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STORIES OF THE PROPHETS
COMMISSION ON JEWISH EDUCATION
of the
UNION OF AMERICAN HEBREW CONGREGATIONS
and the
CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS
DAVID PHILIPSON, Chairman
JOSEPH L. BARON DAVID MARX
EDWARD N. CALISCH S. FELIX MENDELSOHN
H. G. ENELOW JULIAN MORGENSTERN
HARRY W. ETTELSON JOSEPH RAUCH
MAX HELLER WILLIAM ROSENAU
SAMUEL KOCH SAMUEL SCHULMAN
GERSON B. LEVI ABBA H. SILVER
HARRY LEVI ABRAM SIMON
LOUIS L. MANN LOUIS WITT
LOUIS WOLSEY
GEORGE ZEPIN, Secretary
STORIES OF THE PROPHETS
(Before the Exile)
BY ISAAC LANDMAN
To
My Parents
Who first introduced me to the Prophets,
this book is dedicated with
love and devotion.
CONTENTS.
I. THE SHEPHERD OF TEKOAH.
1. An End to War
2. In the Days of Prosperity
3. The Man Who Dared
4. Treason and a Fight
5. Priest Against Prophet
6. The Prophet in Tekoah
II. THE MAN WHO LEARNED HIS LESSON.
1. An Eventful Night
2. The Tragedy with a Purpose
3. The Repentant Returns
III. THE STATESMAN PROPHET.
1. The Vision in the Temple
2. The Parable of the Vineyard
3. A Coward on the Throne
4. On Deaf Ears
5. The Survival of the Fittest
6. Working with the Remnant
7. Like Father, Like Son
8. The Prophet Triumphs
9. The Fruit of His Labor
IV. THE COMMONER.
1. His Awakening
2. The Cause of the Common People
3. When Samaria Fell
4. Judah Learns Its Lesson
V. THE PROPHET OF WOE AND HOPE.
1. The Escape
2. The Boy King
3. Jeremiah's Call
4. The Seething Caldron
5. The Great Discovery
6. A New Covenant
7. To the Fore Again
8. The Shadow of a King
9. The Temple of the Lord
10. A Narrow Escape
11. A Taste of Martyrdom
12. The Woe of the Prophet
13. Teacher and Pupil
14. Baruch's First Venture
15. The King Hears and Acts
16. Beginning of the End
17. The First Deportation
18. In Exile and in the Homeland
19. A Friend in Need
20. In the Midst of Despair
21. Lamentations and a Vain Hope
22. Cowardice and Treachery
23. Jeremiah, the Martyred
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"_The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz._"--Isaiah I, 1
"_Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel._"--Amos IV, 12
"_Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in
judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercy._"--Hosea II, 21
"_Here am I, send me._"--Isaiah VI, 8
"_And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears
into pruning-hooks._"--Isaiah II, 4
"_For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of
the house of Israel._"--Micah I, 5
"_I sat alone because of Thy hand._"--Jeremiah XV, 17
"_And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into
captivity._"--Jeremiah XX, 6
FOREWORD
The company of inspired men, commonly known as the prophets of Israel,
were the unique product of the Jewish religious genius. They were
pre-eminently preachers of righteousness. Fearless and undaunted, they
told the house of Israel their sins and the house of Jacob their
transgressions. They contemplated the facts of life from the highest
point of view. For them religion and morality were blended, ethics and
politics were one. Theirs was peculiarly a social message; the demand
for justice underlies all their thinking and speaking. They had a
veritable passion for righteousness; through all the ages their words
have been torches lighting the way of men struggling upward towards
the truth.
Though living over twenty-six hundred years ago, these men are very
modern. As a great thinker has well said, "The spirit of the prophets
of Israel is in the modern soul." The foremost workers for the welfare
of their fellowmen to-day posit social justice as the first article of
their program. The world to-day, as never before, is filled with cries
for social righteousness as the indispensable foundation for the
structure of society. What is this but harking back to the eternal
message of the ancient prophets? "Let justice flow as water"
passionately and unreservedly demanded Amos of old; for him and his
brother prophets this was the sine qua non for society's welfare; the
same may be said of the thousands and tens of thousands to-day of
every creed and every nation who are toiling for the social salvation
of their fellowmen the world over. Ages meet; the words of the ancient
preachers of righteousness are still the inspiration for the seekers
after justice everywhere.
The story of the life work of these giants of the spirit has often
been told, but it can be told none too often, particularly if the
telling is well done, as is the case in the present volume. Each one
of these men delivered the same message in his own individual and
inimitable way. Yet their work was continuous and forms a consecutive
tale. In the speeches and experiences of each one of them the eternal
truths they present appears in differing light. The author of the
present volume approaches his subject, one might say, from the
dramatic standpoint, for, with fine insight, he has culled from the
lives of the prophets those striking and intense experiences which
illustrate most powerfully the indomitable spirit of these men who
followed right in scorn of consequence, for were they not the
messengers of the God of right whose demand upon men is, as told by
one of them in imperishable words, to do justice, to love mercy and to
walk humbly with God?
The author has succeeded well in his characterization of the various
prophets. His pages glow with the vital spark of each prophet's
flaming figure. He has named his book fittingly "Stories of the
Prophets," and interesting stories has he told. He has brought to his
task not only a sympathetic appreciation of his subject, but an
imaginative faculty that has enabled him to supply links in the
narrative suggested if not actually given in the incidents preserved
in the recorded annals.
From the words of the prophets themselves he has, therefore,
occasionally built up situations which if not strictly indicated in
the original text may, at any rate, be imagined. Not as predictors of
events in the far future, for this the prophets were not, despite
frequent interpretations of their words along this line, but as bold
speakers of the truth, as fiery preachers of the right, as intrepid
champions of the poor and oppressed, as fearless denouncers of
corruption and wrong in high places does our author present the
leading figures in his book. As such, their words are as significant
for us to-day as they were for the men of their generation, and their
impassioned accents sound as forcefully now as they did then. This is
brought out clearly and strikingly in the sketches of this volume,
which without doubt will succeed in giving a vivid picture to the
reader of these towering spirtual heroes who belong to the ages,
speakers of the everlasting nays and yeas of the Everlasting God.
DAVID PHILIPSON.
CINCINNATI, SEPTEMBER, 1912.
THE SHEPHERD OF TEKOA
CHAPTER I.
_An End to War._
"Damascus has fallen!
Damascus has fallen!!"
The whole city of Samaria rang with the glad tidings. Fleet-footed
runners, who had started with this precious news on the day of
victory, covered more than one hundred and fifty miles to bring it to
the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.
They crossed mountains and swam rivers, fairly flew over fertile
plains and through busy cities, shouting, while there was breath in
their bodies:
"Damascus has fallen!"
Many of the messengers fell exhausted on the way, but others took up
the wonderful news from the front and carried it on, until the whole
northern part of the kingdom knew of the king's victory.
Little by little the whole story was told to the eager Samarians--how
the king, Jeroboam II, himself led the hosts of Israel; how attack
followed attack upon the fortified Syrian capital; how the first
breach was made in the outer wall; how the valiant Israelites rushed
upon the enemy, and how the final victory was won for Israel's
standard.
What a celebration was there in Samaria that long-to-be-remembered
day!
Not since the days when the first Jeroboam led the rebellion of the
ten tribes against King Solomon's weak son, Rehoboam, and established
the independent kingdom of the Ten Tribes, with Samaria as the
capital, was there such rejoicing in that city.
We can picture the celebration in our mind's eye; we cannot describe
it in words.
Parents who had sent their sons to the war now laughed happily through
their tears, because there would be an end to war.
Sisters whose brothers doubtless lay dead in and about the walls of
the doomed city, now sang songs of joy in the midst of their weeping,
because there would be an end to war.
The strongest and finest men of Israel had given their lives for their
country, but now, thank God! there would be an end to war.
The fall of Damascus meant the end of a hundred and fifty years' war,
commenced by Ben-hadad I, of Syria, against Israel, long before
Jeroboam's great-grandfather established the dynasty of Jehu on the
throne of Israel.
It meant even more than that; it meant the end of Syrian oppression,
and, perhaps, a period of peace to the long-troubled and war-ridden
kingdom of Israel.
No wonder, then, that there were feasts of rejoicing and full-throated
cries:
"Damascus has fallen! Long live King Jeroboam!"
"Damascus has fallen! Long life to the house of Jehu!"
All day and all night Samaria swarmed with people. The streets were
thronged with shouting men and women who had come from Geba and
Dothan, and even from Jezreel on the north, and from Schechem and
Shiloh and Bethel on the south, to help celebrate the great victory.
Sacrifices were brought at all the sanctuaries of Israel--in Bethel,
in Dan, in Gilgal, in Beersheba.
Priests and people brought thank-offerings, and, together, sang
praises to God:
"God is my light and my salvation,
Whom shall I fear?
God is the strength of my life,
Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Truly, God was on the side of Israel, or else the Syrians could not
have been defeated. He was showing favor to the Northern Kingdom, and
was pleased with Israel, for was not Judah, the Southern Kingdom, too,
paying tribute to Jeroboam?
And so they recalled how Joash, the father of the great Jeroboam II,
defeated Amaziah, king of Judah, took him captive, partially
demolished the walls of Jerusalem, and looted the Temple in Jerusalem.
The older men of Samaria remembered the fine sarcasm with which Joash
treated Amaziah's challenge to war, in his reply:
"The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in
Lebanon, saying, 'Give thy daughter to my son to wife,' and there
passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod down the
thistle."
How young and old laughed at the repetition of this clever little
story that compared Israel to a cedar in its strength and to a wild
beast in its fighting power, and Judah to a poor, little thistle to be
tramped upon!
Jeroboam II was indeed a son of his father. Joash humbled Judah,
Israel's enemy on the south; Jeroboam humbled Syria, Israel's enemy on
the north.
Not satisfied with the fall of Damascus, however, Jeroboam pushed
right ahead and captured Lodebar and Karnaim, which he turned over to
Assur-dan, king of Assyria.
The fact is that Jeroboam had to do this. It was his end of a bargain
made with Assur-dan. It was agreed between the two that the Assyrians
would keep their hands off during the war between Israel and Syria.
As a reward for Assur-dan's non-interference, Jeroboam undertook to
capture these two cities and turn them over to the Syrians to become
part of his empire.
Having fulfilled his agreement, Jeroboam continued his victorious
march further north, and never stopped until he had laid low the pride
of Hamath, the prosperous city on the river Orontes.
Jeroboam II, thus had the great distinction of restoring the
boundaries of the Kingdom of Israel to the proportions of the empire
of David and Solomon, "from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of
Arabah," which is the Dead Sea.
Wonderful was the reception prepared for the king and his victorious
army on their return to Samaria. More people had come to the city to
join in the welcoming demonstration than had pilgrimed to Jerusalem on
the Passover, in the days before the division of the kingdom.
The northern walls were massed with people, and the gates were
decorated with flowers. Priests and elders, dressed in spotless white
and led by the high priest, Amaziah, himself, awaited Jeroboam and his
generals just outside of the city and preceded them to the gates. Such
an acclamation of joy as greeted the king upon his entrance through
the gates had never been heard in Samaria.
Passing through a triumphal arch of stone and marble, the procession
was met by hundreds of maidens and children, clothed in linen and
gold, who led the way, singing and strewing flowers in the path of
the heroes.
A turn in the street led to the market-place. Here had been built a
great triumphal arch of ivory and gold, beyond which was an altar,
specially erected for the occasion.
Passing through the arch, Amaziah and Jeroboam mounted the steps that
led to the altar. All the rest remained below. When the priest and the
king faced the people the singing and the shouting ceased. With due
ceremony, and according to the rites, the king brought a thanks-offering
to God for his victories and his safe return. When Amaziah placed the
sacrifice upon the altar a deep hush fell over the great assembly.
Slowly the smoke of the sacrifice rose to heaven, and the multitude of
people, like one man, fell on their knees and worshiped.
Jeroboam was deeply moved. Solemnly he raised his right hand, and,
from the depths of his grateful heart, he said:
"Peace to the house of Israel!"
Like the rumble of a mighty wave rolling toward the shore came the
response from the sea of worshiping people:
"To the house of Israel, peace!"
For one whole week after Jeroboam's triumphant entry into the capital,
Samaria was a place of feasting and rejoicing. When, by command of the
king, the celebration came to an end and the people began to return to
their homes, each one, on leaving the city's gates, repeated to
himself the now answered prayer of over a century:
"Peace to the house of Israel!
To the house of Israel, peace!"
CHAPTER II.
_In the Days of Prosperity._
It was market day in Samaria.
Great throngs of people crowded all the streets. They jostled each
other good naturedly, traded, bargained, renewed acquaintanceship,
spoke of their home towns and expressed the hope of meeting again.
The market place itself, where the many bazaars displayed wonderful
merchandise from many cities and many lands, was an especially lively
place. It was gay with life and color. Gilded chariots and ivory-bedecked
litters passed to and fro. Heralds announced particularly important
personages and escorts and cleared a way for them with whip or spear.
Military men and merchant princes, with many followers, often
scattered the smaller merchants and petty traders in their path
through the market. Many were caught under the wheels of the vehicles
of the rich when they did not get out of the way quickly enough.
Others were purposely thrust aside by the wealthy aristocrats simply
to show their disdain.
It was a typical Samarian market day--crowds and noise; buying and
selling; idle rich and drudging poor; haughty military grandees, in
their resplendent attires, and cowed, miserable beggars in their rags;
color and laughter at the bazaars, and tears and sorrow at the auction
block just across the way--always crowds and always noise.
The auctioneer was shouting above the general din the good points of a
man who had just been placed on the block.
"To be sold till the Jubilee Year," he cried. "How much am I bid?"
A clerk read the court's decree that this man was to be sold for debt.
It was signed by the judges, who sat in the East Gate of Samaria. The
document was a cold, formal statement. It did not take into account
the reason why this man, in the full vigor of manhood, had fallen into
debt. His creditors had pushed the poor fellow hard for their money.
He could not pay. He pleaded with the judges that the sickness of his
wife and children had reduced him to direst need, but it was without
avail. He could not pay his debts and must work them off as a slave
for seven years; that was the decree of the court. After seven years
he would be a free man again. Cases like this were very common.
The keen eye of the auctioneer noted a man at the far edge of the
platform who had made several attempts as if to bid during the sale.
He was a middle-aged man, tall and thin, but wiry. His face was
bronzed from exposure to sun and wind. He wore a long woolen mantel
that completely covered him, even to the sandals on his feet.
"How much am I bid?" The auctioneer spoke the question directly to
this country yokel, while he winked at the crowd in front of him. He
thought that the fellow who came to the market clad in such clothes,
instead of his Sabbath best, had little money with him to buy a slave,
and less use for one. So he spoke the question again to the "farmer,"
expecting an answer that would make the crowd laugh and put them in
good humor.
The country yokel again made as if to speak but changed his mind and
backed away, facing the auctioneer.
He had hardly backed three paces when he bumped into some one. He was
pushed violently forward, and, before he could recover, winced under a
stinging crack from a whip.
