But, narrowing our survey to where the history of the Kingdom of God begins with that of Abraham, it was indeed as Jesus said: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he should see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.' [750] For, all that followed from Abraham to the Messiah was one, and bore this twofold impress: heavenwards, that of Son; earthwards, that of Servant. Israel was God's Son - His first-born;' their history that of the children of God; their institutions those of the family of God; their predictions those of the household of God. And Israel was also the Servant of God - Jacob My Servant;' and its history, institutions, and predictions those of the Servant of the Lord. Yet not merely Servant, but Son-Servant - anointed' to such service. This idea was, so to speak, crystallised in the three great representative institutions of Israel. The Servant of the Lord' in relation to Israel's history was Kingship in Israel; the Servant of the Lord' in relation to Israel's ritual ordinances was the Priesthood in Israel; the Servant of the Lord' in relation to prediction was the Prophetic order. But all sprang from the same fundamental idea: that of the Servant of Jehovah.'
One step still remains. The Messiah and His history are not presented in the Old Testament as something separate from, or superadded to, Israel. The history, the institutions, and the predictions of Israel run up into Him. [751] He is the typical Israelite, nay, typical Israel itself - alike the crown, the completion, and the representative of Israel. He is the Son of God and the Servant of the Lord; but in that highest and only true sense, which had given its meaning to all the preparatory development. As He was anointed' to be the Servant of the Lord,' not with the typical oil, but by the Spirit of Jehovah' upon' Him, so was He also the Son' in a unique sense. His organic connection with Israel is marked by the designations Seed of Abraham' and Son of David,' while at the same time He was essentially, what Israel was subordinately and typically: Thou art My Son - this day have I begotten Thee.' Hence also, in strictest truthfulness, the Evangelist could apply to the Messiah what referred to Israel, and see it fulfilled in His history: Out of Egypt have I called my Son.' [752] And this other correlate idea, of Israel as the Servant of the Lord,' is also fully concentrated in the Messiah as the Representative Israelite, so that the Book of Isaiah, as the series of predictions in which His picture is most fully outlined, might be summarised as that concerning the Servant of Jehovah.' Moreover, the Messiah, as Representative Israelite, combined in Himself as the Servant of the Lord' the threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King, and joined together the two ideas of Son' and Servant.' [753] And the final combination and full exhibition of these two ideas was the fulfillment of the typical mission of Israel, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God among men.
Thus, in its final, as in its initial, [754] stage it was the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth - brought about by the Servant' of the Lord, Who was to stricken humanity the God-sent Anointed Comforter' (Mashiach ha-Menachem): in this twofold sense of Comforter' of individuals (the friend of sinners'), and Comforter' of Israel and of the world, reconciling the two, and bringing to both eternal salvation. And here the mission of Israel ended. It had passed through three stages. The first, or historical, was the preparation of the Kingdom of God; the second, or ritual, the typical presentation of that Kingdom; while the third, or prophetic, brought that Kingdom into actual contact with the kingdoms of the world. Accordingly, it is during the latter that the designation Son of David' (typical Israel) enlarged in the visions of Daniel into that of Son of Man' (the Head of redeemed humanity). It were a onesided view to regard the Babylonish exile as only a punishment for Israel's sin. There is, in truth, nothing in all God's dealings in history exclusively punitive. That were a merely negative element. But there is always a positive element also of actual progress; a step forward, even though in the taking of it something should have to be crushed. And this step forward was the development of the idea of the Kingdom of God in its relation to the world.