Produced by Don Kostuch
HALF HOURS IN BIBLE LANDS,
OR,
STORIES AND SKETCHES FROM THE SCRIPTURES AND THE EAST.
PATRIARCHS, KINGS, AND KINGDOMS.
BY REV. P. C. HEADLEY,
AUTHOR OF "THE WOMEN OF THE BIBLE,"
"HARVEST WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,"
"THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE,"
"MASSACHUSETTS IN THE REBELLION,"
ETC., ETC., ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN E. POTTER & CO.,
No. 617 SANSOM STREET.
Entered according to Act of Congress,
in the year 1867, by JOHN E. POTTER & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the
United States District Court in and for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.
[Illustration: Isaac and Esau]
[Illustration: Job and His Three Friends.]
THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.
PATRIARCHS, KINGS, AND KINGDOMS.
SCENES IN THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS.
The patriarchs might be called family kings--the divinely appointed
rulers of households. They were the earliest sovereigns under God of
which we have any account. Their authority was gradually extended by the
union of households, whose retinue of servants was often large, and
their wealth very great. The founder and leader of the patriarchal line
chosen by God from the wealthy nomades, or wandering farmers of the
fruitful valleys, was Abram. A worshipper of the Infinite One, he
married Sarai, a maiden of elevated piety and personal beauty. And
doubtless they often walked forth together beneath the nightly sky,
whose transparent air in that latitude made the stars impressively--
"The burning blazonry of God!"
Upon the hill-tops around, were the observatories and altars of Chaldean
philosophy, whose disciples worshipped the host of Heaven. In the
serenity of such an hour, with the white tents reposing in the distance,
and the "soul-like sound" of the rustling forest alone breaking the
stillness, it would not be strange, as they gazed on flaming Orion and
the Pleiades, if they had bowed with the Devotee of Light, while--
"Beneath his blue and beaming sky,
He worshipped at their lofty shrine,
And deemed he saw with gifted eye,
The Godhead in his works divine."
But a purer illumination than streamed from that radiant dome, brought
near in his majesty the Eternal, and like the holy worshippers of Eden,
they adored with subdued and reverent hearts, their infinite Father.
There is great sublimity and wonderful power in the purity and growth of
religious principle, in circumstances opposed to its manifestation. The
temptations resisted--the earnest communion with each other--the
glorious aspirations and soarings of imagination, when morning broke
upon the summits, and evening came down with its stars, and its rising
moon, flooding with glory nature in her repose. These, and a thousand
lovely and touching scenes of that pastoral life, are all unrecorded.
The great events in history, and bold points in character, are seized by
the inspired penman as sufficient to mark the grand outline of God's
providential and moral government over the world, and his care of his
people.
Just when it would best accomplish his designs, which are ever marching
to their fulfillment, Jehovah called to Abram, and bade him go to a
distant land which he would show him. With his father-in-law, and with
Lot, his flocks and herds, he journeyed toward Palestine. When he
arrived at Haran, in Mesopotamia, pleased with the country, and probably
influenced by the declining health of the aged Terah, he took up his
residence there. Here he remained till the venerable patriarch, Sarai's
father, died. The circle of relatives bore him to the grave, and kept
the days of mourning. But the dutiful daughter wept in the solitary
grief of an orphan's heart. A few years before she had lost a brother,
and now the father to whom she was the last flower that bloomed on the
desert of age, and who lavished his love upon her, was buried among
strangers.
Then the command to move forward to his promised inheritance came again
to Abram. With Sarai he journeyed on among the hills, encamping at night
beside a mountain spring, and beneath the unclouded heavens arching
their path, changeless and watchful as the love of God--exiles by the
power of their simple faith in him. Soon as they reached Palestine,
Abram consecrated its very soil by erecting a family altar, first in the
plain of Moreh, and again on the summits that catch the smile of morning
near the hamlet of Bethel.
Months stepped away, rapidly as silently, old associations wore off, and
Abram was a wealthy and happy man in the luxuriant vales of Canaan. His
flocks dotted the plains, and his cattle sent down their lowing from
encircling hills. But more than these to him was the affection of his
beautiful wife. Her eye watched his form along the winding way, when
with the ascending sun he went out on the dewy slopes, and kindled with
a serene welcome when at night-fall he returned for repose amid the
sacred joys of home.
At length there came on a fearful famine. The rain was withholden, and
the dew shed its benediction no more upon the earth. He was compelled to
seek bread at the court of Pharaoh, or perish. Knowing the power of
female beauty, and the want of principle among the Egyptian princes, he
was afraid of assassination and the captivity of Sarai which would
follow. Haunted with this fear, he told her to say that she was his
sister--which was not a direct falsehood, but only so by implication.
According to the Jewish mode of reckoning relationship, she might be
called a sister; and Abram stooped to this prevarication under that
terrible dread which, in the case of Peter, drove a true disciple of
Christ to the brink of apostacy and despair.
