these statements. The judging of Israel by this man, on whom the Spirit
of Jehovah was, meant no doubt inquisition into the religious and moral
state, condemnation of the idolatry of the tribes and a restoration to
some extent of the worship of God. In no other way could the strength of
Israel be revived. The people had to be healed before they could fight,
and the needed cure was spiritual. Hopeless invariably have been the
efforts of oppressed peoples to deliver themselves unless some trust in
a divine power has given them heart for the struggle. When we see an
army bow in prayer as one man before joining battle, as the Swiss did at
Morat and the Scots at Bannockburn, we have faith in their spirit and
courage, for they are feeling their dependence in the Supernatural.
Othniel's first care was to suppress idolatry, to teach Israelites anew
the forgotten name and law of God and their destiny as a nation. Well
did he know that this alone would prepare the way for success. Then,
having gathered an army fit for his purpose, he was not long in sweeping
the garrisons of Cushan out of the land.
Judgment and then deliverance; judgment of the mistakes and sins men
have committed, thereby bringing themselves into trouble; conviction of
sin and righteousness; thereafter guidance and help that their feet may
be set on a rock and their goings established--this is the right
sequence. That God should help the proud, the self-sufficient out of
their troubles in order that they may go on in pride and vainglory, or
that He should save the vicious from the consequences of their vice and
leave them to persist in their iniquity, would be no Divine work. The
new mind and the right spirit must be put in men, they must hear their
condemnation, lay it to heart and repent, there must be a revival of
holy purpose and aspiration first. Then the oppressors will be driven
from the land, the weight of trouble lifted from the soul.
Othniel the first of the judges seems one of the best. He is not a man
of mere rude strength and dashing enterprise. Nor is he one who runs the
risk of sudden elevation to power, which few can stand. A person of
acknowledged honour and sagacity, he sees the problem of the time and
does his best to solve it. He is almost unique in this, that he appears
without offence, without shame. And his judgeship is honourable to
Israel. It points to a higher level of thought and greater seriousness
among the tribes than in the century when Jephthah and Samson were the
acknowledged heroes. The nation had not lost its reverence for the great
names and hopes of the exodus when it obeyed Othniel and followed him to
battle.
In modern times there would seem to be scarcely any understanding of the
fact that no man can do real service as a political leader unless he is
a fearer of God, one who loves righteousness more than country, and
serves the Eternal before any constituency. Sometimes a nation low
enough in morality has been so far awake to its need and danger as to
give the helm, at least for a time, to a servant of truth and
righteousness and to follow where he leads. But more commonly is it the
case that political leaders are chosen anywhere rather than from the
ranks of the spiritually earnest. It is oratorical dash now, and now the
cleverness of the intriguer, or the power of rank and wealth, that
catches popular favour and exalts a man in the state. Members of
parliament, cabinet ministers, high officials need have no devoutness,
no spiritual seriousness or insight. A nation generally seeks no such
character in its legislators and is often content with less than decent
morality. Is it then any wonder that politics are arid and government a
series of errors? We need men who have the true idea of liberty and will
set nations nominally Christian on the way of fulfilling their mission
to the world. When the people want a spiritual leader he will appear;
when they are ready to follow one of high and pure temper he will arise
and show the way. But the plain truth is that our chiefs in the state,
in society and business must be the men who represent the general
opinion, the general aim. While we are in the main a worldly people, the
best guides, those of spiritual mind, will never be allowed to carry
their plans. And so we come back to the main lesson of the whole
history, that only as each citizen is thoughtful of God and of duty,
redeemed from selfishness and the world, can there be a true
commonwealth, honourable government, beneficent civilization.
VI.
_THE DAGGER AND THE OX-GOAD._
JUDGES iii. 12-31.
