Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Religion
Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2
Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm
Bible. Old Testament -- Prophecies; Messiah -- Prophecies
circumstance that, under the Old Testament, right was limited to a
single nation. For in the parallel passage, chap. li. 4: "Hearken unto
me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my congregation, for law shalt
proceed from me, and I will set my right for the light of the nations,"
יצא does not mean to go _out_, but to go _forth_, _i.e._, to proceed.
In the same way, in Hab. i. 4: "And not does right go forth for ever,"
_i.e._, it never comes forth, is never established, comp. Vol. i., p.
442, 443. Hence הוציא here can mean only "to bring to light," "to bring
forth." משפט is, by several interpreters, taken in the signification,
"religion;" but it is just ver. 4, by which they support their view,
which shows that the ordinary signification "right," must be retained
here. For in that verse, _right_ stands in parallelism with _law_, by
which right is established; comp. chap. li. 4. Before God's Kingdom
was, by the Servant of God, extended to the Gentile nations, there
existed among them, notwithstanding all the excellence of outward legal
arrangements, a condition without right in the higher sense. Right, in
its essence, has its root in God, as may be seen from the Ten
Commandments, which everywhere go back to God, and in all of which
Luther, in his exposition of the ten commandments, rightly repeats: "We
shall fear and love God." Where, therefore, the living God is not
known, there can be no right. The commandment: "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself," _e.g._, has any meaning only where the eye is
open for the divine image which the neighbour bears, and for the
redemption of which he is a fellow-partaker. The commandment: "Honour
thy father and thy mother" will go to the heart only where the divine
paternity is known, of which all earthly paternity is only an image.
[Pg 212] In Deut. iv. 5-8, Israel's happiness is praised, in that they
alone, among all the nations, are in possession of God's laws and
commandments. Those privileges of Israel are, by the Servant of God, to
be extended to the Gentiles who, because they are destitute of right,
are, in Deut. xxxii. 21, called a foolish nation. In Ps. cxlvii. 19,
20, it is said: "He showeth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and laws
unto Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation, and law they do not
know." This passage touches very closely upon that before us; like it,
it denies right to the Gentiles in general. "The Gentiles, being
without God in the world, do not know any right at all. For that which
they call so, is only the shadow of that which really deserves this
name, is only a dark mixture of right and wrong." As regards the first
table of the Ten Commandments, they grope entirely in the dark; and
with respect to the second table, it is only here and there that they
see a faint glimpse of light.--A consequence of the bringing forth of
right to the Gentiles is the ceasing of war, as it is described in
chap. ii. 4. When right has obtained dominion, it cannot tolerate war
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