He turned quickly and faced two brutish looking men, swearing at his
awkwardness and cursing his impudence for being in the way.
The "farmer" could have given a good account of himself in a square
fight with these men, but he knew better than to start a fight with
them. They were the foreguards to a splendid pleasure outfit--the
outfit of a very rich Samarian merchant. A fight meant arrest and
punishment at the hands of Samarian judges, whether he was in the
right or not. The rich of Samaria had the judges under their thumbs. A
stranger or a poor man, in fact, anyone who had no influence in
Samaria, stood little chance of getting justice.
So the farmer cleared the way. Standing aside, he watched the chariot
drawn by four Egyptian steeds, surrounded by guards, slaves and
hangers-on, make its way through the crowded market place, paying no
attention to the rights and privileges of any one. The wealthy
merchant in the chariot held his head up proudly. He greeted only the
prosperous looking; upon the curious crowds and small merchants, he
looked down with contempt.
The merchant whose attendants had so grossly insulted the "farmer"
drew up before a great palace. Rich carpets were spread from the
chariot to the steps of the mansion. The rich man's followers bowed
low as he passed up the steps and through the door held open by
attendants. Some followed him into the house; others mingled with the
people in the market place; the slaves went to their quarters by a
rear entrance.
The stranger in the woolen robe was not as green as he looked. He had
witnessed the growth and prosperity of Samaria during the last twenty
years of Jeroboam II's reign until it became the busiest trade center
in the Empire.
Leaning against the stone column, on which was graven the record of
Jeroboam's victory over Damascus, and still smarting from the lash of
the servant's whip, he recalled the story of Samaria's great strides
to its present prosperous condition.
The subjugation of Judah on the south, which this farmer had good
cause to remember; the conquest of Syria on the north and Jeroboam's
peace compact with Assyria further east, assured a long period of
peaceful development within the empire.
New highways were built, so that the farther ends of the country were
brought close together for business purposes. Farmers could bring
their crops to the cities easily. Many remained in the cities and
engaged in business pursuits. Caravans traveled great distances,
bringing precious luxuries from one part of the empire to another, and
even from foreign countries.
Many thus became very wealthy. They built themselves palaces for
winter residences in the cities and palaces for summer residences in
the country. To get rich seemed to be the aim of everybody; and, with
riches, came ostentation and luxuriant living.
The city of Samaria, especially, was the center for Israel's most
wealthy men. Their homes were wonders of stone and ivory. The
furnishings rivaled in beauty the splendor of the outside. The rooms
were high and spacious. The beds and tables and chairs were of the
finest wood of Lebanon, carved by the craftsmen of Tyre, and inlaid
with ivory. The coverings were of the richest purple and gold from
Egypt and the Indies. Wine cellars were a part of every house and
feasts were spread whenever the occasion offered itself. Fatted lambs
and calves were slaughtered daily to supply the tables, and new
instruments were invented to furnish music at the feasts.
This, however, was only one side of the picture of Samaria in its days
of greatest prosperity. The "farmer" knew that there was another, much
less beautiful. While the rich were growing richer, the poor were
growing poorer.
The rich, thinking only of themselves, their wealth, their power,
their good times, cheated and oppressed the poor unmercifully. They
gave false weights and short measure and sold at high prices, poor
stuff at that. They would drive a poor man into debt and have him sold
into slavery; so that human beings became a drug on the market, as it
were. In fact, at the very auction which the "farmer" watched that
day, one poor man was sold for the price of a pair of shoes. The poor
had even no chance to get justice in the courts. The greed for money
placed corrupt officials in office and the offenders bribed them to
the undoing of the poor and needy.
Strange to say, the Israelites, in whose midst there were those who
lived such scandalous lives and treated the poor people so
outrageously--the Israelites--nevertheless, believed in their hearts
that they had not forgotten God. They believed that God was with them;
that He loved them above all other peoples; that He guarded and
protected them; that He sent them all their blessings of prosperity
and peace.
This is the way they reasoned it out: Had not God helped them to
defeat Judah? Had not God been with them when they crushed their
ancient foe, Syria? Did not God send them rain in season, so that
crops were good and plentiful?
"Therefore," said they, "God is on our side. Let us go up to the
sanctuaries and offer sacrifices upon His altars."
And so, at festival times, Bethel and Gilgal, and Dan and Beersheba
were crowded with the rich, offering their sacrifices, feasting,
drinking and rejoicing. It never entered their minds that God is the
God of the poor, as well as of the rich. Though they continued to rob
and oppress and enslave the poor and the needy and the helpless, they
were perfectly satisfied with the idea that all God asked of them was
to offer the prescribed sacrifices. If there were any who knew
differently, or thought differently, they seemingly did not dare say
so in anybody's hearing. For the poor, these were, indeed, evil times.
At this point in his musings, the "farmer" actually shuddered. He was
not aware that his peculiar dress and his peculiar position at the
moment had attracted attention. While he was contrasting in his mind
the great difference between the rich and the poor in Samaria, several
men, having nothing better to do, had stopped to stare at the yokel.
As is always the case when people stand in the street and gawk, a
large crowd soon assembled. A military chariot stopped near the group
of curious gazers to see what was going on. Soon several others were
halted there, including gilded and gaudy litters, in which fashionably
dressed women were being conveyed. All stared, called each other's
attention to the queerly garbed stranger, and finally laughed
outright.
The man who was the center of attraction became aware of the crowd
only when he had reached that point in his thoughts, the horrible
picture of which had made him shudder. When he noticed the crowd, he
gasped. He recovered from his astonishment quickly, however. He opened
his mantle, showing his gaunt, powerful form. He raised his head and
faced the crowd. His face, strong and sunburned, was tense and drawn
for a moment; then it relaxed. Deep lines, expressing severe pain,
were furrowed in his forehead.
The crowd, in turn, was astonished at the complete change that had
come over the "yokel." Before they recovered from their mistaken
opinion about the man, they saw him clinch his fists in determination
and heard his voice ring out clearly and distinctly, above the din of
the market place:
"Hear ye,
Who turn justice to wormwood
And cast down righteousness to the earth;
Who trample upon the poor
And afflict the just;
Who take a bribe
And thrust aside the needy in the gate:
I know how manifold are your transgressions,
Saith the Lord, God of hosts,
And how mighty your sins,
The end of my people Israel hath come,
Saith the Lord, God of hosts,
I can no longer forgive."
This outspoken attack upon Samaria, its rich, and its military nobles,
was so extraordinary that it amazed the crowd. Having spoken, the
"farmer" turned away and was soon lost among the bazaars. Some looked
after him, astonished at his recklessness in laying himself open to
the revenge of the powers that be. Others looked after him, amazed at
his bravery and fearlessness.
That night many in Samaria had heard of the unknown stranger and his
speech in the market place. At many dinner tables the question was
asked:
"Who is this man who dares to lift his voice against the high and
powerful in behalf of the poor and downtrodden?"
"Who is this man who dares to proclaim the doom of the Kingdom of
Israel in the days of its greatest prosperity?"
CHAPTER III.
_The Man Who Dared._
There lived a man in the little town of Tekoah, in the Kingdom of
Judah, twelve miles south of Jerusalem, who made a living from
"dressing sycamore trees."
In ancient Palestine, the fruit of the sycamore that grew in Judah was
dried, ground into flour and used for making coarse bread. This bread
was eaten by the very poorest people, who could not afford to buy
wheat.
Now, the man who lived from gathering poor fruit, out of which poor
bread was made, for poor people, must, himself, have been very poor.
But a poor man may love his country as much as a rich man; and, when
the foolish war between Amaziah of Judah and Joash of Israel broke
out, this "dresser of sycamore trees," from Tekoah, followed his king
on the battlefield.
At the battle in which Amaziah was defeated and Joash gained his
greatest victory, leading to the destruction of part of the
fortifications of Jerusalem, this man, fighting valiantly in the front
ranks, with many other patriotic Judeans, laid down his life for his
country. He was buried in the trenches, an unknown hero, whose name is
not even in the records.
But history gives us the record of his son, named Amos. Left with his
widowed mother, after the war, the burden of finding a living for the
two was soon thrust upon him. There was only one thing that he knew by
which he could earn money--"dressing sycamore trees."
He went at his work with a vim. As he grew up, and his and his
mother's needs increased, his wits became sharpened. Why could he not
dry and grind the sycamore fruit himself? This he did and increased
his income. Then, his mother suggested that she would bake the flour
into bread, if he would sell it. Amos agreed to that, and the little
family thrived.
One day Amos brought the idea to his mother that their sycamore bread
could be sold at a better price in Jerusalem. He asked for permission
to go there and his mother, desiring more that her son should see the
capital than that he should get higher prices for the bread, said:
"Go, my son, and God be with thee."
That trip to Jerusalem and the several trips that followed, made a
great impression upon the young man and gave a remarkable turn to his
whole life.
He saw Jerusalem, of whose beauty and glory his father had often told
him, a fallen city. It had not yet recovered from the terrible results
of the war with Amaziah of Israel; King Uzziah had not yet restored
the treasures and vessels of which the temples had been looted; and,
in the quarter of the city where Amos sold his bread, oh! such
poverty, such wretchedness, such desolation!
His heart was filled with grief. He went to the trenches where he knew
his father lay in an unmarked grave, and wept bitterly. There, at his
father's grave, a wonderful thought came to him. A new light entered
into his life and a great determination for his future career. His
mind once made up, he soon outlined a plan for himself, and having the
determination to carry the plan through, he made rapid progress.
With the additional profits that resulted from his business trips to
Jerusalem, Amos bought sheep and goats and became a shepherd, as well
as a gatherer of sycamore fruit.
The great rocky wilderness that slopes from the limestone hills of
Tekoah down to the Dead Sea was just the place where sheep and goats
could prosper.
So, in addition to the thriving business of his old trade, he dealt,
also, in goat milk and wool and in the animals themselves.
Often, as he sat on the hillsides, in the cool of the sycamores, and
watched his flocks, his mind would turn to the things he saw and heard
in Jerusalem. He had heard there that Bethel, one of the sanctuaries
of Israel, was always filled with pilgrims at festival time--and he
determined upon a trip to Bethel, twenty-two miles north of Tekoah.
He returned greatly disheartened.
"Wealth and feasting saw I there," Amos told his mother, "and wine and
song, and altars reeking with blood of fatted lambs and oxen; but God
was not in the heart of the people of Israel."
His mother chided him gently. To say such things was blasphemy; for
sacrifices were demanded of all the people by the religious laws of
the state; and it was also commanded that a portion of the sacrifice
should be consumed by him who brought it--therefore the feasting. As
to the song and wine, did not the Sweet Singer say, "Serve the Lord
with gladness?"
Amos did not reply. He knew that his good-hearted mother had given
expression to the idea of God's worship as all the people, both of
Israel and of Judah, at that time, understood it. They brought the
sacrifices, as prescribed by the priests at the sanctuaries; a portion
of the slaughtered animal was given to God on the altar, and the
portion that was eaten by the sacrificer was looked upon as a meal--a
banquet--participated in by him and God, together; such a meal soon
became a feast, with wine and song. Unfortunately, these banquets
often degenerated into drunkenness and revelry.
Amos felt that such worship of God was not right, but he had not yet
discovered what was wrong.
When the period of prosperity opened up for Israel, with Jeroboam II's
conquest of Damascus, Judah also felt the good times. Amos, now an
experienced master herdsman, took the advantage afforded by the peace
and improved business conditions. He traveled with his stock-in-trade
to far northern markets, to Samaria, to Damascus, to Hamath, and, from
there his caravans wended their way east, even as far as the City
Asshur, the capital of Assyria.
He was not a mere trader, however. He was a close observer and a
student of men and things wherever he led his caravans. He talked with
strangers about other lands which he had not visited and became,
therefore, well acquainted with political, religious and social
conditions everywhere.
All this made no change in the outward circumstances of Amos. Success
did not turn his head. He did not build himself a palace, but remained
with his mother in the village of Tekoah, where he was born and
raised. He did not indulge himself with fine clothes and high living,
but continued to dress simply and live plainly.
His mother was often greatly worried about Amos. When he returned from
a far northern and eastern trip he would betake himself to his beloved
hills and sycamore groves and flocks. He would work with the most
lowly of his sycamore fruit gatherers; but he would often spend hours
by himself in the woods or in the wilderness.
It was during these lonesome hours that Amos added high thinking to
his simple living. The grandeur of Samaria and the wealth he saw
displayed in Bethel did not deceive him. Neither did the peace compact
between Jeroboam II and Assur-dan III blind him to the exact state of
affairs in the relationship between the two countries.
He knew that Tiglath-Pileser III, the successor of Assur-dan, had
crushed all rebellions in Assyria, which Assur-dan III had failed to
do, and was reorganizing the army of the great empire. He knew that
Damascus, which had been weakened by Jeroboam II beyond hope of
recovery, would be the first point of conquest for the young and
energetic Pul, as Tiglath-Pileser was called. Next before him, to the
south, lay the rich Kingdom of Israel, the booty from whose palaces
and sanctuaries would be an enormous prize for the Assyrian emperor
and his army. After Damascus, must come Samaria!
In other words, Amos saw distinctly that the time was near when Israel
would have to fight again for its independence and its very life; and
he asked himself, "Is Israel prepared?"
Clearly it was not. The rich had become unfit for war, because of
their luxuriant living. The poor had become unfit for war, because of
their oppression by the rich. Should the Assyrians invade the land,
how could such a nation of weaklings defend its home and its liberty?
Israel must be warned! It must be awakened from its stupidity to a
realization of the danger ahead! The rich must cease their extravagances
and become manly men again! The poor must be given their rights, must
be treated justly and righteously, that they may become manly men
again! Only a nation of moral, upright, God-fearing men can hope for
victory! If the Assyrians should defeat and crush Israel, it will be
God's punishment visited upon Israel for its sins and crimes.
Amos had often discussed these things with his mother. She was not
surprised, therefore, when, one day, upon his return from a long trip
into Assyria, Amos said to her, "I am called to the cities of Israel.
My mission will be prolonged many days."
The good woman knew and understood. Laying her hands upon his head,
she repeated the blessing with which she had blessed him when, as a
timid young man, he made his first trip to Jerusalem:
"Go, my son, and God be with thee."
And so it was that Amos, the herdsmen of Tekoah, had dared to speak
for the poor people in Samaria, and to prophesy the fall of the
Kingdom.
His first speech attracted little attention, but others, in various
parts of the country, to the same effect, followed. Many laughed at
them; few thought seriously about them.
But Amos was not so easily discouraged. He concluded that the wrong
idea the people had about God, how to worship Him and what He demanded
of them, was the cause of all the evil. Amos, therefore, selected the
sanctuaries during festival season as the place where he must do his
preaching.
He went especially to Bethel, the king's sanctuary, where Jeroboam
brought his sacrifices and where the great nobles and soldiers and
richest merchants gathered and reveled in their feasts.
One day Amos broke in upon a reveling group, with the unexpected call:
"Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!"
Such a call was, indeed, unexpected. The Israelites, assembled at the
sanctuary, offering their sacrifices, believed that they were
_with_ their God. Some one told Amos as much, and the crowd
jeered at the fool, who evidently did not understand his religion.
