<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>LESSON VI</h2>
<h3>THE MESSIAH</h3>
<p>The teaching of this lesson may be begun with Acts 2:17-21.
Surely the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was
something new. Yet even that was explained by a reference to
prophecy. And the reference is of remarkable aptness and beauty.</p>
<p>The Pentecostal speech of Peter is full of the appeal to prophecy.
Primarily, indeed, the claims of Jesus are supported by the direct
testimony to his resurrection. Without the facts, of course appeal
to prophecy would have been useless; for it was just the wonderful
correspondence of the facts with the prophecies that could induce
belief. Along with the direct testimony to the facts went the appeal
to prophecy. The promised king of David's line at last has come.
Acts 2:30; II Sam. 7:12,13; Ps. 89:3,4; 132:11. And
David's son is David's Lord—David's Lord and ours. Acts 2:34,35;
Ps. 110:1; compare Matt. 22:41-46.</p>
<h4>1. THE NEW TESTAMENT APPEAL TO PROPHECY</h4>
<p>This speech of Peter is typical of the preaching of the early
Church. The appeal to prophecy was absolutely central in the
presentation of the gospel. Proof of that fact does not need to be
sought. It is written plain on the pages of the New Testament.
Old Testament prophecy was found to apply not merely to one side
of the work of Christ, but to all sides. Israel had looked not
merely for a king, but also for a prophet and a priest. Peter, after
his first arrest, for example, could appeal to the notable prophecy
of Deuteronomy: "A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto
you from among your brethren, like unto me." Acts 3:22; Deut.
18:15,19. The author of Hebrews could appeal to the priest
after the order of Melchizedek, Heb. 5:6; Ps. 110:4, and to the
symbolic sacrifices of the temple which found their fulfillment on
Calvary.</p>
<p>The appeal to prophecy extended even to those things which
were most distinctive of the Christian message. "I delivered unto
you first of all," says Paul, "that which also I received: that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</SPAN></span>
buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according
to the scriptures." I Cor. 15:3,4. Here the death and the resurrection
of Christ are both declared to be according to the Scriptures.
That means that they were the subject of prophecy. But
the death and the resurrection of Christ were the fundamental
elements of the gospel. The gospel, then, in the form of prophecy,
is to be found in the Old Testament.</p>
<p>What Old Testament passages has Paul here in mind? With regard
to the death for our sins, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was
probably in his mind. That passage was being read by the Ethiopian
when Philip met him, and Philip made the passage a basis for
preaching about Jesus. Acts 8:27-35. With regard to the resurrection,
it is natural to think of Ps. 16:10. Paul himself quoted
that passage in his speech at Pisidian Antioch. Acts 13:34-37.</p>
<p>The appeal to prophecy did not begin with the apostles. It was
initiated by Jesus himself. "To-day," said Jesus at Nazareth
after the reading of Isa. 61:1,2, "hath this scripture been fulfilled
in your ears." A large claim! No wonder they found it
difficult to accept. When John the Baptist asked, "Art thou he
that cometh, or look we for another?" it was to "the works of the
Christ" that Jesus appealed. Matt. 11:2-6; Isa. 35:5,6; 61:1.
These are merely examples. Throughout, Jesus represented himself
and his kingdom as the fulfillment of the ancient promise.
"O foolish men," he said to the disciples on the way to Emmaus,
"and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into
his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets,
he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself." Luke 24:25-27.</p>
<h4>2. THE MESSIANIC HOPE A PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL</h4>
<p>When the gospel was preached to pure Gentiles, a great deal
of preliminary labor had to be done. Under what title should the
claims of the Saviour be presented? "Christ" to the Gentiles was
almost meaningless, till explained. "Son of God" was open to sad
misconception. There were "sons of God" in Greek mythology,
but they were not what the early Christians meant to show that
Jesus was. These difficulties were overcome, and speedily. Gentile
Christians were imbued with a lofty and adequate conception of
the Lord. The labor was great, but it was gloriously accomplished.</p>
<p>In this labor, however, the missionaries were assisted by the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</SPAN></span>
synagogues of the Jews. In the synagogues, "Christ" was no
new term, and no new conception. In the synagogues, one proposition
needed first to be proved, "This Jesus ... is the
Christ." Acts 17:3. If that were proved, then the rest would
follow. The Jews knew that the Messiah was Lord and Master.
Identify Jesus with him, and all the lofty claims of Jesus would be
substantiated. How the identity was established may be observed
in the speech of Peter on the day of Pentecost, or in the speech of
Paul at Pisidian Antioch. Acts 13:16-43.</p>
<p>It will be remembered that the synagogues attracted not merely
Jews but also Gentiles. The Gentile "God-fearers," as well as
the Jews, were acquainted with the Messianic hope. Even the
Gentile mission, therefore, was prepared for by the prophets of
Israel.</p>
<h4>3. THE PERMANENT VALUE OF PROPHECY</h4>
<p>The appeal to prophecy, however, was not merely valuable to
the early Church. It is of abiding worth. It represents Jesus as
the culmination of a divine purpose. The hope of Israel was in
itself a proof of revelation, because it was so unlike the religious
conceptions of other nations. The covenant people, the righteous
king, the living God, the world-wide mission—that is the glory of
Israel. The promise is itself a proof. But still more the fulfillment.
