PROPHECY,
PROPHETS
with
the
sword
'
—
the
object
of
such
vaticinations
being
pre-eminently
moral,
to
bring
the
people
to
such
a
state
of
mind
that
the
threatened
evils
mi^ht
be
averted.
The
value
of
such
an
institution
m
any
State
is
obvious.
J.
S.
Mill
describes
it
as
an
'inestimably
precious'
feature,
that
'the
persons
most
eminent
in
genius
and
moral
feeling
could
reprobate
with
the
authority
of
the
Almighty,
and
give
a
higher
and
better
interpretation
of
religion,
which
henceforth
became
a
part
of
'that
religion.'
The
power
of
the
prophet
has
been
compared
to
the
modem
liberty
of
the
press.
"The
comparison
is^
sadly
inadequate,
for
at
best
the
press
represents
the
highest
current
of,
public
opinion,
whilst
it
was
one
of
the
chief
duties
of
the
prophet
to
rebuke
public
opinion
in
the
light
of
higher
truth,
wnich
he
discerned
as
from
a
mountain
top
whilst
all
the
valley
below
lay
in
darkness.
That
the
ethical
standard
was
maintained
in
Israel
as
high
as
it
was,
and
that
the
Jews
were
the
most
progressive
people
of
antiquity,
and
con-jointly
with
the
Greeics
have
so
strongly
influenced
modem
culture,
is
due
mainly
to
the
prophets.
Religious
teaching
was
closely
connected
with
the
ethical.
The
prophet
would
not
permit
any
severance
of
these
two
elements.
The
explanation
of
the
freedom
and
beauty
of
the
moral
lite
on
which
they
insisted
was
that
it
was
not
inculcated
as
a
code,
but
as
a
service
rendered
to
a
holy
and
gracious
God.
The
people
were
to
offer
the
kind
of
service
with
which
He
would
be
pleased;
hence
the
higher
their
conceptions
of
God
were
raised,
the
higher
also
became
their
standard
of
conduct.
'The
prophets
of
the
8th
cent.
B.C.
are
some-times
described
as
the
first
teachers
of
ethical
mono-theism,
but
this
position
it
would
be
difficult
to
establish.
That
the
standard
of
the
people
had
sunk
sadly
below
that
of
the
revelation
granted
them
is
certain,
and
that
the
prophets
not
only
recalled
them
to
their
duty,
but
raised
their
very
conceptions
of
Deity,
is
practically
certain.
But
Amos,
the
first
of
the
writing
prophets,
appealed
to
a
conscience
and
a
God-consciousness
already
developed,
and
his
rebukes
presuppose
the
knowledge
of
one
holy
God,
and
do
not
inculcate
the
doctrine
for
the
first
time.
Both
he
and
Hosea
press
home
the
duty^
of
the
people
to
return
to
the
God
they
had
forsaken;
sometimes
sternly,
sometimes
with
tender
and
pathetic
pleading:
'O
Ephraim,
what
shall
I
do
unto
thee?
Thou
art
graven
on
the
palms
of
my
hands.'
The
worst
feature
of
the
wickedness
of
the
times
lay
in
the
unfaithfulness
of
Israel
to
the
God
who
had
bound
His
people
to
Him
by
the
closest
ties,
and
their
disobedience
is
described
as
infidelity
to
a
spiritual
marriage
vow.
The
prophets
strove
and
urged
and
remonstrated,
'rising
up
early'
and
pleading
that
they
might
win
the
heart
of
the
people
back
to
God,
sure
that
thus,
and
thus
only,
a
basis
could
be
secured
for
a
permanently
upright
national
and
individual
character.
From
this
point
of
view
their
words
can
never
grow
obsolete.
As
to
the
predictive
element
in
prophecy,
it
may
be
discerned
on
every
page,
but
it
is
not
of
the
'fortune-telling'
order.
Most
of
the
predictions
refer
to
national
events,
in
Israel
or
surrounding
nations.
Some
of
these
enter
into
detail,
as
in
the
overthrow
of
Ahab
at
Ramoth-gilead
foretold
by
Micaiah
(1
K
22^),
and
the
failure
of
Sennacherib's
expedition
announced
by
Isaiah.
Others
threaten
in
a
more
general
way
that
punishment
will
follow
disobedience,
this
strain
becoming
ever
sterner
and
more
pronounced
as
time
advanced.
These
dark
presages
were
fulfilled
in
the
case
of
the
Northern
Kingdom
in
the
8th
cent.
B.C.;
and
afterwards
when
Judah
refused
to
take
the
warning,
her
calamities
culminated
in
the
capture
and
overthrow
of
Jerusalem.
The
prophets,
however,
are
able
to
take
a
wider
outlook,
their
penetrating
gaze
extends
to
the
more
distant
future.
This
feature
is
so
closely
blended
with
the
last,
that
it
is
sometimes
hard
to
distinguish
the
two.
