PROPHECY, PROPHETS

early stage of national development. And Israel itself waa so intractable and unfaithful, and the gap between pro-fession and practice was so painfully obvious, that the gaze of the people was ever fixed on the future. Sometimes the prospect was held out of a regenerated city, sometimes of an ideal temple and its worship, sometimes the idea prevailed of a clearer manifestation of God Himself in the midst of His people, sometimes expectation pointed to a Ruler who would embody all the qualities of righteousness, wisdom, and power which had been so conspicuously lacldng in many monarchs of the Davidic line. Sometimes material considerations figured most largely in the pictures of the future; — the fruitfulness of the lajid. abundance of com and wine and oil; sometimes a promise filled the air like musiC[ of an unprecedented peace which should bless the often invaded and always more or less disturbed country: sometimes a broad landscape picture waa drawn of the extensive dominion and influence which Israel should exercise over the nations around. And it is obviously undesirable that forecasts which contain a mor« directly personal refer-ence should be separated from these others with which they were closely connected in the prophets' thoughts, especially as closer examination has tended to reduce the number of passages which may be described as directly Messianic. A few central ideas lay at the heart of the whole. The Cove-nant which bound together God and His people, the City in which He made His abode, the Temple hallowed by His presence, the Kingdom in which His law should prevail and His will be always done, were never very far from the minds of the ancient seers. Correspondingly, the Jew anticipated, and the prophet foretold, the coming of the ideal King who would dwell in the City and at the head of the Kingdom, the ideal Priest of the Temple, the ideal Prophet to declare the Divine puriioses completely, and cement the Divine Covenant so that it should never again be broken. Brooding over the whole was the thought of the Divine Presence, which in the future was to oe a Theophany indeed.

It was only in the 2nd cent. B.C. that the term ' Messiah' became the focus in which all these rays were centralized. In the OT books the word is used as an epithet of the king, 'Jehovah's anointed'; it is used of Cyrus, a heathen prince, in Is 45"- ; possibly, though improbably. It may be understood as a proper name in Dn 9^; whilst some would find in Ps 2 an almost unique use of the word to designate the Ideal Prince of the house of David who should rule all the nations with unparalleled and illimit-able sway. But if the term ' Messiah,' standing alone to designate a unique ofhce, appears comparatively late in Jewish history, a less clearly defined idea of a personal Ruler and Deliverer pervaded the national thought for centuries before. The terms (1) 'Son ot David,' pointing to a ruler ot the Davidic line, together with 'Branch' or ' Shoot,' with the same connotation; (2) ' Son of Man,' applied in OT to Ezekiel and others, sometimes indicating man in his frailty, but sometimes man as God intended him to be; and (3) 'Son of God,' indicating the nation Israel, Israel's judges and Israel's king, alike representing the Most High upon earth — all helped to prepare the way for the idea of a Messiah who should, in an undefined and unimaginable way, unite the excellences of the whole in His person. (4) One other name, such as would not have occurred to the earlier prophets, appears freely in Second Isaiah; and, as the event proved, in-fluenced subsequent thought to an unexpectedly profound degree — the ' Servant of Jehovah ' as Sufferer and Saviour. It was along these lines and others kindred to them which have not been named, that the preparation was made by the prophets for the coming of Israel's true Deliverer. When all are put together, it will be seen that 11, the number of passages referring directly to the ^ Messiah by name is unexpectedly small, the number which prepared the thoughts of the people for His Advent is exceedingly large, and these are so various in their character that it might well have seemed Impossible that they should aU be realized in one Person.

It is quite Impossible here to survey this vast field even In outline. But one point must not be lost sight of — the distinction between those prophecies which are directly and those which are only indirectly Messianic. When the meaning of the prophet's words is obviously

PROPHECY, PROPHETS

too lofty to be applied in any sense to a mere earthly kingdom, or where the context necessitates it, we may assume that the prophet's eyes were fixed, not on his contemporaries but on the far distance, and the period ot the Consummation tor which it was needful long to wait. But where the mention of local and temporal conditions or ot human imperfections and limitations makes it clear that the immediate reference ot a passage is to the prophet's own times, whilst yet his glance shoots at intervals beyond them, there the words are only indirectly Messianic, and a typical significance is found in them. That is, the same ideas or principles are Illustrated in the earlier as in the later dispensation, but in an interior degree; the points ot similarity and differ-ence varying in their relative proportions, so that a person or an event or an institution under the Old Covenant may more or less dimly foreshadow the com-plete realization of the Divine purpose yet to come. The type may be described as a prophetic symbol.

The line between typical and directly prophetic passages is not always easy to draw. For example, it may be debated in what sense Pss 2. 8. 16. 45. 72 and others are 'Messianic,' the probability being that in every case the primary thought ot the Psalmist was occupied with the history that he knew, though his words in each case soared beyond their immediate occasion. So the language ot Is 53 — which tor centuries has been understood by Christian interpreters to refer directly to a suffering Messiah — is now understood by some of the best Christian scholars as referring at least in the first instance to faithful Israel. An ideal per-sonification of Israel, i.e., identified with the nation yet distinct from it, is represented as the true servant of God carrying out His purposes for the national purification, even through persecution, suffering, and death. Opinions may well differ as to whether this interpretation is adequate. But it must be borne in mind in any case that in the prophets we do find a remarkable combina-tion ot two features — a wide outlook into the future implying preternatural insight, and very marked limita-tions ot vision derived from the ideas of the times in which they lived. The object of the student of Messianic prophecy is to examine the relations between these two elements; and to show how out ot the midst ot compara-tively narrow ideas, determined by the speaker's political and historical environment, there arose others, lofty, wide, and comprehensive, with ' springing and germinant accomplishments,' and thus the Spirit ot Christ which was in the prophets ' testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them.'

When we inquire conceiningthefulfilment of prophecy, it is necessary to distinguish between (1) what the prophet meant by his words in the first instance, accord-ing to their plainest and simplest interpretation; (2) any realization, more or less imperfect, ot his utter-ances in Israelitish history; (3) any more complete realization of them which may have taken place in Christ and Christianity, considered as the Divinely appointed 'fulfilment' ot Judaism; and (4) any ap-propriate application of the prophetic words which may be made in subsequent generations in further illustration ot the principles laid down. It there be a wise and gracious God who orders all the events ot human history, it He inspired the OT prophets to declare His will for some centuries before Christ, it the climax ot His selt-revelation was reached in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and if He is still working out His purposes of righteous love among the nations ot the modern world, it is to be expected that the declara-tions of the prophets will receive many 'fulfilments,' many of them much wider, deeper, and more significant than the prophets themselves could possibly understand. But the meaning of the original words as first uttered should first of all be studied without any reference to subsequent events. Then the nature ot the connexion between OT and NT should be clearly understood, and

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