i. 2. _The Lord hath spoken._
Thus at the very outset of this book Divine authority is claimed for
the utterances contained in it. Three views may be taken of the
writings of the Hebrew prophets. 1. They are the writings of men who
knew they were uttering that which is false when they claimed to be
messengers of the Most High. 2. They are the writings of enthusiasts
who mistook the ecstasies of their excited imaginations for Divine
inspirations. 3. They are the writings of holy men who were inspired
by the Holy Ghost.
Against the first of these views is to be set the fact that the whole
influence of the prophets was exerted on behalf of national
righteousness and individual virtue; that for these things they
suffered; that for these things some of them died. Is it credible
that men who _so_ sought to promote _such_ ends would begin and
continue their mission with a blasphemous lie?
Against the second is to be set the fact that many of their
predictions have been fulfilled--fulfilled after intervals, so long,
and with such minute accuracy, that sceptics have sought to account
for such fulfilments by asserting that the prophecies were written
subsequently to the events to which they refer; an assertion which
the most competent scholars repel even with contempt.
There remains then only the third view; and in support of it may be
urged--in addition to the _conclusive_ fact just named--such
considerations as these: 1. That their conceptions of God and of
human duty are such as to satisfy the loftiest demands of the most
enlightened reason and the best instructed conscience. Give examples
(ch. xl. 12-26; lviii. 3-7, &c.) 2. That their conceptions of God and
of human duty have not been surpassed by those of the sublimest poets
or the ablest philosophers of any subsequent age. 3. That their
sublime conceptions of God and of human duty, which still stand as
the Alps or Himalaya of human thought, were given to the world in an
age when, with the exception only of the prophets and those who
accepted their teaching, the whole human race was given over to the
most debasing idolatries and superstitions. 4. That the Hebrew
prophets stood out in regard to these conceptions not only distinct
from the men of their own age, but from the men of their own nation,
from whom they had only words of rebuke, and against whose most
cherished convictions and steadfast tendencies they set themselves in
resolute opposition. Give examples (ch. i. 11-15; lxvi. 1, 2, &c.) If
due weight be given to these considerations, we shall see that there
is no escape from the conclusion that the Hebrew prophets owed their
conceptions of God and duty to God Himself. They spake and wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
If this be so, then--1. We should earnestly study the prophetic
utterances. How mentally as well as morally debased is the man who is
not alert and concerned to hear and understand what "the LORD hath
spoken"! 2. Such of their utterances as are predictive should kindle
within us confident and joyful hopes. They are the promises of Him
who cannot lie, and who has ample power to perform. 3. To those which
are preceptive we should give prompt, comprehensive, and careful
obedience. To withhold such obedience, is to array against ourselves
omnipotent power; to yield it, is to secure for ourselves eternal
rewards (ch. iii. 10, 11).