2. But this brings us to the next cardinal point in the OT doctrine. The kingdom of God on the basis of creation just indicated was not realized. Tlie narrative of creation is immediately succeeded in our oldest history by the record of the Fait — of a turning aside of man from his primitive innocence — which frustrated (speaking humanly) the original designs of the Creator, and introduced sin, death, and multiplieil penal evils into the world (Gn 3). It U usual for biblical theologians to make some- what light of this narrative, which stands at tlie gateway of the history of revelation, as if it did not enter deeply into the religious conceptions of tlie people ol Israel. ' It will hardly be maintained,' says Schultz, ' that any other OT writer even hints at such an idea 'as that man posses.scd an aboriginal dignity which was afterwards lost {OT Tlievl. ii. p. 258 ff.). It may be allirnied with some confidence, on the other hand, that, apart from e-xplicit references to the narrative of the Fall (which, however, could not be unknown to any writer of the prophetic iieriod), the baikgrouud of the whole picture in OT is that of a world in revolt, turned aside from God, sunk, and ever sinking deeper, in unrightcousnes.s, abandoned to idolatry anil to the lusts and corruptions which are the natural fruit of apostasy from the Creator, — a world in contrariety to the divine holiness, and judged as guilty, and justly exposed to the Divine anger (Gn G'-' «■' 13" 19*'''', Lv 18«-*>, Dt O-""", 1 K 8*", Ps 14. 51» 143=, Pr 20», Ec 7™, Is 1, Uos 4, etc. Cf. Dillmann, Alttest. Theol. pp. 376-88). This re- presentation of the condition of humanity as uni- versally under sin has for ita conseiiuence a pro- position of tlie utmost importance for the riglit apprehension of our subject, viz., that if God is to have a moral kingdom in the world, it must be a kingdom brought into existence throu{,'li grace, — it must be produced through redemption and re- generation as the result of a divine supernatural economy of salvation. This note of^ grace is already struck with unmistakable clearness in tlie Protevangelium, where the first sin is met by the promise of a final complete victory, not without suirering, of the 'seed of the woman' over 'the seed of the serpent' (Gn 3"); and the history of revelation ever after is but the history of this de*"elo|iing purpose of God for the complete over- throw of evil, and the final establishment, through a mingled operation of mercy and judgincnt, of the kingiiom of God ujion earth. As entering into covenant with His neople Israel for the realization of this end, God is Known peculiarly by His name J" (Ex 6'"'), — a name which specially denotes Ilim aa the self-identical and changeless One, the Hciiig who is eternally what He is (Ex 3"), who is and remains one with Ilim.self in all lie thinks, pur- poses, and does (Mai 3'), who pos.>ies!<es, together with immutability, the attribute of self determining freedom and unlimited rule ( I )l 4*", Ps 130*) ; wlio, therefore, in the relation of the covenant, would display HLs might, demonstrate His supremacy as Moral liuler, magnify His covenant-keeping faith- folneiw, and reveal irimself as the Living, Personal
God, working freely in historj' in pursuance of gracious puijioses, and in .-ipite of all Imman opposition bringing them to pass (cf. Dillm.-iim, pp. 217, 218). The history of OT revelation, there fore, is simpi}', as said, the history of the develop- ing kingdom of God in its earlier, preparatory, inchoate form, yet from the first a kingdom of grace and salvation. Herein, from the biblical point of view, lies ihe key to all historical develop- ments, the explanation of all arrangements and movements of Divine providence. Israel's position broujjht it into contact, not only with petty neigh- bouring states, but with the mightiest empires of East and West. Hut these appear in OT only aa tliej' allect the chosen race, and it is tliere maile manifest that the centre of Gorl's purposes is always Israel, as, in truth, the centre of interest must always be that portion of the race with which for the time being the kingdom of Goil is identified. 'Just as,' in the striking words of Trench, 'in tracing the course of a stream, not tlie huL'e morasses nor the vast stagnant pools on either side would delay us ; we should not, because of their extent, count tliera the river, but recognize that as such, though it were the slenderest thread, in which an onward movement miglit be liisceriied ; so is it here. Egypt and Assyria ami Halnlon were hut the vast stagnant morasses on either side of the river ; the Man in who.se seed the whole earth should be blessed, he and his family were the little stream in which the life ami onwanl movement of the world were to be tre.ited. . . . They belong not to history, least of all to sacred history, tho.se Babels, those cities of confusion, those tiuge pens into which by force ami fraud the early hunters of men, the Nimrodsand Sesostri.ses, drove and compelled their fellows . . . where no faith existed, but in the blind powers of nature, and the brute forces of the natural man ' (Hulscan Lectures, 1845, Lect. II.).