The Old Testament Messianic Hope
By H. P. Liddon
(1829-1890)
The
Messianic belief was interwoven with the deepest life of Israel. The
promises which formed and fed this belief are distributed along nearly the
whole range of the Jewish annals; while the belief rests originally upon
sacred traditions which carry us up to the very cradle of the human
family. It is important to inquire whether this general Messianic belief
included any definite convictions respecting the Being who was its object.
In the gradual unfolding of the Messianic doctrine three stages of
development may be noted within the limits of the Hebrew canon, and a
fourth beyond it: The Seed of the Woman; The Kingdom to David Forever;
Messianic Prophecy; and A Jewish Caesar Expected.
I. The “Seed of the Woman”
The
“seed
of the woman”
is to bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). With the lapse of years this
blessing is narrowed down to something in store for the posterity of Shem
(Gen. 9:26), and subsequently for the descendants of Abraham (Gen. 22:18).
In Abraham’s seed all the families of the earth are to be blessed.
Already within this bright but indefinite prospect of deliverance and
blessing we begin to discern the advent of a personal Deliverer. Paul
argues, in accordance with the Jewish interpretation, that “the seed” is
here a personal Messiah (Gal. 3:16); the singular form of the word
denoting His individuality.
The characteristics of this personal Messiah emerge gradually in
successive predictions. The dying Jacob looks forward to a Shiloh as One
to whom rightfully belongs regal and legislative authority (Gen. 49:10),
and to whom the obedient nations will be gathered. Balaam sings of the
Star that will come out of Jacob and the Scepter that will rise out of
Israel (Num. 24:17). This manifestly points to the glory and power of a
higher Royalty than David. Moses (Deut. 18:18-19) foretells a Prophet who
would in a later age be raised up from among the Israelites, like unto
himself. This Prophet accordingly was to be the Lawgiver, the Teacher, the
Ruler, the Deliverer of Israel.
II. Kingdom to David Forever
The second stage of the Messianic doctrine centers in the reigns of David
and Solomon. The promise of a kingdom to David and to his house forever (2
Sam. 7:16) could not be fulfilled by any mere continuation of his dynasty
on the throne of Jerusalem. It implied, as both David and Solomon saw,
some superhuman Royalty. The messianic psalms present us with a series of
pictures of this Royalty, each illustrating a distinct aspect of its
dignity, while all either imply or assert the divinity of the King.
In Psalm 2, for instance, Messiah is associated with the Lord of Israel as
His anointed Son. Messiah’s inheritance is to include all heathendom; His
Sonship is not merely theocratic or ethical,
but divine. All who trust in Him are blessed; all who incur His wrath must
perish with a sharp and swift destruction. This psalm is quoted from in
the first recorded prayer of the church (Acts 4:25-26), again in Paul’s
sermon at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:33), and
also in the argument which opens the Epistle of the Hebrews (Heb.
1:5 ; cf. Rom. 1:4).
Psalm 45 is a picture of the peaceful and glorious union of the King
Messiah with His mystical bride, the church of redeemed humanity. Messiah
is introduced as a divine King reigning among men. His form is of more
than human beauty; His lips overflow with grace; God has blessed Him
forever, and has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
Messiah Is Also Directly Addressed as God
He is viewed as seated upon an everlasting throne. Neither of these psalms
can be adapted without exegetical violence to the circumstances of
Solomon, or to any other king of ancient Israel; and the New Testament
interprets them as picturing the royal triumph of the one true King,
Messiah (Heb. 1:8).
In Psalm 72 the character and extent of this messianic sovereignty are
more distinctly pictured. The new kingdom reaches
“from sea to sea, and from the river
unto the ends of the earth”
(v. 8). It reaches from each frontier of the Promised Land to the remotest
regions of the known world in the opposite quarter. At the feet of its
mighty Monarch all who are most inaccessible to the arms or to the
influence of Israel hasten to tender their voluntary submission. The wild
sons of the desert, the merchants of Tarshish
in the then-distant Spain, the islanders of the Mediterranean, the Arab
chiefs, the wealthy Nubians, are foremost in proffering their homage and
fealty.
All Kings to Bow
Down to Him
But all kings are at last to fall down in submission before the Ruler of
the new kingdom; all nations are to do Him service. His empire is to be
coextensive with the world: it is also to be co-enduring with time. His
empire is to be spiritual; it is to confer peace on the world, by
righteousness. The King will Himself secure righteous judgment, salvation,
deliverance, and redemption to His subjects. The needy, the afflicted, the
friendless will be the special objects of His tender care. His Name will
endure forever; and men shall be blessed in Him to the end of time. This
King is immortal; He is also all-knowing and all-mighty. “Omniscience
alone can hear the cry of every human heart; Omnipotence alone can bring
deliverance to every human sufferer.”
