In particular the historical method may seem to take away from us much of that personal element which has connected the Old Testament directly with the Christ of the New. As we put these sayings, ideals, events, in their historical relations, and, in company with the prophets and heroes, we look forward and compel ourselves to see the future in the hazy, suggestive, indistinct twilight before the sunrise, it will follow that what today seems to have pointed to Christ had in its historical position and reference a different or general application. The historic Jesus was not in their thoughts, whatever of fulness and definiteness his historical existence may have thrown back upon the inner meaning of the promises and the divine purpose in them.¹

But in spite of what may seem at first a narrowing of the richness and attraction of the theme by the rigid insistence upon the historical method, there are compensations which outweigh all these seeming disadvantages. (1) In this light chiefly is the Old Testament seen as a living thing and the Old Testament history as reality. What we desire above all things else in Bible study is to come face to face with reality. These prime facts of God's dealing with men in his purpose of salvation for them are seen in their growing, in their actual progress in history among men.

Therefore (2) we gain a better understanding of their meaning. For to be able to trace the successive steps in the realization of an event is to gain the only proper and satisfactory insight into its character. The preparation for Christ was in history; to history, therefore, must we go, and with history must we advance, if we would understand this preparation.

(3) There can be no question but that our conviction of the broad, all-inclusive, and pervasive power of Christianity as a world force in politics, in society, in literature and in life will be strengthened as we follow out this more general foreshadowing of the larger Christ as he appears in Hebrew history and thought. We are bound to gain a larger view of the divine activity and purpose, foreshadowing something of the apostolic view of Christ, the permanent significance of Christianity, and thus a conception more satisfying, because more real, of the essential unity of the Old and the New Testaments.

Such a study as is here suggested demands patience, courage, and insight. The student must seek the guidance of the divine Spirit who pervaded the history and literature of Israel, to enable him properly and successfully to pursue this work.

I. THE PRE-MOSAIC FORESHADOWINGS.

The Book of Genesis contains the fine gold of primitive Hebrew tradition sifted, refined by generations of inspired students of Jehovah's will. It presents some difficult problems to one who seeks in it the historical foreshadowings of the Messiah. The literary character of the book involves the first problem. It is a composite. The book is made up of materials from many sources, ancient poetry, prophecy, history, coming from various authors, put together long after the events which it records.

The historical question is also one of extreme difficulty. The form of the book is conditioned by elements which belong to later periods the understanding of which depends upon our apprehension of the social and religious atmosphere in which they are produced. How far can we recognize in this material thus gathered, thus modified, thus refined, actual preservation of definite historical facts and details? The book as it stands is a great sermon intended to teach supreme lessons of divine wisdom and justice and love. How far is the historical method applicable to this material? In fine, the book is the work of prophets who had before them a great mass of primitive tradition which the Hebrew people cherished concerning the beginnings of the world and man, the early movements of peoples, and the origins of their own nation. All these materials are sifted, organized, interpreted, and idealized under the influence of the religious conceptions and aspirations of later ages, in which the religious education and divine guidance of Israel's teachers had passed beyond the elementary stage. It is from this point of view that our pre-Mosaic material must be studied,—as an interpretation rather than a record of the past.

1. The ideal conception of man and his destiny.—Gen. 1:26-30. This sublime picture is the condition of all prophecy and of all history as under special divine guidance and as a ground of hope. What is it that is here promised?

a. Man's nature is godlike. The essential being of man is identical with that of his Creator.

b. The purpose of his creation is that he may become the lord of the world. The proper translation of the second clause in vs. 26 is not "let them" but "that they may have dominion over," etc.

c. This lofty purpose is to be accomplished by the human race; it is "the gradual taking possession of a kingdom given to mankind by God."²

Let us try to realize what this ideal conception involves; what hope lies within it. The man to whom it was revealed and who uttered it was conscious in himself that mankind had not yet attained unto it, that the attainment was far distant. In his utterance there lies the inspired thought of a glorious future, that man is designed for something infinitely beyond what he has yet attained; that he was born to be a king; that he was intended by nature for companionship with God, and that these fundamental purposes, because divine, shall ultimately be realized. This sublime prophecy, therefore, is the basis and foundation of all that is to follow. The purpose and the progress of salvation is made possible because of this primal fact.

2. The hope unquenched by sin.—Gen. 3:14, 15. These verses disclose a very different picture. The writer is one who stands in the midst of the plainest and saddest facts of human life, facts which demand from him an interpretation and explanation. These are the essential facts of human sin, human birth and human death, waywardness from God, the coming of the individual into the world through the agony of the mother, his struggle for existence, his labor and sorrow, and his passing away in spite of all resistance and struggle. Under the divine guidance the prophet has given us his interpretation, and through the interpretation he has risen to a higher sphere. Out of it he has drawn glorious hope, sublime inspiration for the future. What is his explanation, and what is his hope?

a. Everything returns for its solution to man's disobedience toward God. The birth-pangs of the mother and her sorrows, man's conflict with the soil for the means of existence, the horror of death, are the results of the divine displeasure against the fall of the race from its fidelity toward its Creator. This is the fountain of sin.

b. Sin is not originally natural to humanity. Man struggles against it. There is enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

c. Observe that all is general. It is humanity that is in the eye of the seer.

d. How, or where, or when this struggle shall culminate he does not say. To him it is in its principle and essence an undying and unending struggle.

e. Man shall ultimately conquer—not without suffering, not without pain. The head of the serpent shall be crushed, though the heel be bruised.

What a picture of the history of humanity is given in the writer's portrayal of the fundamental perplexities of human life! What an insight into essential causes! What a sublime hope and inspiration is added in his prophecy of victory over difficulty, of the final solution of this terrific problem!

3. The hope of comfort.—Gen. 5:29. The fundamental problems of individual human life, sin, and death, have given occasion to the first sublime picture of hope and victory. But there are other problems that concern society which pressed with equal weight upon the heart of the prophetic narrator. The two extremes of social organization disclosed in nomadic life, on the one hand, and the gathering of masses of men into cities, on the other, war and its attendant evils, polygamy, murder, sensuous pleasures, around all of which the material of tradition gathered, must be interpreted and presented by the prophet, their secret grasped, their riddle solved. To the Israelite in his quiet, agricultural life quite barren of excitement and simple in its pleasures, the rich and varied life of the city seems to be a departure from the true principles of society, and to bring with it a train of evil consequences. To him they appear as the concomitants of a sinful development. So the picture is given of the progress of the Cainite line, in the invention of weapons of war and instruments of music, in the practice of polygamy, in the first murder, all exhibited in the spirit of revenge and pride condensed in the song of Lamech.

Over against this dark panorama the narrator presents another and more hopeful prospect. Another son of our first parents is the progenitor of a line culminating in one who is to introduce a new era, and about whom therefore cluster the divine assurances of hope and peace. The line of Seth is conspicuous for Enoch, who walked with God, and for Noah, who is to be the comfort of his race. With him is the new beginning. He is one who obeys God in the face of the disobedience of all other men. He is the comforter who gives to humanity the opportunity to breathe again. In Noah the prophet presents his own idea of social life and normal activity, as over against the corrupt practices of the Cainite civilization. It is as an agriculturist that Noah is to bring comfort to man. He is to till the soil, to win the victory over the stubborn earth, which is involved in the curse. As he comes forth from the ark the promise is given that the earth shall henceforth yield her fruit in her season to him. He, according to the prophet, is a type of a true citizen of the world and son of God, in that he is no wild nomad, nor does he live in a city. He has no weapons of war. He is a husbandman who wins for man the prize of earth's fruitfulness, and particularly the blessed gift of the vine. Thus in him is seen a prophecy of one element in the final victory over evil, the ideal of a true civilization, the subjection of earth to man.

4. The hope of divine indwelling in Shem.—Gen. 9:25-27. The victory of Noah was his undoing. He yielded to that which he conquered. The fruit of the vine tempted him to a fall, the consequences of which involved his descendants. The strange story of Genesis 9: 20-23 is made the occasion of the utterance of an oracle of wide-reaching import. Its words run into the forms of Hebrew ethnography of the prophet's own time. There is no little difficulty in the interpretation of this oracle, especially of the passage, "And let him dwell in the tents of Shem." Does the pronoun refer to Japheth or to Jehovah? If the former, the words proclaim the ultimate ascendancy of Japheth over Shem, or at least his inheritance in the blessings that gather about the Shemite religion. If the latter, it would be a repetition of the promise of the former verse, only in a more detailed form. Jehovah is to be not only the God of Shem, but is to dwell in his tents. The latter view is more satisfactory. The importance of all this is (1) that now for the first time Jehovah is to dwell with men. He is to reveal himself among them. The hope of the Divine Advent appears. (2) This advent is selective. He is the God of a family. Intimate knowledge of him is assured from personal contact and communion to this particular people. Among all men he has chosen where he will appear and dwell.

