Inability

to eject Canaanites.

on the descendants of Abraham as a special mark of his favour, and yet not have accompanied the gift with possession, but left them to install themselves by conquest, it is still more extraordinary that he should not have given them the ability to carry out his purposes by ejecting those whom they had to displace. The one were to come in as God's peculiar people, he reigning over them as their national ruler," they have not rejected thee," he is represented as saying to Samuel, when they sought to be under a human sovereign, "but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them" (1 Sam. viii. 7),—the other were to be visited as prominent sinners, when their iniquity had ripened to judgment (Gen. xv. 16). And yet, when the set time had arrived for fulfilling these designs, when the chosen people, disciplined in the wilderness, moved into the land to take up their inheritance, and "the iniquity of the Amorites" had become "full" for visitation, power was wanting to execute the divine will, even, as it is alleged, on the part of the divinity himself.

"As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out" (Josh. xv. 63). This, the very throne of God (Jer. iii. 17; xvii. 12), and the seat of his worship, could not be purged from the presence of the condemned idolaters. The Ephraimites did not clear their portion of the ancient occupants, nor did the children of Manasseh clear theirs (Josh. xvi. 10; xvii. 12, 13). This was in the time of the appointed leader Joshua. After he had passed away the Lord is represented as asking, "Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?" And he is made to give the answer himself. "Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand." And after this we are told, " And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron" (Jud. i. 1, 2, 19); so that the power of God sufficed in dealing with the hill tribes, but was unequal to cope with the better equipped inhabitants of the plains. Neither did Manasseh succeed in clearing his allotment," but the Canaanites would dwell in that land." Neither did Ephraim, or Zebulon, or Asher, or Naphtali, or Dan, accomplish their tasks (Jud. i. 27-36). Two entire tribes,

Reuben and Gad, as we have seen, took up their portions outside the appointed inheritance. There remain ten tribes whose operations have to be considered. Of these, six are named in the chapter of Judges above cited as not able to dispossess those who were to be ejected; and two other tribes, namely, Simeon and Dan, as we have seen, were held at bay as to their lots by the Philistines. Of the proceedings of Benjamin and Issachar we hear nothing, perhaps from the extreme insignificance of their lots. And the failure continued even to the prosperous reign of Solomon, who, four hundred and fifty years after the first occupation under Joshua, had still to put up with the presence of the condemned Gentiles. "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond-service unto this day" (1 Kings ix. 20, 21), making, in fact, with them that species of "covenant," to the preservation of their lives, which God had prohibited.

session by

The promise, or prophecy, as to their "inheritance," was Non-posthus far from being fulfilled in the instance of the descendants Abraham. of Abraham. But it embraced the patriarch also himself. God, it is allowed, had "promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him," and yet, it is equally allowed, "he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on " (Acts vii. 5).

of inheri

And this inheritance was to be held in perpetuity. "To Perpetuity thee will I give it," it was declared, "and to thy seed for tance. ever." The patriarch, we see, never was more than a stranger and a pilgrim in the land (Heb. xi. 13). His descendants had partial possession only, in places totally excluded, in others obliged to put up with the joint occupation of the ancient owners. While so holding, it was no peaceable and undisturbed enjoyment, as might be expected from a gift divinely bestowed. They were in continual hostilities with every tribe and nation around them. All seemed greedy of the bone, endeavouring to snatch it from them. These contentions were frequently successful, the Israelites being brought repeatedly under hostile yoke, and sometimes even carried

Statutes to endure for ever.

away into captivity. And the end has been that they have been totally supplanted. They had about fifteen hundred years of this incomplete and disturbed possession, and for eighteen huudred their "inheritance" has passed away to strangers.

(4.) The statutes and ordinances enjoined on the Israelites were to endure for ever. The priest's office was to belong to Aaron and his descendants under a "perpetual statute" (Ex. xxix. 9), and the "priesthood" was to be "everlasting (Num. xxv. 13). They were consecrated by anointment, and had observances in respect of vestments, washing the feet, and abstinence from wine, all of which were ordained to them by a statute "for ever" (Ex. xxviii. 43; xxx. 21; Lev. vii. 36; x. 9). The service of the Levites was also established "by a statute for ever" (Num. xviii. 23). The Passover, the Sabbaths, the Holy Convocation, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, were to be kept up and observed "for ever (Ex. xii. 14; xxxi. 16; Lev. xxiii. 21, 31, 41). The burnt offerings, the meat offerings, the yearly atonement, the first fruits, the free-will offerings, and all the sacrificial performances, were in like manner enjoined and regulated "by statute for ever" (Lev. iii. 17; vi. 22; xvi. 34; xvii. 7; xxiii. 14; Num. xv. 15; xix. 10). The perquisites of the priests, consisting of "the heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel," and the show bread, were secured to them "by reason of the anointing," "by an ordinance for ever" (Ex. xxix. 28; Lev. vi. 18; vii. 34; xxiv. 9; Num. xviii. 8, 19). And the sacred lamps were to be kept burning "for ever" (Ex. xxvii. 21; Lev. xxiv. 3). But this provision of perpetuity has been set at naught, and abrogated, under a new dispensation. Jewish people have lost their " inheritance," and therewith all their distinctive usages have been abolished. The endurance "for ever" of the one has proved as unreal as that of the other. The first covenant has been accounted antiquated, worn out, and no more to be respected. It was as "that which decayeth and waxeth old" and is "ready to vanish away" (Heb. viii. 13). It was found composed of "weak and beggarly elements," all which were "to perish with the using" (Gal. iv. 9; Col. ii. 22). It depended on "carnal ordinances imposed until the time of reformation" (Heb. ix. 10). Had "that first covenant

The

of throne

been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second" (Heb. viii. 7); but being condemned, the "reformation" was made. Jesus Christ was introduced as "the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises" (Heb. viii. 6). What could be announced with more solemnity, or earnestness of assurance, than the special, distinctive, national promises made to the Jews? Nevertheless, in the face of the "reform," the whole have been declared unreal and void, and have been set aside absolutely. The priesthood of old, though of divine appointment, is under the new system declared to have been "after the law of a carnal commandment" (Heb. vii. 16). The priest is now taken "out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood;" and “the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." The present priesthood, or that of Jesus, we are assured is to be an "unchangeable priesthood" (Heb. vii. 1214, 24). The "law of commandments," contained in the past "ordinances," has also been "abolished" (Eph. ii. 15), and "the handwriting" of these "ordinances blotted out" (Col. ii. 14). (5.) Another special promise relates to the kingly rule. Perpetuity For this also perpetuity was pledged. "When thy days be of David. fulfilled," was God's message to David through the prophet Nathan, "and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. vii. 12-16). "I have found David my servant," says the Psalmist; "with my holy oil have I anointed him. I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit

N

The

seventy years captivity.

their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me" (Ps. lxxxix. 20-36). "For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.-If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers" (Jer. xxxiii. 17-21).

This last utterance is by a prophet of the tribe of Levi, and he took care prominently to pronounce for the welfare of his class. But where are the Levites ? Where is Israel? Where is the throne of the kingdom? And where even any descendant of the house of David? The sun and the moon endure, day and night succeed each other in uninterrupted rotation, but what has become of this sure and unchangeable covenant? Sins might be committed, but these were to be met with temporary chastisements. The seed were to be maintained upon the insubvertible throne, and the line of David were never to be unseated as had been that of Saul. But how stand the events? David's realm was transmitted to his successor Solomon, and held in its integrity through that reign, and that one reign only. Ten tribes out the twelve fell away from the next occupant of the throne and "rebelled against the house of David unto this day" (1 Kings xii. 19). The transmission, according to the promise, failed thus early. The potentate who was to be made "higher than the kings of the earth" was shorn of two-thirds of his already contracted and insignificant dominions. The exaltation never came, the throne has been vacant for ages, and if search were made for a lineal descendant of the stock assured, not one at this day could be met with.

(6.) The captivity in Babylon forms the subject of a precise prophecy. "Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,