David’s Son Is David’s Lord
In Psalm
110:1, David describes his great descendant Messiah as his “Lord” (cf.
Matt. 22:44). Messiah is sitting on the right hand of Jehovah as the
Partner of His dignity. He is to reign until His enemies are made His
footstool; He is Ruler now, even among His unsubdued
opponents. In the day of His power, His people offer themselves willingly
to His service. They are clad not in earthly armor, but
“in
the beauties of holiness.”
Messiah is Priest as well as King—an everlasting Priest of that older
order which had been honored by the father of the faithful. The Son of
David is David’s Lord because He is God; the Lord of David is David’s Son
because He is God Incarnate.
III. Messianic Prophecy
The third
period extends from the reign of Uzziah to the
close of the Hebrew Canon in Malachi. Here messianic prophecy expands into
the fullest details respecting Messiah’s human life, and mounts to the
highest assertions of His divinity. Isaiah is the richest mine of
messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. Messiah, especially designated as
“the Servant of God,” is the central figure in the prophecies of Isaiah.
Both in Isaiah and in Jeremiah the titles of Messiah are often and
pointedly expressive of His true humanity. He is the Branch of the Lord
(Isa. 4:2); He is the Rod out of the stem of
Jesse (Isa. 11:1); He is the Branch or Sprout
of David (Jer. 23:5; 33:15; Zech. 3:8; 6:12).
He is called by God from His mother’s womb (Isa.
49:1); God has put His Spirit upon Him (Isa.
42:1). He is anointed to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive (Isa.
61:1). He is a Prophet whose work is greater than that of any prophet of
Israel. Not merely will He come as a Redeemer to them that turn from
transgression in Jacob (Isa. 59:20; 49:6), He
is also given as a Light to the Gentiles, as the Salvation of God unto the
end of the earth. Such is His spiritual power as Prophet and Legislator
that He will write the law of the Lord, not upon tables of stone, but on
the heart and conscience of the true Israel.
In Zechariah He is an enthroned Priest, but it is the kingly glory of
Messiah which predominates throughout the prophetic representations of
this period, and in which His superhuman nature is most distinctly
suggested. According to Jeremiah the Branch of Righteousness, who is to be
raised up among the posterity of David, is a King who will reign and
prosper and execute judgment and justice in the earth. According to Isaiah
this expected King, the Root of Jesse,
“will stand for an ensign of the people.”
The Rallying–Point of
the World’s Hopes
He will be the
true center of its government:
“Kings
will see and arise, princes also will worship…kings will shut their mouths
at Him”
(Isa. 52:15). Righteousness, equity, justice,
and faithfulness will mark His administration. He will not judge after the
sight of His eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of His ears. Instead, He
will rely upon the infallibility of a perfect moral insight. Beneath the
shadow of His throne all that is by nature savage, proud, and cruel among
the sons of men will learn the habits of tenderness, humility, and love. “The
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with
the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a
little child shall lead them”
(Isa. 11:6-8).
“The
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the
sea”
(v. 9).
Daniel is taught that at the
“anointing of the Most Holy”–after
a defined period –God will
“finish the transgressions,”
and
“make an end of sins,”
and
“make reconciliation for iniquity,”
and
“bring in everlasting righteousness”
(Dan. 9:24).
Zechariah, too, especially points out the moral and spiritual
characteristics of the reign of King Messiah. The founder of an eastern
dynasty must ordinarily wade through blood and slaughter to the steps of
his throne, and must maintain his authority by force. But the daughter of
Jerusalem beholds her King coming,
“just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass.”
The King
“speaks peace unto the heathen”;
the
“battlebow is broken”;
and yet His dominion extends
“from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth”
(Zech. 9:9-10).
The Suffering Messiah
If Messiah reigns in Psalms 45 and 72, in harsh and apparent utter
contrast He suffers hugely in Psalm 22. His anguish has been described in
even greater detail by Isaiah. Both writers, however, confidently treat
the deepest humiliations and woes as the prelude to assured victory. The
psalmist passes from excruciating details of the crucifixion to a
declaration that by these sufferings the heathen will he converted, and
all the kindreds of the Gentiles will be
brought to adore the true God (Ps. 22:1-21).
The prophet describes the Servant of God as
“despised and rejected of men”
(Isa. 53). He bears our infirmities and
carries our sorrows; His wounds are due to our transgressions; His stripes
have a healing virtue for us. His sufferings and death are a
trespass-offering; on Him is laid the iniquity of all.
“His visage is so marred more than any man,
and His form more than the sons of men.”
