A REVISED LAW OF MOSES
Amos and the great prophets who followed him met with the same fate as
many other pioneers--only a few of their hearers heeded their words,
or even understood them. But four great leaders in one century--Amos,
Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah--could hardly fail to make some real
impression on the minds and lives of their nation. Isaiah was perhaps
the most influential, partly because the others before them had
prepared the way and partly because he himself lived and preached to
the people during a long period of time--more than forty years.
=Isaiah's disciples.=--Another reason why Isaiah exerted so great an
influence was that he organized little groups of his disciples into
circles for study. These groups met together from time to time, and
read aloud the sermons of Isaiah and the other prophets, and talked
about how to apply them to their lives. We can see them seated in a
circle in the evening on the floor of one of those little homes
opening into a narrow Jerusalem street. There would be a candlestick
in the center, or an upturned bushel measure, with a candle on top of
it. The circle would be composed of men; but on the outside eagerly
listening would be women and children. One of the men in the circle
would be seated by the candle reading from a roll of papyrus on which
were written the sermons of one of the prophets.
THE EVIL DAYS OF MANASSEH'S REIGN
It is well that these reading circles were started, for they kept
alive the new truth of the reformer-prophets during the reign of a bad
king, Manasseh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets.
But Manasseh, who became king when Isaiah was an old man, was opposed
to all these new ideas. Most of the people of Judah probably agreed
with him. They still clung to the belief that the one sure way for a
nation to be prosperous was to offer sacrifices to the most powerful
gods. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their worship of
Jehovah, was still subject to the empire of Assyria. Great sums had to
be paid every year as tribute. "What fools those prophets are!" men
said, as they talked together in the streets. "See how much stronger
the Assyrian gods are than Jehovah!" "Last month I had to pay ten
shekels for the tribute!" "If we want to prosper, we must worship the
gods of Assyria."
=Manasseh's persecution.=--Manasseh therefore proceeded to introduce
the worship of the moon-god, and the sun-god, and other deities of
Nineveh. He even set up altars to these divinities in the temple of
Jehovah at Jerusalem. When the disciples of the prophets spoke against
all this he had them seized and killed, until he had "filled Jerusalem
with innocent blood." Many a good man who had listened to the reading
of Isaiah by candlelight in one of those reading circles now had to
hide himself in some closet or cistern from the soldiers of Manasseh.
There is a tradition that the aged Isaiah himself was put to death
during this persecution.
Not all of those who opposed Manasseh were killed, although they were
finally compelled to keep silence. Those little study circles still
held meetings in secret to read and talk and pray; and they kept
looking forward to a time when a different kind of a man would be
king, and when they would be able once more to lead the people into
the way of justice and true worship.
In one of these little groups a remarkably wise plan was suggested.
Let us take the laws which have been handed down to us from Moses, it
was said, and work them up into a sermon. Every one reverences Moses.
Let it include the farewell address which Moses is said to have spoken
to his people just before he died, and put into it all the laws of
Moses, and let us show what they really mean. And by and by when
Manasseh is dead we may be able to read it to the people, and perhaps
they will listen.
THE WRITTEN LAW
=The new law book--Deuteronomy.=--So they wrote the new book, and it
is preserved in our Bible as the book of Deuteronomy. We find in it
all the old laws which had been handed down from early times, and
which were called the "laws of Moses." And we find on every page
sentences which show the influence of the great prophets, from Amos to
Isaiah. Isaiah's influence is perhaps the most plainly seen,
especially his teaching that the people should worship Jehovah alone
as the one ruler of the world. In Deuteronomy also we find a very
solemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and worship only
Jehovah, the one true God. This is the commandment which Jesus called
the first and greatest of all.
="Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy might."=
Such a law as this of course forbade all those covenants with other
gods which Isaiah denounced.
=Laws helping the oppressed.=--All the prophets had been on the side
of the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed
them. The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new
law so as more fully to protect the poor. They made stronger all the
older laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the
weak and unfortunate, and they added others: for example, laws
protecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws
forbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes
made to suffer by rich judges.
There was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into
a state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven
years. The new law book included this law, and added that the master
must not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but
must give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he
looked for a chance to work and earn money for himself. The new law
also protected fugitive slaves from other countries. They were not to
be returned to their owners.
=A compromise.=--All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have
studied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old
worship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and
immoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that
Jehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.
But the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether.
They provided that all the small shrines, called "high places," such
as at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be
destroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only
there. The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no
longer be celebrated at home. All the people must come up to Jerusalem
for them. No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down
idolatry.
THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW LAW
Manasseh reigned fifty-five years. It was a long, weary time of
waiting for the disciples of the prophets. The new law book was put
away in one of the closets of the temple for safe-keeping. The years
went by and most of the men who helped to write it died. At last,
however, the end came for Manasseh. After a short period his grandson,
Josiah, who was only eight years old, became king. The boy's older
relatives and friends were all against the ideas of old Manasseh and
on the side of the prophets. Little by little the principles of the
prophets were put in practice. Among other things, orders were given
to tear out from the Jerusalem temple the images and altars to the
sun-god and the moon-god and other emblems of Assyrian worship. The
temple was also cleaned and renovated. While the carpenters were at
work the new law-book was discovered in the chest where it had been
hidden and was brought to the young king and read before him.
=Josiah's reforms.=--Josiah was deeply impressed and gave orders that
the reforms called for by the new law should be carried out. Officers
went all up and down the villages and towns of Judah tearing down the
little temples, or "high places," where so much heathenism had been
practiced. And the people were told that several times each year they
were to bring their sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Those were
also good days for the common people. There was a king now who "judged
the cause of the poor and the needy." Many a poor debtor, when his
crops failed, appealed to the king's court in Jerusalem and he himself
and his children were saved from slavery and their home from ruin.
The reform only lasted a few years--some twelve or thirteen--and then
King Josiah was killed in battle, and much of the old heathenism and
greed and injustice came back again in a flood. But the memory of the
good days did not quickly fade. It was the first great triumph of the
teachings of the prophets--the men who kept alive the true ideals of
Abraham and Moses.
STUDY TOPICS
1. Read any part of Deuteronomy 1-5. Select any passages which seem to
you truly eloquent.
2. Read Deuteronomy 12. 10, 11. What place is referred to by the
author, when he writes, "The place that Jehovah your God shall choose,
to cause his name to dwell there"?
3. In the light of the history in this chapter, which is the more
likely to change human history, a battleship or a Bible class?
Explain.