This laughter ceased suddenly, however, when Amos began to chant a
mournful dirge:
"Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you,
O house of Israel!
Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel!
Cast down upon her soil she lies,
There is none to raise her up.
The city that taketh the field with a thousand,
Hath but a hundred left;
And the one that taketh the field with a hundred,
Hath but ten left."
A young officer, who felt that the army, the pride of the Kingdom, had
been grossly insulted, rushed forth from the crowd and exclaimed,
hotly: "Thou art a false prophet! Prophesy no more."
Then he continued, explaining to Amos and to the crowd, that God could
not have sent such a message to the house of Israel. God was with
them, he said, and was gracious to them. Israel was stronger, mightier
than ever before and Israel was, that very day, at Bethel, at Gilgal,
at Beersheba, bringing thanks-offerings to God.
Amos stood stolidly by and listened until the young man had finished.
Then he replied:
"Thus saith God to the house of Israel:
Ye that oppress the poor and crush the needy,
That trample upon the just and cause the poor of the land to fail,
Seek _Me_ and live,
But seek not Bethel,
And Gilgal do not enter,
To Beersheba go not over;
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity
And Bethel shall come to naught.
Seek God and not evil
That ye may live
And so God, the Lord of hosts,
May be with you, as you say.
Hate evil and love good,
And establish justice in the gate.
Perhaps God will be gracious,
The God of hosts, to a remnant of Joseph."
The young officer shook his head in disgust and walked away. Others,
however, remained awhile, meditating upon what Amos had said.
Amos, too, when he went his way, felt that his words had made an
impression. He thought they had fallen, like seeds, upon fertile soil.
Would these seeds take root? Would they grow and flourish? Would they
bear fruit when the crisis for Israel came?
But first a crisis for Amos came, when he had to fight for his life.
CHAPTER IV.
_Treason and a Fight._
For some time, now, Amos had been preaching his new and formerly
unheard-of ideas, to the effect that God prefers rather that man be
just to his fellowmen than that he offer sacrifices; that Israel had
become weakened because of its indulgence in luxuriant living, on the
one hand, and because of the oppression and ill treatment of the poor
and needy, on the other; that God would be with the people against
their enemies only when the people turned away from their idolatrous
worship and sought God, by doing good and hating evil.
And he had been rewarded with laughter and jeers and derision on the
part of the people he tried to save!
Any other man would have given up long ago; not so Amos. His rebuffs,
however, made him somber and morose.
In his great address at Bethel he held out the hope to Israel that God
might forgive His people for their crimes and sins if they began to
lead godly lives. His continued failure to impress the people with
this message, however, finally led him to the belief that God would
measure out the severest justice to Israel, in accordance with their
sins, and without mercy.
Amos had become a well-known figure at all the sanctuaries. Most of
the people thought him to be one of those wandering dervishes, known
as "Sons of the Prophets," who made their living by a kind of fortune
telling, or forecasting the future, as did Samuel in the early days
when he told Saul where the lost asses were; only, that Amos was one
of the Sons of the Prophets run mad, judging from the way he talked
and the strange things he said.
This did not trouble Amos. What worried him was the fact that the
people would not listen to his addresses.
So, in the year 745, he journeyed again to Bethel, where a great
festival was to be celebrated. He was determined that the people
should hear. He was well prepared, too. Instead of beginning with a
condemnation of Israel, he used new tactics:
"Thus saith God," he began. "For three transgressions of Damascus,
yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof."
That was interesting. We always like to hear about the punishments
that others will receive for their misdeeds, even if we close our ears
to those that threaten us.
And, as for Damascus, she was Israel's ancient foe, and the listeners
rather liked the idea that God was to visit her with destruction.
When Amos had recounted the sins of Damascus and announced that "the
people of Syria shall go into captivity into Kir," there was loud
applause.
Some cried, "Let the Prophet speak!"
Amos continued. He mentioned the sins for which God would punish Gaza,
Tyre, Idumia, Ammon, Moab, and each period was greeted with volleys of
applause.
Amos paused for a moment. He swallowed a lump that had risen in his
throat and lowered his voice. He spoke, sadly and regretfully:
"Thus saith God,
For three transgressions of Judah,
Yea, for four, I will not revoke its punishment.
Because they reject God's law,
And do not keep His statutes;
Because their lies have caused them to err,
(The lies) After which their fathers did walk.
Therefore, I will send a fire upon Judah
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem."
Poor, weak little Judah! The Prophet was declaring the doom of his own
country! It was a thing to laugh at! And how they did laugh!
But it was no laughing matter for Amos. His heart was wrung with woe
from his own people. He waited for the uproar to subside, and then
went on to the very point which he had come to make:
"Thus saith God,
For three transgressions of Israel,
Yea, for four, I will not revoke its punishment.
Because they sell the righteous for money,
And the needy for a pair of shoes;
Who trample on the head of the poor,
And turn aside the way of the humble.
Upon garments taken in pledge they stretch themselves beside
every altar,
And the wine of those who have been fined they drink in the house
of their God."
Jeers and threatening cries were hurled at Amos from all directions,
but he stood his ground.
With the art of a master orator he won back his displeased audience.
Passionately he poured forth the story of Israel and its relationship
to God--a story he knew so well--and brought the people back to
breathless attention. He recounted the wonders God had done with and
for Israel from the days when He brought them out of Egypt, poor,
miserable slaves, until this day of their wealth and glory.
Here someone stepped out from the crowd and took up the argument for
the people. If all this beautiful story is true, he claimed, then God
may punish and destroy all the nations that Amos had mentioned; but
Israel, to whom God had shown special favors, even up to this day, God
will not destroy.
Quick as a flash the Prophet answered:
"Are ye not as the Cushites to me,
O children of Israel? saith God.
Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt
And the Philistines from Caphtor
And the Syrians from Kir?
(But) you, especially, have I known of all the races of the earth,
Therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.
Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
And I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
An adversary shall surround the land,
And shall strip from thee thy strength;
And thy palaces shall be plundered.
Verily, I am now raising up against you
O house of Israel, a nation,
And they shall oppress you
From the entrance of Hamath
Even to the brook of the Arabah,
Saith the Lord, God of hosts."
"Treason! Treason!" rose up the cry from the several army men who had
been listening.
"Treason! Treason!" was shouted immediately from many directions.
The army officers who had raised the cry now rushed toward Amos,
threatening him with bodily harm.
"Treason! Treason!" was echoed by most of the crowd. Hundreds now
surged forward and things looked bad for the Prophet.
To meet this danger, Amos brought into play all the strength and power
that he had stored up during his shepherding days. Out in the
wilderness near Tekoah he had often fought with robbers who had stolen
his sheep, and, like David, even with wild beasts that had stolen his
lambs.
Prepared just for this kind of an emergency, keen of eye and alert of
mind, he met the leaders as they came on.
Unfortunately for Amos, there was nothing that could afford him
protection from the rear. He could meet any number that might attack
him face to face; but while he was guarding in front someone might
strike him in the back--and he was surrounded by the mob.
"Traitor! Traitor!" they shouted.
His blood boiled with anger. He, a traitor! He, guilty of treason!
Why, he was the only man who saw the danger of his people and had
ventured to warn them!
"Seek God and ye shall live!" kept flashing through his mind. But this
was no time for preaching, not even for thinking. It was time for
action.
And act he did!
The weak, undergrown army officers were like men of straw before Amos
and he disposed of them as easily. With the speed of lightning he
turned face, fearing an attack from the rear. There, however, the
people had not awakened to what was going on.
Facing front again, he saw that the army officers had not yet
recovered from his blows. They were sprawled on the ground before him
and a few of the people were laughing at their discomfiture.
Amos had no desire to continue the fight and started to help the
officers up; but, at that moment, he felt two pairs of hands lay hold
of his mantle at the neck.
A sudden turn, a quick stretching of his brawny arms, like a swimmer
making for speed, and the two men, merchants, clad in their holiday
finery, were pushed to either side into the crowd.
Now, as soon as the bystanders saw with what ease Amos was handling
his opponents, they began to laugh and take sides. A crowd always does
that. Some urged Amos to go on fighting; others urged the sprawling
victims to attack.
Amos, however, was not there to fight, nor did his opponents fancy a
good beating at his hands. In the meantime a small group of the king's
guard came up, post haste, and began to disperse the crowd.
The crowd scattered, but gathered again in various streets, in small
groups, discussing the unusual occurrences of the day.
They spoke, in whispers, overawed by the fearlessness of the
Prophet--some by his ability in self-defense; some by the force
of his speeches.
In the palaces of the rich and mighty, gathered in Bethel at that
time, Amos--what he said and what he did--was the topic of
conversation no less than he was in the streets, only in one of these
palaces was hatched a clever scheme for the Prophet's undoing.
CHAPTER V.
_Priest Against Prophet._
That very night the most prominent people in Israel--military and
civilian--assembled at Bethel, and decided that something must be done
to get rid of the Prophet. They considered Amos crazy, and, therefore,
dangerous. A little group of leaders gathered in the house of one of
the merchant princes of Samaria to adopt a definite plan of action.
The High Priest, Amaziah, was called into consultation. He saw the
seriousness of the matter, as they all did. Such preaching must
be stopped!
"This man," spoke one of the priests, "is destroying the worship of
God in Israel. If we are no longer to bring sacrifices on God's chosen
altars, wherewith shall we worship him? Besides," he added very
pointedly, "without sacrifices the income of the priesthood will be
ruined, and the sons of Aaron will be reduced from their high and holy
office to beggary."
"Nay, this is not the worst," began another priest, who did not think
so much of his income from the sacrifices as the former speaker. "The
sons of Aaron can work, as do other men."
"What is more serious," he continued, "is, that this Prophet proclaims
all other people as equal in the sight of God with Israel; that God
has performed wonders for them, as for us. I fear," he concluded
solemnly and with bowed head, "that if such teaching will continue,
Israel will lose faith in its God."
A captain of the host sprang to his feet. "You priests," he said,
savagely, "worry about many minor things. This man is telling the
people that God, Himself, is raising up a powerful nation to destroy
our great empire. He is filling our peaceful people with dread and
fear of the imagined enemy and will disturb the peace of our country."
"Yea," cried a wealthy merchant, "and its business prosperity."
"All of which," added another merchant and slave dealer, "is, as our
friend has said," looking at the captain, "simply imagination. The
actual danger lies in his arousing the common people. He tells the
poor that they are not getting their rights; that they are not being
judged honestly; that the weak and the needy ought to be protected and
helped--by us, by us! As if we have anything to do with them! I tell
you that it is here the danger lurks. If this crazy Prophet is not
silenced immediately, the merchant and military classes will face open
rebellion on the part of the common horde."
The last speaker seemed to have said the final word on the subject.
All were silent, their eyes turned toward Amaziah. The aged priest had
not yet ventured an opinion; but he had been thinking deeply on what
was said by the others. He agreed, for the most part, with the
speakers who had preceded him; but he counseled caution and delay.
"Perhaps, now that the Prophet has seen opposition," Amaziah
concluded, "he will quit and go home to Judah."
But Amos did not quit, nor did he go home. The fight, that morning,
was a mere incident, to be forgotten; but his mission to his people
burned deep in his soul, a flame that could not be quenched.
On the day of the conclusion of the great festival, Amos again
appeared in the sanctuary. This time it did not take long for a crowd
to gather. In fact, most of the people were looking for him to appear.
Even the richest and most exclusive, who usually are not interested in
such men, had heard about Amos and had come to see and hear him,
expecting something unusual to occur.
Amos did not waste any time. Without preparatory remarks, he gave
voice to his warning call:
"Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!"
Hardly had the words left the Prophet's lips, when a man stepped forward
from the crowd, and facing Amos with threatening fists, exclaimed:
"Hold thy peace! Thou art a false Prophet. Who hath sent thee
to prophesy?"
Here was a challenge to Amos. Who, indeed, had appointed him a
Prophet? Who had set him up to judge the people's wrongdoing? Who had
commanded him to declare Israel's doom? What entitled him to speak in
the name of God?
This challenge, however, was just what Amos was looking for. He had
wanted a number of times to correct the mistaken idea the people had
of him.
There were, in the land, the long-established Schools of Prophets.
These schools were under the protection of the king. At the head of
each was a leader, like Samuel, Elijah and Elisha of the olden days.
The leader was called "The Seer" and his pupils "Sons of the Prophets."
Now, the Seers and Sons of the Prophets, with the exception of such
strong and powerful characters as the three great men mentioned,
usually did the bidding of the king and his officers, and prophesied
to please them.
Amos was not a member of any of these established schools. He was a
free lance--in truth, the first of the independent Prophets, who cried
out against the evils of their day and who, fearlessly and without
favor, laid the blame where it belonged--on king, on priest, and
on people.
Amos, therefore, grasped this opportunity to set himself aright. He
answered his questioner with a series of beautiful similes:
"Do two walk together unless they be agreed?
Does a lion roar in the forest when there is no prey for him?
Does a young lion cry out in his den unless he has taken something?
Can a trumpet be blown in a city and the people not tremble?
Can calamity befall a city and God hath not sent it?
Surely, the Lord doeth nothing,
Unless He revealeth His purpose to His servants, the Prophets.
The lion hath roared; who does not fear?
The Lord God hath spoken; who can but prophesy?"
God, then, it was, not the head of a School of Prophets, or a king, or
a priest, who had sent Amos to prophesy! He, himself, had no desire to
speak these terrible things he was saying to his people. A force over
which he had no control--God, had impelled him to his task. It was the
still, small voice of which Elijah spoke. Though his heart bled, while
delivering the message, Amos could not help himself. God had commanded
him; he had but to obey!
Before the challenger could continue the argument, there was a
disturbance on the outskirts of the crowd. A murmur arose and all
craned their necks to see what was going on. The crowd opened, forming
a wide aisle, through which there advanced a tall, majestic figure,
with flowing robe and gray beard.
"The High Priest!"
"Amaziah!"
"The High Priest!"
The people whispered to each other and an expectant silence followed,
as the venerable priest walked through the row of bowed heads, toward
the sanctuary. He stopped in front of Amos and looked at him
curiously.
Amaziah was an old man, but as erect as a cedar in Lebanon. He was
dressed in an ephod, the holy garment of his office. The robe was of
fine twined linen, with threads of blue, scarlet and purple, embroidered
in gold. Two shoulder pieces, fastened to the shoulders of the ephod
with cords of "wreathed gold," came down the front of the garment to
just above the girdle, where they were fastened with two golden rings.
Held by these cords above, and by blue ribbons through the golden
rings below, was the breastplate, the insignia of the High Priest. On
the front of the breastplate, in gold settings, were twelve precious
stones, four rows of three stones each, on each of which was engraved
the name of one of the tribes of Israel. A mitre on his head completed
the High Priest's holy vestments.
Thus brilliantly arrayed, "for glory and for beauty," Amaziah made a
great contrast to the simply clad shepherd, robed in his woolen
mantle, as they faced each other.