[Illustration: Results of Prevarication. Peter denying his Master.]
But his deception involved him in the very difficulty he designed to
escape. The king's courtiers saw the handsome Hebrew, and extolled her
beauty before him. He summoned her to the apartments of the palace, and
captivated by her loveliness, determined to make her his bride. During
the agonizing suspense of Abram, and the concealed anguish of Sarai in
her conscious degradation, the hours wore heavily away, until the
judgment of God upon the royal household brought deliverance. Pharaoh,
though an idolater, knew by this supernatural infliction, that there was
guilt in the transaction, and called Abram to an account. He had nothing
to say in self-acquittal, and with a strange magnanimity, was sent away
quietly, with his wife and property, followed only by the reproaches of
Pharaoh, and his own wakeful conscience.
Abram returned to Palestine, became a victor in fierce battles with a
vastly outnumbering foe, and was in possession of a splendid fortune.
Whether in Egypt, or in his tent on the plains of Palestine, Abram, with
all the patriarchs, was a true gentleman. We may doubt whether any
modern school of refinement in manners could furnish any nobler examples
of dignity and civility in personal learning and manners, than were the
rich dwellers in ancient Palestine. Subjects fell prostrate before
sovereigns; equals, when they met, inclined the head toward the breast,
and placed the right hand on the left breast. Of the Great King it is
written, "Come, let us bow down; let us worship before the Lord our
Maker."
Jehovah appeared to Abram in a glorious vision, talking with him as
friend to friend. He fell on his face in the dust, as did the exile of
Patmos ages after, while a voice of affection and hope carne from the
bending sky: "I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou
perfect." The solemn covenant involving the greatness and splendor of
the people and commonwealth that should spring from the solitary pair,
was renewed; and as an outward seal, he was named Abraham, The father of
a great multitude--and his wife Sarah, The princess. Still he laughed at
the absurdity that Sarah would ever be a mother, and invoked a blessing
on Ishmael, but evidently said nothing to her upon a subject dismissed
as incredible from his thoughts. For when the celestial messengers were
in the tent, on their way to warn Lot, she listened to their earnest
conversation, concealed by the curtains, and hearing that repeated
promise based on the immutability of God, also laughed with bitter mirth
at her hopeless prospect in regard to the marvelous prediction. And when
one of the Angels, who was Jehovah veiled in human form, as afterward
"manifest in the flesh," charged her with this unbelief and levity, the
discovery roused her fears, and approaching him, without hesitation, she
denied the fact. He knew perfectly her sudden apprehension, and only
repeated the accusation, enforced by a glance of omniscience, like that
which pierced the heart of Peter.
The group separated, and two of those bright beings went to Sodom. The
next morning Abraham walked out upon the plain, and looked toward the
home of Lot. He saw the smoke as of a great furnace going up to the calm
azure, from the scathed and blackened plains, where life was so busy and
joyous a few hours before! With a heavy heart he returned to his tent,
arid brought Sarah forth to behold the scene. She clung with trembling
to his side, while she listened to the narration of the terrible
overthrow of those gorgeous cities, and the rescue of her brother's
household, and beheld in the distance the seething and silent grave of
millions, sending up a swaying column of ebon cloud, like incense, to
God's burning indignation against sin.
They left the vale of Mamre, and journeyed to Gera, where, with a
marvellous forgetfulness of the past, the beauty of Sarah again led them
into deception and falsehood, and with the same result as before.
Abimelech, the king, would have taken her for his wife as Abraham's
sister, had not God appeared in a dream, threatening immediate death.
Upon pleading his innocence, he was spared, and expostulating with his
guest, generously offered him a choice of residence in the land; but
rebuked Sarah with merited severity.
Prophecy and covenant now hastened to their fulfillment. Sarah gave
birth to a son, and with the name of God upon her lips, she gave
utterance to holy rapture. With all her faults, she was a pious and
noble woman. She meant to train him for the Lord, and therefore when she
saw young Ishmael mocking at the festival of his weaning, she besought
her husband to send away the irreverent son, whose influence might ruin
the consecrated Isaac. Hagar, with a generous provision for her wants,
was a fugitive; and the Most High approved the solicitude of a mother
for an only child, around whose destiny was gathered the interest of
ages, and the hopes of a world.
And now, with the solemn shadows of life's evening hours falling around
her, and a heart subdued by the discipline of Providence, in the fulness
of love which had been rising so long within the barriers of hope
deferred, she bent prayerfully over the very slumbers of that fair boy,
and taught him the precious name of God with the first prattle of his
infant lips. How proudly she watched the unfolding of this bud of
promise! When, in the pastimes of childhood, he played before the tent
door, or, with a shout of gladness, ran to meet Abraham returning from
the folds, her calm and glowing eye marked his footsteps, and her
grateful aspirations for a blessing on the lad, went up to the Heaven of
heavens. At length he stood before her in the manliness and beauty of
youth, unscarred by the rage of passions, and with a brow open and
laughing as the radiant sky of his own lovely Palestine.
