We may hear a mightier voice behind the chronicler's, and the judgment
of the Judge of all pronounced by His lips. It matters little what men
say of one another, but it matters everything what God says of us. We
are but too apt to forget that He is now saying something as to each
of us, and that we have not to wait for death to put a final period to
our activities, before our lives become fit subjects for God's
judgment, Moment by moment we are writing our own sentences. But while
it is good for us to remember the continuous judgment of God on each
deed, it is not good to let dark thoughts of the principles of that
judgment paralyse our activity or chill our confidence in His
forgiving and accepting mercy. There is often a dark suspicion, like
that of the one-talented servant, which blackens God's fair fame as
being 'an austere Man,' making demands rather than imparting power,
and the effect of such an ugly conception of Him is to cut the nerve
of service and bury the talent, carefully folded up, it may be, but
none the less earning nothing. 'If we call on Him as Father, who
without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work,' let
us be sure that it will be a Fatherly judgment that He will pass upon
us and our offerings. There is a wonderful collection on His altar of
what many people would think rubbish, just as many a mother has laid
away among her treasures some worthless article which her child had
once given her--a weed plucked by the roadside in a long past summer
day, some trifle of rare preciousness in the child's eyes, and of none
in any others than her own. She opens her drawer and brings out the
poor little thing, and her eyes fill and her heart fills as she looks.
And does not God keep His children's gifts as lovingly, and set them
in places of honour in the day when He 'makes up His jewels'? There
are cups of cold water and widows' mites and much else that a
supercilious world would call 'trash' stored there. Thank God! He
accepts imperfect service, faltering faith, partial consecration, a
little love. Even our poor offering may be an 'odour of a sweet
smell,' ministering fragrance that is a delight to Him, if it is
offered with the much incense of the great Sacrifice and through the
mediation of the great High Priest.
The world forgot Amasiah, or never knew him, an obscure soldier in an
obscure kingdom, but God did not forget, and here is his epitaph, and
this is his memorial to all generations. Men's chronicles have no room
for all the names that their wearers are eager to have inscribed on
their crumbling and crowded pages, 'but the Lamb's Book of Life' has
ample space on its radiant pages for all who desire to set their names
there, and if ours are there, we need not envy the proudest whose
titles and deeds fill the most conspicuous pages in the world's
records. 'Then shall every man have praise of Christ,' and he who wins
that guerdon needs nothing more, and can have nothing more to swell
his blessedness.
'A MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES'
'And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to
Jerusalem. 2. And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet
him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly,
and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from
before the Lord. 3. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee,
in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast
prepared thine heart to seek God. 4. And Jehoshaphat dwelt at
Jerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beer-sheba to
mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the Lord God of their
fathers. 5. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced
cities of Judah, city by city. 6. And said to the judges, Take heed
what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with
you in the judgment. 7. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon
you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our
God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. 8. Moreover in
Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and
of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord,
and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. 9. And he
charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord,
faithfully, and with a perfect heart. 10. And what cause soever shall
come to you of your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood
and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye
shall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord, and so
wrath come upon you, and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not
trespass. 11. And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all
matters of the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the
house of Judah, for all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be
officers before you. Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the
good.'--2 CHRON. XIX. 1-11.
Jehoshaphat is distinguished by two measures for his people's good:
one, his sending out travelling preachers through the land (2 Chron.
xvii. 7-9); another, this provision of local judges and a central
court in Jerusalem. The former was begun as early as the third year of
his reign, but was probably interrupted, like other good things, by
his ill-omened alliance with Ahab. The prophet Jehu's plain speaking
seems to have brought the king back to his better self, and its fruit
was his going 'among the people,' from south to north, as a
missionary, 'to bring them back to Jehovah.' The religious reformation
was accompanied by his setting judges throughout the land. Our modern
way of distinguishing between religious and civil concerns is foreign
to Eastern thought, and was especially out of the question in a
theocracy. Jehovah was the King of Judah; therefore the things that
are Caesar's and the things that are God's coalesced, and these two
objects of Jehoshaphat's journeyings were pursued simultaneously. We
have travelled far from his simple institutions, and our course has
not been all progress. His supreme concern was to deal out even-handed
justice between man and man; is not ours rather to give ample doses of
law? To him the judicial function was a copy of God's, and its
exercise a true act of worship, done in His fear, and modelled after
His pattern. The first impression made in one of our courts is
scarcely that judge and counsel are engaged in worship.