The splendor of Amaziah, his age and his authority, the tension caused
by the struggle that was imminent between the Priest and the Prophet,
overawed the assembly. There was a deep silence, like the calm before
a heavy downpour.
Amos, cool and collected, always prepared for an emergency, bowed low
to Amaziah out of respect to his gray head. Amaziah, who was equally
prepared for an emergency, smiled at Amos, kindly, in greeting.
Amos, of course, did not know that Amaziah was working out a plan that
had been outlined previous to his starting for the sanctuary. Only
those who were in the Priest's confidence knew that he had sent a
message to King Jeroboam, when it was reported that a crowd had
gathered about Amos and that the Prophet would, no doubt, deliver
another address. The message to Jeroboam read:
"Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house
of Israel; the land is not able to bear his words. For thus
hath Amos said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel
shall surely be led away captive out of his land.'"
The messenger proceeded, post haste, to the palace of the king, and
Amaziah, quietly and with dignity, went to the sanctuary.
Hardly had Amos lifted his head from his low salute, when Amaziah
addressed him:
"O seer! Go, flee away to the land of Judah, and there eat
bread, and prophesy there; but prophesy not again any more
in Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the
royal residence."
How the Priest misunderstood the Prophet! Just because Bethel was the
king's sanctuary and the royal residence and the seat of all the
mighty in the land of Israel, Amos had selected it, above all other
places, to preach his message there.
But Amaziah's little speech contained something more important to Amos
than this. Amaziah had addressed the Prophet as "seer," he had taken
him for the leader of a "School of Prophets." Amos immediately
disclaimed such a questionable distinction. He answered Amaziah:
"I am no Prophet, nor am I the son of a Prophet; but I was a
herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, when God took me
from following the flock and God said to me, 'Go, prophesy
against My people Israel.'"
Entirely unprepared for such an answer, and not quite certain whether
he understood what Amos meant by his claim that he had taken his
orders direct from God, Amaziah was disconcerted. Amos did not give
the Priest a chance to recover from his surprise and continued:
"Now, therefore, hear thou the word of God: 'Thou sayest,
"Prophesy not against Israel, nor preach against the house
of Isaac."' Therefore, thus saith God, 'Thy sons and thy
daughters shall fall by the sword and thy land shall be
divided by line; and thou shall die upon an unclean soil,
and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of this land.'"
The fearlessness of the Prophet in attacking the High Priest dismayed
Amaziah and his followers greatly. The crowd, too, by its acclamations,
was evidently siding with Amos. Amaziah was, therefore, placed on the
defensive. In broken and halting sentences he defended himself and the
people. The ancient laws of Israel, he pointed out, were being adhered
to by all Israelites. He, for one, was not afraid, even if the Day of
God, the judgment day, should come to-morrow.
Now, a man like Amaziah might not fear the strict judgment which, Amos
said, God was to visit upon Israel; but, how about those who were
guilty of the crimes of which God, through the Prophet, was accusing
Israel? Amos understood this, though Amaziah did not. The Prophet was
speaking to all the people and not to one man in particular.
Therefore, he continued:
"Woe unto those that desire the Day of God!
Wherefore would ye have the Day of God?
It is darkness and not light.
It is when one flees from a lion,
And a bear meets him;
Or goes into a house and leans his hand upon a wall,
And a serpent bites him.
Shall not the Day of God be darkness and not light,
Yea, murky darkness, without a ray of light?"
That is why, retorted the High Priest, the people come to Bethel and
Gilgal and the other sanctuaries. They bring their sacrifices to God,
that He may forgive their sins, against the coming of the Day of God,
when all the guilty shall be judged and punished.
Amos did not interrupt Amaziah because he was an old man, and Amos
knew what courtesy was due the aged. But when the Priest had finished,
the Prophet, with fine sarcasm, showed the uselessness and selfishness
of the whole artificial scheme as practiced at the sanctuaries:
"Come to Bethel and transgress,
At Gilgal increase your transgressions,
And bring in the morning your sacrifices,
And every third day your tithes!
Burn some leaven bread as a thanks-offering,
And proclaim aloud the voluntary offerings,
For you love to do so, O Israelites!"
The sarcastic smile, however, suddenly faded from the speaker's lips,
as he asked:
"Did ye bring me sacrifices and meal-offerings in the wilderness,
forty years, O House of Israel?"
Then, with the power and fervor of the God-inspired man he was, Amos
denounced bitterly the whole system of worshiping God by means of
sacrifices, and delivered a message, new to his hearers, relating to
what God really expected from Israel:
"I hate, I despise your feasts,
And I will take no delight in your festivals;
With your meal-offerings I will not be pleased,
And the peace-offerings of your fattlings I will not regard
with favor.
Banish from me the noise of your songs;
To the melody of your viols I will not listen.
But let justice roll down as waters,
And righteousness as a never-failing stream."
These concluding sentences literally stunned the crowd. Priest and
people gasped at the Prophet's proclamation that God did not command
the sacrifices at Sinai and did not care for them, but that, instead,
He demanded justice and righteousness on the part of His people. The
Prophet had upset all their ideas and traditions regarding their
religious forms and practices, and he claimed God for his authority!
No one can tell just what might have happened, there and then, had not
a company of the royal guard, in answer to Amaziah's note to the king,
rushed upon the crowd and dispersed it "in the name of the king."
"In the name of the king," also, the leader of a small detachment of
the guard made his way to Amos and placed him under arrest. Amos might
have been successful in getting away, had he resisted; but, being a
law-abiding man, he submitted to the authorities, and, long before the
scattered crowd was aware of what had happened to the Prophet, he was
whirled away in a chariot to the palace of the king.
CHAPTER VI.
_The Prophet in Tekoah._
King Jeroboam II was now an old man. The vehemence and determination
and aggressiveness that had made him a far-famed conqueror had been
mellowed by the years and rarely, if ever, showed themselves.
The note he received from Amaziah regarding Amos, however, awoke the
old spirit in him. The dispatch of the section of the royal guard with
orders for the Prophet's immediate arrest was in line with the way
Jeroboam did things during the days when he personally led his armies.
But instead of having Amos put in chains and thrown into a dungeon,
Jeroboam had him brought into his presence. The king wanted to see and
speak to the man who, according to Amaziah, had conspired against him
and the God of Israel and was proclaiming the doom of his dynasty.
Amos, who had never seen the king face to face, who had never even
been inside any of the royal palaces, was, nevertheless, calm and cool
as usual. The splendor of the throne room and the crowd of officers
and counselors did not in the least affright him. He made a low
obeisance to his king and waited for the order to rise.
Jeroboam was a much keener man than Amaziah. When he saw Amos, studied
his bearing, the seriousness of his face, the simplicity of his garb,
he recognized at once that before him stood an uncommon man.
Amos neither smiled the smirky smile of him who is anxious to get into
the king's good graces, nor did he tremble like a coward, who, being
caught, feared the king. He waited for Jeroboam to speak.
From the messenger who brought Amaziah's note the king had learned
something about Amos and about the things he was telling the people.
Having supposed the Prophet to be either a traitor or a madman, but
judging him now to be neither one nor the other, Jeroboam now was
puzzled as to the manner in which to speak to him.
Jeroboam looked quizzically at Amos for a few moments and began:
"Thou, then, art the Prophet?"
"I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees," Amos replied.
"But thou speakest evil against the king and against the house of
Israel," exclaimed Jeroboam.
"The Lord God hath commanded me," answered Amos, with deep humility.
"Thou art a traitor and thou shalt die," threatened the king.
"I can but speak," calmly replied Amos, "even if thou slay me."
Jeroboam made the threat to take the Prophet's life in order to test
him. He figured that it would send Amos groveling to his knees,
begging for mercy. The quiet manner in which he accepted the threat
however, puzzled the king. He concluded that Amos must be either
exceedingly brave or hopelessly crazy.
Now, a man who is not afraid to die, be he brave or crazy, is a very
dangerous man to have around. It would have been easy enough to behead
Amos and be done with him, but Jeroboam was not a king who took his
subjects' lives ruthlessly--especially when it was so simple to get
rid of an undesirable one in another way.
"Then go to thy flocks and sycamores," commanded Jeroboam, "and speak
to them."
The king's humorous sally called forth a great shout of laughter from
those who were present. Jeroboam, smiling, waved his hand, indicating
that the interview was over. The guard closed around Amos and he was
led into an outer hall. After a short wait he was informed that, by
command of the king, he must leave Bethel on that very day and never
set foot in the Kingdom of Israel again.
Had Jeroboam himself been a wicked man like King Ahab, Amos, no doubt,
would have disregarded the threat against his life and would have
confronted the king in his palace, as Elijah confronted Ahab in
Naboth's vineyard. Jeroboam, as ruler, however, did not oppress or
mistreat the people. Being an old man, resting on the laurels of his
great victories and knowing from his friends and counselors and the
size of the royal treasury that his empire was rich and the people
peaceful, Jeroboam probably had no idea of the corruption and
injustice that was rampant in the land. He would have laughed at the
thought of it.
Besides, and this was the important thing with Amos, it would have
been folly for him to sacrifice his life at this time. To die a martyr
for a cause is a noble and beautiful thing--if martyrdom will in any
way advance this cause. To have confronted Jeroboam or to have
remained in Bethel would have meant certain death--and, to die then
would have meant an end to the crusade that he was just beginning
against the oppression of the poor, the denial of justice, the
unrighteousness in business dealings and the misunderstanding of God
and His worship: it would have meant an end to his set purpose to warn
Israel against Assyria, the enemy approaching from the North, and
against the inability to meet this enemy, because of the immorality
that was weakening the nation.
He had plenty of time to think this over as he wended his way
mournfully out of the busy and joyful thoroughfares of Bethel to his
quiet, though beloved Tekoah.
Amos found to his great joy that he did not now stand alone. Many who
had heard him, had understood him. When the news that he had been
driven out of Israel spread, many followed him to Judah and
accompanied him to his home in Tekoah.
As was always the case with Amos in a crisis, he thought quickly and
arrived at a new plan of action speedily. On his way to Tekoah he
selected from among his followers men who could write--scribes--and
confided to them that from now on he must confine all his wealth to
the spreading of his ideas throughout the empire by means of the
written word.
After all, God had willed it that he should be driven back to Tekoah.
Amos, as a speaker, could address a crowd only in one place at one
time. In listening to a speech, too, much of what the speaker says is
lost to his hearers. Therefore, Amos concluded, God had willed it that
he should return to Tekoah, write out his speeches and his warnings,
send them to the farthest ends of the land that all the people may
read and study and understand in order that they may return speedily
to God; seek good and not evil, that the nation may live.
By day, he and his followers tended the flocks and gathered the fruit
of sycamore trees. All the products that were sent to market were sold
by honest weight and measure and at honest prices.
By night, he and his scribes wrote out the speeches that he had
delivered in Israel, and especially in Bethel, added new ones and sent
them with trusted messengers to all parts of Judah and Israel.
Amos was thus probably the first prophet who wrote down his speeches.
What we have of them, however, are only fragments. There is not one
speech complete as it was originally written or delivered. The
fragments are collected in the Biblical book, called "Amos." Through
this book the name of the humble herdsmen of Tekoah is written large
in the history of religion.
It was Amos who first conceived of God as the God, not of Israel
alone, but of all peoples:
"Are you not as the Ethiopians to me,
O Israel? saith God.
Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt,
And the Philistines from Caphtor,
And the Syrians from Kir?"
It was Amos who first appeared as the public champion of the poor and
downtrodden, who publicly denounced the greed of the rich and the
corruption of the men in power:
"For I know how manifold are your transgressions,
And how mighty are your sins--
Ye, that trample upon the poor,
That afflict the just, that take a bribe,
And that turn away the needy in the gate."
It was Amos who first cried out against the mistaken idea that animal
sacrifices were what God asked of His people:
"Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and meal-offerings
In the wilderness, forty years, O house of Israel?"
It was Amos who first brought forward the great and universal truth
that God judges every human being, no matter what the race or color,
according to his or her acts:
"Seek good and not evil,
That ye may live;
Seek God and ye shall live."
It was Amos who first made clear, that God demands of men, above all
things, justice and righteousness:
"Let justice roll down as a flood of water,
And righteousness like a never-failing stream."
We do not know definitely what became of Amos.
One tradition has it that he came to Jerusalem and, while he was
denouncing Uzziah, king of Judah, Uzziah struck him on the forehead
with a piece of glowing iron. As a result of the blow, Amos died while
preaching in the hope of saving his people in Jerusalem, as his father
died while fighting in defense of Jerusalem, in the hope of saving
his country.
The probabilities are, however, that Amos lived peacefully with his
disciples among his sycamore trees near Tekoah, until he had completed
the writing of his speeches and saw to their distribution all over
Israel, believing that there was yet time for the people of Israel to
return to God and to save the nation from the calamity that was
threatening it.
THE MAN WHO LEARNED HIS LESSON
CHAPTER I.
_An Eventful Night._
Whenever Jezreel was sent early to bed, although he had been a good
boy during the day, and, in addition, when his little sister and
brother were ordered to go with him, he knew the evening would be
another one of those that made his little heart ache.
Jezreel was only ten years old, but he was sharp and keen for his age.
He understood that his parents wanted him out of reach and sound.
Twice before, on similar occasions, after he had recited his night
prayer and the maid-servant had tucked him in his bed, he lay with his
eyes closed tight but wide awake, listening.
He knew that what he was doing was wrong, but he could not sleep. He
heard his father and mother talking to each other loudly, but could
not make out just what they were saying. Their voices, however, he
felt, were not soft and sweet, as they usually were, when they
addressed the children.
On this particular evening, as he went out of the dining-room with
Lo-ruhamah, his seven-year-old sister, and Lo-ammi, his four-year-old
brother, Jezreel made up his mind to do a very unusual thing. He
determined not to sleep at all.
That afternoon, his father, Hosea, had returned from Bethel all out of
sorts. The children had been expecting him, as they always did, when
he came home from the sanctuary, to bring the usual little gifts; but
the father seemed to have forgotten them. In fact, Hosea was quite
irritated when, not understanding his father's mood, Lo-ammi cried for
the expected sweets or trinkets.
In a little while, however, Hosea, calmed his youngest son and
promised all three of the children that, in the morning, he would take
them to the bazaars in the market place, to buy what they pleased.
Just then their mother, Gomer, came in. She was a beautiful woman,
dressed in the latest fashions of the wealthy Samarians. Her robes
were long and flowing. A veil, woven of golden threads and imported
from Assyria, set off her jet-black hair. Her arms and fingers were
adorned with jewel-studded bracelets and rings. She was accompanied by
an Ethiopian slave.
Strange to say, the children did not rush to their mother, except
little Lo-ammi, who was fond of the jeweled things she wore.
Gomer, on the other hand, did not seem to feel hurt that the children
clung to their father and quite ignored her. After a formal greeting
to her husband, and a pat of Lo-ammi's head, Gomer retired to her own
room.
A little later the evening meal was announced, and, immediately after
they had eaten, Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah and the baby were told to go to
bed.
Their attendant, satisfied that the three children were fast asleep,
left the room and went about her business. Thereupon Jezreel got out
of bed, moved a chair near to the door, sat down and listened.