The world is served by men of very diverse kinds, and we pass now to one
who is in strong contrast to Israel's first deliverer. Othniel the judge
without reproach is followed by Ehud the regicide. The long peace which
the country enjoyed after the Mesopotamian army was driven out allowed a
return of prosperity and with it a relaxing of spiritual tone. Again
there was disorganization; again the Hebrew strength decayed and
watchful enemies found an opportunity. The Moabites led the attack, and
their king was at the head of a federation including the Ammonites and
the Amalekites. It was this coalition the power of which Ehud had to
break.
We can only surmise the causes of the assault made on the Hebrews west
of Jordan by those peoples on the east. When the Israelites first
appeared on the plains of the Jordan under the shadow of the mountains
of Moab, before crossing into Palestine proper, Balak king of Moab
viewed with alarm this new nation which was advancing to seek a
settlement so near his territory. It was then he sent to Pethor for
Balaam, in the hope that by a powerful incantation or curse the great
diviner would blight the Hebrew armies and make them an easy prey.
Notwithstanding this scheme, which even to the Israelites did not appear
contemptible, Moses so far respected the relationship between Moab and
Israel that he did not attack Balak's kingdom, although at the time it
had been weakened by an unsuccessful contest with the Amorites from
Gilead. Moab to the south and Ammon to the north were both left
unharmed.
But to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh was allotted the land
from which the Amorites had been completely driven, a region extending
from the frontier of Moab on the south away towards Hermon and the
Argob; and these tribes entering vigorously on their possession could
not long remain at peace with the bordering races. We can easily see how
their encroachments, their growing strength would vex Moab and Ammon and
drive them to plans of retaliation. Balaam had not cursed Israel; he had
blessed it, and the blessing was being fulfilled. It seemed to be
decreed that all other peoples east of Jordan were to be overborne by
the descendants of Abraham; yet one fear wrought against another, and
the hour of Israel's security was seized as a fit occasion for a
vigorous sally across the river. A desperate effort was made to strike
at the heart of the Hebrew power and assert the claims of Chemosh to be
a greater god than He Who was reverenced at the sanctuary of the ark.
Or Amalek may have instigated the attack. Away in the Sinaitic
wilderness there stood an altar which Moses had named Jehovah-Nissi,
Jehovah is my banner, and that altar commemorated a great victory gained
by Israel over the Amalekites. The greater part of a century had gone by
since the battle, but the memory of defeat lingers long with the
Arab--and these Amalekites were pure Arabs, savage, vindictive,
cherishing their cause of war, waiting their revenge. We know the
command in Deuteronomy, "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way,
when ye were come forth out of Egypt. How he met thee by the way and
smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee. Thou
shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Thou shalt
not forget it." We may be sure that Reuben and Gad did not forget the
dastardly attack; we may be sure that Amalek did not forget the day of
Rephidim. If Moab was not of itself disposed to cross the Jordan and
fall on Benjamin and Ephraim, there was the urgency of Amalek, the
proffered help of that fiery people to ripen decision. The ferment of
war rose. Moab, having walled cities to form a basis of operations, took
the lead. The confederates marched northward along the Dead Sea, seized
the ford near Gilgal and mastering the plain of Jericho pushed their
conquest beyond the hills. Nor was it a temporary advance. They
established themselves. Eighteen years afterwards we find Eglon, in his
palace or castle near the City of Palm Trees, claiming authority over
all Israel.
So the Hebrew tribes, partly by reason of an old strife not forgotten,
partly because they have gone on vigorously adding to their territory,
again suffer assault and are brought under oppression, and the coalition
against them reminds us of confederacies that are in full force to-day.
