peace and prosperity. In short, all were at rest except the " tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast "; who, though a remnant of them had returned, were ground down under the yoke of the Gentiles, while Judea was still, for the most part, lying waste, and Jerusalem was still without walls exposed in a most defenceless manner to all the insults of Israel's enemies.[1] The nations had scattered God's people and had taken possession of their land, and were now in undisturbed enjoyment of it. No one cared for the afflictions of Zion, or troubled himself for the sorrows of Israel.
" Then the Angel of Jehovah answered (i.e., the implied longing which was in his heart} and said, O Jehovah of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indigna tion these threescore and ten years? "[2]
If the very fact of the presence amongst them of the Angel of Jehovah, who in ancient times led His people and brought them into the promised land, and smote all their enemies before them, was intended, as we saw when dealing with the 8th verse, to be in itself a message of comfort to the now oppressed and depressed Israel, how much more full of consolation must have been the fact of His appearing as the Advocate and Intercessor on their behalf?
And He who here cries, " How long, Jehovah of hosts, wilt Thou not have compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah? " has not changed in His attitude of longing and concern for His own nation. When in the fulness of time He permanently took upon Himself our human form, and became real man, we still read of Him as being moved with compassion on beholding Israel's weary
- ↑ This was the lament of even the restored remnant in the land: "Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that Thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it" (Neh. ix. 36).
- ↑ "The fact that the Angel of Jehovah addresses an intercessory prayer on behalf of Judah is no more a disproof of his essential unity with Jehovah, than the intercessory prayer of Christ in John xvii. is a disproof of His divinity. "Keil.
