to the nature and implications of such form.Ttiva elements in the OT sj'stem as its doctrines of God, Providence, Faith, and the King;dom of God.
I. Fundnmcntal OT ideas unphjing Predesti- nation.— Whencesoever Israel obtained it, it is quite certain that Israel entered upon its national existence with the most vivid consciousness of an almighty personal Creator and Governor of heaven and earth. Israel's o\\'n account of the clearness and the firmness of its apprehension of this mighty Author and Ruler of all that is, refers it to His own initiative : God chose to make Himself known to the fathers. At all events, throughout tlie whole of OT literature, and for every period of history recorded in it, the fundamental conception of GoQ remains the same, and the two most per- sistently emphasized elements in it are just those of might and personality : before ever3-thing else, the God of Israel is the Omnipotent Person. Possibly the keen sense of the exaltation and illimitable power of God which forms the very core of the OT idea of God belongs rather to the general Semitic than to the specifically Israelitish element in its religion ; certainly it was alreaily prominent in the patriarchal God-consciousness, as is sufficiently evinced by the names of God current from the beginning of the OT revelation, — El, Eloah, Elohim, El Shaddai, — and as is illus- trated endlessly in the Biblical narrative. But it is equally clear that God was never conceived by the or saints as abstract power, but was ever thought of concretely as the all-powerful Person, and that, moreover, as clothed with all the attributes of moral personality, — pre-eminently with holiness, as the very summit of His exaltation, but along with holiness, also with all the characteristics that belong to spiritual personality as it exhibits itself familiarly in man. In a word, God is pictured in the OT, and that from the beginning, purely after the pattern of human personality, — as an intelligent, feeling, willing Being, like the man who is created in His image in all in which the life of a free spirit consists. The anthropomorphisms to which this mode of conceiving God led were sometimes startling enough, and might have become grossly misleading had not the corrective lain ever at hand in the accompanying sense of the immeasurable exaltation of God, by which He was removed above all the weaknesses of humanity. The result accordingly was nothing other than a peculiarly pure form of Theism. The grosser anthropomorphisms were full3- understood to be fiOTrative, and the residuary conception was that of an infinite Spirit, not indeed expressed in abstract terms nor from the first fully brought out in all its implications, but certainly in all ages of the OT development grasped in all its essential elements. (Cf. the art. God).
Such a God could not be thought of otherwise than as the free determiner of ail that comes to pass in the world which is the product of His creative act ; and the doctrine of Providence ('n??) which is spread over the pages of the OT fully bears out this expectation. The almighty Maker of all that is is represented equally as the irresistible Ruler of all that He has made : Jehovah sits as King for ever ( Ps 29'"). Even the common language of life was att'ected by this pervasive point of view, so that, for example, it is rare to meet with such a phrase as ' it rains ' (Am 4'), and men by prefer- ence spoke of God sending rain (Ps 65'"', Job 36^ 38=*). The vivid sense of dependence on God thus witnessed extended throughout every relation of life. Accident or chance was excluded If we read here and there of a •Tipp it is not thought ol as happening apart from God's direction (Ru 2", 1 S 6« 20'^, Eg 2'«, cf. 1 K 22**, 2 Ch 18'»), and accordingly the lot was an accepted means of ob-
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tainin- the deci»ion of GoU (Jos V 14- 1S«, 1 S 10'», Joii 1"), and is didactically recognized as under His control (Pr le'^). All things without excep- tion, indeed, are disposed by Him, and His will is the ultimate account of all that occurs. Heaven and earth and all that is in them are the in- struments througli which He works His ends. Nature, nations, and the fortunes of the indi- vidual alike present in all their changes the tran- script of His purpose. The winds are His messen- gers, the flaming lire His servant : every natural occurrence is His act : prosperity is His gift, and if calamity falls upon man it is the Lord tliat has done it (Am 3»- «, La 3^-^, Is 47', Ec 7", Is 54"). It is He that leads the feet of men, wit they whither or not ; He that raises up and casts down ; opens and hardens the heart ; and creates the very thoughts and intents of the soul. So poignant is the sense of His activity in all that occurs, that an appearance is sometimes created as if everything that comes to pass were so a.scribed to His imme- diate production aa to exclude the real activity of secona causes. It is a grave mistake, nevertheless, to suppose that He is conceived as an unseen power, thro^^■ing up, in a quasi-Pantheistic sense, all changes on the face of the world and history. The virile sense of the free personality of tJod which dominates all the thought of the OT would alone have precluded such a conception. Nor is there really any lack of recognition of 'second causes,' as we call them. They are certainly not conceived as independent of God : they are rather t)ie mere expression of His stated will. But they are from the beginning fully recognized, both in nature — with respect to which Jehovah has made covenant (Gn 8='- K Jer 31«»- " 33»*- =», Ps 148", cf. Jg 5--, Ps 104», Job SS^'-" 14»), establishing its laws (ni,-!- Job 2825- =8, Is 40", Job 38«-", Pr 8^, Jer 5-, Ps 1049 337^ Jer 40=»)— and equally in the higher sphere of free spirits, who are ever conceived as the true authors of nil their acts (hence God's proving of man, Gn 22', Ex 16* 20'^, Dt 8«- " 13', Jg3'*, 2Ch32^'). There is no question hereof the substitution of Jehovah's operation for that of the proximate causes of events. There is only the liveliest perception of the governing hand of God behind the proximate causes, acting through them for the working out of His will in every detail. Such a conception obviously looks upon the uni- verse teleologically ; an almiglity moral Person cannot be supposed to govern His universe, thus in every detail, either unconsciously or capri- ciously. In His government there is necessarily implied a plan ; in the all-pervasiveness and per- fection of Hi.s government is inevitably implied an all-inclusive and perfect plan : and this concep- tion is not seldom explicitly developed (cf. art. Providence).