02 - Chapter 02

II. THE WORLD AND THE LIFE OF MAN:

HOW THE OLD TESTAMENT WRITERS LOOKED AT THEM. The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of hills is his also... O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand (Psalms 95:3).

“ CONDUCT,” says Matthew Arnold, “ is three-fourths of life.” With at least equal truth it is possible for us to assert that the standpoint from which the Old Testament writers looked at things was three-fourths of their inspiration. The best and clearest thinkers in Israel were as far as possible from being materialists or poly-theists. They were convinced that matter was neither the only nor the most important thing in the universe. Behind matter and force they discovered a mysterious agency a Presence a Person of whose existence they were as sure as they could be of anything that is to be seen by the outward eye. In short, they perceived and realised the existence and character of the one only living and true God in a way that was quite unique. And their exalted thoughts about God naturally determined their method of looking at the world and at the life of man. They never dreamt of a religion without God, or of a philosophy of human life which did not take into account the universe that is around us, and of which we form a part the God who has created all things, and in whom we live and move and have our being.

“ Know well thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is man.” The wisest and best Israelites would have rejected the pre-supposition that underlies such words as these, for to them God was knowable and, to a certain extent at least, known, and they clearly perceived that we could not know ourselves well and truly without knowing something at least about the universe and the Creator of it the Eternal not-ourselves that makes for righteous-ness. And so they thought of all things in their relation to God. ’ In the beginning God ’ these opening words of Genesis give us the key-note not merely to the story of creation, but also to the whole of the Bible.

Moreover, in consequence of their clear vision of God the sacred writers are always on the out-look for, and they are better able than others are to recognise, indications of God’s presence in the world of men. They saw God’s hand in the rise and fall of nations, and history was to them the unfolding of His purpose. The Bible, consequently, was not meant to give us facts of history merely. Even the historical portions were not written solely with the intention of relating to the Jewish people the important incidents and events in their national history.

They were written that all of us might know something of the way in which God deals on the whole with nations, and with individual men and women in this world. And the prophetical Books of Scripture have a moral and spiritual meaning and purpose which can-not be overlooked. It is a mistake to think of pro-phecy as history written beforehand, or to believe that the Prophets were merely foretellers of future events. The Prophets were profoundly interested in the secular welfare of their people, and their counsels and warnings were founded on a true knowledge of what was taking place around them, and on a right understanding of the natural tendency or drift of affairs. But they were, above all things, preachers of moral and religious truth. Owing to their clear spiritual vision they could penetrate more deeply beneath the surface and could see more clearly than others into the heart of things; and so they could interpret more truly than others what God was doing and commanding in their own age, and they were better able than others to foretell what, in judgment and redemptive mercy, God meant to do and must do in the divine event. And this reminds us of the fact that the Books of Scripture were written with a special purpose as well as from a special point of view. From first to last their constant purpose is that of leading men to God, whose nature and character they ever more and more clearly reveal. No writers see so clearly or realise so keenly the great, the awful difference between right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and sin. They have an enthusiasm for righteousness, for in their eyes it is the doing of that which is pleasing in the sight of Him whose name is Holy, whose power is irresistible, and who is for ever blessing those who fear and serve Him. And no writers have so great a horror at sin, for it is rebellion against God the doing of that which is diametrically opposed to the will of Him who hateth evil and whose righteous judgments are for ever going forth against all workers of iniquity. And no writers are so terribly alive to the fact of sin’s existence. They see it where ordi-nary eyes are unable to discern it. They see it tainting almost every action of the great majority of men and women. They see it at the centre of our being poisoning the springs of life. And so they are forever warning men and women against sin, forever exhorting us to do that which is pleasing in the sight of God. ’ Be sure your sin will find you out.’ ’ Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.’ ’ Ye that love the Lord hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints: he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.’

How or when some of the apparently earlier Books of the Old Testament assumed exactly their present form, how or when the Israelites came to believe that their national Jehovah was the righteous Ruler of all nations, and of the whole universe, we need not for our present purpose inquire. Doubt-less it was only gradually, and as they were taught by men peculiarly susceptible to moral and religious truth, and as they were disciplined by the stern logic of events, that even the most faithful reached the pure and exalted conception of God and our personal responsibility to Him which is to be found in the Prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. But “ for the root idea from which the perfect flower grew “ we may have to go back to a very much earlier period in Jewish history. “ Israel on the way to exile is on the way to become Israel after the Spirit.” These words are true, but it is possible to make too much of the truth which they contain. The exile purified, broadened, and en-nobled Israel’s thoughts of God, but did the exile originate Israel’s faith in God?

