sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from j promise of an everlasting throne (2 Sam. xxiii). I'as- between his feet, until Shiloh come" ((Jen. xlix, 8, 10; | sages in the Psalms are numerous which are ajiplied to see Pcrowue's J'Jssai/, p. 20, 188 ; Delitzscli, ad loc. ; bishop the Messiah in the N, T. : such are Psa. ii, xvi, xxii, xl.
Pearson, Creed, art. ii ; Hengstenberg, Christol. i, 59, 00; Davison, On Prophecy, p. 100 ; DiiUinger, Gentile and Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ, translated by Darnell, ii, 392. Onkelos and Kaschi, it mav be worth
ex. Other psalms (pioted in the N. T. appear to refer to the actual history of another king; but only those who deny tlie existence of types and prophecy will con- sider this as an evidence against an ulterior allusion to
while to add, make Shdoh here to refer to the Messiah, I Messiali ; such psalms are xlv. Ixviii, Ixix, Ixxii. The as do D. is.imchi and Abendana). To us the Messianic j advance in clearness in this period is great. The name interpretation, of the passage seems to be called for by ' of Anointed, i. e. King, comes in, and the ilessiah is to the principle of i)eri(.dical limitation, which amounts to ' come of the lineage of David. He is described in his a law in tiie Christological Scriptures. \\'e accept the exaltation, with liis great kingdom that shall be spirit- conclusion, therefore, that the n piD of this verse is the I ual rather than temporal ( Psa. ii, xxi, xl, ex). lu
MESSIAH
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other places he is seen in suffering and humiliation (Psa. xxii, xvi, xl).
Having now confined the Messiah's descent to the fam- ily- of the iUiistrious king who was " the man after God's own lieart," prophecy will await God's own express identification of the individual (see it given in Matt, iii, 17 ; xvii, 5 ; Mark i, 11 ; ix, 7 ; Luke iii, 22 ; ix, 35 ; and referred to in 2 Pet, i, 17). But it will not idly wait. It has other particulars to announce, to give point and precision to a nation's hopes.
4. Period of Propheiism.— After the time of David the predictions of the INIessiah ceased for a time, until those propliets arose whose works we possess in the canon of Scripture. They nowhere give us an exact and complete account of the nature of the Messiah ; but dif- ferent aspects of the truth are produced by the various needs of the people, and so they are led to speak of him now as a Conqueror, or a Judge, or a Redeemer from sin ; it is from the study of the whole of them that we gain a clear and complete image of his person and king- dom. This third period lasts from the reign of Uzziah to the Babylonian captivity. The Messiah is a King and Ruler "of David's house, who shall come to reform and restore the Jewish nation and purify the Church, as in Isa. xi, xl-lxvi. The blessings of the restoration, however, will not be confined to Jews; the heathen are made to share them fidly (Isa. ii, Ixvi). Whatever the- ories have been attempted about Isa. liii, there can be no doubt that the most natural is the received interpre- tation that it refers to the suffering Redeemer ; and so in the N. T. it is always considered to do. The passage of Mic. v, 2 (comp. Matt, ii, 6) left no doubt in the mind of the Sanhedrim as to the birthplace of the Messiah. The lineage of David is again alluded to in Zech. xii, 10-14. The time of the second Temple is fixed by Hagg. ii, 9 fur INIessiah's coming; and the coming of the Forerun- ner and of the Anointed is clearly revealed in Mai. iii, 1 ; iv, 5, G.
All the more important events of the coming Re- deemer's life and death, and subsequent kingdom and exaltation, were foretold. Bethlehem was to be his birthplace (Mic.v^, 2; comp. with Matt, ii, 1-6) ; Galilee his country (Isa. ix, 1, 2; comp. with Matt, iv, 14-16); a virgin his mother (Isa. vii, 14; comp. with Matt, i, 23) ; he was to preach glad tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted (Isa. Ixi, 1; comp. with Luke iv, 17-21) ; though her king, he was to come to the daughter of Zion, just and having salvation, lowly and riding \ipon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass (Zech. ix, 9; comp. with John xii, 14, 15) ; he was to be despised and rejected of men; was to be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. liii, 3, 7 ; comp. with Psa. xxii, 6 ; John i, 11 ; xviii, 40; Mark xiv, 61 and xv, 5) ; Ids garments were to be parted, and lots cast upon his vesture (Psa. xxii, 18; comp. with John xix, 23, 24) ; his hands and feet were to be pierced (Psa. xxii, 16; comp. with Luke xxiii, 33, and John xx, 25) ; he was to have vinegar given to him to drink (Psa. Ixix, 21 ; comp. with Matt, xxvii, 34, 38) ; he was to pour out his soul unto death; was to be numbered with the trans- gressors; and his grave, though intended to be with wicked men (see this translation in Mason and Ber- nard's Ilebr. Gram, ii, 305), Avas in reality destined to be with a rich man (Isa. liii, 9 ; comp. with Matt, xxvii, 57, 58) ; his soul was not to be left in hell, nor his ilesli to see corruption (Psa. xvi, 10; comp. with Acts ii, 31, and xiii, 34-36) ; he was to sit on the right hand of Je- hovah till his foes were made his footstool (Psa. ex, 1 ; comp. with 1 Pet, iii, 22; Heb. i, 3; Mark xvi, 19, and 1 Cor. XV, 25) ; his kingdom was to spread until ulti- mately " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, should be given to the saints of the Most High" (Dan. vii, 27 ; see Pe- rowne, Coherence, p. 29, 30). Slight as is this sketch of the prophetic announcements with which God was pleased to sustain human hope amid human misery, "as a light that shineth in a dark place" (2 Pet. i, 19),