. The training of the Chosen people. ndividual toJehovah is the supreme thing, and that out of individ-uals who serve Jehovah He will reconstruct the spir-itual Israel which shall inherit the promises, and fulfilthe divine mission. In the light of this doctrine the significance of thecaptivity began to appear. On the one hand it was the 156 Old Testament History penalty for the national apostacy; on the other hand,it was a part of the moral appeal and discipline whichwere to winnow and purify the spiritual Israel. Did Ezekiels interpretation bring light and comfortto the exiled Hebrews ? We ma
. The training of the Chosen people. ndividual toJehovah is the supreme thing, and that out of individ-uals who serve Jehovah He will reconstruct the spir-itual Israel which shall inherit the promises, and fulfilthe divine mission. In the light of this doctrine the significance of thecaptivity began to appear. On the one hand it was the 156 Old Testament History penalty for the national apostacy; on the other hand,it was a part of the moral appeal and discipline whichwere to winnow and purify the spiritual Israel. Did Ezekiels interpretation bring light and comfortto the exiled Hebrews ? We may be sure that it did shall see how after Jerusalem had been destroyed,these truths became the solace and the confidenceof the people. Indeed, it may be said that the messageof Ezekiel provided the rational basis for the emer-gence of the Jewish church from the Jewish state, andprepared the way for what Erasmus called the dis-tinctively Christian conceptions of the inwardness ofreligion and of the worth of a human The Prophet Ezekiel. From the Copley Print of SargentsFrieze of the Prophets, in the BostonPublic Library. (Copyright, 1898, byCurtis and Carhfcxonj Chapter 42. The Transcendent Optimism 157 CHAPTER XLIL THE TRANSCENDENT OPTIMISM. Ezek. chs. 33-37. We have seen that before the fall of JerusalemEzekiel had preached his two great doctrines that therelationship of the individual to Jehovah is the su-premely important thing, and that moral forces aredestined to triumph. After the complete destructionof Jerusalem and the temple his message was put tothe severest test. The burden of the prophecy ofIsaiah had been the inviolability of Jerusalem. Hisconfidence had been gloriously vindicated in his ownday, but now it had been disproved. This total over-throw of Jewish expectations provoked among theexiles in Babylon two different moods. Some took theattitude of defiant skepticism. It seemed to them asif Jehovah had failed to keep His promises, and theyinfer
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