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      THE INTERREGNUM AND "AFTERWARD" 29

      man incapable of himself to find God, but that, left to himself, he is incapable of retaining the know- ledge of God in its original purity even when once divinely communicated; and that even the things revealed, apart from the continued teaching of God's Spirit, are liable to become corrupted and distorted in his mind. Here we have a sad instance of a certain knowledge of Jehovah mixed up with the worship of "a graven image and a molten image," which were abomination in His sight, and the illegitimate use of the divinely instituted ephod, which was only to be borne by the high priest, joined together with the pagan teraphim. But the point to be noted is that here also these teraphim were used for oracular consulta- tions, for it was of them that the apostate Levite of Bethlehem asked for counsel for the idolatrous Danites (Judg. xviii. 5, 6).

      In Ezek. xxi. 21 we find the exact antithesis to David's consulting the ephod in the pagan king of Babylon " consulting with images " (literally, " tera- phim ") in reference to his projected invasion of Palestine. 1 Now it is clear that in olden times, when- ever by apostasy and disobedience fellowship with Jehovah was interrupted, and when in consequence there was no revelation from Him, " neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," Israel turned to the pagan teraphim, or like poor Saul they " sought unto

      1 The only other instances where teraphim are mentioned are i Sam. xix. 13–16, from which we gather, first, the sad fact that idolatry was practised by Michal, the daughter of Saul, and, secondly, that the teraphim must have had some resemblance to the human form since the idol could be mistaken for the body of David. There were no doubt larger ones in the temples, and smaller ones of all sizes, and for idolatrous purposes in the houses. The last mention of these is in Zech. x. 2, which is referred to below.

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      such as had familiar spirits, and wizards that peep and that mutter." But ever since the Babylonish Captivity Israel has been free from this, as from the other forms of gross and outward idolatry.

      A parallelism, in its spiritual significance, is to be found in Christendom. What the ephod or the prophet was in olden times, Holy Scripture is now. It is even " a more sure word " than voices from heaven, or answers by Urim and Thummim. The Scriptures, first spoken by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, are now " the oracles of God" themselves speaking with voices which carry their own conviction to hearts honestly seeking for truth, and ever confirming them- selves in the world's history and in the Christian's experience ; but men in the present day, even in Christendom, stumbling at the supernatural element in them, as if there could be a revelation of the Infinite and Everlasting One without such element, turn away from these oracles often on the flimsiest grounds, and instead are giving heed on the one hand to the specula- tions of a " science falsely so called," and on the other hand " to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," and are thus in a measure already supplying an illustration of the solemn words of the apostle, that if men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, " God shall for this cause send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie" (2 Thess. ii. n, 12). For of the modern Christian teraphim it is as true as of the ancient pagan ; to adopt the language where they are last mentioned in Scripture, " they speak vanity," or " wickedness " ; and as for their " diviners," or false prophets representing them, "they see a lie, and tell false dreams ; they comfort in vain " (Zech. x. 2) ; for it is a comfort not well founded, and will not stand the test of death or of a judgment to come.

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      " AFTERWARDS."

      But the prophecy does not stop with describing the present it goes on to the future. " Afterwards," it says, after the " many days " of the Interregnum when the " times of the Gentiles " shall be fulfilled, and the period for the treading down of Jerusalem accomplished, " shall the children of Israel," that is, " all Israel," as the great apostle to the Gentiles assures us, in contrast to the remnant who seek and find God now "return, and seek Jehovah their God and David their king." They shall " return " to their land, but, better still, to their God.

      The word translated here " return " is the Hebrew for repentance. It is the word the prophets so often used when they cried, " Turn ye ; turn ye, for why will ye die O house of Israel ? " but they have never yet as a nation returned to God, neither will they return until the Spirit is poured upon them from on high, and the work of grace begins in their hearts. Then " a voice will be heard upon the high places, even the weeping and supplication of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way and have forgotten Jehovah their God." And in the midst of this weeping and supplication the voice of God will finally break in saying, " Return, ye backsliding children ; I will heal your backslidings," and then will come the immediate glad response, " Behold we come unto Thee, for Thou art Jehovah our God"(Jer. iii. 21,22; see also Zech. chaps, xii. to xiv.). And not only will they " return," but they will seek " Jehovah their God." Now and for a long season Israel hath been " without the true God," and without a priest to teach them the true meaning of the law. These words from 2 Chron. xv. 3 proclaim a present as well as an historic fact, and por- tray perhaps the saddest feature in connection with the present condition of Israel. In spite of religiousness

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      and great zeal, Israel is now "without the true God," and if we inquire for the reason it is found in the words of our Lord, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me " ; and again, " This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." " No man hath seen God at any time," nor can we see or truly know Him except the only-begotten of the Father declare Him unto us ; and by rejecting Him even the revelation in the scriptures of Moses and the prophets has become obscured to Israel, for that too was a revelation of God in Christ. Therefore the prophet says that they will not only seek Jehovah their God, but also " David their King."

      Now it is unnecessary to prove that " David " here stands for David's greater son, or Messiah. The Jews themselves have so understood it. Even the Rabbis, in commenting on the parallel passage in Jer. xxx., where we read that " In that day … they shall serve Jehovah their God and David their king whom I will raise up unto them," have said, "David their king whom I will raise up unto them," and not "whom I have raised up unto them " showing that it is not King David who reigned in Jerusalem some four hundred years before who is meant, but the Messiah who is to be of David's seed, as it is written in Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, and other scriptures. In truth, He is the true David, the " Beloved," the King and Man after God's own heart, in whom the promises of the kingdom are centred. There are a number of passages where the name David is applied to Messiah the king in the prophecies, but those in our passage in Hosea iii. and in Jer. xxx. 9 are especially remarkable : " They shall seek Jehovah their God and David their king " ; " They shall serve Jehovah their God and David their king," showing that there is

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      neither true seeking nor true serving of Jehovah God if we do not also seek and serve David (Messiah) the king, notwithstanding all that poor Israel now thinks to the contrary.

      Now let us return for a moment to the first of the three pairs of contrasts in the fourth verse of our chapter " Without a king and without a prince " and by com- paring that statement with another prophecy of Israel's future, observe a most beautiful truth about the Lord Jesus in relation to that nation. 1 In Ezek. xxxvii. 21–25 we read, " Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel : and one king shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions ; but I will save them out cf all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And David, My servant, shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd ; they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant wherein your fathers have

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