Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/359



THE SHEPHERD-KING 343

Urim and Thummim. The Scriptures, first spoken by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, are now the oracles of Godl themselves speaking with voices which carry their own conviction to hearts honestly seeking for truth, and ever confirming themselves in the world s history and in the Christian s experience ; but men in the present day, even in Christendom, stumbling at the supernatural, as if there could be a revelation of the Infinite and Everlasting One without such an element in them, turn away from these oracles often on the flimsiest grounds, and instead are giving heed on the one hand to the speculations of a science falsely so called, and on the other hand to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and are thus in a measure supplying an illustration of the solemn words of the apostle, that if men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God shall for this cause send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. a

" For of the modern Christian teraphim it is as true as of the ancient pagan ones, that they speak vanityl or wickedness ; and as for their diviners/ or false prophets representing them, they see a lie, and tell false dreams, they comfort in vain ; for it is a comfort not well founded, and will not stand the test of death, or of a judg ment to come." 2

But to return to our passage : " Therefore " the prophet continues, because they followed lying oracles, and they who should have strengthened them in God, and in His truth, told them their own false dreams, and comforted them with vain expectations " they went their way (or 1 wandered ) 3 like sheep, they are afflicted (or oppressed ), because there is no shepherd"

The primary reference is very probably to their wander ing and oppression in the Babylonian Captivity, but the picture is true also of the much longer exile and greater

1 2 Thess. ii. n, 12.

2 Quoted from The Ancient Scriptures and the Modern Jew.

3 lypj, nas u. The metaphor of the verb is taken from the pulling up the stakes of a tent or sheep-fold, a breaking up which involves an idea of wandering, and in this connection of wandering into captivity.