[Illustration: Hagar in the Wilderness.]
It was a morning which flooded the dewy plains with glory, and filled
the groves with music, when Abraham came in from his wonted communion
with God, and called for Isaac, and told him to prepare for a three
days' journey in the wilderness. How tenderly was Sarah regarded in this
scene of trial! Evidently no information of the awful command to
sacrifice the son of her old age was made to her. She might have read
something fearful in the lines of anxious thought and the workings of
deep emotion in the face of Abraham. But he evaded all inquiries on the
subject, "clave the wood," and accompanied by two of his young men,
turned from his dwelling with a blessing from that wondering mother, and
was soon lost from her straining vision among the distant hills. Upon
the third day he saw the top of Mount Moriah kindling in the rising sun,
and taking Isaac alone, ascended to the summit, whereon was to be reared
an altar, which awakened more intense solicitude in heaven, than any
offering before or since, except on Calvary, where God's "only be-gotten
and well-beloved Son" was slain. There is no higher moral sublimity than
the unwavering trust and cheerful obedience of this patriarch, when the
very oath of the Almighty seemed perjured, and the bow of promise
blotted from the firmament of faith!
But he believed Jehovah, and would have clung to his assurance, though
the earth had reeled in her orbit, and every star drifted from its
moorings. He prayed for strength, with his hand on the forehead of his
submissive son.
"He rose up, and laid
The wood upon the altar. All was done,
He stood a moment--and a deep, quick flush
Passed o'er his countenance; and then he nerved
His spirit with a bitter strength, and spoke--
'Isaac! my only son'--the boy looked up,
And Abraham turned his face away, and wept.
'Where is the lamb, my father?' O, the tones,
The sweet, the thrilling music of a child!
How it doth agonize at such an hour!
It was the last, deep struggle--Abraham held
His loved, his beautiful, his only son,
And lifted up his arm, and called on God
And lo! God's angel staid him--and he fell
Upon his face and wept."
The years fled, the good old Abraham died, and Isaac succeeded him to
the patriarchal honors. He had two sons, Esau and Jacob. The elder
brother was irreligious, and married a heathen wife. God had rejected
him, and promised to Jacob the birthright; in other words, he was to be
the chief patriarch, through whose descendants the Messiah should come.
He was his mother's favorite boy, while Isaac clung to Esau.
When the fond father became weak and blind from age, feeling that death
was near, one day he called Esau, and told him as he might die suddenly,
to get him venison, and prepare for the solemn occasion of receiving his
parting blessing, which should secure the privileges and pre-eminence of
the first-born. The hunter went into the fields, and Rebekah recollected
that Jacob had purchased the birthright of his brother for a mess of
pottage one day when he came in from the chase faint with hunger and
exhaustion. She determined by a stroke of management to secure the
patriarchal benediction. She sent him to the flocks after two kids,
which were prepared with the savory delicacy his father loved, dressed
him up in Esau's apparel, covering his hands and neck to imitate the
hairiness of the rightful heir, and sent him to the beside of the dying
Isaac. When the patriarch inquired who he was, he replied, "I am Esau,
thy first-born." This was beyond belief, because even the skillful
hunter could scarcely, without a miracle, so soon bring in the game, and
dress it for his table. Jacob was called to his side, and he felt of his
hands; the disguise completed the delusion, although his voice had the
milder tone of the young shepherd to that father's ear. He repeated the
interrogation concerning his name, then embracing him, pronounced in a
strain of true poetry, the perpetual blessing of Jehovah's favor upon
his undertakings, and his posterity. The stratagem had succeeded, and
Jacob hastened to inform his mother of the victory, just as Esau
entered. When Isaac discovered the mistake, he trembled with excitement,
while his son cried in anguish, "Bless even me also, O my father!" That
cry pierced the breaking heart of the aged man, but it was a fruitless
lament, He was inflexible, and Esau wept aloud over his blasted hopes;
plotting at the same time, in his awakened enmity, the murder of Jacob.
This scene of deception, disappointment, and providential working, the
introductory picture brings vividly before us.
The patriarchs were generally shepherds, and when we read in the Bible
of shepherds, we have but a poor impression of their business, if we
think only of the keeping of the small flocks kept in the fenced fields
and yards of modern farmers. They made their wealth chiefly by feeding
immense flocks and herds. They had extensive open plains; and were
obliged to watch the animals to prevent their being lost, stolen by
robbers, or devoured by ferocious beasts. When it was at all safe, the
shepherds and their flocks slept in the fields, beneath the open sky, or
under the sheltering trees.
[Illustration: The Welcome to a Wayward Son.]
If the country was infested by dangerous men or animals, the owners of
the flocks built the fold or sheep-cote. This enclosure was sometimes
merely a rude pen. The walls were of wood or stone, with a thatched
roof--if they had any at all. The shepherd follows a wayward sheep, and
brings him back to a place of safety.
