The effect of the law was consonant with its desi™. Many, no doubt, looked upon it in a purely legalistic spirit, and sought, by scrupulous fulfilment of it as a body of external precepts, to lay the foundation of a claim on God in behalf of the nation or the individual, or to realize through it, as a present possession, that salvation which was ever represented as something future. But, just in proportion as its spirituality and inward- ness Trere felt, it operated to deepen in Israel the sense of shortcoming and sin, and to sharpen the conviction that from the grace of God alone could salvation be expected. This humble frame of conscious dependence on God was met by a two- fold proclamation. On the one hand, the eyes of God's people were directed more longingly towards the future, and, in contrast with the present failure of Israel to realize the ordinances of life which had been given it, a new dispensation of grace was promised in which the law of God's kingdom should be written upon the heart, and should become therefore the instinctive law of life of His people (Jer 24' 31''"-, Ezk 36^'- ; cf. Ezk IG* Jl 3, Hos 2" ). It lay in the very nature of th« OT dispensation, in which the revelation of God was alwaj's incomplete, the still unsolved enigmas of life numerous, the worlc of redemption unfinished, and the consummation of the kingdom ever yet to come, that the eyes of the saints should be set upon the future ; and these deficiencies were felt very early. But it also lay, in the nature of the case, that the sense of them should increase as time passed and the perfecting of Israel was delayed, and especially as the whole national and religious existence of Israel was more and more put in jeopardy by assaults from without and corruption from within. Tlie essence of piety came thus to be ever more plainly proclaimed aa consisting in such a confident trust in tlie God of salvation as could not be confounded either liy the unrigliteousness which reigned in Israel or by J"8 judgments on Israel's sins, — such a confidence as, even in the face of the destruction of the theo- cracy itself, could preserve, in enduring hope, the assurance of the ultimate realization of God's pur- poses of good to Israel and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom. Thus hopeful waiting ujion J" became more and more the centre of Israelitish
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piety, and J' became before all ' tlie Hope of Israel ' (Jer 14" 17" 50', cf. Ps 71"). On the otlier hand, while thus waiting for the salvation of Israel, tlie Raint must needs stay himself on God (Is 2ff 50'"), fixing his heart on J" as the Rock of the heart (Ps 73-»), His people's stren^'th (Ps46') and trust (Pa 40* 65» 71», Jer 17'). Freed from all illusion of earthly help, and most of all from all self-confi- dence, he is meanwhile to live by faith (Hab 2'). Thus, along with an ever more richly expressed corporate hope, there is found also an ever more richly expressed individual trust, which finds natural utterance throu^'h an ample body of synonyms bringing out severally the various sides of that perfect commitment to God that consti- tates the essence of faith. Thus we read much of trusting in, on, to God, or in His word. His name, Ilis mercy. His salvation (nai), of seeking and finding refuge in God or in the shadow of His win^a (n;ri), of ccnimitting ourselves to God ('"'?;), setting confidence (''js) in Hira, looking to Him (D'j.i), rel3'ing upon Him {ilVJ)i staying upon Him (17;J), setting or fixing the heart upon Him (3^ p?), binding our love on Hira {PVQ), cleaving to Him | (pjT). So, on the hopeful side of faith, we read much of hoping in God (.Tp), waiting on God (Sn:), of longing for Him (njn), patiently waiting for Him ('?i?nnn), and the like.
By the aid of such expressions, it becomes possible to form a someAvhat clear notion of the attitude towards Him which was required by J" of His believing people, and which is summed up in the terra faith. It is a reverential (Ex 14", Nu 14" 20") and loving faith, which rests on the strong basis of firm and unshaken conviction of the might and grace of the covenant God and of the trustworthiness of all His words, and exhibits itself in confident trust in J" and unwavering expectation of the fullilracnt of, no doubt, all His promises, but more especially of His promise of salvation, and inconsequent faithful and exclusive adherence to Him. In one word, it consists in an utter commitment of oneself to J", with confident trust in Him as guide and saviour, and assured expectation of His promised salvation. It there- fore stands in contrast, on the one hand, with trust in self or other human help, and on the other with doubt and unbelief, despondency and un- faithfulness. From J" alone is salvation to be looked for, and it comes from His free grace alone (Dt V 8'« 9», Am 3», Hos 13», Kzk 20«, Jer IW, Mai I'), and to those only who look solely to Him for it (Is .31' 51" i'S'" 30'*^, Jer 17° 30", I's 118» M6» 20', 1 S 17", Ps 28* 11^, Job 22=» »• 31", Ps ,52-'). The reference of faith is accordingly in the ()T always distinctly soteriological ; its end the Messianic salvation ; and its essence a trusting, or rather an entrusting of oneself to the God of salva- tion, with full assurance of the fulfilment of His gracious purposes and the ultimate realization of His promise of salvation for the people and the individual. Such an attitude towards the God of salvation is identical with the faith of the NT, and is not essentinlly changed by the fuller revelation of God the Kedecmer in the [lerson of the pro- mised Messiah. That it is comparatively seldom designated in the OT by the names of ' faith,' 'believing,' seems to be due, as has been often pointed out, to the special place of the OT in the history of revelation, and the adaptation of its whole contents and language to the particular task in the establishment or the kingdom of God which fell to its writers. This task turnetl on the special temptations and difficulties of the O T stnge of development, and required emphasis to be laid on the majesty and jealousy of J" and on the duties of reverence, sincerity, and patience. Meanwhile, the faith in Him which underlies these