5. The hope of the national home and glory.—Gen. 12: 1-3; 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 27:27-29. The Hebrew traditions respecting Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are much more local and limited in their character, but for that very reason are clearer and fuller. Jehovah is the tribal God of these clans, and the oracles and experiences center about his particular relations to them.

The student should first of all observe that the background of the whole picture is the nomadic life of the patriarchs. They have no settled home. They move to and fro. To the prophetic narrator and interpreter this mode of existence, as we have already seen, appears unsatisfactory. He feels, therefore, a fundamental imperfection in the lives of these heroes which gives color and character to the whole representation. It is through their wandering life that they fall into sin, are caught in difficulties, and come to conflicts with the inhabitants. Their lives are made uneasy, fraught with questionings and fears thereby. As nomads they cannot achieve the fulfilment of the divine will.

But the insight of the prophet enables him out of this dark background to exalt the divine purpose of Jehovah in relation to his future people, and from this to pass to Messianic foreshadowings. His interpretation of the events and oracles gathers about the outlook for the national home and its future glory.

(1) The three heroes become champions of faith, Abraham the foremost. God made him a wanderer. He must separate from all former associations, home and kindred. He has reached mature life before this decision is made. Isaac and Jacob, however, are selected before birth, and, like him, continue in the line which he has established. With him, therefore, is a new beginning in the prophet's mind unlike all that precedes, conditioned and characterized by faith and hope. These heroes embody the highest characteristics of the future people. They foreshadow the great personalities who from time to time shall glorify the nation, represent Jehovah, and point forward to a greater One than they all.

(2) The land through which the patriarchs wandered is of divine selection. It extends as far as the eye can reach. It is a land of fertility and richness beyond compare, a gift of God designed of him to receive and nourish the nation when its day of settlement and peace shall come.

(3) And this nation is to be one of wide extent and influence. In this favored land it shall grow into a great multitude. It shall be a ruling nation, and as others stand related to it is their destiny determined. A curse or a blessing lies in its attitude toward those about it. Many shall there be who shall bless themselves by reason of sharing in the blessing which its favor confers.

6. The hope of a future victorious ruler.—Gen. 49:1, 8-12. As the former oracle concerned the relation of the nation to those without, so this oracle has to do with the internal affairs of the future nation. It is still more limited and local in its scope. From among the clans one tribe, Judah, is honored, and his ultimate superiority and permanent authority proclaimed. He is the protagonist of the nation. The exaltation is first to victorious warfare which he wages as leader among his brethren. This warfare secures permanently the national heritage. When the victory is gained he rests like a lion in his lair, enjoying the prey. His rule is to be increasingly successful and glorious "until Shiloh come." Whatever the particular meaning of this enigmatic phrase may be,³ the essential thought is without doubt that his success shall continue until he controls all, until his sway is unhindered. Then, with all things in his hands, he rules in a land of marvelous resources, developed to its highest point of prosperity, over the submissive peoples.

If the student, at the close of this study of pre-Mosaic foreshadowings, will now endeavor to gather up and organize the separate materials furnished by each picture, several points may be suggested.

(a) Separate oracles and fragments of tradition have been wrought by the insight of the narrator into an organism with closely related parts, the whole moving" forward in historical progress. This is a marvelous conception of history realized by no other ancient people. The Hebrew seer looking back upon the past beholds it all under the guidance of Jehovah, who from the beginning has planned out the course of affairs. This Jehovah, God of Israel, is by him identified with the Creator of the world, the Lord of universal righteousness, the One dwelling among men, the friend and helper of his faithful servants everywhere, and who is working out his purposes of grace and redemption toward his creation. The process of divine selection is set in motion. Hopes are aroused. Promises are given. A land is chosen. A nation is constituted. A victorious leader is assured.

(b) Another idea appears beneath this organic view of primitive history. Its keynote is the idealism of the prophet. At the basis of his interpretation was the undying hope which rose above all the gloom of the present, which used the truth already attained to see more deeply into the future. In this ideal light he pictures the past, dim, uncertain and fragmentary as it is. Touching the supreme crises of the primitive history, it gives to them also a glow which beams down the ages and outshines even the realities of his own religious experience. It is this which makes these promises Messianic.

(c) The moral element in this picture is not its least striking characteristic. The victory which humanity is to win is not merely a victory over the stubborn earth, over the difficulties of social and political organization, and over all the sorrows, misfortunes, and insoluble enigmas of human life. Because all is traced back by him to a fundamental moral failure on the part of man, the victory is to be a moral one in the return to obedience to Jehovah, from whom man has fallen away. As this fall is to him the explanation of all other problems and difficulties and perplexities, so is the final deliverance and restoration the pledge of all lesser joys.