Ammon and Moab are united against the church of Christ, and Amalek joins
in the attack. The parable is one, we shall say, of the opposition the
church is constantly provoking, constantly experiencing, not entirely to
its own credit. Allowing that, in the main, Christianity is truly and
honestly aggressive, that on its march to the heights it does straight
battle with the enemies of mankind and thus awakens the hatred of bandit
Amaleks, yet this is not a complete account of the assaults which are
renewed century after century. Must it not be owned that those who pass
for Christians often go beyond the lines and methods of their proper
warfare and are found on fields where the weapons are carnal and the
fight is not "the good fight of faith"? There is a strain of modern talk
which defends the worldly ambition of Christian men, sounding very
hollow and insincere to all excepting those whose interest and illusion
it is to think it heavenly. We hear from a thousand tongues the gospel
of Christianized commerce, of sanctified success, of making business a
religion. In the press and hurry of competition there is a less and a
greater conscientiousness. Let men have it in the greater degree, let
them be less anxious for speedy success than some they know, not quite
so eager to add factory to factory and field to field, more careful to
interpret bargains fairly and do good work; let them figure often as
benefactors and be free with their money to the church, and the residue
of worldly ambition is glorified, being sufficient, perhaps, to develop
a merchant prince, a railway king, a "millionaire" of the kind the age
adores. Thus it comes to pass that the domain which appeared safe enough
from the followers of Him who sought no power in the earthly range is
invaded by men who reckon all their business efforts privileged under
the laws of heaven, and every advantage they win a Divine plan for
wresting money from the hands of the devil.
Now it is upon Christianity as approving all this that the Moabites and
Ammonites of our day are falling. They are frankly worshippers of
Chemosh and Milcom, not of Jehovah; they believe in wealth, their all
is staked on the earthly prosperity and enjoyment for which they strive.
It is too bad, they feel, to have their sphere and hopes curtailed by
men who profess no respect for the world, no desire for its glory but a
constant preference for things unseen; they writhe when they consider
the triumphs wrested from them by rivals who count success an answer to
prayer and believe themselves favourites of God. Or the frank heathen
finds that in business a man professing Christianity in the customary
way is as little cumbered as himself by any disdain of tarnished profits
and "smart" devices. What else can be expected but that, driven back and
back by the energy of Christians so called, the others shall begin to
think Christianity itself largely a pretence? Do we wonder to see the
revolution in France hurling its forces not only against wealth and
rank, but also against the religion identified with wealth and rank? Do
we wonder to see in our day socialism, which girds at great fortunes as
an insult to humanity, joining hands with agnosticism and secularism to
make assault on the church? It is precisely what might be looked for;
nay, more, the opposition will go on till Christian profession is purged
of hypocrisy and Christian practice is harmonized with the law of
Christ. Not the push, not the equivocal success of one person here and
there is it that creates doubt of Christianity and provokes antagonism,
but the whole systems of society and business in so-called Christian
lands, and even the conduct of affairs within the church, the strain of
feeling there. For in the church as without it wealth and rank are
important in themselves, and make some important who have little or no
other claim to respect. In the church as without it methods are adopted
that involve large outlay and a constant need for the support of the
wealthy; in the church as without it life depends too much on the
abundance of the things that are possessed. And, in the not unfair
judgment of those who stand outside, all this proceeds from a secret
doubt of Christ's law and authority, which more than excuses their own
denial. The strifes of the day, even those that turn on the Godhead of
Christ and the inspiration of the Bible, as well as on the divine claim
of the church, are not due solely to hatred of truth and the depravity
of the human heart. They have more reason than the church has yet
confessed. Christianity in its practical and speculative aspects is one;
it cannot be a creed unless it is a life. It is essentially a life not
conformed to this world, but transformed, redeemed. Our faith will stand
secure from all attacks, vindicated as a supernatural revelation and
inspiration, when the whole of church life and Christian endeavour shall
rise above the earthly and be manifest everywhere as a fervent striving
for the spiritual and eternal.