Thus the Good Shepherd of souls, whose disciples, like the flocks of the
East, "know his voice," with his rod of affliction restrains the
wandering and keeps securely the trusting ones.
Occasionally a rich land owner would make an expensive fold--a kind of
town or fortress for his flocks. Keeping the sheep in the air, it was
believed improved the texture of the wool, making it softer and firmer
than when exposed to the sweating and vapors which would necessarily
result from crowding them often and long into enclosures.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were among the richest shepherds of
antiquity, and stand alone in moral grandeur of character, so far as we
have any records of the Hebrew husbandmen.
The great enemy of the sheep the world over, is the wolf--a cunning,
savage, and daring creature. A lamb of the flock seems to be a dainty
feast for him. He relishes even a child; the human delicacy is quite as
delicious as the other. A mother, with three children, was once riding
in a sledge in a desolate region, when a pack of wolves came running
after her. She drove rapidly on, but they came nearer and nearer, until
their hot breath fell on her face. In her terror, she threw one of the
children to the hungry wolves, hoping thus to pacify or check them until
she could get out of their reach. Soon, however, they came galloping on,
surrounding her sledge, and she flung another upon the snow. A brief
delay, and they were once more around her, and the last child was given
to the beasts; and then she reached her home in safety.
When she told the story to her neighbors, an exasperated peasant hewed
her down with an axe, because she fed the wolves on her own offspring,
selfishly saving by the sacrifice, her own life.
How like the destroyers of human virtue, and the great destroyer
himself! Wolves in sheep's clothing, stealing upon unguarded victims,
and glorying in the destruction of all that is "lovely and of good
report." for the transitory present and endless future!
We now turn to the annals of a patriarchal life which is entirely new,
and intensely interesting--the only record of the kind in the Bible.
The inspired history introduces him in the following words: "There was a
man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job." This region was in Eastern
Arabia, and probably near the home of Abram when he was summoned by God
to leave his idolatrous friends and neighbors in "Ur of the Chaldees."
It is thought he lived not far from the time of the great founder of the
Hebrew patriarchy. Job was probably a descendant of Nahor, Abram's
brother. He was a devout, rich, and benevolent Gentile patriarch. The
princely fortune of this "greatest of all the men of the East," is
indicated by an inventory of his flocks and herds. He had "seven
thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of
oxen, and five hundred she asses." His household was also "very great."
This mighty man was a humble servant of God; and Satan could not bear to
see his influence and prosperity; and he determined to make him the
shining mark of his enmity to God and man.
The mysterious account of his entrance upon the cruel work of attempted
ruin, is in the following words: "Now there was a day when the sons of
God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also
among them." The saints of that early age were called "Sons of God," but
the meaning seems to be that either Satan was permitted to appear in a
gathering of angels who, returning from their ministries of love, were
reporting to their king, and awaiting new instructions, or, it is
designed only to represent the real character and power of the tempter,
in contrast with the loyalty of God's servant.
The whole narrative bears the marks of a real history; and Jehovah is
not limited by our ideas of what he can consistently do. "My ways are
not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts, saith the Lord."
The devil charged Job with selfish motives in serving God. He could
afford to be religious with such rare and splendid prosperity. To show
to the universe Satan's lying malice, his loyal subject's holy
character, and to comfort his people in all the ages following, while
the discipline purified and beautified the sufferer, he told the
adversary to try the patriarch with a change of circumstances--the
severest trials; only his body must not be touched.
The gratified fiend hastened away to his attack upon the unsuspecting
friend of God, over whom he anticipated a great victory. The patriarch's
family was large, and evidently a united and happy one. They had their
anniversary festivals, which were hallowed by religious services; the
faithful and affectionate father offering sacrifices on such occasions.
The Lord was recognized amid the most joyful scenes of social life; and
not, as in many prosperous households of Christian name in all the ages
since, excluded from the circle of pleasure like an unwelcome, unworthy
guest.
[Illustration: The Cruel Husbandman.]
The birthday seems to have been the favorite anniversary; and at the
very moment Satan left Jehovah, the children were assembled at the house
of the oldest brother. Job was not there. He may have gone away for
awhile, or not yet have joined the rejoicing company.
For a messenger rushed into his presence with the startling intelligence
that the lawless Sabeans living in the region, had fallen upon the
servants keeping the oxen and asses, and slaying them, had taken the
animals away. No sooner had the devil obtained permission to engage, in
the wicked enterprise, than he found ready agents among men. And before
the evil report was finished, another terrified, excited servant, came
in, saying that the lightning of heaven had consumed the seven thousand
sheep.
This intelligence was falling from the lips of the only shepherd who
escaped the devouring fire, when a third messenger entered, pale with
alarm, and announced the raid of three companies of Chaldeans upon the
keepers of the three thousand camels, killing all but the bearer of the
news, and driving off the beasts of burden. The trembling man was
interrupted by the sudden appearance of the fourth servant, wild with
terror, crowning the crushing tidings already received, by telling Job
that a gale from the wilderness had swept down upon the eldest son's
dwelling, where the whole family were, excepting the patriarch, and
thrown walls and roof into a common wreck, burying his ten children
under the fragments.
