(2) The problems which the destruction of the city and the transportation of the people brought were perplexing. Few could appreciate the high spiritual plane occupied by Jeremiah, or his doc trine that purification was to be wrought by suffer ing. To those who had sunk into idolatry it was a seeming proof that Jahvell was not as powerful as the gods of Babylon, or he would have saved his city. To the faithful it was a paralyzing shock, for did it not mean that God had aban doned his people? And then the monolatristic idea, so largely prevalent, prevented hope that now the people were removed from the land, they could he longer under the protection or within the hearing of Jahveh, for was he not localized at Jerusalem, above the ruins of the dismantled city? To such troubled questions the vision by which Ezekiel was called addressed itself. The chariot of God, moving about on the wings of the storm, with the dreadful wheels full of eyes, was a sym bol to show prophet and people that their God was no mere local deity, but the Lord of the world, and that in Babylon they were as near him as in Jerusalem. During all the years between the first deportation and the final fall of the city, the two prophets, Jeremiah in Jerusalem, and Ezekiel upon the Chebar, labored to convince the misguided people that the city must fall and the exile b'e pro longed. Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles, as suring them that their hopes of early return were delusive, and advising preparations for a perma mem stay ( Jer. xxix :1 sq.). Ezekiel had labored with his fellow exiles tp the same end, assuring them that as long as Jerusalem was the scene of such practices as defiled the true faith she could not avert the coming doom (Ezek. viii). It was not till a refugee from Palestine brought him the tidings of the actual fall of the city (Ezek. xxxiii :21) that the tone of the prophet changed. From that time on, he devoted himself to the kindling of hope for a final return and future for the nation, in which the reconstructed temple, to which he devoted the closing chapters of his book, plays an important part.
(3) Another voice, even more clear than Ezekiel's, was raised during the latter portion of the exile, speaking of the coming redemption. The Evan gelical Prophet, whose message is contained in the last chapters of the book of Isaiah (Is. xl-lxvi), brought a much needed encouragement to the peo ple. (See IsAtial.) When the days were grow ing very long, and the voices of Jeremiah and Ezekiel had both been long hushed, the promise comes that the nation shall soon go back to Jeru salem, for Jahvelt, who is the only God, the Cre ator of the ends of the earth, is concerned for his own sake as well as for his people's sake, to bring them back to national life in Jerusalem (Is. xl). This prophet was not a preacher, as his pre decessors had been, but only a writer, who, prob ably from the necessities of the case, sent out his exhortations and promises in the form of fly leaves or tractates. It would hardly be possible to boldly preach such treasonable doctrines as these chap ters contain, and perhaps the anonymity of the material is thus to be accounted for. But a new philosophy of history is set forth. Cyrus is al
ready on the frontier. Through him, as an instru ment in God's hands, deliverance is to come to the nation (Is. xli :25 ; XIIV :27, 28 ; xlV :1 sq.; xlvi :II). But deliverance is not enough. The nation is a chosen order of people for a particular purpose. It is the Servant of Jahruch (Is. xli :8: xlii:t sq.; xlii :18 sq.; xliii:i-m; xliv :21; xlv :4). But the nation as a whole is unable to accomplish the work of bringing redemption to the world. They can not even save themselves, and gradually a select portion is seen to represent the idea rather than the full nation. This remnant, or nucleus, is not only to save the remainder, but the world as well (Is. xlix :x-6). Then, just as gradually, there emerges from this remnant the figure of a Mes sianic Servant, the representative of the nation and the remnant, who, personified as the nation, desp:sed, rejected, misunderstood, is still success ful in the redemptive work to which God had called him (Is. lii :13 ; :12). In this section, and (me or two later which describe the breadth and character of the Servant's work (Is. lv and lxi), prophecy reaches its very highest levels. Israel's sufferings are not for its own sins so much as for the world. All redemption is through suffering, and thus a philosophy of history was fashioned which included not one nation alone, but all. and the Servant of Jalivelt, Israel, remnant and Messiah successively, as the messenger of a world-wide ministry of divine love. The possi bility, nay, the certainty, of return to Jerusalem; the national programme which makes such a re turn necessary ; and the purification of the people, by which preparation for the return may be ac complished—these are the great themes of this prophet.
(4) The exile was a period of great importance to the people. Deprived of the temple and law, the literary spirit in the nation turned back upon the past and produced history, such as Samuel Kings, and recast other narratives of former days; revised the law on the basis of the existing codes and the praxis that had grown up since Deuteron omy, and codified the so-called Priest Code con tained in the latter portion of Exodus and in Le viticus and Numbers; turned in upon its own spirit and tried to answer doubts, as in Job, or give expression to praise and longing, as in the Psalms. There must have been a strong grasp upon the fundamentals of the faith by large classes of the people to explain the firmness with which they clung to it in the midst of the taunts of their masters and the ridicule of apostate countrymen. Thotigh many lost faith and hope, and others were led away into forbidden practices (Ezek. xx:3o), yet the core of the nation remained sound, and there may even be said to have been decided pro gress in some directions. Monolatry gave way finally to monotheism, and idolatry was eradicated. Sabbath observances and circumcision became more binding, prayer and fasting were recognized as never before as aids in the religious life, and the doctrine of individual accountability was em phasized. At the same time, a growing tendency towards particularism and legalism manifested it self. the fruit of which appeared later.