We have been assuming the unfaithfulness of Israel to its duty and
vocation. The people of God, instead of commending His faith by their
neighbourliness and generosity, were, we fear, too often proud and
selfish, seeking their own things not the well-being of others, sending
no attractive light into the heathenism around. Moab was akin to the
Hebrews and in many respects similar in character. When we come to the
Book of Ruth we find a certain intercourse between the two. Ammon, more
unsettled and barbarous, was of the same stock. Israel, giving nothing
to these peoples, but taking all she could from them, provoked
antagonism all the more bitter that they were of kin to her, and they
felt no scruple when their opportunity came. Not only had the
Israelites to suffer for their failure, but Moab and Ammon also. The
wrong beginning of the relations between them was never undone. Moab and
Ammon went on worshipping their own gods, enemies of Israel to the last.
Ehud appears a deliverer. He was a Benjamite, a man left-handed; he
chose his own method of action, and it was to strike directly at the
Moabite king. Eager words regarding the shamefulness of Israel's
subjection had perhaps already marked him as a leader, and it may have
been with the expectation that he would do a bold deed that he was
chosen to bear the periodical tribute on this occasion to Eglon's
palace. Girding a long dagger under his garment on his right thigh,
where if found it might appear to be worn without evil intent, he set
out with some attendants to the Moabite head-quarters. The narrative is
so vivid that we seem able to follow Ehud step by step. He has gone from
the neighbourhood of Jebus to Jericho, perhaps by the road in which the
scene of our Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan was long afterwards
laid. Having delivered the tribute into the hands of Eglon he goes
southward a few miles to the sculptured stones at Gilgal, where possibly
some outpost of the Moabites kept guard. There he leaves his attendants,
and swiftly retracing his steps to the palace craves a private interview
with the king and announces a message from God, at Whose name Eglon
respectfully rises from his seat. One flash of the dagger and the bloody
deed is done. Leaving the king's dead body there in the chamber, Ehud
bolts the door and boldly passes the attendants, then quickening his
pace is soon beyond Gilgal and away by another route through the steep
hills to the mountains of Ephraim. Meanwhile the murder is discovered
and there is confusion at the palace. No one being at hand to give
orders, the garrison is unprepared to act, and as Ehud loses no time in
gathering a band and returning to finish his work, the fords of Jordan
are taken before the Moabites can cross to the eastern side. They are
caught, and the defeat is so decisive that Israel is free again for
fourscore years.
Now this deed of Ehud's was clearly a case of assassination, and as such
we have to consider it. The crime is one which stinks in our nostrils
because it is associated with treachery and cowardice, the basest
revenge or the most undisciplined passion. But if we go back to times of
ruder morality and regard the circumstances of such a people as Israel,
scattered and oppressed, waiting for a sign of bold energy that may give
it new heart, we can easily see that one who chose to act as Ehud did
would by no means incur the reprobation we now attach to the assassin.
To go no farther back than the French Revolution and the deed of
Charlotte Corday, we cannot reckon her among the basest--that woman of
"the beautiful still countenance" who believed her task to be the duty
of a patriot. Nevertheless, it is not possible to make a complete
defence of Ehud. His act was treacherous. The man he slew was a
legitimate king, and is not said to have done his ruling ill. Even
allowing for the period, there was something peculiarly detestable in
striking one to death who stood up reverently expecting a message from
God. Yet Ehud may have thoroughly believed himself to be a Divine
instrument.
This too we see, that the great just providence of the Almighty is not
impeached by such an act. No word in the narrative justifies
assassination; but, being done, place is found for it as a thing
overruled for good in the development of Israel's history. Man has no
defence for his treachery and violence, yet in the process of events the
barbarous deed, the fierce crime, are shown to be under the control of
the Wisdom that guides all men and things. And here the issue which
justifies Divine providence, though it does not purge the criminal, is
clear. For through Ehud a genuine deliverance was wrought for Israel.
