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the substance of religion, and in this trust set lightly by the warning of the prophets
(Isaiah 1:11- 15). In their overweening confidence as to the present, and their worldly
policy as regarded the future, they brought on themselves the very evils which had been
predicted, but from which they had deemed themselves secure. And so it came that a
people who would not turn to their God while they might, had in the end this as their
judgment of hardening, that they could no longer turn to Him (Isaiah 6:9-13).
Indeed, Judah had so declined that not only idolatry of every kind, but even the service of
Molech - nay, witchcraft and necromancy, expressly denounced in the law (Deuteronomy
18:10-13), were openly practiced in the land (Isaiah 8:19). The Divine punishment of all
this has already appeared in the preceding history. For if, at the beginning of the reign of
Ahaz, Judah had attained its highest state of prosperity, it had sunk at its close to the
lowest level yet reached. In truth all the three nations engaged in the war described in the
previous chapter received meet punishment. The continuance of the northern kingdom
was now only a question of time, and the exile of Israel had actually begun. Judah had
become dependent on Assyria, and henceforth was only able fitfully and for brief periods
to shake off its yoke, till it finally shared the fate of its sister-kingdom. Lastly, Syria
ceased to exist as an independent power, and became a province of Assyria.
But in the history of the kingdom of God every movement is also a step towards the great
goal, and all judgment becomes larger mercy. So was it on this occasion also. Henceforth
the whole historical scene was changed. The prophetic horizon had enlarged. The falling
away of Israel had become already initially the life of the world. The fullest predictions
of the Person and work of the Messiah and of His universal kingdom date from this
period. Even the new relations of Israel formed the basis for wider conceptions and
spiritual progression. Those petty wars with Syria, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia,
which had filled the previous history, now ceased to be factors in it, and Israel found
itself face to face with the great world-power. This contact gave new form and shape to
the idea of a universal kingdom of God, wide as the world, which had hitherto only been
presented in dim outline, and of which only the germ had existed in the religious
consciousness of the people. Thus in every respect this was the beginning of a new era,
an era of judgment indeed, but also of larger mercy; an era of new development in the
history of the kingdom of God; a type also of the final hardening of Israel in the rejection
of their Messiah, and of the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Hoshea, the son of Elah, the last king of Israel, ascended the throne in the twelfth year of
Ahaz, king of Judah. His reign extended, at least nominally, over nine years (2 Kings
17:1). Of its religious character we have this brief notice, that "he did that which was evil
in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him." In the
absence of details, we can only conjecture that this indicates decrease in the former active
opposition to the worship of Jehovah. This seems implied in the circumstance that
apparently no official hindrance was offered to the later invitation of Hezekiah to attend
the Passover in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 30:1-12). The Talmud has it that after the
(^)