation of the divine oracles into the language of the whole civilised world, exercised a remarkable influence upon the religious ideas of both Greeks and Eomans, and many seeking souls among the heathen nations were led to the knowledge and worship of the true God. But the promises given to Israel as the people of God, so far as they related to the completion of His kingdom, were not accomplished before the fulness of time. Salva- tion came from the Jews (John iv. 22). Christ and His apostles belonged to the Jewish nation, and the sphere of His personal activity was among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To the Jews His salva- tion was first offered, they formed the groundwork of His Church, and were the first to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the message of that gospel which, while it was also intended for their scattered brethren, was equally the heritage of the Gentiles. Thus the predictions give^i to Israel relating to the kingdom of God were fulfilled. In the national relation of Christ Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 181 to Israel, and in the organic connection of His Church with Jehovah's chosen people, has it been liistoricaUy sealed, that when the prophets declared the promise of Messianic salvation to be given to the people of Israel, they expressed the purpose of God. The election of the Jews, and the idea of their central position in the king- dom of God, as well as that of their being the medium of revelation and salvation to the people, have in the New Testament fulfilment been abundantly justified. But it is not Israel collectively, not the nation as such, that is to share hi the blessings offered to it, but only a remnant, an election, while the rest reject salva- tion through the crucified and risen Saviour with im- penitent obstinacy (Kom. xi. 1-10). Now, therefore, went forth against Israel as a nation God's sentence of rejection, and His kingdom, as the Lord Himself had predicted, was given to the Gentiles. The people of God still continued, but not in Israel as a nation, but in the New Testament Church formed out of " the remnant " of Israel and believers among the Gentiles, who, as citizens and members of the family of God, were received into His kingdom. Now the idea of Israel as a nation, and the idea of the people of God, hitherto inseparable in the mind of the prophets, begin through historical fulfilment to be distinguished from each other. Besides the Israelitish nation, which for the present dispensation at least has ceased to be the people of God and the preserver of divine revelation, there stands a " peculiar people " which took its rise from the Jews, and which, according to prophecy, 182 Messianic Prophecy. originated in the " remnant/' but gained its position and preference by tbe accession of believers from the heathen nations. Who is now the true heir to the promises given to the Old Testament Church as far as they remain unfulfilled ? That their fulfilment is still future, so long as the kingdom of Christ does not include all nations, and the inner glory of His Church is not fully manifested, is certain. Clearly, the present rejection of Israel cannot be identified as the same as the earlier temporary rejection at the time in which the con- tinuance of the kingdom of God upon earth depended upon the existence of the Israehtish nation. If we apply what the prophets predicted in view of their earlier rejection to their present condition, we should ignore one of the most far-reaching historical facts, and miss the key to a correct estimate of the prophetic word of God ; and, as we have already seen, we should fail to catch the sense which the prophets themselves at- tached to their predictions, should we consider them as belonging not to the New Testament Church, but to the Jews as heirs of the promises yet to be fulfilled. In the light thrown upon prophecy by its fulfilment, the New Testament Church appears to be the only lawful heir. Israel having been the medium of salva- tion to all nations, has accomplished its destiny, and has fulfilled its mission of revelation and salvation ; its prophetic and priestly work has been perfected for ever in Christ and His apostles. Henceforth it par- ticipates in the promises given to the people of God only so far as it belongs to the Church of Christ, and Messianic Prophecy and N'. T, Fulfilment. 183 in a similar manner and under the same conditions as converts from the Gentile nations ; that is, individual Israelites have part therein, and that without preference, only as through faith they become members of the New Testament Church. As a nation, since its rejec- tion of the OTacious visitation of the Messiah, Israel has had no further saving work to accomplish, and prophecy gives it no prospect of restoration as a nation, no central position in the kingdom of God, no exalta- tion to honour in the Holy Land. In reply to the objection, that in the Old Testament the choice of Israel is said to be permanent, it is to be remembered, first, that by the Israelitish descent of Jesus Christ and the origin of the Christian Church, the election of Israel really becomes a fact of eternal significance ; it is a parallel case with the choice of the house of David which is spoken of in the Old Testa- ment in a similar manner, and which, in the fact that Christ was of His posterity, is regarded as being fully accomplished. In support of the above view of Israel's rejection as a nation, it may be said that thSV'^V has only a relative signification, as, for instance, in Isa. xxxii. 14, and also where the Old Testament writers use it absolutely ; and the further development of the history shows it to have had a limited meaning. So it was with the eternal priesthood of the sons of Aaron and the privileges attached to it (Ex. xl. 15; Num. xviii. 19, XXV. 13; Jer. xxxiii. 18-22); so also with the eternal choice of Jerusalem and the habitation of Jehovah itself, and in like manner with the election 184 Messianic Prophecy. of the Israelitish nation for ever. A faithful covenant- keeping God maintains the same until He has brought His people to the epoch He had in view ; but having reached it, " the choice for ever " cannot, in the further development of His purposes of mercy, bind Him instrumentally to use the people who by their rejection of the offered salvation have become unJfit, and in whose place He Himself has in the !N"ew Testament Church prepared a different organ. This view of the case has the witness of the Nevj Testament in its favour. It testifies throughout that the promises of God were given to the Israelites, and that therefore their fulfilment — the salvation of God in Christ Jesus — was in faithfulness offered first to them, and that afterward, in pure mercy, His gospel was made known to the heathen nations. (As may be seen from a comparison of the antithesis virep dXTjOela^ 06OU and virep i\eov<; in Eom. xv. 8, 9.) And with the apostle of the circumcision (Acts ii. 39, iii. 25, 26) the apostle of the Gentiles agrees both in word and deed (Acts xiii. 46 ; Eom. i. 16, iii. 1, 2). Equally united are they in testifying that the Church of Christ belongs no longer to Israel as a nation, but that it is gathered from among both Jews and Gentiles to be a holy nation and a peculiar people unto God (1 Pet. ii. 9, 10 ; Eom. ix. 24-33 ; 2 ,Cor. vi. 16 ; Tit. ii. 14) (17). It is the true Israel of God (Gal. vi. 1 6 ; Eom. ix. 6-8), the true seed of Abraham (Eom. iv. 16, 17; Gal. iii. 7, 29, iv. 28); therefore the promises made to the Israel of the Old Testament are Messianic Prophecy and N. T. Fulfilment. 185 regarded as theirs, and find fulfilment in them (Eom. ix. 25, 26 ; 2 Cor. vi. 2, 16-18 ; Gal. iv. 27). That the entrance of Jew and Gentile into the New Testa- ment Church established no sort of difference in their enjoyment of the blessings of salvation, but introduced the former heathen as feUow-citizens with the saints and fellow-heirs of the promises given to the seed of Abraham, is often expressly taught by the Apostle Paul (Eom. iii. 29-31, x. 12 ; 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; Gal. iii. 28, 29, vi. 15 ; Eph. ii. 11-22 ; Col. iii. 11). In this full recognition of the equality of the Gentiles with the Jews in their relation to Christ and to God, and in their enjoyment of the blessings of salvation in con- nection witTi the com'plete abolition of the Israelitish cha- racter of the kingdom of God, consists the new know- ledge of which the apostle speaks (Eph. iii. 5) as not having been in possession of former generations, namely, the entry of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God, their national fellowship with Israel and en- joyment of the blessings of salvation, realized through Israel their special possessor (is). With this unequi- vocal evidence of the ISTew Testament, the notion of the mediatorial priestly function of Israel when con- verted is in no way reconcilable. On the other hand, it does not exclude the idea that, without prejudice to this equality, Israel as a nation may take a high position in the perfected kingdom of Christ. It is not without foundation that the relation of Jew and Gentile has been compared to that existing between man and wife (19). But then the New Testament should 186 Messianic Prophecy. bear witness to this abiding feature of the Jewish nation as distinctly as it does to the equality between Jew and Gentile. Naturally such testimony might be expected in its prophetic book, the Apocalypse; but we look for it in vain. In distinction from the innumer- able multitude of conquerors from all the nations of the earth, there are the 144,000 servants of God chosen out of the twelve tribes of Israel who had been preserved in the preceding judgments, and who were to enter as victors into the kingdom of glory (Eev. vii, 4-9) ; but in the representations given of the kingdom of God in the last stages of its development, and espe- cially in the statements respecting the millennium, the distinction between Israel and the Gentiles dis- appears ; nor is there any mention of the conversion of the former. Prophecy turns to the consideration of the kingdom of Christ in its heavenly completeness, drawing its imagery from Jerusalem, the ten tribes, and many features of Israelitish prosperity and great- ness. The assertion that this obvious omission may be supplied from the Old Testament is without value, except as an admission of the fact for which we plead (20). For it is in itself a decisive proof that the seer who took his stand on " biblical realism," and be- lieved in the fulfilment of the promises of a faithful God, could not have understood Old Testament prophecy to give prominence to so important a matter as the re-establishment of the Israelitish nation in its former central position in the kingdom of God. But what cannot be found in the Apocalypse may be discovered Messianic Fro'phmj and N. T. Fulfilment. 187 in the writings of the apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. xi. 25-36, with which compare ver. 15) (21). Here it is tancrht in the clearest manner, that the rejec- tion of Israel wiU only continue until the fulness of the Gentiles is gathered in, and that then all Israel will be converted and saved. Here we have for unbelieving Israel a prediction fuU of hope, and we find it sustained and strengthened by an appeal to a promise given to Old Testament Israel, which opens a prospect of complete forgiveness, declares that the Jews should be " beloved for the fathers' sakes," and that God would not recall His gracious bestow- ments and His call to salvation (Isa. lix. 20, 21, xxvii. 9). In fact, according to the testimony of the apostle, Israel's election and the promises given re- main in force with respect to the rejected people, and that they have not forfeited for ever their natural claim to the kingdom at first founded among them and for them, and will at last come into their in- heritance. But we must beware of putting into the text what it was never intended to contain. There can be no doubt that the apostle speaks of Israel as a whole ; but the elevation of the Israelitish nation- ality, its reorganization into a magnificent and united people with all its peculiarities, is not in the words Tra? 'lapariK. He discourses also of the regrafting of the Israelites into the kingdom of God, of their salvation, and their renewed enjoyment of the divine favour; but he says nothing of their saving mission in the history of the future, nothing of their central position 188 Messianic Prophecy. in the kingdom of God, nothing of any special grandeur by which they were to be distinguished, and nothing whatever of their re-assembling in the Holy Land, and the re-establishment of the Israelitish king- dom (22). In this connection it is worthy of notice also that the apostle refers to those predictions which give to Israel not the prospect of political exaltation, but that of pardon and the enjoyment of God's grace. To whom, indeed, could the Jews stand in a prophetic and priestly relation ? The apostle places their con- version and restoration precisely at the period when the fulness of the Gentiles has heen gathered in (23). So little did he know of a saving mission to be discharged by Israel to the nations, that he regards the manifesta- tion of divine mercy to the latter as the means where- by the former is converted and made a partaker of the same precious grace (Eom. xi. 14, 31). Mani- festly, this restoration is of such a nature as will agree with the saying, "and the first shall be the last," and depends, as ver. 32 clearly shows, upon the final universality of the blessings of salvation, only that for Israel this hope, on account of its election and the promises given to it, has special consolation (24). The election and the promises remain in force so far as they guarantee that Israel shall not, on account of its rebellion, be rejected for ever, that the salvation of Christ shall not be iiTevocably refused by them, but that at last they will be partakers of its blessings. In this chapter there is no preference over believing Gentiles promised to the Jews (25). The New Testa- Messiank PropUcy and N. T. FuljUraent. 1 8 9 n>ent justifies and demands that we should distinguish Z the predictions of the prophets concerning the future 1^ o srael in its own land, hetween Old Testament conTeption and the eternal thoughts of dmne mer y Id tlis view of the case has been in ^^^^ origin of the world's Saviour, in the organic histon al onUion of the I^ew Testament People of God w h Israel, in the preservation of Israel's "g" ^ ^ J^ ance to salvation, confirmed as corresponding to the nf rod And so far as these predictions the new covenant and tiie woia S:S SeTaeUtlsh Mngdom in the latter times has i s Lnely intended reference to the future grea^ n s of t^e Church of Christ, the New Testament people ^rcod and the fact that prophecy presents this pro- el J tre gaze of the Israelites is^t the md Testa- ment drapery which clothes the divine idea (26). Th vTew'much advocated in modern times, but hy no means w 11 established, that the Davidic descent o Slit wiU not stand before a critical examination of the evan