(d) Yet still deeper, interpenetrating all, is the thought of the eternal and omnipotent purpose and presence of Jehovah. Because Jehovah is here, the Jehovah who is the Creator of earth and man, who is the Lord of the natural and spiritual universe,-it is because of what he is that the victory is to be achieved. He enters into communion with man. He guards human destinies. His purposes control the affairs of men, and all to the end that righteousness and truth may prevail. Because of what he is, these hopes shall be realized. The land shall be conquered. The nation shall be born. The leaders shall come and shall lead. The world shall be subdued. Salvation shall be achieved.

(e) Have we not, then, gained some clearer idea, not merely of the meaning of these marvelous utterances and events, but also of the point of view and method of thought and action of the prophet ? He is the interpreter, resting upon the solid ground of religious experience, sensitive to Jehovah's touch. He applies his experience and insight to his own age and its problems as they appear, and in the application he rises to hopes and convictions unfelt before. In the same way he deals with the past, however fragmentary and fleeting its memorials. He interprets these meager memorials, arranges them, and reads into them his own grander ideas. In the light of his spiritual perceptions and his divinely communicated idealism, they are transfigured before us.

II. THE FORESHADOWINGS FROM THE MOSAIC AGE.

The nation of Israel, foretold for the prophetic narrator in the fragments of pre-Mosaic tradition, comes into existence in the midst of experiences which condition its character and future. The oppression in Egypt, with its humiliating burdens, the dawning hope of escape, the marvelous deliverance at the Red Sea, the discipline of the desert life, served to mold the unstable and imperfect mass into a new organization with specially defined characteristics. Greater than merely external circumstances and experiences, however, in its influence, was the effect produced by the presence of the great personality under whose direction and inspiration the passage from slavery to freedom took place. Moses was the founder of Israel, in that he united the tribal fragments and gave new meaning to ancient political and social institutions, so that a unique community came into being inspired by new motives.

The pervading principle which the organization in all its parts reflected was religious. All rested upon the recognition of Jehovah as Israel's God. But this conception took on new meaning and force because of the new light thrown by the inspired leader and prophet upon the character and purposes of their national deity in his covenant with them. Jehovah, God of Israel, is a God of righteousness and love. He requires obedience to his just and holy law. He delivers his people from their enemies. This was Moses' gospel, ratified at the Red Sea and on Sinai. On this foundation the Hebrew nation was built, and with this principle all its institutions were inspired. Centuries were to pass before the full meaning and issue of these thoughts were disclosed.

Into this field, so full of germinal forces and ideas, prophetic and priestly seers of later ages have gone, undertaking as before to interpret the larger significances of these events. The narrators belong to various periods of Israel's later history. They evince varying modes of religious insight, living, as they do, under very different conditions and interested in many different religious ideas. Their interpretation of this material, therefore, is marked by much variety, as they lay emphasis upon this or that aspect of the newly forming nation. The most important passages which illustrate the special subject fall under two general heads: (1) The outlooks of Israel among the nations; (2) the hopes of Israel's inner life.

1. Outlooks of Israel among the nations.—Numbers 24:17-19; Deut. 32:6-10; Ex. 19:3-6. These three passages all have to do with the relations which the new nation is to have with the peoples without.

a. A picture of Israel's royal place and power is given from the non-Israelitish seer Balaam, as he stands upon the heights of Moab overlooking the army of Israel below, and, rapt in ecstasy, beholds the far distant rising of a conquering king. Thus the certainty of its ultimate victory over all nations round about, and its proud position as lord of the world, are most impressively emphasized as from one outside of the circle of the chosen nation. The striking feature of the oracle is that the representation is individual. The unity of Israel, symbolized in a victorious leader, is vividly set forth. He bears the scepter of authority. His is the star of destined success.

b. The stanzas from an ancient poem which the Deuteronomic narrator has preserved interpret the prophetic insight of Moses into the peculiar relation of Israel to Jehovah. It is described as that of "Father" and "Son." In the light of this relationship the nation's past is viewed. Long before the son came the father determined, in view of his coming, the position and relations of the nations. The nation came into being in the desert. In the desert Jehovah took him up, protected and fostered him.

c. The priestly seer interprets another side of Israel's early life. To him both kingdom and priesthood had long been in existence. In the relation of Moses and the nation to Jehovah, as this came down to him from the early days, he saw the inner meaning of the national destiny from his own priestly point of view. To him the nation's opportunity was to become not merely a conquering people ruling the world, but, while occupying that regal place, to be a priestly people also, offering up acceptable worship unto Jehovah before the nations, if not even mediating in behalf of the nations before him. This destiny was in his sight not confined to any one body within the nation; it was the property of the entire people. To this end they must separate themselves unto God. They must draw near in obedience unto Jehovah. Theirs was a royal destiny, but royal because sacerdotal. They would rule in the higher sphere of the religious service of humanity.

