he Pentateuch would
naturally prevent us from expecting that the Messianic prophecies
should occupy so prominent a place in them as they do in Genesis. The
object contemplated in these books is rather to prepare effectually the
way for the Messiah, by laying the theocratic institutions on a firm
foundation, and by establishing the law which is intended to produce
the knowledge of sin, and [Pg 13] to settle discipline, and by means of
which the image of God is to be impressed on the whole national life.
If the hope of the Messiah was to be realized in a proper manner, and
to produce its legitimate effect, it was necessary that the people
should first be accustomed to this new order of life; that, for the
present, their regards should not be too much drawn away from this
their proximate and immediate vocation. Yet, even in the last four
books there are not wanting allusions to Him who, as the end of the
law, was, from the very beginning, to be set before the eyes of the
people.

In Num. xxiv. 17-19, Balaam beholds an Israelitish kingdom raised
absolutely above the kingdoms of the world, extending over the whole
earth, and all-powerful; and he sees it in the form of an _ideal_ king,
with reference to Jacob's prophecy contained in Gen. xlix. 10,
according to which the kingdom rising in Judah shall find its full and
final realization in the person of one king--the Messiah.

We have here the future King of the Jews saluted from the midst of the
heathen world, corresponding to the salutation of the manifested one by
the wise men from the East: compare Matt. ii. 1, 2.

From the whole position of Moses in the economy of the revelations of
God, it is, _a priori_, scarcely conceivable that he should have
contented himself with communicating a prophecy of the Messiah uttered
by a non-Israelite. We expect that, as a prefiguration of the testimony
which, in the presence of the chief among the apostles, he bore to the
Messiah after He had appeared (compare Matt. xvii. 3), he should, on
his own behalf, testify his faith in Him, and direct the people to Him.
This testimony we have in Deut. xviii. 15-19. It is natural that Moses'
attestation should have reference to Christ in so far as He is his
antitype. He bears witness to Christ as the true Prophet, as the
Mediator of the divine revelation--thus enlarging the slender
indications of Christ's prophetical office given in Gen. xlix. 10. A
new and important feature of Messianic prophecy