It
is
the
habit
of
the
prophets
to
pass
immediately
and
without
warning
from
the
nearer
to
the
further
horizon,
and
the
question
perpetually
recurs
—
Of
whom,
of
what
period,
speaketh
the
prophet
this?
That
their
PROPHECY,
PROPHETS
power
of
foresight
was
akin
to
the
moral
insight
which
other
exceptionally
gifted
persons
have
possessed,
enabling
them
within
limits
to
forecast
the
future,
may
be
admitted.
But
no
parallel
has
been
found
in
any
other
nation
to
the
phenomena
of
Hebrew
prophecy,
especially
in
the
continuous
succession
of
men
carrying
on
the
same
remarkable
work
for
generations.
Many
critics
seek
to
eliminate
the
element
of
the
supernatural
from
prophecy.
But,
whilst
it
may
be
granted
that
many
prophecies
were
not
fulfilled
because
they
were
given
with
a
condition
stated
or
implied,
and
that
the
poetical
language
of
many
others
never
was
literally
fulfilled,
or
intended
to
be
so,
there
remain
a
con-siderable
number
of
national
predictions
which
were
fulfilled
in
a
very
remarkable
manner,
especially
when
we
bear
in
mind
that
they
ran
directly
counter
to
the
prejudices
of
the
times
and
were
sometimes
uttered
at
the-
risk
of
very
life
to
the
daring
messenger
himself.
A
candid
examination
of
the
whole
conditions
of
the
case
must
lead
to
the
admission
of
a
supernatural
power
and
knowledge
in
Hebrew
prophecy—
quite
apart
from
the
Messianic
element,
which
will
be
considered
separately.
The
attempts
to
explain
this
away
have
failed.
The
prophetic
power
was
not
exceptional
political
shrewd-ness,
not
the
mere
sanguine
expectation
of
enthusiasts,
or
the
gloomy
foreboding
of
convinced
pessimists;
it
was
not
like
the
second-sight
of
the
Highlander,
the
effect
of
excitement
upon
a
highly
'sensitive
temperament;
nor,
as
rationalism
teaches,
can
all
predictions
be
explained
on
the
vaticinia
post
eventum
principle,
sis
history
written
after
the
event.
On
the
other
hand,
supernatural
enlightenment
and
direction
must
be
included,
whilst
it
may
be
freely
admitted
with
Tholuck
that
the
pre-dictions
were
for
the
most
part
'not
of
the
accidental,
but
of
the
religiously
necessary,'
that
they
were
mostly
general,
sometimes
hypothetical,
consistent
with
the
freedom
of
the
persons
addressed,
and
that
while
they
contain
what
some
call
'failures,'
in
broad
outline
they
reflect
with
wonderful
accuracy
and
force
the
word
of
God
in
relation
to
the
principles
and
progress
of
human
history.
4.
Messianic
prophecy
and
its
fulfilment.
—
It
was
inevitable
that
teachers
so
commissioned
by
God
to
declare
His
will
should
take
a
wider
range.
Theirs
was
emphatically
a
message
of
hope
—
they
were
sent
to
prepare
the
way
for
a
brighter
future.
Hence
we
find
them
passing,
by
rapid
and
almost
insensible
gradations,
from
immediate
to
far
distant
issues,
and
descriptions
of
a
Final
Consummation
are
blended
with
their
very
practical
teaching
as
to
present
duty.
In
later
Judaism
these
prospects
of
coming
national
felicity
gathered
round
the
term
Messiah,
the
Anointed
One,
used
to
designate
a
coming
Deliverer,
through
whose
instrumen-tality
the
glories
of
the
future
age
were
to
be
realized.
Christians
believe
that
Jesus
of
Nazareth
claimed
to
be,
and
was,
the
promised
Messiah
of
the
Jews,
and
the
name
'
Messianic
prophecy
'
has
been
given
to
predictions
which
refer
directly
to
the
ideal
personage
of
whose
coming
the
prophets
were
the
heralds.
But
this
narrower
meaning
of
the
phrase
is
for
several
reasons
unsatisfactory.
In
the
first
place,
'Messiah'
is
not
a
recognized
OT
term
for
this
Deliverer;
it
may
be
questioned
whether
the
word
is
once
used
in
this
sense.
Further,
there
is
a
great
body
of
prophetic
utterances
which
belong
to
the
'
Messianic'
era,
though
no
mention
is
made
of
a
personal
King
or
Saviour.
And
from
the
Christian
point
of
view,
the
preparation
for
the
coming
of
Christ
was
very
various:
many
prophecies
are
believed
to
find
direct
ful-filment
in
Him,
in
which
neither
the
name
nor
the
idea
of
a
personal
Messiah
occurs;
hence
'
Messianic
prophecy
'
is
now
generally
understood
to
mean
all
the
OT
promises
which
refer
to
the
final
accomplishment
of
God's
purposes
for
the
nation
and
the
world.
The
whole
OT
religion
is
one
of
hope.
God's
promises
made
to
His
people
were
too
large,
the
ideal
descriptions
of
their
pnvileges
were
too
lofty,
to
find
full
reaUzation
at
any