Below he heard his father's and mother's voices. Words were spoken in
a high, shrill tone, loud and harsh, but indistinct. There were short
periods of silence, followed by explosive sentences that sounded like
threats. If he could only understand what it was all about! But he
couldn't, until, finally all was silent in the room below.
Then Jezreel heard the street door close with a bang.
Going to the window that looked out into the street, Jezreel saw his
mother standing alone in front of the house. It was an unusually
moonlit night. Samaria, a beautiful city in the daytime, was a very
dark and gloomy place at night, except when the moon and stars reigned
in their glory in clear skies. This happened to be just such a night.
The yellow moon was reflected from the red-tiled housetops. In the
distance were the famous Samarian houses of stone and marble, dark and
foreboding against the moonlight. Above all the houses towered the
royal palace--in which Zechariah, Jeroboam II's son, had been king
since his father died, six months before--with its bright, gilded
domes, like a sentinel wearing a brass helmet.
But the little boy, in his night clothes, looking out of the window of
his room into the moonlit and shadowed street, saw only his mother
standing there below.
His attention was called suddenly away from the window by loud
sobbing. He hurried to the door, but did not dare open it. He listened
until the sobbing ceased. Then he returned to the window, to find the
street empty and deserted. His mother had evidently gone away.
He shivered. He folded his arms tightly, as if hugging himself to keep
warm. Then he brought his chair from the door to the table, sat down
and listened. In the room below he heard his father walking up and
down with regular step. The house was completely silent but for
Hosea's footfalls.
Jezreel drew his legs up under him on the chair. He was tired and
rested his head upon his arms on the table. The silence and the
monotony of the regular heavy walking in the room under him, made him
drowsy. His little heart ached, though he could not explain why. He
tried hard to keep awake, but finally fell asleep, there at the table.
At one time he shivered, when the street door of the house shut again
with a bang; but he did not wake up.
Below, a great big, powerful man had been keeping up a continuous
march up and down the room. He was brooding over the events that had
just preceded and thinking over the years of his married life.
When Hosea first met Gomer, she lived in her father's home in one of
the poorest sections of Samaria. Diblaim, Gomer's father, was a poor
man and could not give his daughter the advantages other girls in
Samaria enjoyed. But Hosea loved Gomer most devotedly and he married
her.
Son of the priest Beeri, Hosea inherited great wealth and a position
among the priests at the Bethel sanctuary. He was thus able to give
Gomer not only a beautiful home in one of the city's most beautiful
suburbs, but also to introduce her to the royal and social leaders
of Samaria.
After a few years, however, everything seemed to go wrong in the Hosea
household. Gomer developed a weakness for luxury and jewels and fine
clothes; she used to be away from the house and the children most of
the time; she did not understand her husband, his desire for quiet
evenings at home with the children and his dislike of the pomp and
display at the court and in society. And that night, Hosea and Gomer
parted, Gomer going home to her father.
Hosea felt very much oppressed. Walking up and down the room brought
him no relief. So he rushed out of the house into the night, into the
open, where he could breathe more freely--and think. It was the bang
of the door behind him that disturbed Jezreel, asleep at the table.
But Hosea's brain was all clogged up. It could not dwell upon a single
line of thought for five consecutive minutes. And yet he was so
thoroughly absorbed in his thoughts, that he did not notice any number
of people excitedly hurrying past him.
He walked on toward the center of the city in a daze. The first time
he realized that he was not alone on the streets of Samaria was when
he found himself being jostled in a wide thoroughfare leading to the
market place.
Then he was awakened out of the stupor in which he had left his home
by cries, coming from several directions:
"Shallum!"
"Long live the king!"
"Long life to Shallum!"
Shallum? Who was Shallum? Why was the name being shouted in the
streets of Samaria?
Hosea, trying to find his bearings, was asking himself these questions
when he arrived in the market place.
There an unusual and most unexpected sight met him. The place was
filled with people. Troops were fighting in front of the royal palace.
From the palace, which was brightly illuminated, soldiers and plain
citizens were pouring forth in a stream. Above the shrieking of men
and women and the clang of contending arms, he heard enthusiastic
shouts:
"King Zechariah is dead! Long live King Shallum!"
What? Zechariah dead!
In a flash the whole situation was made clear to Hosea. Now he recalled
that down at Bethel, the king's sanctuary, someone had spoken to him of
a movement that was on foot to depose the king.
Hosea knew that Zechariah was unlike his great father, Jeroboam II,
whom he succeeded in the year 742 B. C. E. The new king was a
weakling. Upon his accession to the throne, Syria refused to pay the
annual tribute, revolted, and Zechariah could not help himself. The
wealth of the people, the luxury they lived in, the disorganization of
the army by corruption, the oppression of the poor, the injustices
practiced in business and in the courts of law, had unfitted Israel to
wage war against Syria, or any other nation, for that matter.
Zechariah, in the six months that he ruled Samaria, therefore, lost
all that had been gained by his illustrious father. Hosea, however,
did not look for an insurrection in Samaria.
But here it was: Zechariah was dead and Shallum--yes, Shallum, the son
of Jabesh, the one mentioned to Hosea as the probable successor--had
been proclaimed king. When Shallum was spoken of, down at Bethel,
Hosea had paid no particular attention. He was occupied with his own
family troubles then, as he was in the presence of this history-making
event. The threatened revolution was the farthest thought from his
mind, at that time as it was at this moment.
Therefore, before Hosea had grasped the full significance of either of
the two events that had occurred that night, he was jostled into a
side street by the mob that now filled the market place.
Sick at heart, Hosea did not stop to see the bloodshed and the horror,
nor to listen to the story of the revolt, but walked on to the outskirts
of the city.
His head swam from the excitement. His temples pounded like sledge
hammers. As he walked on, his feet grew heavy and dragged. Just how he
got there Hosea did not know, but suddenly he found himself in front
of his own home.
The day was now dawning. The first rays of the sun were shooting their
way through the early morning mist and playing on the bedewed stones
of the house. Hosea entered quietly, and walked up to the children's
bed room. To his amazement he found Jezreel asleep on his arms at
the table.
As he gazed for a moment upon the children, Hosea's heart was wrung
with sorrow. He picked Jezreel up from the chair. The boy, asleep,
clung tightly about his father's neck. Hosea laid him in his bed,
covered him, kissed him and, with bowed head, went to his own room.
And while little Jezreel was dreaming that a great giant came to his
home, picked up the house and shook it, carried it away to a beautiful
valley and brought back his mother, Hosea sat at the window and
watched and watched, until the morning's duties called him.
CHAPTER II.
_The Tragedy With a Purpose._
King Shallum soon discovered that a stolen throne is no sweeter than
any other stolen thing. A palace is no more protection against
conscience than a hovel; and Shallum passed miserable days of fear and
nights of sleeplessness, because of his murder of Zechariah.
Smitten by his conscience and tortured in mind, Shallum was not able
to collect a large force of followers to protect him or his ill-gotten
throne. When, therefore, a plot was set on foot to dethrone him,
Shallum was helpless.
Menahem, the son of Gadi, one of Jeroboam II's generals, organized an
expedition against the usurper in Tirzah, the city that was the
capital of Israel for fifty years after the Kingdom of Solomon was
divided. Within a month after Shallum had proclaimed himself King of
Israel, Menahem marched from Tirzah to Samaria, attacked Shallum,
defeated him, and, in turn, mounted the throne of Jeroboam.
Instead of ruling peaceably in Samaria, however, Menahem started a
reign of terror, until nobody in the country seemed safe in his home
or in his possessions.
Trouble came for the new king thick and fast.
Tiglath-Pileser III, who had been ruling in Assyria since 745, and
against whom Amos had warned the weakened Kingdom of Israel, had
accomplished many conquests north of Israel, in Phoenicia and in the
frontier lands of Damascus.
In the year 738, Tiglath-Pileser was knocking at the gates of Damascus
and threatening Samaria. In order to keep the Assyrian conqueror off,
and save their countries the spoliation and ruin that followed in the
wake of the Assyrian armies, Menahem, together with Rezin, King of
Damascus, the Kings of Tyre, Hamath, and other small states, agreed to
pay him tribute.
Menahem's share was the enormous sum of one thousand talents of
silver. To raise this amount, he levied a tax of fifty silver shekels
each on "all the mighty men of wealth," both priests and merchants, in
the kingdom.
Now, the lawlessness started by Shallum and the anarchy continued by
Menahem had had their effect. The great sum of money needed for
Tiglath-Pileser was raised by "all the mighty men of wealth;" but it
was ground out of the poor by cheating, robbery and even murder.
The conditions against which the Prophet Amos cried out were now
apparent to all observers. The final overthrow of the kingdom, which
Amos declared to be but a matter of time, was now evident to all
patriotic lovers of their country.
These conditions were clear as the light of day, especially to Hosea.
Being a priest himself, he knew how the very priests at the
sanctuaries had entered upon secret understandings with rebel
associates of Menahem and the wealthy merchants to raise the Assyrian
tribute at the expense of the people. Being a lover of his fatherland,
he knew that these sins and crimes against God and men must react upon
the nation as a whole and rush it on to destruction.
Hosea, like Amos, therefore, felt himself called upon by God to warn
his people, and, if possible, to save his country. He could no longer
stand aside and see rulers, priests and "all the mighty men of wealth"
despoiling his well-beloved fatherland. He must speak words of reproach
and warning. He must open the eyes of his people to the calamity that
was ahead of them.
One night Hosea was at home brooding over his own family troubles and
thinking of the future of his country. He had just seen the children
to bed and his mind was dwelling on Gomer, their mother, from whom he
had not heard a single word since she went away. As he came downstairs
he heard shouting and screaming and hurrying footsteps. Going into the
street, he learned that another of those attacks on peaceful people
had been made by a company of Menahem's followers for the purpose of
robbery.
This did not surprise Hosea in the least. What did chagrin and pain
him was the discovery that the attacking party was under the direction
of several priests whom, he knew personally.
All that night this phrase kept running through his mind--"Like people,
like priest." And, strange to say, the thought of Gomer, his wife, whom
he loved devotedly, whom he never ceased loving, kept on intruding
itself into his thoughts about his country.
By morning, however, the whole situation had cleared up for him.
Israel, its rulers and priests were like Gomer. God loved the whole
people of Israel devotedly as Hosea loved Gomer, but Israel does not
always understand what God desires of His people any more than Gomer
understood what Hosea desired of her. If Gomer had continued loving
her husband, as from the beginning, she would never have left him; if
Israel had continued loving God, as from the beginning, Israel would
never have strayed away from His law and commandments. What is to be
done? Israel lacks knowledge of God and His will! Israel is being
taught falsehoods by priests and prophets! Israel does not understand
God's loving-kindness toward His people! Israel must be warned! Israel
must be taught!
Hosea had determined what to do. His unhappiness at the departure of
his wife was somewhat lightened now, because he read God's mission to
him in the tragedy of his home. He felt himself ordained to be a
preacher to Israel--and he went to work.
From that day on he traveled the wide land over, preaching to the
people against the corrupt priesthood and against the usurpers of the
throne of Samaria.
"Hear the word of God, ye children of Israel,
For God hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land,
For there is no truth, nor loving-kindness,
Nor knowledge of God in the land;
There is naught but perjury and lying,
Murder and stealing,
Violence and bloodshed.
Therefore doth the land mourn,
And all its inhabitants languish.
"Yet, let none bring charges,
And let none reprove,
Since my people are but as their priestlings.
My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because thou has rejected knowledge
I will also reject thee,
That thou shalt be no priest to me.
Since thou hast forgotten the instruction of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
I will change their glory into shame,
And it shall be, like people, like priest.
The people that doth not understand shall be overthrown!"
Hosea naturally, met opposition everywhere on the part of the priesthood
and the hirelings of the king. Undaunted, he rebuked Menahem and the
usurping rulers in Samaria, as well as the priests and the unrighteous
people.
"Hear this, O ye priests!
And hearken, O house of Israel,
And give heed, O house of the king,
Since for you is the judgment.
They themselves have made kings, without my consent;
They have made princes, but without my knowledge.
For they commit falsehood;
The thief entereth in and the troop of robbers ravageth without.
And they consider not in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness."
Then, his heart aching with pain, and remembering the sorrow of his
life, which led him to prophesy, he concludes:
"What shall I do unto you, O Ephraim!
What shall I do unto you, O Israel--
Since your love is like a morning cloud,
Yea, like the dew which goes early away."
But the people as a whole, having been taught by the unworthy prients,
still believed that, in offering sacrifices, all their sins and crimes
were forgiven them by God. Amos had objected strenuously to this
common belief. Hosea went a step further and decried the act of
sacrificing as an act of idolatry.
Referring bitterly to Bethel as Bethaven (the House of Violence)
Hosea replied:
"Come not ye into Gilgal,
Neither go ye up to Beth-aven,
Nor swear, 'As God liveth.'
In Bethel I have seen a horrible thing;
All their wickedness is in Gilgal;
For there I hated them.
Because of the wickedness of their doings,
I will drive them out of my house;
I will love them no more.
They shall go with their flocks
And with their herds to seek God;
But they shall not find Him;
He hath withdrawn Himself from them."
Every place where Hosea denounced the sacrifices, the people who heard
him, but could not or would not understand, called him a fool and said
that he was mad. "Yes," replied Hosea:
"The prophet is a fool,
The man that hath the spirit is mad
Because of the abundance of thine iniquity.
They shall cry unto me,
'My God, we Israel know Thee.'
(But) Israel hath cast off that which is good;
Israel hath forgotten his Maker.
And now they go on sinning,
They make for themselves molten gods,
From their silver, idols according to their own model,
Smith's work, all of it!
To such they speak!
Men who sacrifice, kiss calves!
They sow the wind and shall reap the whirlwind!"
After that Hosea followed up his rebuke and denunciation with most
pathetic entreaties:
"Sow to yourselves righteousness,
So shall ye reap loving-kindness.
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord,
That the fruit of righteousness may come upon you.
But ye have plowed wickedness,
Ye have reaped disaster,
Ye have eaten the fruit of lies.
It is love I delight in, and not sacrifice,
Knowledge of God and not burnt-offering."
When the time came for Menahem to send the tribute to Tiglath-Pileser,
Hosea discovered that even here the king and his advisers were
double-dealing with Assyria. The sending of the money to the great
emperor was only a blind on the part of Menahem.
Secretly he was in communication with the King of Egypt, sending
precious gifts to him. Menahem wanted to create an alliance between
Israel and Egypt against Tiglath-Pileser.
Hosea saw the folly of it all. He knew that neither the tribute to
Assyria nor the proposed alliance with Egypt could help the corrupt,
degraded people. He compares Menahem's double-dealing to the action of
a silly dove, and concludes:
"Samaria shall bear her guilt,
For she has rebelled against her God.
Shall I deliver them from the power of Sheol?
Shall I redeem them from death?
Come, on with thy plagues, O Death!
On with thy pestilence, O Sheol!
Repentance is forever hid from mine eyes."
