A King Before He Could Speak

What king that ever lived reigned and won triumphs over his enemies before he was able to say father or mother? Did not David come to the throne at thirty years of age, and Solomon when he had grown into a young man? Did not Joash come to the kingdom when he was seven years old, and Josiah, a still later king, take up the government at about the seventh year of his age? And yet at that age they were able to say father or mother. Who, then, is the one who was reigning and plundering his enemies almost before he was born? Or what king of this kind has there ever been in Israel and in Judah, in whom all the nations have placed their hopes and found peace, instead of being at enmity with them on every side? Let the Jews, who have searched into the matter, tell us. [a]

For as long as Jerusalem stood, there was war without a break between them, and they all fought against Israel. The Assyrians oppressed them, the Egyptians persecuted them, the Babylonians fell upon them, and, strange to say, they had even their neighbors the Syrians at war against them. Did not David make war on the people of Moab and strike down the Syrians? Did not Josiah keep guard against his neighbors, and Hezekiah tremble at the boasting of Sennacherib? Did not Amalek make war against Moses, and the Amorites oppose him, and the people of Jericho draw up against Joshua son of Nun? In a word, treaties of friendship had no place between the nations and Israel. So it is worth seeing who it is on whom the nations are to set their hope. For there must be such a one, since it is impossible for the prophet to have spoken falsely.

But which of the holy prophets or of the early patriarchs died on the cross for the salvation of all? Or who was wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Or which of the righteous men or kings went down to Egypt, so that at his coming the idols of Egypt fell? Abraham went there, yet idolatry still prevailed everywhere. Moses was born there, yet the deluded worship of the people went on there just the same.