We cannot easily imagine the stunning effect of these reports, following
each other like successive claps of thunder from a cloudless sky. Satan
was watching the effect, ready to exult over the first expression of
repining and rebellion. But how sublime the resignation of the loyal
heart of the childless, homeless, and penniless sufferer! After the
eastern custom in time of affliction, he cut off his hair, rent his
robe, fell upon the ground, and worshipped. The lips, tremulous with
sorrow, uttered the often-quoted and beautiful words: "The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." No
disloyal act, or foolish complaint against Jehovah, gratified the
expectant enemy of God and man. But Satan was not satisfied with the
trial of faith. He was allowed to appear before God, and in answer to
the questioning respecting the patriarch's lofty yet meek submission,
basely and meanly declared that if he had been permitted to torture the
body, he should have succeeded in proving Job to be a hypocrite. The
Lord had purposed to silence the devil, and thoroughly try and sanctify
his own child. So he told the tempter to do what he pleased, only he
must spare life.
Suddenly poor Job was covered with burning ulcers, which defiled his
form until he scraped it with a piece of broken pitcher. While sitting
in the dust, a wretched mass of corruption, he found a new tempter in
the person of his wife: She asked him if he could still "retain his
integrity," and urged him to "curse God and die." Beautifully again his
breaking heart uttered its loyalty. Charging her with folly, he
inquired: "What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
not receive evil?"
The scene of sorrow is now changed. Job had three friends living in the
country not far off, who were clearly intelligent, noble men. They heard
of his calamities, and started on a visit of condolence. When they came
in sight of him, he was so changed that at first they did not know him.
They wept aloud, rent their robes, and scattered dust on their heads, to
express their overwhelming grief. There he sat, in miserable poverty and
disease, and all around him the ruins of his just before magnificent
fortune, and the bodies or graves of his sons and daughters. They
approached him, and could say nothing, but sat down with him seven days
and nights without speaking a word--an awful, expressive silence. At
length Job could refrain no longer, but in his despondency, began to
bewail his birth, and wish he had at least died in earliest infancy.
Then was opened a long, eloquent, and wonderful discussion by the
mourning company upon the providence and grace of God.
Jehovah at length spake from the rolling cloud, borne on the "wings of
the wind," and indicated his dealings with a fallen race, pointing the
debaters for illustrations of power, wisdom, and glory, to his works of
creation, from the "crooked serpent" to "Orion and the Pleiades,"
floating in the nightly sky--the wonders of ocean, earth, and air.
Among the animals to which reference is made, there are three
conspicuous ones, about which naturalists disagree--they cannot
certainly tell us what they were. These are the unicorn, supposed by
many to be the rhinoceros of the present day; the behemoth, thought to
be the hippopotamus or river-horse; and the leviathan, which answers
very well to the whale.
The description of the war horse is the finest ever written, and given
in a few words; and yet he had not been seen amid the wildest storm of
battle, bearing his rider to the flaming mouths of ordnance, and through
the leaden hail of numberless infantry arms. "Hast thou given the horse
strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him
afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He
paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength, he goeth on to meet
the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither
turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the
glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with
fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the
trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle
afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting."
He alludes to a very beautiful wonder of his forming skill--"the
treasures of the snow." Few persons imagine the marvels of the fleecy
storm that whiten the earth in winter. What a variety of perfect
crystals! and how delicate their form and finish! The ice is made of
crystals, and often gives out aeolion music at the touch of winter. Even
the frost makes fine drawings on the window panes of leaves and flowers.
But the people of Palestine and the regions around it, know little of
our northern winters. The cold season is brief, and the occasional snow
storms light, and of short duration.
After God had finished his sublime appeal, Job bowed his head low before
him, and declared that all he had known of him before, compared with
what he had learned since he was afflicted, was no more than hearing
about him; "for," he added, "now mine eye seeeth thee; wherefore I abhor
myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Then the Lord rebuked Job's friends, because they had judged him
harshly, and "had multiplied words without knowledge," directing them to
offer a sacrifice for him.
The patriarch prospered again under Jehovah's smile, and became greater
in wealth, and family, and influence, than he was when Satan assailed
him. The deceiver and persecutor does not appear again in the annals of
the devout Arabian; disappointed and enraged, he turned his malice
against others more easily conquered and led captive by his wiles.
How awakening the thought that he still goes about "as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour." But with loving trust in God, he can only
repeat his fruitless effort to destroy, preparing the way for richest
blessings.
[Illustration: Nathan Reproving David]
[Illustration: David's Charge to Solomon.]
THE BIBLE AND THE HOLY LAND.
PATRIARCHS. KINGS. AND KINGDOMS.
THE FIRST KINGS.
Theocracy, we have seen, was the first form of government in the world.
