day have I begotten Thee.' Hence also, in strictest truthfulness, the Evangelist could apply
to the Messiah what referred to Israel, and see it fulfilled in His history: 'Out of Egypt
have I called my Son.'4 And this other correlate idea, of Israel as 'the Servant of the Lord,'
is also fully concentrated in the Messiah as the Representative Israelite, so that the Book
of Isaiah, as the series of predictions in which His picture is most fully outlined, might be
summarised as that concerning 'the Servant of Jehovah.' Moreover, the Messiah, as
Representative Israelite, combined in Himself as 'the Servant of the Lord' the threefold
office of Prophet, Priest, and King, and joined together the two ideas of 'Son' and
'Servant.'5 And the final combination and full exhibition of these two ideas was the
fulfillment of the typical mission of Israel, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God
among men.
3. In this respect there is deep significance in the Jewish legend (frequently introduced;
see, for example, Tanch. ii. 99 a; Deb. R. 1), that all the miracles which God had shown
to Israel in the wilderness would be done again to redeemed Zion in the 'latter days.'
4. St. Matt. ii. 15.
5. Phil. ii. 6-11.
Thus, in its final, as in its initial,6 stage it was the establishment of the Kingdom of God
upon earth - brought about by the 'Servant' of the Lord, Who was to stricken humanity the
God-sent 'Anointed Comforter' (Mashiach ha -Menachem ): in this twofold sense of
'Comforter' of individuals ('the friend of sinners'), and 'Comforter' of Israel and of the
world, reconciling the two, and bringing to both eternal salvation. And here the mission
of Israel ended. It had passed through three stages. The first, or historical, was the
preparation of the Kingdom of God; the second, or ritual, the typical presentation of that
Kingdom; while the third, or prophetic, brought that Kingdom into actual contac t with
the kingdoms of the world. Accordingly, it is during the latter that the designation 'Son of
David' (typical Israel) enlarged in the visions of Daniel into that of 'Son of Man' (the
Head of redeemed humanity). It were a onesided view to regard the Babylonish exile as
only a punishment for Israel's sin. There is, in truth, nothing in all God's dealings in
history exclusively punitive. That were a merely negative element. But there is always a
positive element also of actual progress; a step forward, e ven though in the taking of it
something should have to be crushed. And this step forward was the development of the
idea of the Kingdom of God in its relation to the world.
6. Gen. iii. 15.
2. This organic unity of Israel and the Messiah explains how eve nts, institutions, and
predictions, which initially were purely Israelitish, could with truth be regarded as finding
their full accomplishment in the Messiah. From this point of view the whole Old
Testament becomes the perspective in which the figure of the Messiah stands out. And
perhaps the most valuable element in Rabbinic excommentation on Messianic times is
that in which, as so frequently, it is explained, that all the miracles and deliverances of
Israel's past would be re-enacted, only in a much wider manner, in the days of the
Messiah. Thus the whole past was symbolic, and typical of the future - the Old Testament
the glass, through which the universal blessings of the latter days were seen. It is in this
sense that we would understand the two sayings of the Talmud: 'All the prophets