The nation, curbed by aliens, overborne by an idolatrous power, was free
once more to move toward the great spiritual end for which it had been
created. We might be disposed to say that on the whole Israel made
nothing of freedom, that the faith of God revived and the heart of the
people became devout in times of oppression rather than of liberty. In a
sense it was so, and the story of this people is the story of all, for
men go to sleep over their best, they misuse freedom, they forget why
they are free. Yet every eulogy of freedom is true. Man must even have
the power of misusing it if he is to arrive at the best. It is in
liberty that manhood is nursed, and therefore in liberty that religion
matures. Autocratic laws mean tyranny, and tyranny denies the soul its
responsibility to justice, truth, and God. Mind and conscience held from
their high office, responsibility to the greatest overborne by some
tyrant hand that may seem beneficent, the soul has no space, faith no
room to breathe; man is kept from the spontaneity and gladness of his
proper life. So we have to win liberty in hard struggle and know
ourselves free in order that we may belong completely to God.
See how life advances! God deals with the human race according to a vast
plan of discipline leading to heights which at first appear
inaccessible. Freedom is one of the first of these, and only by way of
it are the higher summits reached. During the long ages of dark and
weary struggle, which seem to many but a fruitless martyrdom, the Divine
idea was interfused with all the strife. Not one blind stroke, not one
agony of the craving soul was wasted. In all the wisdom of God wrought
for man, through man's pathetic feebleness or most daring achievement.
So out of the chaos of the gloomy valleys a highway of order was raised
by which the race should mount to Freedom and thence to Faith.
We see it in the history of nations, those that have led the way and
those that are following. The possessors of clear faith have won it in
liberty. In Switzerland, in Scotland, in England, the order has been,
first civil freedom, then Christian thought and vigour. Wallace and
Bruce prepare the way for Knox; Boadicea, Hereward, the Barons of Magna
Charta for Wycliffe and the Reformation; the men of the Swiss Cantons
who won Morgarten and routed Charles the Bold were the forerunners of
Zwingli and Farel. Israel, too, had its heroes of freedom; and even
those who, like Ehud and Samson, did little or nothing for faith and
struck wildly, wrongly for their country, did yet choose consciously to
serve their people and were helpers of a righteousness and a holy
purpose they did not know. When all has been said against them it
remains true that the freedom they brought to Israel was a Divine gift.
It is to be remarked that Ehud did not judge Israel. He was a deliverer,
but nowise fitted to exercise high office in the name of God. In some
way not made clear in the narrative he had become the centre of the
resolute spirits of Benjamin and was looked to by them to find an
opportunity of striking at the oppressors. His calling, we may say, was
human, not Divine; it was limited, not national; and he was not a man
who could rise to any high thought of leadership. The heads of tribes,
ingloriously paying tribute to the Moabites, may have scoffed at him as
of no account. Yet he did what they supposed impossible. The little
rising grew with the rapidity of a thunder-cloud, and, when it passed,
Moab, smitten as by a lightning flash, no longer overshadowed Israel. As
for the deliverer, his work having been done apparently in the course of
a few days, he is seen no more in the history. While he lived, however,
his name was a terror to the enemies of Israel, for what he had effected
once he might be depended upon to do again if necessity arose. And the
land had rest.
Here is an example of what is possible to the obscure whose
qualifications are not great, but who have spirit and firmness, who are
not afraid of dangers and privations on the way to an end worth gaining,
be it the deliverance of their country, the freedom or purity of their
church, or the rousing of society against a flagrant wrong. Do the rich
and powerful angrily refuse their patronage? Do they find much to say
about the impossibility of doing anything, the evil of disturbing
people's minds, the duty of submission to Providence and to the advice
of wise and learned persons? Those who see the time and place for
acting, who hear the clarion-call of duty, will not be deterred. Armed
for their task with fit weapons--the two-edged dagger of truth for the
corpulent lie, the penetrating stone of a just scorn for the forehead of
arrogance, they have the right to go forth, the right to succeed, though
probably when the stroke has told many will be heard lamenting its
untimeliness and proving the dangerous indiscretion of Ehud and all who
followed him.