There had been local judges before Jehoshaphat--elders in the
villages, the 'heads of the fathers' houses' in the tribes. We do not
know whether the great secession had flung the simple old machinery
somewhat out of gear, or whether Jehoshaphat's action was simply to
systematise and make universal the existing arrangements. But what
concerns us most is to note that all the charge which he gives to
these peasant magistrates bears on the religious aspect of their
duties. They are to think themselves as acting for Jehovah and with
Jehovah. If they recognise the former, they may be confident of the
latter. They are to 'let the fear of Jehovah be upon you,' for that
awe resting on a spirit will, like a burden or water-jar on a woman's
shoulder, make the carriage upright and the steps firm. They are not
only to act for and with Jehovah, but to do like Him, avoiding
injustice, favouritism, and corruption, the plague-spots of Eastern
law-courts. In such a state of society, the cases to be adjudicated
were mostly such as mother-wit, honesty and the fear of God could
solve; other times call for other qualifications. But still, let us
learn from this charge that even in our necessarily complicated legal
systems and political life, there is room and sore need for the
application of the same principles. What a different world it would be
if our judges and representatives carried some tincture of
Jehoshaphat's simple and devout wisdom into their duties! Civic and
political life ought to be as holy as that of cloister and cell. To
judge righteously, to vote honestly, is as much worship as to pray. A
politician may be 'a priest of the Most High God.'
And for us all the spirit of Jehoshaphat's charge is binding, and
every trivial and secular task is to be discharged for God, with God,
in the fear of God. 'On the bells of the horses shall be Holiness unto
Jehovah.' If our religion does not drive the wheels of daily life, so
much the worse for our life and our religion. But, above all, this
charge reminds us that the secret of right living is to imitate God.
These peasants were to find direction, as well as inspiration, in
gazing on Jehovah's character, and trying to copy it. And we are to be
'imitators of God, as beloved children,' though our best efforts may
only produce poor results. A masterpiece may be copied in some
wretched little newspaper blotch, but the great artist will own it for
a copy, and correct it into complete likeness.
The second step was to establish a 'supreme court' in Jerusalem, which
had two divisions, ecclesiastical and civil, as we should say, the
former presided over by the chief priest, and the latter by 'the ruler
of the house of Judah.' Murder cases and the graver questions
involving interpretation of the law were sent up thither, while the
village judges had probably to decide only points that shrewdness and
integrity could settle. But these superior judges, too, received
charges as to moral, rather than intellectual or learned
qualifications. Religiously, uprightly, 'with a perfect heart,'
courageously, they were to act, 'and Jehovah be with the good!' That
may be a prayer, like the old invocation with which heralds sent
knights to tilt at each other, and with which, in some legal
proceedings, the pleas are begun, 'God defend the right!' But more
probably it is an assurance that God will guide the judges to favour
the good cause, if they on their parts will bring the aforesaid
qualities to their decisions. And are not these qualities just such as
will, for the most part, give similar results to us, if in our various
activities we exercise them? And may we not see a sequence worth our
practically putting to the proof in these characteristics enjoined on
Jehoshaphat's supreme court? Begin with 'the fear of the Lord'; that
will help us to 'faithfulness and a perfect heart'; and these again by
taking away occasions of ignoble fear, and knitting together the else
tremulous and distracted nature, will make the fearful brave and the
weak strong.
But another thought is suggested by Jehoshaphat's language. Note how
this court does not seem to have inflicted punishments, but to have
had only counsels and warnings to wield. It was a board of
conciliation rather than a penal tribunal. Two things it had to do--to
press upon the parties the weighty consideration that crimes against
men were sins against God, and that the criminal drew down wrath on
the community. This remarkable provision brings out strongly thoughts
that modern society will be the better for incorporating. The best way
to deal with men is to get at their hearts and consciences. The deeper
aspect of civil crimes or wrongs to men should be pressed on the doer;
namely, that they are sins against God. Again, all such acts are sins
against the mystical sacred bond of brotherhood. Again, the solidarity
of a nation makes it inevitable that 'one sinner destroyeth much
good,' and pulls down with him, when God smites him, a multitude of
innocents. So finely woven is the web of the national life that, if a
thread run in any part of it, a great rent gapes. If one member sins,
all the members suffer with it. And lastly, the cruellest thing that
we can do is to be dumb when we see sin being committed. It is not
public men, judges and the like, alone, who are called on thus to warn
evil-doers, but all of us in our degree. If we do not, we are guilty
along with a guilty nation; and it is only when, to the utmost of our
power, we have warned our brethren as to national sins, that we can
wash our hands in innocency, 'This do, and ye shall not be guilty.'