It is abundantly clear on the face of it, of course, that this whole mode of thought ia the natural expression of the deep religious conseiousnesa of the OT writers, thoupli surely it is not therefore to be set aside as 'merely' the religious view of things, or ns having no other rooting save in the imagination of religiouMly-niinded men. In any event, however, it is alto- gether natural that in the more distinctive 8t)here of the religious life its informing principle of absolute clependenne on Go<r should be found to repeat itself. This appears particularly in the OT doctrine of faith, in which theresounds the keynote of or piety,— for the reliuion of the OT, so far from being, as I lego!, for example, would altlrm, the religion of fear, is rather by way of eminence the religion of trust. SUinding over against Ood, not merely as creatures, butos sinners, the OT saint« found no ground of hope save in the free initiative of the Uivme love. At no period of the development of OT religion was it per- mitted to be imaginefl tliat blessings might ho wrung from the hands of an unwilling Ood, or gained in the strength of man's own arm. Rather it was ever inculcated that in this Shhere, too, it is Ood alone that lifts up and maltes rieh. He alone that keeps the feet of His holy ones ; while by str<^nglh, it isalllnncd. no man shall prevail (I S 2i'). '1 am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies' is the constant refrain of the OT saints (CJn 3210) ; and from the very beginning, in narrative, precept and prophetic declaratioD alike, it Is m trust in the VOL. IV. — 4
unmerited love of Jehovah alone that the hearts of men are represented as finding peace. .Self-suttlciency is tiie character, islic mark of the wicked, whose doom treuds on his heels ; while the mark of the righteous is that he lives by liis faith (ITab :;'). In the entire self-commitment to God, humble dependence on Him for all blessings, which is the very core of OT religion, no element is more central than the profound conviction embodied in it of the free sovereignty of God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, in the distribution of His mercies. The whole training of Israel was directed to impressing upon it the great les-son enunciated to Zerubbabel, ' Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts ' (Zee 4*J) — that all that comes to man in the spiritual sphere, too, is the free gift of Jehovah (cf. art. FAmi).
Nowhere is this lesson more persistently empha-sized than in the history of the establishment and devclu{>ment of the kingdom of God, which may well be called the cardinal theme of the OT. For the kingdom of God is consistently repre- sented, not aa the product of man's efforts in seeking after God, but aa the gracious creation of God Himself. Its inception and development are the crowning manifestation of the free grace of tne Living God working in history in pursuance of His loving purpose to recover fallen man to Himself. To this end He preser\'e3 the race in existence after its sin, saves a seed from the destruction of the Flood, separates to Him- self a family in Abraham, sifta it in 130.00 and Jacob, nurses and trains it through the weakness of its infancy, and gradually moulds it to be the vehicle of His revelatio.i of redemption, and the channel of Messianic blessings to the world. At every step it is God, and God alone, to whom is ascribed the initiative ; ana the most extreme care is taken to preserve the recipient-^ of the blessings consequent on His choice from fancying that thet^e blessings come as their due, or as reward for aught done by themselves, or to be found in themselves. They were rather in every respect emphatically not a people of their own making, but a people that God had formed that they might set forlli His praise (Is 4323). xhe strongest language, the most ostonisihing figures, were employed to emphasise the pure sovereignty of tlie Divine action at every stage. It was not because Israel was numerous, or strong, or righteous, that He chose it, but only because it pleaj^ed Him to make of it a people for Himself. He was as the potter, it as the clay whicli the potter moulds as he will ; it woa but aa the helpless babe in its blood cost out to die, abhorred of man, which Jehovah strangely gathers to His bosom in unmerited love (Gn 121 3, Dt 7C-» 9^'' lO'S 18, IS 12", Is 418. » 4320 489-11, Jer 18"- 31», Hos 220, Mai 1» 3). There was no element in the religious consciousness of Israel more poignantly realized, as there w-as no element in the in- struction they had received more insisted on, than that they owed their separation from the peoples of the earth to be the Lord's inheritance, and all the blessings they had as such received from Jehovah, not to any claim upon Ilim which they could urge, but to His own gracious love faithfully persisted in in spite of every conceivable obstacle (cf. art. Kingdom op Gon).
In one word, the sovereignty of the Divine will as the prin- ciple of all tliat comes to pass, is a primary postulate of the wliole religious life, as well as of the entire world-view of the OT. It is implicated in its very idea of God, its whole concep- tion of the relation of God to the world and to the changes which take pKace, whether in nature or history, anion*? the nations or in the life-fortunes of the individual ; and also in its entire scheme of religion, whether national or personal. It lies at the basis of all the religious emotions, and lays the foundation of the speuitic type of religious character built up in laraeL