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Prophets and Kings
inheritance when he declared, “The righteous shall inherit the land,
and dwell therein forever.”
Psalm 37:29
.
This hope of redemption through the advent of the Son of God
as Saviour and King, has never become extinct in the hearts of men.
From the beginning there have been some whose faith has reached out
beyond the shadows of the present to the realities of the future. Adam,
Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—
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through these and other worthies the Lord has preserved the precious
revealings of His will. And it was thus that to the children of Israel,
the chosen people through whom was to be given to the world the
promised Messiah, God imparted a knowledge of the requirements of
His law, and of the salvation to be accomplished through the atoning
sacrifice of His beloved Son.
The hope of Israel was embodied in the promise made at the time
of the call of Abraham, and afterward repeated again and again to his
posterity, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Genesis
12:3
. As the purpose of God for the redemption of the race was
unfolded to Abraham, the Sun of Righteousness shone upon his heart,
and his darkness was scattered. And when, at last, the Saviour Himself
walked and talked among the sons of men, He bore witness to the Jews
of the patriarch’s bright hope of deliverance through the coming of
a Redeemer. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” Christ
declared; “and he saw it, and was glad.”
John 8:56
.
This same blessed hope was foreshadowed in the benediction
pronounced by the dying patriarch Jacob upon his son Judah:
“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise:
Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee....
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh come;
And unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”
Genesis 49:8-10
.
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Again, on the borders of the Promised Land, the coming of the
world’s Redeemer was foretold in the prophecy uttered by Balaam: