is the eighth book in the Bible, and presents in type, the roots of God's purposes respecting Israel, and shows their reception in the latter day on the ground of sovereign grace alone. Having sinned away every distinctive privilege, Israel will be left as destitute of right and title to blessing as any Moabite, who was debarred from ever entering the congregation of the Lord (Deut. 23:33An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever: (Deuteronomy 23:3)), then the Lord will take them up in pure grace; their responsibility being then out of the question.
In the six books which follow; Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, we have unfolded the preparatory process; also, the establishment, history and consummation of the kingdom in Israel. The law is still the central thought in these books, however, but it is there viewed in relation, not with the people as such, but through the intermediate links of priest, prophet and king. The priest was set to sustain the people in their weakness and infirmity under the law; the prophet to recall them to their faithfulness and allegiance to Jehovah and the law; the king was responsible to maintain the authority of the law. In the family of Eli the priesthood, set up to meet failure, itself failed, and thenceforth ceased to be the link between Jehovah and the nation, although individual faith still used it to profit (1 Sam. 2-4.) Then the prophet in the family of Samuel also failed in maintaining the relation of the people with God (1 Sam. 8.) Did Solomon, the richest, wisest, and most powerful of monarchs, maintain governmentally the blessing of the people? In the very zenith of his glory and prosperity he turned from Jehovah to idols, and transferred his heart's confidence from God—the true defense of His kingdom to the cavalry of Egypt—the strength of that land (1 Kings 10:26-29; 11:1-1026And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem. 27And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance. 28And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price. 29And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means. (1 Kings 10:26‑29)
1But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 4For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. 7Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. 8And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. 9And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, 10And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. (1 Kings 11:1‑10)). The kingdom was rent in twain as a consequence of Solomon's sins. Israel, or the ten-tribed nationality, spite of the testimony of Jehovah by miracles and prophets, lapsed into the most frightful idolatry, and after existing as a separate kingdom for about 250 years under nineteen kings—all bad—was finally destroyed by the Assyrians. Judah subsisted for about 390 years under twenty sovereigns, and was recalled again and again by numerous prophets to the long-forgotten law of Jehovah, while some of her kings—truly God-fearing men—did much to maintain the authority of Jehovah in the midst of the people. But Judah sought out many lovers, and followed her guilty sister Samaria-yea, exceeded her in wickedness and idolatry. Then the crown fell from the rebel brow of Israel, and God delivered Judah and Jerusalem into the hands of the triumphing heathen. Babylon became the capital and center of governmental authority on earth, and from thence, as an epoch, we date the commencement of the times of the Gentiles (Dan. 2.)
After a captivity of seventy years, a remnant of Judah were permitted to return to the land of their fathers, and to build their ruined city and erect anew their temple, but under Gentile auspices and favor. "The Books of the Restoration," as they are sometimes termed, are five in number, and as follows:—Ezra and Nehemiah are historical, the former dealing with the ecclesiastical state of things, the latter unfolding the civil condition; Haggai and Zechariah are prophetic; these prophets greatly encouraged the people in recommencing aid finishing the building of the Temple (Ezra v. 1); lastly Malachi, in which is unfolded the moral condition of the remnant people—a state characterized by utter forgetfulness of Jehovah, and contemptuous treatment of His claims. This last book of the Old Testament opens with a declaration of Jehovah's unchanging love to Israel, and closes with a call to remember their ruined responsibility (chap. 4:4). God delights to love. It is His very nature to do so; but He cannot forego His claim of righteousness upon man. That claim He has vindicated in the cross for all who believe-that claim He will yet vindicate at the great white throne in the judgment and doom of the unbeliever. The closing book of the Old Testament, therefore, leaves the people as it finds them, without holding out the least hope of restoration or recovery till the Lord come.
Now the perfection of the creature was to love God wholly and supremely, and then his neighbor as himself (Luke 10:2727And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. (Luke 10:27)), not taught as commandments; but this was the very essence of the system—its kernel, so to speak. Is not the history from Horeb to the Cross the history of responsibility and the divine account that man did not love God and did not love his neighbor Man has been placed in every conceivable position of responsibility. He has been set in midst of domestic, social, and governmental relations, but he has failed in them all. His duty as a creature has been written down for him on tables of stone and in books-a law given him by which he could measure his responsibility and blessedness as a man on earth. Account, too, has been taken of his state of sin; so priests were given to sustain, prophets to recall, and kings to maintain the authority of Jehovah and of the law, but the vine taken out of Egypt and cultured with such care only produced "wild grapes"
(Isaiah 4) Man has been fully tested—Jews and Gentiles, individually and collectively, governmentally and ecclesiastically—and the history has been written down in tablets that will never perish; the cross is the end of mere creature responsibility for all who believe, and it morally terminates the course of the responsible man.