This terrible pronouncement, almost a curse, brought Hosea back to his
home all wrought up. Never had he spoken so harshly. Never had he felt
so deeply the doom of Israel.
He found his children in the playroom, playing an old game called
"Mother." After watching them for a moment in silence and in thought,
his heart was almost crushed by a question his little girl put to him:
"When is our real mother coming home?"
For answer he drew Lo-ruhamah close to his heart--and wept. Hosea did
not know; only God knew.
All the love he bore for Gomer came back in an overwhelming flood. She
had strayed from him, but his love had never lessened. Would that he
could find her! With all her faults he would forgive her, if she would
repent and return. And yet, that morning, he had been so harsh. He
preached that Israel must bear its guilt and that God had forever hid
repentance from before Him.
If he, a man, could love so deeply and could be willing to forgive,
how much the more so does God love His people; how much the more so
will God have compassion and forgive, if Israel will repent and return
to Him?
And that very night it seemed that God had ordained an ordeal for
Hosea to test him and inspire him in his further work as a prophet.
A message was brought to Hosea that his wife, Gomer, was to be sold as a
slave at public auction, in the slave market of Samaria, on the morrow!
CHAPTER III.
_The Repentant Returns._
With a bowed head, though with a stout heart, Hosea went to the market
place on the following morning. He mingled with the people in the
vicinity of the slave auction district, watching particularly a certain
block, on which, he was told, Gomer was to be offered for sale.
He studied carefully every woman that was put upon the block. At last
he recognized her. But how changed she seemed. Her beauty, for which
she had been famous, was gone. Her straight erect form was stooped.
Her eyes, once proud, were cast down. She had a forlorn, hopeless
look, as if she didn't care what happened to her. Evidently she had
suffered greatly.
Where had she been during the past four years? What hardships had she
been through that she was so changed? Why did she fall so low that she
had to be sold into slavery?
The answers to these questions would have made no difference in the
plan Hosea had determined to follow with Gomer. Standing on the
outskirts of the crowd, he raised bid after bid, until he bought her
for "fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley and a half-homer
of barley."
Gomer was not at all concerned about the one who had purchased her.
She did not take a single glance in the direction of those who were
bidding for her. When sold, she stepped wearily down from the block
and waited listlessly to be claimed by the owner and taken away.
Hosea approached her, stepped to her side and spoke her name in a low
voice: "Gomer!"
She raised her eyes and looked at him as through a haze. Hosea, too,
had changed much during the past four years. His love for Gomer, the
uncertainty of her whereabouts, his grief, his constant preaching to
Israel that fell on deaf ears, had made deep furrows in his face and
brought wrinkles to his forehead.
"Come with me," he said softly to her.
For a moment Gomer stared at him; then she fell in a dead faint at
his feet.
It was a long time before she revived. Sorrow and repentance for her
foolishness in leaving a home where her husband loved her and where
her children would have worshiped her, had she permitted them to do
so, had sapped all her strength. The sudden shock of seeing Hosea and
the knowledge that he had bought her as a slave nearly killed her.
But Hosea had no thought of revenge. In his great heart there was
naught but love for Gomer.
On their way home Gomer began:
"I regret," she said, "I am sorry--"
But Hosea stopped her. He would not even listen to words of explanation
from her whom he loved. He knew that she must have suffered much, that
she was unhappy. It was sufficient now that she was sorry, that she
had repented. Hosea did not want to cause her the pain of a recital of
her sorrows.
That is the way people who love truly do. They forgive and forget,
quickly and without causing pain.
Hosea had the children removed to the home of a friend for several
months. During that time Gomer quickly recovered from her trials and
returned to health and beauty. Then he brought the children back and
restored them to their real mother.
Once, after the reunited family had spent a very happy evening, a
tremendous truth came home to Hosea. Here they were all happy, as if
trouble had never entered to disturb the sweetness and beauty of their
lives! Why had sorrow and suffering come upon them at all?
Then and there Hosea realized that there was a purpose in his home
tragedy. He understood better than ever before that God had selected
him to be a prophet to his people; that God had taught him through
sorrow and suffering, the lesson he was to teach to Israel.
Israel had become faithless to God and had left His law; even as Gomer
had left her husband. God grieved for the sins of Israel; even as he
had grieved for Gomer who had strayed from him. God loved His people,
nevertheless; even as he loved Gomer, continually. God was prepared to
take Israel back under His guiding and loving care, when Israel would
repent of its backsliding and sinning; even as he did with Gomer.
From that day on Hosea's preaching took on a different form. He no
longer scolded and condemned, but entreated and pleaded with his
people:
"Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God,
For thou hast stumbled through thine iniquity.
Take words with thee
And return to God.
Say to Him,
'Pardon Thou wholly iniquity
And receive (us) with favor.
Assyria will not save us,
We will not ride upon horses (to Egypt);
We will no more say to the work of our hands,
"Ye are our god."'"
And, in the fervor of his poetic soul, the prophet hears God's answer
to repenting and returning Israel:
"I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
For my anger is turned away from them.
I will be as dew to Israel;
He shall blossom as the lily
And strike his roots deep as Lebanon.
His saplings shall spread out,
And his beauty shall be as the olive tree.
They shall return and dwell in my shadow,
They shall live well-watered like a garden,
They shall flourish like a vine,
Their renown shall be like that of the wine of Lebanon."
But such hopefulness and promise of divine love had no more effect
upon the doomed people than did the attacks upon their sinfulness and
wrongdoing.
The Judean prophet, Amos, it will be remembered, drew a picture of God
as a stern judge and Israel as the criminal. Israel is proved guilty
of all the prophet's accusations, and the Judge pronounces sentence.
The experiences that led the Samarian, Hosea, to prophesy were
different than those of the Tekoan. Understanding the lasting love
that dwelt within him for Gomer, and how he yearned for her return to
him, he cried out to his people, from the depths of a wounded heart,
speaking through the inspiration of a loving and merciful God:
"O my people!
How can I give thee up, O Ephraim!
How can I surrender thee, O Israel!
How can I give thee up as Admah!
Or make thee as Zeboim!
My heart asserts itself:
My sympathies are all aglow.
I will not carry into effect the fierceness of my anger;
I will not turn to destroy Ephraim.
For God am I, and not man,
Holy in the midst of thee;
Therefore I will not utterly consume.
Turn thou to thy God,
Keep kindness and justice,
And wait for thy God continually."
Although Hosea saw that he was laboring to no good effect, he did not
for an instant give up. Time and again he recalled the early days of
love and devotion between God and Israel. He recounted the times when
Israel deserted God, from the Exodus on, but God always received
Israel back, when the people repented of their sins and returned to
acts of justice, righteousness and love.
"I am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt;
Thou knowest no God but Me,
And besides Me there is no Savior."
Hosea could not conceive the idea that God would desert Israel
forever. He recognized, however, that the doom of the sinful nation
was sealed. And so he read the drama of Israel in his own life.
Assyria would destroy Samaria. Israel would leave the fatherland as
Gomer left her home. In exile Israel would learn through suffering and
hardships as Gomer had done. Israel would redeem itself and,
eventually, would return to God. God, loving Israel always, would wait
to receive His repentant people, as he himself had received Gomer.
And so Hosea drew a beautiful picture of that future day in these
words:
"And I will betroth thee unto me forever.
Yea, I will betroth thee unto me with righteousness,
And with justice and with loving-kindness and in mercy;
Yea, I will betroth thee unto me with faithfulness,
And thou shalt know God."
* * * * *
The compiler of the fragments of Hosea's speeches in the book bearing
the prophet's name--the most fragmentary book in the Bible, and from
which this story has been built up--concludes his labors with
this admonition:
"Whoso is wise, let him understand these things;
Whoso is prudent, let him realize them;
For straight are the ways of the Lord.
The righteous walk in them,
But transgressors stumble upon them."
THE STATESMAN PROPHET
CHAPTER I.
_The Vision in the Temple._
Even his closest friends could not explain what had come over young
Isaiah, since the physicians announced that King Uzziah was nearing
his end.
Amoz, Isaiah's father, was of a noble family, very near the throne in
Jerusalem, and a dear personal friend of the king. Isaiah, too, was a
prime favorite of Uzziah's, not by virtue of his father's friendship
for the king, but because of his own fine qualities and excellent
disposition.
Often Isaiah had been invited, with the Crown Prince, Jotham, to be
present at the Great Councils of State--a very distinguished honor for
so young a man. But no one thought, for an instant, that this change
in manner and behavior, so noticeable to everyone, had come upon
Isaiah because of his grief over the aged king's fatal illness.
Isaiah was being trained to enter upon a political career. His
politics was the only serious thing in life for him. The country was
so peaceful and prosperous, however, that even politics was a matter
of little consequence to most of the royalty in Jerusalem. They lived
the joyous life, paid little attention to the Temple and its priests,
and often laughed at the whole religious ritual. But when great State
functions occurred at the Palace or foreign ambassadors appeared at
Court, all royalty celebrated with feasting--and Isaiah was among
those present and in high favor.
He always came to these occasions in rare good humor and with cheerful
enthusiasm. He was a young man of many accomplishments. His knowledge
of affairs was wide and extensive. His cleverness and wit had made him
famed far and wide. His occasional poems, written for sport and
festivals, showed a genuine talent, almost a genius, for the poetic
art. He was considered by all the very life and spirit of the younger
Court set. A great future as a statesman and man of letters was
predicted for him by everybody.
Now, however, since King Uzziah became so critically ill that his life
was despaired of, this unexplainable change took place in Isaiah. He
seemed to have quarreled with Prince Jotham, who had been reigning as
king since Uzziah was smitten beyond hope of recovery, though both
laughed at the rumor and denied it.
What proved the greatest surprise to all, was the fact that Isaiah
often went to the Temple and talked earnestly with the priests. At
times he would linger about the place long after the evening
sacrifices had been offered and the priests had gone home. His jolly
friends would make sport of him; but his more sober-minded companions
became quite alarmed when, instead of displaying his usual good humor,
he spoke with bitter sarcasm. His contagious laugh began to ring
forced and hollow. He was morose and always ill at ease, as if he were
laboring under a great strain that burdened his heart and mind.
King Uzziah's death was a lingering one. For many weeks reports from
the sick chamber were to the effect that he was passing away, but he
clung to life. Jerusalem had doffed its gala attire and the whole of
Judah was prepared to go into mourning for its king. For a month or
more the nobility and the Court had not indulged in any social
functions, state or private. The Capital and the country were awaiting
the royal funeral.
Uzziah had been a great king and a good ruler. He had done much for
the whole country, and especially for the Capital. The mourning in
Jerusalem and all through Judah was, therefore, genuine and sincere,
when the king died. The pomp and ceremony that characterized the
funeral procession were not mere royal show, but expressions of honor
and deep regret of a loyal people for its beloved sovereign.
The young Isaiah was accorded an honored place in the long list of
notables who followed the body of the king to its last resting place.
He walked beside Jotham, his bosom friend; but did not accompany the
new king on the return to the palace. In the slight confusion that
followed after Uzziah had been "buried with his fathers," Isaiah
slipped quietly away and took the road to the Temple Mount.
Taking his way through the Water Gate, on the west side of the Temple,
he entered the Inner Court. Then he mounted the twelve steps leading
to the vestibule of the Temple proper. Two priests, who had just come
out of the chamber where the implements for sacrificing were kept,
bowed low to him and passed out into the Inner Court. Isaiah was
evidently so absorbed in his thoughts that he did not notice them, for
he did not return their salute, but walked forward to the entrance of
the Hekal, or Temple proper.
There he stood for a moment in silence; then he leaned wearily against
one of the entrance pillars. Behind him the Priests' Hall and the
Inner Court were deserted. Before him, in the Hekal, was the Altar of
Incense, on which coals from the recent sacrifices were still alive.
To the right of the Altar was the Menorah, the seven-light
candlestick, and to the left the table of showbread. Behind these hung
the golden curtains that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of
the Temple.
A thin line of blue and purple smoke rose from the live coals on the
Incense Altar and wound its way upward to the ceiling of the Hekal. As
Isaiah watched the rising smoke, it became thicker and thicker, and
filled the whole Temple. His eyes gazed from the Altar to the
glittering gold curtains behind it. The reflection from the coals, and
the playing of the blue and purple smoke on the golden sheets, caused
them to sheen and shimmer until they faded entirely away into the blue
and purple maze that filled the Hekal.
Isaiah was gazing right into the Holy of Holies, where no human eyes,
except those of the High Priest, once a year, ever looked, and behold!
he saw a most remarkable vision.
There, instead of the wooden Ark of the Covenant, he beheld a great
and lofty throne on which was God, Himself. Instead of the two
Cherubim of wood and gold, that surmounted the Ark, he beheld
Seraphim, the fiery Angels, standing attendant before Him. Each of the
Seraphim had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he
covered his feet and with two he flew. And one cried unto another and
said:
"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory."
Isaiah felt the very foundations of the threshold shake under him,
at the sound of the calling. Covering his face with both hands, he
cried out:
"Woe is me!
I am undone.
For I am a man of unclean lips.
And I am dwelling among a people of unclean lips;
Yet mine eyes have seen the King, the God of hosts."
Uncovering his face, he stretched out his hands towards the throne in
mute appeal. Thereupon one of the Seraphim flew to the Altar and, with
a pair of tongs, took from it a live coal. From the Altar the Seraph
flew directly to Isaiah and, touching his mouth with the live coal,
said:
"See, this has touched thy lips,
Therefore thine iniquity is gone
And thy sin forgiven."
Then Isaiah heard the voice of God Himself, saying:
"Whom shall I send,
And who will go for us?"
Falling to his knees, and again stretching out his hands towards the
throne, Isaiah answered:
"Here am I!
Send me!"
Kneeling there, motionless, hardly breathing, his lips apart, his face
expressing the fear and anguish that were in his heart, Isaiah heard
the reply:
"Go and say to this people:
Hear and hear again, but understand not;
See and see again, but perceive not.
Make fat the heart of this people,
And their ears dull, and besmear their eyes,
Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears
And their heart should understand and they be healed."
The force of this message struck Isaiah to the heart. He understood
its meaning very well. It was terrible! It carried with it the sound
of doom and the end of his nation. The very thought of it terrified
him. Holding his head with both hands his back bent forward as under a
heavy weight, until his face touched his knees upon the floor, he
cried in heartbreaking tones:
"Lord! How long?"
And God answered him:
"Until the cities are in ruin without an inhabitant,
And the houses without a human occupant,
And the land become utterly desolate,
And God hath sent the men far away,
And in the midst of the land the deserted territory be great.
And should there be a tenth in it,
It must in turn be fuel for flame,
Like the terebinth and the oak,
Of which, after falling, but a stump remains."
For a long time after the voice had ceased speaking, Isaiah remained
in the position in which he had listened to the last reply.
When, finally, in fear and trembling, he slowly raised his head, the
vision had gone! Behind him the Priests' Hall and the Inner Court were
deserted. Before him a thin line of blue and purple smoke rose from
the live coals on the Incense Altar and wound its way upward to the
ceiling of the Hekal.