The word is from Theos, which means God; for He ruled by direct command,
and would have continued to have been the only and perfect sovereign,
had not man been disloyal to him.
The patriarchal quay, which was that of the family, having at length
united households and extended authority, was still a Theocracy.
When God made his people a separate nation, each of the twelve tribes,
which sprang from the sons of Jacob, had its own ruler. If any important
matter concerning them all demanded public attention, they called an
assembly of their leaders.
When the bondage in Egypt was broken, Moses was the deliverer and
lawgiver of Israel, and Joshua the great general or military chieftain.
The high priest was the visible servant of God--his representative of
the Redeemer of his people.
Then came the judges, who were a kind of governors, having power to
declare war and make peace for the nation, but wearing no badges of
distinction. Jehovah revealed through them his will, and was still the
glorious king of Israel.
With the increase in numbers and general prosperity, there was a
decrease of the religious element and of harmony among the people. They
also ceased to appreciate the simple and sublime principles of a
Theocracy, while all around them was the central power and the pomp of
pagan monarchies; and they became tired of God's holy sovereignty,
having no visible display of authority. There were dissensions and civil
strife in Israel, in consequence of these departures from the Lord, and
strange melancholy blindness to their preeminence over other nations.
It was with them as it will be in the great American Republic, if
Puritan faith and works decline, until practical atheism prevails in our
"goodly land." The people will throw off wholesome restraints, become
divided North and South, and corrupt in morals, until a monarchy will be
the natural resort of the people, as a protection against their own
selfish passions and conflicts.
Samuel, the wonderful child of Elkanah and Hannah, given to them, like
Jephthah and Samson, as a special mark of divine favor, and who early
entered the temple-service under Eli, was the last of the judges,
excepting the authority which he delegated to his sons. He was a noble,
dutiful and devout boy, and a faithful priest and magistrate in Israel.
Eli, whose sons were dissipated, and slain by God's revealed purpose on
account of their enemies, preceded him, so that Samuel saw the last of
the Theocracy, and inaugurated by the Lord's command a monarchy in
Palestine.
The Hebrews came to him begging for a king, and urging, as one reason
for the change, the unfitness of his sons to succeed him. They were
mercenary and open to bribery, and it is not strange that they were
disliked by the people. It is one of many instances of departure by
children from the counsels and prayers of the kindest parents, and
choosing the "wages of sin."
Samuel took the petition of the people to God for direction in answering
it. The Lord's message was the following:
"Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to thee: for
they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should
not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done,
since the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this
day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they
also to thee. Now, therefore, hearken to their voice: nevertheless
testify solemnly to them, and show them the practice of the king that
shall reign over them."
He then enumerated the burdens of the state which they must bear. The
inventory of these royal exactions is so true to the experience of all
countries under kingly rule, you will read it with interest. It was the
first divine statement of the nature of a monarchy, and has needed no
important change in the progress of the ages. Jehovah told Samuel to
repeat the following description of the desired blessing, a king:
"He will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots,
and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he
will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and
will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make
his instruments of war and instruments of chariots. And he will take
your daughters to be confectioners, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards,
even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take
the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give them to his
officers, and to his servants; and he will take your men-servants, and
your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and
put them to his works. And he will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye
shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day, beware of your
king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in
that day."
[Illustration: Saul and the Witch of Endor.]
God had selected the first monarch of earth outside of heathenism. In
the comparatively small tribe of Benjamin, was a man of honorable
ancestry named Kish. His son, Saul, was a splendid young man, and would
have attracted admiring attention anywhere, and in any land under the
sun, then or since his day. He was taller from his shoulders than all
the rest of Israel's men, and possessed of the highest style of manly
beauty. Repeated mention is made of his noble figure and bearing. The
providential circumstances which attended his promotion were remarkable.
He had wandered about for three days seeking the strayed asses of his
father. Fatigued with the unsuccessful search, he was inclined to
abandon it and return home, when, finding himself near Ramah, where
Samuel lived, he resolved to consult one who was renowned in all Israel
as a man from whom nothing was hid. Instructed in the divine designs
regarding Saul, the prophet received him with honor. He assured him that
the asses which he had sought were already found, and invited him to
stay with him until the next morning. Saul was in fact the man on whom
the divine appointment to be the first king of Israel had fallen. A hint
of this high destiny produced from the astonished stranger a modest
declaration of his insufficiency. But the prophet gave him the place of
honor before all the persons whom--foreknowing the time of his arrival--
he had invited to his table. As is still usual in summer, Saul slept on
the flat roof of the house; and was called early in the morning by
Samuel, who walked forth some way with him on his return home. When they
had got beyond the town they stopped, and Samuel then anointed Saul as
the person whom God had chosen to be "captain over his inheritance;" and
gave him the first kiss of civil homage. In token of the reality of
these things, and to assure the mind of the bewildered young man, the
prophet foretold the incidents of his homeward journey, and, in parting,
desired his attendance on the seventh day following at Gilgal.
