The priesthood, since its ruin, had ceased to be the means of a public relationship between the people and God. The king, the Lord's anointed, had been substituted for the priest to fill this office. (See the beginning of 1 Samuel.) All the blessing of Israel, its judgment also, depended henceforth on the conduct of the king. The king failing in responsibility affected the relations of the people with God. But then a phenomenon occurred which persisted throughout the entire duration of the kingdom and even afterward. The prophet came on the scene. His appearance proved that the grace and mercy of God could not be destroyed even when everything was ruined.
Doubtless the prophet announced the terrible judgments which would fall upon the people and the nations. But at the same time he presented to faith grace as the means of escaping. He testified against iniquity and even delivered the people, as did Elijah by the exercise of power in order that the people might begin again, if possible, to walk in God's ways. He taught them and he gave the people the key to the ways of God, incomprehensible without him. He consoled also, turning the attention to a future of blessing, the "times of restitution of all things," a kingdom which cannot be moved, and where the responsibility of the house of David shall be borne by Christ, the Son of David, to the full satisfaction of God Himself.
Fixing the eyes of faith upon the glorious person of the Anointed of the Lord, he announced the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories to follow. He felt at the same time the great gulf which separated the present time from this future "regeneration." He humbled himself on behalf of the people when the latter could not and would not do so. Without him, in the dark days of the kingdom, there would not have remained even one ray of light for this poor people. Though guilty and chastened, the prophet supported and encouraged.
On account of the principles proclaimed under the dispensation of law, the mercy of God immediately acknowledged the monarch when he acted by faith and when he was faithful. However incomplete this faithfulness might be, God appreciated it. Even when the link was ostensibly broken, the blessing of the people was the consequence.
Accordingly, in the period of the prophets, bright days followed on dark days, and respites were granted despite the judgment announced, because the king had looked to the Lord. This faithfulness in the king was chiefly found in Judah, where God maintained yet a lamp for His Anointed, whereas Israel and her kings, having begun in idolatry, continued in this path and soon became the prey of the demons that they had not wished to remove from their path.
H. Rossier