Isaiah passed his hands over his eyes. For a moment he let his cool
palm rest against his burning forehead. Then he slowly found his way
out of the Temple and passed out into the silent night.
CHAPTER II.
_The Parable of the Vineyard._
The fact was that Isaiah did not grieve particularly over King
Uzziah's illness and approaching death. What troubled him was the
attitude taken by his dear friend, the Crown Prince, Jotham, toward
the political future of the Kingdom of Judah, since his sick father
had placed the reins of government in his hands.
The differences of opinion between Isaiah and Jotham, as to what was
best for the nation were so great as to be almost hopeless. So that,
even before Uzziah died the two stopped discussing problems of State,
although they continued their warm friendship.
As long as King Uzziah lived, it was plain nothing serious could
happen to the country. To the south, Uzziah was feared by the
Philistines and Arabians, whom he had subdued, and his name was
honored even at the Court of Egypt. To the north Jeroboam II was
prosperous and at peace; Syria was weak and Assyria had not yet made
its power felt. Within the extended borders of his own country, Uzziah
had established peace and had built up commercial enterprise and
prosperity.
To the average citizen of Judah, therefore, the country was all right,
the king was all right, and the future had not the slightest cloud
before it. To Isaiah, the keen-sighted and well-posted young
statesman, however, neither the country nor the king was fit to deal
with a great national crisis--and the future had one in store.
When Uzziah became sick and abdicated, quietly, in favor of Jotham,
then a young man of twenty-five, Isaiah began to call Jotham's
attention to the internal social conditions of the country; but Jotham
had such a high respect for his father's ruling power that he would
not alter a single law nor make a single reform.
When Isaiah attempted to drum into Jotham's head the causes of the
reign of anarchy in Samaria and the lessons to be drawn therefrom for
Judah, Jotham, desiring to show his power as a ruler while his father
was yet alive, busied himself fighting with the Ammonites and
extending the boundaries of his kingdom.
When, finally, in the year 788 B. C. E., the news came to Jerusalem
that King Menahem, of Israel, had sent a heavy tribute to the Assyrian
Tiglath-Pileser, Isaiah's worries over the future of his own country
became very acute.
It was in this year Uzziah died; and it was on the day of the king's
funeral that Isaiah saw the remarkable vision in the Temple.
Up to that hour Isaiah was conscious only of the fact that something
must be done in Judah to save it from the evils of injustice and
unrighteousness that were being practiced by the rich and powerful
upon the poor and weak. From that hour on he knew that God had called
him to be His prophet, that God had selected him to bring the truth
home to the Judeans and, if possible, to save the nation from the doom
that awaited the sister-nation, Israel.
What Isaiah saw and heard in the Temple at the close of that memorable
day, gave him the germ of an idea as to what God demanded of him to
do. Time, thought and experience ripened that idea into a plan. The
course of events offered him the opportunity to put the plan into
action.
Isaiah could not count on Jotham to institute and carry out reforms in
the religious beliefs and practices of the people, in their commercial
wrongdoings, in the corrupt law courts and in the general oppression
of the lower classes. He had to begin work on his own initiative; and
he began it with the people themselves, in the City of Jerusalem.
He came to the Temple Mount one day, when many pilgrims were gathered
there. He listened attentively, with the rest, to travelers from
Arabia, who were relating wonderful tales of adventure. From stories
of adventure in foreign lands the pilgrims drifted into stories of
happenings in their own country. Some related rumors of what was going
on in Samaria; others spoke of the possibility of Judah's being forced
to fight Assyria some day. Some laughed at such a suggestion; others
were in grave doubt whether such an emergency would find the nation
prepared. Some spoke of the evils that were sapping the strength of
the people; others complained that the king, instead of attending to
his business of State, was busying himself with his wealth of herds
and vineyards.
Here Isaiah, who had been silently listening to the discussions, offered
to recite a poem, an original composition. The suggestion was received
with loud applause and Isaiah began:
"Let me sing a song of my friend,
My friend's song about his vineyard."
At this introduction everybody settled down comfortably to listen,
and Isaiah continued:
"My friend hath a vineyard
On a fertile hill;
He digged it and gathered out the atones,
And planted it with choicest vine;
A tower he built in the midst of it
And hewed out a wine press.
He looked to find grapes that were good,
And it yielded only wild grapes."
Isaiah's listeners were disappointed. The story not only lacked
excitement, it even lacked interest. They shifted in their places
uneasily, but Isaiah caught their attention again by continuing:
"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
And ye people of Judah.
Judge, I pray you, betwixt me
And betwixt my vineyard.
What more could be done to my vineyard
Than that which I have done?
When I looked to find grapes that were good
Why yielded it wild grapes?
"And now, pray, I will tell you
What I will do to my vineyard:
I will take away the hedge thereof,
That it shall be devoured;
I will break down the wall thereof,
That it shall be trodden down;
Yea, I will make a waste thereof,
That it shall not be pruned or weeded.
Then it shall put forth thorns and thickets of brambles;
The clouds I will command that they rain not thereon."
Everybody understood now that Isaiah was speaking a parable and that
its application was to them and to their country. But who was the
"friend" who possessed this vineyard? Isaiah did not hold the
questioners in long suspense:
"For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His cherished plant;
And he looked for justice, but, behold! bloodshed;
For righteousness, but, behold! a cry of distress."
Then Isaiah launched forth into a powerful denunciation of the social
evils of which Judah and the leading Judeans were guilty--a sixfold
woe that was rushing the Nation on to destruction.
"Woe unto them that join house to house,
Who add field to field,
Until there is no space left,
And they dwell alone in the midst of the land.
"Woe unto them that rise at dawn
To pursue strong drink,
Who tarry late into the night
Until wine inflames them;
But they regard not the work of the lord
And see not what His hands have made
"Woe unto them that draw guilt upon themselves
With cords of folly,
And sin as with a cart rope!
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
That put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own conceit!
"Woe unto them that are heroic in drinking wine,
And valiant in mixing strong drink!
Who, for a bribe, justify the wicked
And strip the innocent man of his innocence!
"Therefore, as the fire devours stubble,
And as hay shrivels in a flame,
So their root shall be as rottenness
And their blossom go up as dust;
Because they have rejected the teaching of the Lord of hosts,
And despised the word of Israel's Holy One."
So intensely absorbed in his speech was Isaiah, and so deeply
interested was the vast assembly whom he was addressing, that no one
took note of a splendidly arrayed group of men who had come up and
stood with the rest, listening.
When Isaiah had finished speaking, and the people had caught their
breath again, some one shouted:
"Behold! The king!"
Isaiah looked over the heads of the crowd toward the newcomers, and
there he beheld Jotham and a retinue of nobles, laughing heartily, no
doubt, at his masterful effort.
Fearlessly, and without a moment's hesitation, the prophet did what he
had threatened Jotham he would do--he denounced his friend, the king,
before his people:
"The Lord standeth forth to present his case,
And He standeth up to judge His people.
The Lord entereth into judgment
With the elders of His people and their princes.
'Ye, yourselves, have devoured the vineyard.
The spoils of the needy are in your houses.
What do you mean by crushing my people
And by grinding the face of the needy?'
Saith the Lord, God of hosts."
Laughing still more heartily at this madness of his old friend, Jotham
easily made his way to where the prophet stood. He placed his arm
around Isaiah's shoulder and invited him to go with him and his
companions to the palace.
Isaiah did as he was bidden. All the way Jotham and his friends made
fun of the feverish enthusiasm with which the denunciations were
delivered, but Isaiah did not feel hurt. His heart was quite at peace.
At last he had launched forth upon the work to which God had so
unexpectedly and so marvelously called him!
When Jotham and his friends arrived at the palace, a joint embassy
from Rezin, the king of Syria, and from Pekah, the king of Israel, was
awaiting them. To the amazement of them all, the ambassadors placed
before Jotham a demand that Judah join forces with Syria and Israel,
forthwith, and fight Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, who was
then threatening to invade Damascus and Samaria!
CHAPTER III.
_A Coward on the Throne._
King Jotham was wise enough to follow the advice of the Prophet Isaiah
in his reply to the embassy from Rezin and Pekah. At the Council of
State, called to consider the message from the kings of Syria and
Israel, Isaiah counselled an unhesitating and decisive refusal of
their demand. While, therefore, the ambassadors were received and
entertained royally in Jerusalem, they returned to their respective
sovereigns, their mission unaccomplished.
The answer that Jotham sent back to Damascus and Samaria was plain,
simple and to the point. Judah, he said, had no interest in the
political policies and intrigues of Syria and Israel and would not
join a coalition against Assyria.
Both Rezin and Pekah stormed against Jotham and his advisors, but to
no avail. Judah was strong, independent and at peace, and Jotham would
not involve his country in a quarrel with which he had nothing to do.
Conditions in Israel were different, however. The majority of the
people chafed under the indignity of being tributary to Assyria. They
hated King Menahem who, in his fear, sent the tribute to Tiglath-Pileser
and became his voluntary subject. Menahem was hated by the rich merchants
and large landowners as well as by the people generally, because on
them the burden of the tribute fell the heaviest. The powerful Samarians,
therefore, formed themselves into a party to oppose the king.
King Rezin, of Syria, who was watching his opportunity to rebel against
Assyria, kept alive this hostile spirit against Menahem in Samaria and
Israel. Rezin was working toward a coalition of all the countries along
the Mediterranean sea that were tributary to Tiglath-Pileser, so that in
their combined strength they might rise and throw off the Assyrian yoke.
The leaders of the opposition to the king,--the national patriots--in
Samaria, hoped that Pekaiah, Menahem's son and successor, would prove
himself a truer son of his country than his father. They looked to him
to refuse the payment of the Assyrian tribute and to re-establish the
independence of the Kingdom of Israel; but they were disappointed.
Pekaiah followed in the political footsteps of his father and the
hopes of the Samarian patriots waned when he succeeded his father on
the throne.
Rezin, however, was not to be denied in the plan he had laid out for
himself and for the other Assyrian tributaries. Pekaiah reigned in
Samaria less than two years, when, in 735, through the assistance of
Rezin and the connivance of the patriotic party in Samaria, he was
assassinated by one of his generals, Pekah, the son of Remaliah.
Pekah was thus raised to the throne of Israel with the avowed purpose of
uniting with Rezin in the proposed rebellion against Tiglath-Pileser.
Israel wanted, and needed, the help of Judah in the desperate conflict
that awaited them. The smaller countries north of Israel and Syria,
crushed under the burden of their Assyrian tribute, gladly joined the
Syro-Israelitish coalition; but the embassy to Jerusalem returned
empty-handed. Rezin and Pekah, however, were not dismayed by the refusal
of Judah to join them. They bided their time for a better opportunity.
This opportunity came the very next year when Jotham died, suddenly,
and his son, Ahaz, a young man of twenty, came to the throne of Judah.
Without any notice whatever, Rezin and Pekah united their armed forces
and marched upon Jerusalem. This sudden invasion of Judah had been
carefully planned beforehand. It was so arranged that, when the
Syro-Israelitish forces attacked Jerusalem, a certain man, the son of
Tabeal, who was willing to play the traitor, was to assassinate Ahaz,
proclaim himself king, admit the enemy into the city and throw all the
power and wealth of Judah into the scale with Syria and Israel in the
war against Tiglath-Pileser.
Ahaz was entirely unprepared for such a move on the part of Pekah and
Rezin. The news that the two armies were on the march caused
consternation, not alone in the palace of the king, but in Jerusalem
and in the entire country.
The northern part of Judah, as far as Jerusalem, was unprotected and
at the mercy of the enemy. Neither Uzziah nor Jotham looked for a foe
from that direction. In fact, the Syro-Israelitish forces met no
opposition whatever until they came within sight of Jerusalem.
The very first thing that Ahaz and his generals did, when they had
recovered from their consternation, was to prepare the capital for a
siege. The fortifications were examined and strengthened. The water
supply to the south of the city, without which Jerusalem could not
have withstood a siege for three months, was especially looked after.
Now, Ahaz was like that ancient Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, or
like his own predecessor, Rehoboam, who "took council with the young
men that were grown up with him." Ahaz did not call Isaiah, the old
friend and counsellor of the royal house, to advise him in his great
extremity.
Isaiah, however, called to God to save his nation--if the nation would
be saved--and did not wait for an invitation from the young king.
While Ahaz, his advisors and the commanders of his army, were examining
the water supply of Jerusalem, preparatory to the inevitable siege,
Isaiah went out to meet him. The prophet came upon the royal party at
the end of the conduit of the upper reservoir, in the highway of the
Fuller's field.
Isaiah, who had been quietly and carefully studying the entire situation
since the embassy came to Jotham, understood well enough that an
intrigue must be brewing in Jerusalem against the young King. When the
report reached the city that the enemy was on the march, Isaiah's
searching inquiries and careful observation of the leaders of the
capital resulted in the discovery that the son of Tabeal was in league
with Rezin and Pekah. It was Isaiah at this meeting, who informed Ahaz
that his immediate danger was as much within his own city as from the
enemy that was approaching. No wonder, then, that "his heart trembled,
and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with
the wind."
But Isaiah immediately reassured the trembling Ahaz in the following
words:
"Take heed and keep thyself calm; fear not, neither be
fainthearted because of these two fag ends of smoking
firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria
and of the son of Remaliah. Syria, with Israel, hath purposed
evil against thee, saying, 'Let us go up against Judah and
distress it and overpower it and appoint the son of Tabeal
king in its midst.' But thus saith the Lord God: It shall not
stand, neither shall it come to pass, for, the head of Syria
is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and the head
of Israel is Samaria and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
Verily, if you will not hold fast, ye shall not stand fast."
Ahaz laughed at the idea of keeping quiet and having no fear, under
the conditions. He turned away impatiently from the prophet and
proceeded with his business of examining the reservoir. Isaiah,
however, would not be put off with mere impatience.
"Ask thee a sign of the Lord, thy God," he cried to Ahaz. "Ask it
either in the depths of Sheol or in the heights above."
But Ahaz replied, "I will not ask, neither will I put the Lord to
the test."
Then Isaiah said:
"Hear now, O House of David! Is it too small a thing for
you to weary men, that ye must also weary my God? Therefore
the Lord, Himself, will give you a sign. Behold, a young
woman will bear a son and call his name Immanuel (God is
with us). Before this child shall know to refuse the evil
and choose the good those two kings before whom thou
tremblest shall be deserted."
Ahaz was tired of mere words. Advice he had enough; he wanted now to
act. In fact, when the knowledge of the political intrigue in
Jerusalem became known to him, he immediately made up his mind what to
do. He, therefore, again turned from Isaiah and ordered his retinue to
continue the examination of the water supply.
Isaiah then tried another form of argument with this cowardly young
king, in order to bring him to his senses. He, himself, was positive
that Tiglath-Pileser, who was at that time in Asia Minor, had, no
doubt, been informed by his spies of the action taken by Rezin and
Pekah. Isaiah felt sure, also, that Tiglath-Pileser would immediately
invade Syria. He knew, in addition, that neither Rezin nor Pekah was
strong and powerful enough, at this time, to wage a protracted war
with Assyria; that is why he described them as "two fag ends of
smoking firebrands." He, therefore, concluded that, at the first
information of Tiglath-Pileser's march into the northern country,
Rezin and Pekah would have to return to defend their own lands.
