[Sidenote:  Enoch 48:3-6] Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of the heaven were made, his name was named before the Lord of Spirits.  He will be a staff to the righteous on which they will support themselves and not fall, and he will be the light of the Gentiles, and the hope of those whose hearts are troubled.  All who dwell on earth will fall down and bow the knee before him and will bless and laud and magnify with song the Lord of Spirits.  And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before him before the creation of the world and for evermore.

[Sidenote:  Enoch 49:27-29] And he sat on the throne of his glory, and the sum of judgment was committed to him, and the Son of Man caused the sinners and those who have led the world astray to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth.  With chains they shall be bound, and in their assembling-place of destruction shall they be imprisoned, and all their works will vanish from the face of the earth.  And henceforth there will be nothing that is corruptible; for the Son of Man hath appeared and sitteth on the throne of his glory, and all evil will pass away before his face and depart; but the word of the Son of Man will be strong before the Lord of Spirits.

[Sidenote:  Enoch 51:1, 2] And in those days will the earth also give back those who are treasured up within it, and Sheol also will give back that which it has received, and hell will give back that which it owes.  And he will choose the righteous and holy from among them; for the day of their redemption is at hand.

I. The Growth of Israel’s Messianic Hopes.  Eternal hopefulness is a marked characteristic of the Hebrew race.  Throughout most of their history the greater the calamities that overtook them the greater was their assurance that these were but the prelude to a glorious vindication and deliverance.  This hopefulness was not merely the result of their natural optimism, but of the belief, formed by their experiences in many a national crisis, that a God of justice was overruling the events of history, and that he was working not for man’s destruction but for his highest happiness and well-being.  It was their insight into the divine purpose that led the Hebrew prophets to break away from the popular traditions that projected backward to the beginnings of history the realization of man’s fondest hopes.  Instead they proclaimed that the golden era lay in the future rather than the past.  The hopes of Israel’s prophets regarding that future took many different forms.  Often the form was determined by the earlier experiences of the nation.  At many periods the people looked for a revival of the glories of the days of David.  In later days, when they were oppressed by cruel persecutions, they revived in modified form the dreams that had been current in the childhood of the Semitic race, and thought of a supernatural kingdom that was to be inaugurated after Jehovah and his attendant angels, like Marduk