Like a lamb, innocent, defenseless, dumb, He is led forth to the
slaughter.
“He is cut off from the land of the living.”
Yet the prophet pauses at His grave to note that He
“shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied,”
that God
“will divide Him a portion with the great,”
and that He will Himself
“divide the spoil with the strong.”
And all this is to follow
“because He hath poured out His soul unto death.”
His death is the destined instrument whereby He will achieve His
mediatorial reign of glory.
He Is Identified
with the Father
In Isaiah’s
great prophecy, the “Son” who is given to Israel receives a fourfold name:
He is a Wonder-Counselor, or Wonderful, above all earthly
beings; He possesses a nature which man cannot
fathom, and He thus shares and unfolds the divine Mind. He is the Father
of the everlasting age or of eternity. He is the Prince of Peace. Above
all, He is expressly named the Mighty God. Jeremiah calls Him
Jehovah
Tsidkenu,
as Isaiah had called Him Emmanuel. Micah speaks of His eternal
pre-existence as Isaiah had spoken of His endless reign. Daniel predicts
that His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away.
Zechariah terms Him the Fellow or Equal of the Lord of Hosts, and refers
to His incarnation and still more clearly to His passion as being that of
Jehovah Himself. Haggai implies His divinity by foretelling that His
presence will make the glory of the second Temple greater than the glory
of the first. Malachi points to Him as the Angel of the Covenant, as
Jehovah whom Israel was seeking, and who would suddenly come to His
temple, as the Sun of Righteousness.
A Messiah Divine as
Well as Human
Read this language as a whole; read it by the light of the great doctrine
which it attests, and which in turn illuminates it, the doctrine of a
Messiah, divine as well as human. All is natural, consistent,
full of point and meaning. But divorce it from
that doctrine in obedience to a foregone and arbitrary dictum of negative
criticism which insists that Jesus Christ shall be banished at any cost
from the scroll of prophecy—then how full of difficulties does such
language become, how overstrained and exaggerated, how insipid and
disappointing!
IV. A Jewish Caesar Expected
The last stage
of the Messianic doctrine begins only after the close of the Hebrew Canon.
The messianic hope gradually became degraded among the masses of the
people. They dwelt more and more eagerly upon the pictures of His
worldwide conquest and imperial sway, and they construed those promises of
coming triumph in the most earthly and secular sense—they looked for a
Jewish Alexander or for a Jewish Caesar. Doubtless there were saints like
the aged Simeon, whose eyes longed sore for the divine Christ foretold in
the great age of Hebrew prophecy. But generally speaking, the piety of the
enslaved Jew had become little else than a wrong-headed patriotism.
The people who were willing to hail Jesus as King Messiah and to conduct
Him in royal pomp to the gates of the holy city had so lost sight of the
real eminence which messiahship involved that
when He claimed to be God they endeavored to stone Him for blasphemy. This
claim of His was in fact the “crime” for which their leaders persecuted
Him to death. Even the apostles at first looked mainly, or only, for a
temporal prince.
The Jews Reject their Messiah
When Jesus Christ presented Himself to the Jewish people He did not
condescend to sanction the misbelief of the
time. He professed to be the fulfillment at last of the ancient
prophecies. Yet when, in the fullness of time He came, that He might
satisfy the desire of the nations, He was rejected by a stiff-necked
generation because He was true to the highest and brightest anticipations
of His Advent. Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the divine Messiah of David
and of Isaiah and therefore He died upon the cross to achieve the
spiritual redemption of humanity, not the political enfranchisement of
Palestine.
The Lord Our God Is One Lord
“Hear,
0 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,”
was the fundamental law of the Jewish belief and polity. How copious are
the warnings against the surrounding idolatries in the Jewish Scriptures!
Yet this fundamental truth does but throw into sharper outline those
suggestions of personal distinctions in the Godhead—those successive
predictions of a Messiah personally distinct from Jehovah, yet also the
Savior of men, the Lord and Ruler of all, the Judge of the nations,
Almighty, Everlasting, indeed, One whom prophecy designates as God. The
Old Testament was in truth entrusted with a double charge: besides
teaching explicitly the creed of Sinai, it was designed to teach
implicitly a fuller revelation, and to prepare men for the creed of the
day of Pentecost.
Predictions that Cannot
Be Denied
No amount of
captious ingenuity will destroy the substantial fact that the leading
features of cur Lord’s human manifestation were announced to the world
some centuries before He actually came among us. With His hand upon the
Jewish Canon, Jesus Christ could look opponents or disciples in the face
and bid them:
“Search
the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are
they which testify of Me.”
Adapted from
The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, H.P. Liddon.
Pickering & Inglis LTD.
London, n.d.
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