and art. by KiJhler on ' Abraham ' in third ed. ol Herzog's RE).
(6) Hitherto, while the foundations are being laid stron" and deep, there has been no specific mention of a kingdom of God, such as we meet with in the transactions of Sinai next to be adverted to. A kingdom of God in the only form in which mankind at tiiat time was able to apprehend it couhl n'>t be created until a body of people had been called into existence out of whom it could be constituted. With the revival of the national faith under Moses, the marvellous deliverance of the Exodus, and the consolidation of the fugitive Hebrews into a nation pltdged in covenant to J" at Sinai, and receiving at His hand laws and institutions for their use, the requisite conditions were fulfilled and a kingdom of God, or true theocracy, starts for the first time into visible existence. Already in the exaltation of religious feeling J" is hailed as King in Moses' Song at tlie crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15'*) ; but it is in the covenant at Sinai, with its attendant solemnities and sacrifices, that the theocratic constitution is formally established. There God proposes to take the people to Himself as a peculiar treasure above all people, that they may be to Him a kingdom of priests (consecrated), and a holy (separated) nation ; and the people, in accepting the terms of this covenant, and [iledging themselves to obedience, enter by the sprinkling of blood into the gracious relation thus proposed (Ex 19^'° 24'''*). Thence- forth they are a pionle of God, and J" is formally their Lawgiver and King (Is 33--). The covenant is based on grace, yet the continuance of its blessings is made to depend on the fulfilment of statutory conditions (cf. Ko 10') ; it is a covenant of law, yet God appears in it as ' merciful and gracious . . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin' (Ex 34"'), and provision is made in sacrifices and purifications for the removal of the guilt and uncleanness by which the fellowship with God would otherwise be continually inter- rupted, if not entirely broken off. The people, on their part, have it set before them as an aim, to be holy because God is holy (Lv 19^), and to realize righteousness by diligent observance of all God's statutes and ordinances, from the central motive of love (Dt 4'''). Such, apart from doubtful details of Le^ntical ritual, was the general constitution under which Israel was placed, and it separated that people absolutely from their heathen neigh- bours (Nu 23'). It is easy to see, however, that notmthstanding this limitation of the covenant to a particular people, and even its obvious design to seclude this people for a time from contact with other nations, it had in it germs of universality which were certain ultimately to burst the limits of the national form, and expand into a religion for the whole world. In the words of Riehm : ' By divine revelation ideas were planted in the minds of the people of Israel, so lofty, and rich, and deep, that in the existing religious condition they could never see their perfect realization ; ideas which, with every step in the development of the religious life and knowledge, only more fully disclosed their own depth and fulness, and which must therefore necessarily have led them to look to the future for their fulfilment ' (Mess. Prophecy, 1867, p. 33). How much, e.g., lay In the simple fact that J", the God of Isr., was yet the God of the whole earth (Ex 19°) ; that to Him alone belonged honour and glory ; that it was due to Him that all nations should serve Him and keep His commandments. ' On the ground of his knowledge of J" must the Israelite claim the whole earth for the kingdom of his God' (Riehm). Tuo ideas at the root of the covenant, in short, were larger than could be permanently embodied in an exclusively national form, and from the first these
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larger ideas are seen shining throuj,'li, and lierald- ing the wiiler fulhlment (e.g. Nu 11^ 14-' 24"-"').
(t) Tlie disijarity hetween the Divine idea and the existing reality of the kingdom of God, which was manifest from the outset in tlie constant un- faithfulness and repeated rehellions of the people (Ex 32, Nu 11, etc.), was further accentuated in the tribal jealousies and divisions, the lawless turbulence and the gross declensions, alteriiatiug with revivals of the sjarit of faitli and heroism, of the periods of the Conquest and the Judges (Jos 22, Jg 2. 7. 21^ etc.), and led in the time of Samuel to the demand for a king ( 1 S 8), and to the eatablish- ment of the monarcln/ under Saul (1 S 10), and then under David (1 S l(i'-'", 2S 5'-»). The sin of the people, as the event showed, did not lie sinii'ly in their desire for a king, for tliis it lay in the purpose of God to give them ( Dt 17"'^"), l>ut in the spirit of self-will and insubordination out of which the desire came, and the ideal of a king they had set before them — one like those of the nations around, who would judge them, and lead tliem to battle, and give tliem distinction and military glory (1 S 8''"- '"•"). We thus arrive at another transition period in the history of the kingdom of God — the end of the judgeship and the beginning of the monarchy. It was a change which in the nature of things was bound to come. Already in Eli's days we see on every side the evidence of decay, of break-up, of failure. Under Samuel's rule there is a revival of the religion and prestige of the nation, but only for a time. The jnophets do not live for aver, and tlie nation could not always be held together by the bond of Saniuel's personality. Ue