(1.) To prepare the way for our Lord's advent, one nation was to be selected and trained up under a system of divine laws and ordinances--the _theocracy_ established under Moses. The _Pentateuch_ records _the establishment of the theocracy_, with the previous steps that led to it, and the historical events immediately connected with. it. Hence the five books of Moses are called emphatically _the Law_; and as such, their province in the Old Testament is clear and well defined. (2.) The end of the Mosaic law being the preparation of the Israelitish people, and through them the world, for Christ's advent, it was not the purpose of God that it should be hidden as a dead letter beside the ark in the inner sanctuary. It was a code for practice, not for theory. It contained the constitution of the state, civil as well as religious; and God's almighty power and faithfulness were pledged that it should accomplish in a thorough way the office assigned to it. The theocracy must therefore have a _history_; and with the record of this the _historical books_ are occupied. (3.) God did not leave the development of this history to itself. He watched over it from the beginning, and directed its course, interposing from time to time, not only in a providential way, but also by direct revelation. Sometimes, for specific ends, he revealed himself immediately _to_ particular individuals, as to Gideon, and Manoah and his wife. But more commonly his revelations were made to the rulers or people at large _through_ persons selected as the organs of his Spirit; that is, through _prophets_. The prophet held his commission immediately from God. Since God is the author, not of confusion, but of order, he came to the people _under_ the Law, not above it; and his messages were to be tried by the Law. Deut. 13:1-5. No prophet after Moses enjoyed the same fulness of access to God which was vouchsafed to him, or received the same extent of revelation. Numb. 12:6-8; Deut. 34:10-12. Nevertheless, the prophet came to rulers and people, like Moses, with an authority derived immediately from God, introducing his messages with the words: "Thus saith the Lord." In God's name he rebuked the people for their sins; explained to them the true cause of the calamities that befell them; recalled them to God's service as ordained in the Law, unfolding to them at the same time its true nature as consisting in the spirit, and not in the letter only--1 Sam. 15:22; Isa. 1:11-20; 57:15; 66:2; Jer. 4:4; Ezek. 18:31; Hosea 10:12; 14:2; Joel 2:12, 13; Amos 5: 21-24; Micah 6: 6-8--denounced upon them the awful judgments of God as the punishment of continued disobedience; and promised them the restoration of his favor upon condition of hearty repentance. In the decline of the Theocracy, it was the special province of the prophets to comfort the pious remnant of God's people by unfolding to them the future glory of Zion--the true "Israel of God," and her dominion over all the earth.