ew. This
is sufficiently manifest from 2 Kings iii., although the event narrated
there is different from that which is here alluded to, of which no
record has been preserved in history.[4] The hatred against the
Covenant-people, which the [Pg 360] Moabites were too weak openly to
exhibit, impelled them to this wicked deed against the king tributary
to them.--3. It must be carefully observed how the prophet, when coming
to Judah, introduces us, at once, into the centre of _theocratic_
transgression, the forsaking of the living God, and the serving of
vain, dead idols.

It will now be easily seen in what way the portion, chap. i.-ii. 5,
serves as an introduction to what follows. The prophecies against
foreign nations do not, as elsewhere, serve as a consolation, or as a
proof of the love of God towards His people, and of His omnipotence, or
as a means for destroying confidence in man's power, in man's help;
they are, on the contrary, intended, from the very outset, to give rise
in Israel to the question: If such be done in the green tree, what
shall be done in the dry? That question the prophet answers at large.
If severe punishment be inflicted, even upon those who have trespassed
against the living God, with whom they came into contact only
distantly, what will become of those to whom He manifested Himself so
plainly and distinctly,--among whom He had, as it were, gained a
form,--before whose eyes He had been so evidently set forth? The
declaration, "You only do I know of all the families of the earth;
therefore I shall visit upon you all your iniquities" (iii. 2), forms
the centre of the whole threatening announcement to Israel. And could
it indeed be introduced in any better way than by pointing out, how
even the lowest degree of knowledge was followed by such a visitation?
But now, that which under the Old Testament was the highest degree,
becomes, under the New Testament, only a preparatory step. The
revelation of God in Christ stands in the same relation to that
made to Israel under the Old Testament, as the latter stands to the
manifestation of His character and nature to the heathen, who came into
connection with the Covenant-people. Thus the fulfilment becomes to us
a new prophecy. If the rejection of God, in His inferior revelation,
was followed by such awful consequences to the temporal welfare of the
people of the Old Covenant, what must be the consequences of the
rejection of the highest and fullest revelat