(6) Another feature in the eschatological picture is the relation of the nations to Israel and their God. In some prophecies, especially those that are apocal3ptic in their character, there is the idea of a final attack on Israel by the nations, and a great conflict near Jerusalem or in Canaan, in which the nations are overthrown and destroyed (Ezk 38. 39, Jl 3, Zee 14, Ob v.", Dn). But usually the nations are represented as attaching themselves to Israel, drawn either by the right- eousness and humanity of the Messianic King (Ps 72), or convinced that the God of Israel is God alone (Is 2) — a conviction which they receive in various ways, as through J"'s terrible revelation of Himself (Zeph S*-', Is GG'*"), but chiefly through the teaching of Israel, the servant of the Lord, who becomes the light of the nations, and tlie peoples wait on His arm (Is 42» 49» 50"'- SI""- 60). But while already in the OT the Gentiles are fellow - heirs of salvation with Israel, the racial distinction is not obliterated. Jews and Gentiles do not amalgamate into one people or church — Israel • inherits the Gentiles ' (Is 54^), ' the king- dom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High' (Dn 7"). The nations occupy a subordinate place. There may be different shades of view in diiierent passages. Of course, when the prophets ^vrote, Israel alone possessed the knowledge of the true God, and its place was that of benefactor of the nations, while theirs was that of recipients of blessing from Israel. Therefore the nations do homage to Israel, but it is to Israel as having the only true God within it — ' they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee ; and there is none else, no God ' (Is 45" 49'', cf. 14^ 60» 61»).
5. From what has been said, it can be seen what general conceptions the OT contributes to Christian Eschatology. They are such as these : (I) the manifestation or advent of God; (2) the universal judgment ; (3) behind the judgment the coming of the perfect kingdom of the Lord, when all Israel shall be saved, and when the nations shall be partakers of their salvation ; and (4) the finality and eternity of this condition, that which constitutes the blessedness of the saved people
bein" the Presence of God in the mid.st of them — this last point corresponding to the Christian idea of heaven. All this is said of the people as a people. The people is immortal and its life eteni.al ; and this life is conceived as lived in this world, though this world transfigured — a new heavens and a new earth (Is 05"). But are the individuals of the people immortal, or is their life, however prolonged and blessed, yet finally closed by deatli 1 It is probable that in most passages the prophets have in view the destinies of the people as a unity, the ultimate fate of individuals not being present to their mind. In some passages, however, the destiny of the in- dividual is referred to, and a progress of idea may be observed, though, owing to the uncertain authorship of tlie passages, it may be precarious to infer at once that the more advanced are the later. In Is do^"- only a very prolonged life appears promised, ' the days of a tree,' ne that dieth at a hundred years shall die a chUd (cf. Zee 8*). But in the apocalyptic passage Is 24-27 death is represented as abolished, 'the Lord will swallow up death for ever ' (25') ; and the promise extends to the nations as well as to Israel (ver.'^). The conception of a resurrection first appears in the prophets, who speak of a resuscitation of the dead nation (Hos 6, Ezk 37). In Is 26'», however, the literal resurrection of individuals is predicted. This is the complement of the Restoration of the living members of the people. And in Dn 12 a resurrection both of the just and unjust is pro- phesied, though it remains somewhat uncertain whether the resurrection be universal, or be only of those who, in the preceding troublous times, had been specially prominent, wnether on the side of righteousness or of evU.
II. ESCHATOLOGY OF THE INDIVIDUAL PERSON
— One of the strangest things in OT is the little place which the individual feels he has, and his tendency to lose himself in larger wholes, such as the tribe or the nation. When in earlier times th« individual approached death, he felt that he had received the olessing of life from God and had enjoyed it in His communion ; his sojourn with God had come to an end, he was old and full of days, and he acquiesced in death, however strange his acquiescence may seem to us. He consoled himself with the thought that he did not all die — ' The memory of the righteous is blessed ' (cf. Is 56^- '). He lived, too, in his children and in his people. He saw the good of Israel ; his spirit lived, and the work of nis hands was established. The great subject was the people, the nation j J" had established His covenant with the nation, and the individual was blessed in the blessing and fortune of the whole. And he was content to have poured his little stream of life and service into the tide of national life, and in some degree to have swelled it. This was particularly the case, so far as can be judged, in earlier times. But when the nation came to an end with the Captivity, when national life and religion no more existea, the individual rose to his own proper place and rights, and felt his owTi worth and responsibility. Though the nation had fallen the individuals remained, and J" and religion remained, though religion remained only in the heart of the individual. The religious unit, formerly the people, now became more and more the single person, and the truths regarding duty and responsibility, and the hopes of the future, enunciated by the prophets in regard to the people, were appropriated uy the individual to himself.