On the day and at the place appointed, Samuel assembled a general
convocation of the tribes for the election of a king. As usual, under
the Theocracy, the choice of God was manifested by the sacred lot. The
tribe of Benjamin was chosen; and of the families of Benjamin, that of
Matri was taken; and, finally, the lot fell upon the person of Saul, the
son of Kish. Anticipating this result, he had modestly concealed himself
to avoid an honor which he so little desired. But he was found and
brought before the people, who beheld with enthusiasm his finely
developed form and preeminence in appearance, and hailed him as their
king.
Many prominent persons of the great tribes were jealous and indignant,
because the smallest tribe, and a young man whose chief claim to the
honor was his fine figure, had been chosen. They refused to join the
masses in their homage, and Saul displayed his shrewdness in "holding
his peace."
And the wisdom of God was apparent in the result; for he gradually
united the discordant elements around him, and became established in
power. Soon after came the trial of his ability as a general.
The Ammonites, a mighty and warlike people under king Nahash, besieged
the important town of Jabesh-Gilead. The beleaguered place was at length
compelled to ask terms of capitulation. The proud and cruel reply was,
that every man should have his right eye put out.
The Jabesh-Gileadites agreed to the hard conditions, unless help reached
them within seven days. Messengers hastened to Saul, in Gibeah, and
found him returning from his herds in the field. The story of the
invasion and peril roused all the energies and martial spirit of a king
worthy of his crown. It was the Lord's inspiration for his high office,
and immediate command of the army.
The inhabitants were timid; and to awaken their courage he slew oxen,
had them quartered, and sent the pieces over the kingdom, assuring those
who were able to fight, that unless they hastened to the rescue all
their cattle should have a similar slaughter. The volunteers came
pouring in, and Saul marched to Jabesh-Gilead. A battle followed, and
the Ammonites were routed with terrible slaughter. It was a grand
victory, and won for Saul the glory of military genius. This settled the
question of his right to reign, and his sceptre was held over an
undivided people.
Retaining three thousand men, he followed up the conquest by an attack
upon the Philistines, who had conquered on the south, and deprived
Israel of weapons of war, and implements of husbandry. Only Saul and
Jonathan had either sword or spear. The latter, a gifted and noble young
man, distinguished himself, under God's special benediction, in a
successful assault upon a garrison of the Philistines. The enemy rallied
in full strength, and Saul prepared to meet them with additional forces.
Samuel had appointed sacrifices to be made before the campaign was
opened, and because he did not appear in Gilgal when Saul expected him,
the king turned priest, and presented the offerings. This rashness
revealed his undevout character and haughty self-will, which proved his
ruin.
[Illustration: Saul Rejected.]
Meanwhile the most of his troops had scattered, through fear of the
powerful foe. But Jonathan determined to make a bold onset, and, with
his armor-bearer, climbed a high cliff, and fell upon the Philistines.
They supposed the Hebrews were rushing from ambush upon them, and began
to fly. Saul entered the field and aided in the overthrow of the
defeated warriors, slaying and treading each other down in the wild
confusion of the retreat.
During the last years of Saul's reign, conscious that God had forsaken
him, in one of his campaigns against the Philistines he sought the
counsel of a witch. When he beheld the vast force which the Philistine
states had, by a mighty effort, brought into the field, dire misgivings
as to the result arose in his mind; and now, at last, in this extremity,
he sought counsel of God. But the Lord answered him not by any of the
usual means--by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets. Finding himself thus
forsaken, he had recourse to a witch at Endor, not far from Gilboa, to
whom he repaired by night in disguise, and conjured her to evoke the
spirit of Samuel, that he might ask counsel of him in this fearful
emergency. Accordingly, an aged and mantled figure arose, which Saul
took to be the ghost of Samuel, though whether it were really so or not
has been much questioned. The king bowed himself reverently, and told
the reason for which he had called him from the dead. The figure, in
reply, told him that God had taken the crown from his house, and given
it to a worthier man; that, on the next day, the Philistines would
triumph over Israel; and that he and his sons should be slain in the
battle. The king swooned at these heavy tidings, but soon recovered,
and, having taken some refreshment, returned the same night to the camp.
The engraver's art has produced a picture of this strange scene, one
which cannot be clearly and satisfactorily explained.
Saul received orders, through Samuel, to execute the Lord's "fierce
wrath" upon the Amelekites, who had formerly been doomed to utter
extermination, for opposing the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
The result of the war put it fully in the king's power to fulfil his
commission; but he retained the best of the cattle as booty, and brought
back the Amalekite king Agag as a prisoner. Here Saul again ventured to
use his own discretion where his commission left him none. For this the
divine decree, excluding his descendants from the throne, was again and
irrevocably pronounced by Samuel, who met him at Gilgal on his return.
The stern prophet then directed the Amalekite king to be brought forth
and slain by the sword, after which he departed to his own home, and
went no more to see Saul to the day of his death, though he ceased not
to bemoan his misconduct, and the forfeiture it had incurred.