The fulfillment was an unfolding. Wonderful correspondence
in detail—and far more wonderful the correspondence of
the whole! The promise was manifold. Sometimes the Messiah
is in the foreground. Sometimes he is out of sight. Sometimes
there is a human king, sometimes Jehovah himself coming to judgment;
sometimes a kingdom, sometimes a new covenant in the
heart; sometimes a fruitful Canaan, sometimes a new heaven and
a new earth. But manifold though the promise, Christ is the fulfillment
of it all. "How many soever be the promises of God,"
in Christ is the yea. II Cor. 1:20. There is the wonder. In
Christ the apparent contradictions of the promise become glorious
unity, in Christ the deeper mysteries of the promise are revealed.
Christ the keystone of the arch! Christ the culmination of a
divine plan! That is the witness of the prophets. It is a witness
worth having.</p>
<h4>4. THE MESSIANIC HOPE OF LATER JUDAISM</h4>
<p>After the close of the Old Testament, the promise did not die.
It was preserved in the Scriptures. It continued to be the life of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span>
the Jewish nation. But it was not only preserved. It was also
interpreted. Some of the interpretation was false, but much of
it was true. The Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament
promise is worthy of attention. What did the Jews of the first
century mean by the Messiah, and what did they mean by the
Messianic age?</p>
<p>In the first place, they retained the hope of a king of David's
line—a human king who should conquer the enemies of Israel.
When it was held in a one-sided form this was a dangerous hope.
It led logically to materialistic conceptions of the kingdom of God
and to political unrest. It led to the effort of the Jews to take
Jesus by force and make him a king. John 6:15. It led to the
quarrel of the disciples about the chief places in the kingdom.
Matt. 18:1-4; Mark 9:33-35; Luke 9:46,47. This conception
of the Messiah had to be corrected by Jesus. "My kingdom is not
of this world." John 18:36.</p>
<p>Yet even where the Messiah was conceived of as an earthly
ruler, the spiritual hope was by no means always and altogether
lost. The "Psalms of Solomon," for example, Pharisaic psalms of
the first century before Christ, though they look for an earthly
ruler, picture him as one who shall rule in righteousness. "And a
righteous king and taught of God is he that reigneth over them;
And there shall be no iniquity in his days in their midst, for all shall
be holy and their king is the Lord Messiah" (Ps. Sol. xvii, 35, 36.
See Ryle and James, "Psalms of the Pharisees," especially pp. 137-147).
No iniquity in the days of the Messiah! That is true understanding
of the Old Testament, even joined with the political ideal.</p>
<p>In the second place, however, the Messianic age is sometimes in
later Judaism conceived of as purely supernatural. The Messiah
is not an earthly ruler, merely helped by God, but himself a heavenly
being, a preëxistent "Son of Man," judge of all the earth. The
Messianic age is ushered in not by human warfare, but by a mighty
catastrophic act of God. Not a liberated Canaan is here the ideal,
but a new heaven and a new earth.</p>
<p>This transcendental, supernaturalistic form of the Messianic
hope appears in the "Book of Enoch" and other "apocalypses."
Its details are fantastic, but it was by no means altogether wrong.
In many respects it was a correct interpretation of the divine
promise. The new heavens and the new earth are derived from
Isa. 65:17. The doctrine of the two ages was accepted by Jesus
and by Paul—for example Matt. 12:32; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span>
The heavenly "Son of Man" goes back to Dan. 7:13,14. The
Book of Enoch was not altogether wrong. Its use of the title
"Son of Man" prepared for the title which Jesus used.</p>
<p>Finally, the Messianic hope was held in a pure and lofty form by
the "poor of the land"—simple folk like those who appear in the
first two chapters of Luke. In the hymns of Mary and Zacharias
and Simeon, purely political and materialistic conceptions are in
the background, and the speculations of the apocalypses do not
appear. The highest elements of prophecy are made prominent.
"For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared
before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of thy people Israel." Luke 2:30-32. In those
circles, the hope of Israel burned still and pure.</p>
<p>Later Judaism thus preserved the manifoldness of prophecy.
There was exaggeration and there was one-sidedness; but in Judaism
as a whole the promise was preserved. One element at most
was forgotten—the suffering servant and his sacrificial death.
The death of the Messiah was no easy conception. The disciples
had difficulty with it. When Peter heard of it, he took Jesus, and
began to rebuke him. Matt. 16:22. The lesson was not easy,
but it had to be learned. And it was worth learning. The cross is
the heart of the gospel.</p>
<p>Thus in Jesus nothing was left out, except what was false.
The whole promise was preserved. The revealer of God, the ruler
of the kingdom, the great high priest, the human deliverer, the
divine Lord—these are the elements of the promise. They find
their union in Christ. Leave one out, and the promise is mutilated.
Such mutilation is popular to-day. The whole Christ seems too
wonderful. But the Church can be satisfied with nothing less.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p><span class="smcap">In the Library.</span>—Beecher, "The Prophets and the Promise," pp.
173-420.</p>
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