man (on which see bishop lliii>l(\ , .S' n/niu xvi, p. 234, 235, comp. with Faber's Pnqilidii-al Jtissirt. vii, 4 and o), additional light was given, after the deluge, to the second father of the human race.
(2.) To Noah was vouchsafed a special reservation
bj' no means certain.
(2.) Tlie prophecy of Moses (Deut. xviii, 18), "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him,"
of blessing for one of his sons in preference to the other claims attention. Does this refer to the Messiah? The two, and — as if words failed him— he exclaimed, "Bless- [ reference to Moses in John v, 45-47 — •• He wrote of me" ed be Jehovah, the God of Shem 1" (Gen. ix, 20). Not — seems to point to this passage ; for it is a cold and that at any time God meant to coiijine a monopoly of i forced interpretation to refer it to the whole types and blessing to the individual selected as the special depos- symbols of the Jlosaic law. On tlie other hand, many itary thereof. In the present instance Japheth, in the critics would fain find here the divine institution of the next verse, is associated with his brother for at least , whole prophetic onler, which, if not here, does not occur some secondary advantage : " God shall enlarge Japheth, '. at all. Hciigsiinlxrg thinks that it docs promise that and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Instead of j an order df |iin|,li( is should be sent, but that the singu- blessing Shem, as he had cursed Canaan, he carries up lar is usi a wiili clir.ct reference to the greatest of the the blessing to the great fountain of the blessings that j prophets, (luisi liiinsclt, without whom the words would
were to follow Shem,
(3.) The principle of limitation goes on. One of Shem's descendants has three sons. Only one of these is selected as the pecidiar treasurer of the divine favor. But not for himself alone was Abraham chosen. As in Shem's instance, so here again Abraham was to be the
not have been fulfilled. " The spirit of Christ spoke in the prophets, and Christ is in a sense the only prophet" (1 Pet. i, 11). Jews in earlier times might liavc been excused for referring the words to this or that present prophet; but the Jews whom the Lord rebukes (.)ohu v) were inexcusable; for, having the words before them,
centre of blessing to even a larger scope. IMore than and the works of Christ as well, they should have known once was he assured of tliis: " In thy seed ["in thee," that no prophet had so fulfilled the" words as he had. xii, 3] shall aU the nations of the earth be blessed" j (3.) The passages in the Pentateuch which relate to (Gen. xxii, 18 ). The Jlessianic purport of this repeated \ " the Angel of the Lord" have been thought by many promise cannot be doubted after Christ's own statement to bear reference to the Messiah.
(John viii, 50) and Paid's comment (Gal. iii, 10). The promise is still indefinite, but it tends to the undoing of the curse of Adam by a blessing to all the earth through the seed of Abraham, as death had come on the whole earth through Adam. When our Lord says "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad" (John viii, 50), we are to under- stand that this promise of a real blessing and restoration to come hereafter was understood in a spiritual sense, as a leading back to God, as a coming nearer to him, from whom the promise came; and he desired with hope and
3. Period of David. — Here another advance is found in prophetic limitation. Jacob had only specified the tribe, now the jiarticuiar family is indicated from which Messiah was to spring. From the great promise made to David (2 Sam. vii, 11-10), and so frequently referred to afterwards (I Kings xi, 34, 38; Psa. Ixxxix, 30-37 ; Isa. Iv, 3 ; Acts xiii, 34), and described by the siceet psalmist of Israel himseU as "an everlasting cov- enant ordered in all things, and sure" (2 Sam. xxiii, 5), arose that concentrated expectation of the Messiah ex- pressed bv the popular phrase Son of David, of which
rejoicing (ygestivit cum desiderio," Bengel) to behold we hear so much in the N. T. (comp. Matt, ix, 27; xii,
the day of it,
(4.) In Abraham's son— the father of twin sons— we meet with another limitation; Jacob not only se- cures the traditional blessing to himself, but is inspired to concentrate.it at his death on Judah, to the exclu- sion of the eleven other members of his family. "Ju- dah, thou art he whom thy brothers (iraise. '. . . The
23; xxi, 9; xxii, 42; Mark x, 47, 48; xi, 10; Luke i, 32; xviii, 38, 39; John vii, 42; Iiom. i, 3; Kev. xxii, 10; with Jer. xxiii, 5).
In the promises of a kingdom to David and his house " forever" (2 Sam. vii, 13), there is more than could be fulfilled save l)y the eternal kingdom in which that of David merged; and David's last words dwell on this