The next engraving is a very good view of this crisis in Saul's
destiny--his rejection by God and his prophet. When Samuel turned to
leave the king, the terrified ruler seized his mantle, and in the
struggle it was torn. The prophet improved the incident by telling him
that thus should his kingdom be rent from him, and given to a neighbor.
We cannot follow Saul through all the achievements and crimes of his
eventful reign; the abandonment of him by the grieved and indignant
Samuel; his deceptive prosperity; and his conscious desertion by God,
until his fits of depression bordered on madness. He had genius and
heroism, but a bad heart, and the hour of his overthrow drew near.
The venerable and gifted prophet who anointed the king was commanded by
Jehovah to consecrate the successor to the throne. He was directed to go
to Bethlehem, and there anoint one of the sons of Jesse. He knew that
should Saul be informed of the errand, his days were numbered. The doom
of a traitor would follow the solemn act.
To protect his servant the Lord told Samuel to offer a sacrifice, and
tell the king he was going to Bethlehem for the purpose.
When Samuel reached Bethlehem, he laid the offerings upon the altar, and
invited a worthy citizen and his family to the sacrifice. The good man's
name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. Eliab, the eldest, like Saul, was
fine-looking--tall, athletic, and commanding in his personal appearance.
Samuel thought he must be the future king of Israel; but God revealed to
him his mistake. Six brothers followed him in their presentation to the
prophet, and the Lord gave the same intimation of his will he had
respecting Eliab.
The man of God was perplexed. What could he do, if these were the only
sons of Jesse, as it seemed, for no more came? It occurred to him,
however, that possibly there might be another boy, and he inquired of
Jesse if it were not so.
The excellent father had sent the youngest son, about fifteen years old,
to keep the sheep, and it did not even enter his mind that this mere
child could have any thing to do with the affairs of the kingdom. He
stated the facts to Samuel, who immediately desired to see the lad. He
was sent for, and soon stood before the prophet. The patriarchal servant
of the Infinite One looked upon the noble boy, with his "ruddy and
beautiful countenance," and saw in him the next monarch of Israel.
[Illustration: Christ Blessing Little Children.]
David stood among his brethren, a modest, bewildered shepherd boy,
uninjured by unholy gratification of passion and appetite--a
pure-minded, manly, and devout youth.
God told Samuel to anoint him, and he poured the consecrating oil upon
the fair brow of the astonished David. Then the Spirit of the Lord came
upon him, and departed from Saul altogether. The juvenile shepherd and
hero, who had slain a lion and a bear, in defence of his sheep, returned
to his flocks, a king in destiny.
Remorse, the predictions of Samuel against him, and baleful passions,
made Saul so wretchedly melancholy, that some of his attendants
suggested to the monarch that he should try the soothing effect of
music. The proposition was favorably received, and upon the
recommendation of another friend, David, the son of Jesse, of whom Saul
knew nothing before, was sent for to play upon the harp. The young
minstrel won the respect and affection of the royal household, and his
harpings were the principal solace of the infatuated and gloomy king,
who at length made David his armor-bearer.
You know the warriors of ancient time wore armor made of metal to
protect the body from the spear and sword, the common weapons of the
battle-field; and men were appointed by monarchs to have the care of it.
Since their last great discomfiture, the Philistines had recruited their
strength, and in the thirtieth year of Saul's reign, and the twentieth
of David's life, they again took the field against the Israelites. It
curiously illustrates the nature of warfare in those times, to find that
the presence, in the army of the Philistines, of one enormous giant,
about nine or ten feet high, filled them with confidence, and struck the
Israelites with dread. Attended by his armor-bearer, and clad in
complete mail, with weapons to match his huge bulk, the giant, whose
name was Goliah, presented himself daily between the two armies, and,
with insulting language, defied the Israelites to produce a champion
who, by single combat, might decide the quarrel between the nations.
This was repeated many days; but no Israelite was found bold enough to
accept the challenge. At length David, who had come to the battle-field
with food for his brethren, no longer able to endure the taunts and
blasphemies of Goliah, offered himself for the combat. The king,
contrasting the size and known prowess of the giant with the youth and
inexperience of Jesse's son, dissuaded him from the enterprise. But as
David expressed his strong confidence that the God of Israel, who had
delivered him from the lion and the bear, when he tended his father's
flock, would also deliver him from the proud Philistine, Saul at length
allowed him to go forth against Goliah. Refusing all armor of proof, and
weapons of common warfare, David advanced to the combat, armed only with
his shepherd's sling, and a few smooth pebbles picked up from the brook
which flowed through the valley. The astonished giant felt insulted at
such an opponent, and poured forth such horrid threats as might have
appalled anyone less strong in faith than the son of Jesse. But as he
strode forward to meet David, the latter slung one of his smooth stones
with so sure an aim and so strong an arm, that it smote his opponent in
the middle of the forehead, and brought him to the ground.