Whatever we may think on this subject one thing is certain. When the Israelites did believe in one God who is Lord of all, and when they did realise in thought the full significance of what they believed, a great revolution must neces-sarily have been effected in their thoughts, beliefs, convictions with regard to the world and to the life of man.

We are all aware of the great change in men’s views brought about by the acceptance of the Copernican in place of the older astronomy which regarded the earth as the centre of our system, while the sun, moon, and stars were thought of as mere ornaments of our firmament or light-givers to the earth. How changed men’s views of things became when they realised the truth that the sun is the centre of our system and that the earth is merely a planet revolving round the sun. When this great fact was brought home to the minds of men astronomers had to recast their science, whilst multi-tudes who were not astronomers had to alter radically many of the opinions which they had held tenaciously for years. And yet the revolution brought about by the Copernican system of astronomy is as nothing when compared with the revolution effected in the thoughts and lives of men when they began to look at the world and human life with the eyes of the sacred writers, for then the truth was borne in upon them that the things which are unseen are eternal, that the life is more than meat and the body than raiment, and that righteousness, truth, and goodness are infinitely more important than those things towards which the hearts of the children of men are usually so strongly inclined. There is no comparison, from the point of view of religion, between the position of the man who worships idols and whose religion consists in rites of an absurd or debasing kind, and that of the man who realises the great-ness and the holiness of God, and who, in answer to the question, ’ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? ’ is able to say, ’ He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God ’; ’ Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’ And are not men greatly strengthened for the doing of what they know to be their duty, and is not their sense of the importance of right doing intensified and deepened, their perception of what is right for them clarified and quickened, when they pass from the point of view of morality to that of religion and look at things from the theological standpoint of the Jews of old? It may he true that the earliest religions do not seem to stand in a close relation to morality. The mighty tyrants worshipped by men in ancient times were often thought of as appeased, not by the moral actions and fair lives of men, but by gifts, offerings, sacri-fices, deeds which might be of an illegitimate or immoral kind.

It may be true that morality is not dependent on Theology, and even when we do not admit that conscience is the product of social opinion and custom, we may believe that moral ideas have arisen and been developed in the social life of man, and have only afterwards been set up in connection with the gods. But if higher conceptions of duty have led men to nobler thoughts of God, we must not forget that worthy religious beliefs have done much to advance the ethical ideas of men, and have helped them to live more consistently in harmony with them.

It is impossible to read the Old Testament with-out perceiving that with the Israelites morality was closely connected with religious belief. And because the God in whom they believed was a moral deity, this close connection of religion and morality was a great gain to them.

How could such a people in such circumstances as those in which they often found themselves have retained their faith in moral truth if it had been regarded as having no connection with religious belief? Must there not have been to them a marvellous reinforcement in hope, confidence, and strength when as their thoughts came back, so to speak, from heaven to earth they felt themselves possessed of the unwavering conviction that when they were doing their duty they were doing what God wished them to do: that when they were obeying the dictates of conscience they were obey-ing the voice of God within them: and that when they were living in harmony with the moral law, which is in us and of us and yet over us, they were in league with Him who is from everlasting to ever-lasting, and whose plans and purposes cannot fail? And what a blessed experience must have been vouchsafed unto the select few who, in virtue of their true conception of God, had at least a glimpse of the meaning of “ the calling of Israel “! For when other Jews were wrapped up in a selfish exclusive-ness and puffed up by the narrow belief that the chosen people were the favourites of Heaven and destined to be the only recipients of that great salvation which would yet be forthcoming from the Lord, they were able to rejoice in the thought that Israel was the servant of Jehovah and elect for the sake of mankind the nation through whom other nations were to receive ’ the light ’ and the blessings which come from a knowledge of the true God the nation which, though punished, afflicted, purged, chastened, purified, was yet to be the means by which other nations would share in a salvation which, because needed by all, was meant for all.