90 LT.-COL. MOLONY, O.B.E., LATE R.E., ON PREDICTIONS AND 



" The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the 

 meek (margin, poor), He hath sent me to bind up the broken- 

 hearted, to proclaim Hberty to the captives, and the opening of 

 the prison to them that are bound." 



Isa. Ixiii is repeatedly applied in ancient Jewish writings to 

 the expected Messiah. The close of the first verse, and the fifth 

 verse, make it clear that Messiah would be no ordinary conqueror ; 

 and, speaking generally, the passages relating to His warfare 

 read more like a warfare against sin than against hostile armies. 



It is curious that Edersheim mentions no record that Is. xxxii, 2, 

 was regarded as Messianic, for it reads : " And a man shall be as 

 an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; 

 as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock 

 in a weary land." This verse appeals strongly to all who have 

 been in the desert, and may surely be taken as a prediction 

 that Messiah would be a shelter in certain of the troubles of fife. 



There are also indirect prophecies to the same efiect. By 

 force of contrast the Great War should surely turn our attention 

 to the remarkable number of salvation stories in the Old Testa- 

 ment. There are also the tabernacle and wilderness types, but 

 these latter should be rather taken as indirect prophecies that 

 Messiah would be a Saviour from the guilt of sin. 



As regards expectation. Most of the verses quoted above 

 were accepted as Messianic. . From the discussion in the Talmud 

 it appears that the Jews connected Messiah with righteousness, 

 repentance and good works, especially care of the poor, sick and 

 stricken. The nearest they came to expecting Him to be a 

 conqueror, was, that they expected that His kingdom would be 

 universal and that foreign domination would cease. 



This expectation can be illustrated from the early chapters 

 of the first and third Gospels. 



Jesus of Nazareth was, and still is, a Saviour from the power 

 of sin, and a shelter in certain of the troubles of life. For instance, 

 the xA^postles were convinced that He had saved Mary Magdalene 

 from the power of her sins, and the Fathers were similarly assured 

 that He saved St. Augustine from the power of his sins. It 

 would be easy to collect evidence that many since have found 

 like salvation. I have never heard it disputed that Grace 

 abounding to the Chief of Sinners was written by John Bunyan. 

 He states therein : " It was my delight to be taken captive by the 

 Devil at his will. I had few equals both for cursing, swearing, 

 hdng and blasphemy. These things became as a second nature 