2. Hopes of Israel's inner life.—Deut. 17:14-20; 18:15-19; Numbers 25:12-13. As these narrators interpreted the germs of Israel's relation to the world without, in view of what they felt to be its larger issues, so they saw in the elements of Israel's infancy the beginnings of higher institutions and the significance of these in the nation. Monarchy, prophecy, priesthood lie enwrapped in the Mosaic constitution.

a. Israel is to have a king in the fulness of time, and he is to be one whom Jehovah shall choose—one of his own people, a servant of Jehovah, pure and simple, free from pride, upright and just. These characteristics are set in contradistinction to those of the degenerate rulers of the prophet's own day. Such a line shall rule over Israel forever.

b. For the institution of prophecy how close a parallel and how suggestive a prospect is presented in the person of Moses himself, who is to his nation the bearer of the messages of Jehovah, the interpreter of the divine will, and the revealer of the higher possibilities of those germinant institutions which the tribes brought with them into the new nation. In him is the assurance that Jehovah will provide others like him.. The form of the oracle is individual. Whether the promise concerns an individual or an order cannot be decisively determined. In such a case the application is probably twofold. The narrator may reasonably be regarded as having in his mind not only a prophet of his own day who realized these characteristics in a special manner, but also the larger body of which he was a member. The essential features of the order upon which he lays emphasis are that the prophet should be one of his own people who brings to man with divine authority a message which he has himself received from Jehovah. They who reject his word must reckon with Jehovah himself.

c. The priestly narrator dwells upon the salvation of Israel from the righteous wrath of Jehovah through the timely action of the priest Phinehas. This act of "atonement " calls forth the divine assurance that there will never cease from Israel those who shall be priests unto Jehovah. For Israel the priesthood is of permanent significance. In its hands is the covenant with Jehovah, whereby peace is secured to the nation.

In gathering together these brief hints of the foreshadowings of the Mosaic period, some concluding suggestions should be taken into consideration and compared with those made regarding the teachings of the pre-Mosaic age.

(a) More definitely and convincingly than was possible in the former material is to be observed how back of the prophecy and promise lies the history conditioning their form and direction. This history, taken as the starting point, is worked into an ideal picture projecting itself thereby into and beyond the prophet's own time.

(b) The particular element in this idealization is to be regarded, in harmony with what has preceded, as the "manifest destiny" of the nation, evident from the beginning, before the beginning.

(c) The nation thus predestined is also "postdestined," that is, the beginning conditions and determines the conclusion. It is to be a permanent force in the world. Thus its various elements, appearing in germ at this time, are proclaimed as enduring. The institutions are to last "forever."

(d) The idealization here observed is explicable neither from the Mosaic age itself nor from the prophet's own times. Something must be allowed for oriental hyperbole, but it may be safely said that external circumstances were opposed to any such hope. It was cherished in spite of them. Whence did it come?

(e) It is perfectly evident that the picture of the future is based on the same faith in Jehovah's purpose and faithfulness which the pre-Mosaic age revealed.

(f) The moral sanity of the prophet is illustrated in his constant insistence upon the conditioning element of national righteousness. These glorious prospects are to be realized for an obedient and righteous people, faithful to Jehovah, God of justice and truth.

(g) One particular in which the history is seen to condition the picture lies in the fact that the outlook is external and political. The hopes are centered not so much about individuals as about orders, organizations, institutions. There is little that is internal, individual, spiritual. The Mosaic period was primarily the formative era of the national life and polity. The inner character and intent of the institutions, the higher spiritual realities they prepared, were secondary. Hence the wide atmosphere and the largeness of the outlook which characterized the material of the pre-Mosaic age are not so apparent here. Indeed, the nomadic life of the people could not but seem imperfect and unpleasant to the narrators. The whole period, in spite of its germinant elements, is beset with disaster, waywardness, and gloom. The great deliverance at the beginning is swallowed up in the weary wanderings and baffled designs of the forty years of desert life that followed. Only in connection with the beginning and end of the period do the brighter prospects appear and they are confined to the sphere of outward, organic, national life.