On the other hand, Isaiah knew that, if Ahaz did anything that would
in any way displease the mighty King of Assyria, the latter would,
after finishing his campaign in Syria and Israel, attack Judah.
Therefore, he warned Ahaz in these words:
"God will bring upon thee and upon thy people and upon thy
father's house days such as have not been, since the day
Ephraim departed from Judah, through the King of Assyria.
Curds and honey will be that child's food (in the wilderness)
when he knows to refuse evil and choose the good."
Isaiah ceased. He had delivered his message, had counseled and warned
the king. He made it clear to Ahaz that, if he did anything except
trust in the power and care of God for his people, Judah, like Syria
and Israel, was destined to become a wilderness in the short time that
it takes a child to reach that age when it can begin to think for
itself.
Ahaz, however, acted upon his own and his young men's counsel. Hardly
had he returned to the palace that day, when he sent messengers
carrying the following letter to Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria:
"I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from
the power of the King of Assyria and from the power of the
King of Israel, who have attacked me."
Ahaz followed up this message by ransacking the Temple in Jerusalem
and the treasures of the royal palace, sending both as a gift and
bribe to Tiglath-Pileser.
Then exactly what Isaiah foresaw happened. Tiglath-Pileser immediately
invaded Syria and attacked Damascus. Rezin and Pekah were forced to
hurry back to defend their own countries, and Judah was saved from
Syro-Israelitish attack; but Ahaz had already thrown himself at the feet
of the great Assyrian conqueror, with terrible results to his own
country.
CHAPTER IV.
_On Deaf Ears._
Though the spineless Ahaz sent his cowardly note, and the presents
that followed, to Tiglath-Pileser secretly, the truth leaked out.
Great indignation was aroused among certain opponents of the king in
Jerusalem at the discovery of his act of treachery to the nation, and
a new party was formed to fight against submission to Assyria.
The aim of the new movement was, principally, to preserve the independence
of Judah. The only avenue open seemed to be the alliance with Israel and
Syria that the lamented king, Jotham, would not enter into.
With Ahaz looked upon as a traitor, the only one whom these patriots
could turn, was the Prophet Isaiah, who loved his land and knew its
traditions. So, the leaders of the patriotic party came to him with
their plans. But Isaiah stood firm in the position he had taken with
Jotham against entangling alliances.
He shocked these gentlemen with a well-spoken rebuke. He told them that
the patriotism Judah needed was not of alliances and war, but of faith
in God, of trust in Him who always guards and protects a righteous nation
against its enemies.
Isaiah knew well enough the weakened and helpless condition of both
Israel and Syria. To join with them in a war against Tiglath-Pileser
would mean even greater ruin for Judah than the peaceful submission of
Ahaz. He pictured the results of such an alliance in the following words:
"Because this people have rejected the waters of Shiloah that
flow softly,
And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son,
Therefore the Lord is about to bring upon them
The waters of the River Euphrates, mighty and great,
(Even the King of Assyria, in all his glory).
And it shall rise above all its channels,
And overflow all its banks;
And it shall sweep onward into Judah,
And it shall overflow and pass over it,
Reaching even to its neck,
And its outstretched wings shall cover the breadth of thy land,
O Immanuel."
To the king, the prophet sent a concise message that would have been
heeded and understood by any one but a weakling like Ahaz. Isaiah
referred to the utter helplessness into which Ahaz had cast Judah by
his cowardly self-subjugation to Tiglath-Pileser. He pictured what
might happen when that mighty monarch would receive the king's pitiful
cry for help:
"In that same day the Lord will shave with the razor hired
beyond the Euphrates the head and the hidden hair; and it
shall even sweep away the beard."
Despite Isaiah's efforts, the peace party that stood by Ahaz, and the
war party that desired an alliance with Pekah and Rezin, continued
their separate agitations.
The capture of the town of Elath, at the head of the Arabian Gulf, by
a detachment of the Syrian army, strengthened Ahaz in his belief that
help could come only from Tiglath-Pileser. On the other hand, it
convinced the war party that only the union with Samaria and Damascus
could restore to the country this center of Judah's lucrative trade,
that commanded the commerce to the south.
Isaiah recognized the uselessness of appealing to either of these
opposing parties. He determined to appeal to the country at large, to
the whole people, who were interested not in party quarrels, but in
the welfare of the nation. He wanted to create a public opinion in
favor of peace and in opposition to entangling alliances, either with
Assyria or with the Palestinian coalition.
On his own property, in the heart of Jerusalem, where all the passers-by
could see and read it, Isaiah erected a great sign which read:
"SWIFT BOOTY--SPEEDY PREY."
He meant this to indicate to the people that the triumphs of either
the champions of peace or the champions of war would mean ruin to the
nation at the hands of Assyria.
About this time a son was born to Isaiah. He gave a magnificent feast
to the leading people of Jerusalem and, to bring his conviction home
more forcibly, named the boy "Swift Booty--Speedy Prey."
At the close of the feast he addressed his guests and said, in part:
"Before the boy knows how to cry, 'My mother' and 'My father,'
they shall carry off the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria before the King of Assyria."
At a great meeting in Jerusalem, soon thereafter, Isaiah again took up
the burden of his argument against Israel and Syria. He predicted the
inevitable destruction of these two kingdoms, because they were in
rebellion against Assyria, and he pointed out the consequent
foolhardiness of involving Judah in the oncoming disaster. Regarding
Israel he said:
"In that day the glory of Jacob shall grow dim,
And the fatness of his flesh wax lean.
And it shall be as when a harvester gathers standing grain,
And his arms reap the ears;
Yea, it shall be as when he gleans in the valley of Rephaim,
And the gleanings thereof shall be as the beating of an olive tree--
Two or three berries on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the boughs of a fruit tree,
Saith the Lord, the God of Israel."
Then, addressing himself as if he were speaking to the people of
Israel, but hoping to drive the lesson home to the people of Judah,
who were listening to him, he spoke most regretfully:
"For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation
And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength."
Turning to a consideration of the second of the allies, Syria,
Isaiah continued:
"Soon shall Damascus cease to be a city
And shall be a ruinous heap.
Its cities shall be given up to flocks
Which shall lie down, with none to make them afraid.
Ephraim shall lose her bulwark,
And Damascus her sovereignty,
And the rest of Syria shall perish;
Like the Israelites shall they be,
Saith the Lord of Hosts."
These descriptions of what would happen to Syria and Israel, however,
did not go unchallenged. The prophet was told that he had evidently
forgotten that all the nations in Palestine and along the Mediterranean,
except Judah, were parties to this coalition against Tiglath-Pileser.
Isaiah laughed. With fine scorn he cried:
"Ah! The multitude of many peoples
That roar like the roaring of the seas!
And the rushing of nations,
That rush like the rushing of many waters!
But he shall rebuke them and they shall flee far off,
And shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And like the whirling dust before the storm.
At eventide, behold, terror;
Before the morning, they are no more."
Then, as if addressing himself to all the petty northern countries
that were trying to drag his own beloved fatherland into the whirlpool
of disaster, Isaiah spoke as follows:
"Make an uproar,
And be broken in pieces;
And give ear, all ye of far countries;
Gird yourselves and be broken in pieces,
Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to naught;
Speak the word and it shall not stand;
For God is with us."
And in answer to the appeal of the people as to what ought to be done
in this national crisis, Isaiah replied:
"Call ye not conspiracy all that this people calleth conspiracy.
What they fear do not fear, nor be filled with dread.
The Lord of Hosts, Him regard as the conspirator!
Let Him be your fear and your dread!"
CHAPTER V.
_The Survival of the Fittest._
While Isaiah was thus attempting to influence the two parties in
Jerusalem, exactly what he had warned Ahaz of happened. The Assyrian
forces made a speedy march into Syria, with Damascus as the point of
attack. The combined Syro-Israelitish army, upon hearing of
Tilgath-Pileser's new move, abandoned the siege of Jerusalem and hurried
back to defend their own countries.
The great Assyrian conqueror easily subdued all the land about
Damascus and finally besieged the city itself. Rezin offered him
desperate resistance, but it was useless. Tiglath-Pileser destroyed
all the forests, fruit groves and fertile fields in the vicinity of
the city, until both food and water failed the defenders.
In a last sally from the doomed city, the Syrian troops were literally
cut to pieces. Rezin escaped with his life, and, disguised and alone,
re-entered Damascus. But he was caught, brought before Tiglath-Pileser
and put to death.
In the meantime, all Israel and Samaria quaked at the fate that
awaited them. Pekah, who had been lending Rezin what help he could,
without entirely weakening himself, was ready and willing to give the
Assyrian battle. Tiglath-Pileser, however, had his hands full with
Damascus. He therefore, welcomed the suggestion of a certain Hoshea,
son of Elah of Samaria, who offered to follow the example of the
traitor Menahem.
Tiglath-Pileser assented gladly. He promised help and protection to
Hoshea, as he did to Ahaz, for voluntary submission to Assyrian rule.
So Hoshea conspired against Pekah in Samaria, slew him, proclaimed
himself king under the protection of Assyria. and sent tribute to
Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. Cowardice and treachery thus once more
sealed the fate of the kingdom of Israel.
After the fall of Damascus, the victorious Assyrian ordered a great
_Durbar_ to celebrate his victory in that city. All the tributary
kings in Palestine were commanded to meet him and pay homage to him
there.
The splendor and display of the gathering was rivaled only by the
magnificence of the welcome the terrible monarch received on his
return to Asshur, his own capital.
Among the princes who hob-nobbed with their master at Damascus were
the cowardly Ahaz and the traitorous Hoshea. But both were happy in
that their countries escaped the awful havoc they witnessed in
Damascus and throughout Syria.
Tiglath-Pileser always carried with him a wonderfully wrought altar on
which he offered sacrifices to Asshur, the Assyrian god. During the
religious exercises at the Damascus festival, in which all the
Assyrian vassals participated, Ahaz was particularly struck with the
beauty of this altar. Thereupon he sent to Urijah, the high priest in
Jerusalem, "the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according
to all the workmanship thereof," with instructions to have it
duplicated for the Temple in Jerusalem.
Isaiah, when he heard of this, was thunderstruck by the audacity of
the king who had no respect for his people or for his God.
Not only was this heathen altar built, but it replaced the ancient
one, which was set aside. Ahaz even went further. When he returned
from Damascus, he himself, instead of the regularly appointed priest,
offered the sacrifices upon the new altar, as he had seen Tiglath-Pileser
do. To cap the climax, Ahaz introduced certain pagan religious ideas,
copied from the Assyrian worship, into the cult of the Temple, simply
to please and gratify his Assyrian master.
With so base a king, Isaiah could hope nothing for the nation. Truly
could he cry out in the anguish of his spirit:
"My people--a boy is their leader!"
"My people--thy guides lead thee astray."
Of one thing, however, Isaiah was positive. When messengers came to
him from various parts of the country to inquire what to do in this
national crisis he answered them all alike: "God hath founded Zion,
and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge."
He was certain that neither a weakling like Ahaz nor a terror like
Tiglath-Pileser could bring destruction upon the city that God had
selected as the center of His worship, or upon the people whom God had
chosen, to reveal Himself to them and to entrust them with His law.
The patriotic and religious backsliding of Ahaz and his counselors,
however, seemed to point to the destruction of both. But Isaiah was
not dismayed. Trusting faithfully in God's protecting hand over His
people, he could not conceive that God would desert them for long. God
would not permit a backboneless king to reign over His people. The
successor to Ahaz would be a different type of man--an ideal prince in
the sight of God and men:
"And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a branch of his roots shall bear fruit.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
Neither arbitrate after the hearing of his ears;
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And arbitrate with equity for the afflicted of the land:
And he shall smite the tyrannous with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked,
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his reins,
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall feed together;
And a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall make friends;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall stretch out his hand to the serpent's eye.
None shall do evil or act corruptly in all my holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea."
In all literature there is no more beautiful and meaningful
description of what an ideal ruler should be and of the peaceful and
happy state to which such a ruler could bring his country.
But Isaiah did not lose sight of the fact that just as little as an
Ahaz could accomplish the destruction of the nation, so little could
an ideal king, even if his fond dream would come true, accomplish the
reconstruction of the nation, single-handed and alone.
What was necessary, therefore, was the raising and educating of a new
generation of citizens in Judah; a just, patriotic, God-fearing
company of men who, when the hoped-for king shall have come to the
throne, would support him, with their valor and their lives, in
building up the entire nation to walk in God's way.
So Isaiah began quietly with his own family first, and later with a
few friends and disciples who believed as he did. "Binding up the
admonition and sealing the instruction among my disciples," said
Isaiah, "I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the
House of Jacob, and in Him will I trust. Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are signs and symbols in Israel from the
Lord of Hosts who dwells in Mount Zion."
Isaiah's idea was similar to that of Moses in the olden days in the
wilderness. The present generation, ruler and people, that did not
place its trust wholly in God, would slowly die out; a new generation,
better and more fit, would survive to save the nation.
Just at this time, when Isaiah began his slow work of upbuilding the
nation, a son and heir was born to the king. Isaiah accepted this
incident as a message of approval of his course from God. He and his
disciples looked to this prince to be the ideal king; and in
celebration of the event Isaiah greeted the heir apparent in the
following fine outburst of hope for the future:
"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given;
And the government shall be upon his shoulder;
And his name shall be called wonder-counselor,
Divine hero, father of glory, prince of peace.
For the increase of dominion and for peace without end,
Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom,
To establish and support it by justice and by righteousness
From henceforth, even forever; the favor of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this."
CHAPTER VI.
_Working With the Remnant._
Isaiah called his little band of disciples and followers "The Remnant."
He referred to them as "The Remnant" because he knew that, if only
these remained true and faithful to God, for their sakes God would not
forsake the Fatherland.
It was upon "The Remnant" that he placed the future welfare of his
country. Through these few he hoped to regenerate the rest of his
people, despite the corruption and wrongdoing of their leaders. He
aimed, especially, to prepare the young generation for patriotic,
God-fearing, God-trusting lives.
The prophet had set for himself no easy task. He met opposition from
many directions. The king himself opposed him for political reasons.
The priests, who sided with the king in his introduction of Assyrian
rites and practices in the Temple service, opposed him on religious
grounds; so that, for many years, Isaiah simply devoted himself to
teaching and preaching moral living, just and righteous dealing and
absolute trust in God.
"Hear, O heavens, and give heed, O earth, for the Lord speaketh:
Sons have I brought up and placed on high, but they have proved
false to me.
The ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib,
But Israel has no knowledge; my people have no insight;
Ah! Sinful nation, people deep laden with guilt,
Race of evil-doers, perverse children!
They have forsaken the Lord;
They have spurned the Holy One of Israel;
They have become rebellious.
"On what place can you yet be smitten since you continue rebelling?
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint,
From the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness,
Only wounds and bruises and fresh sores,
Which have not been dressed nor bound up nor softened with oil."
With words of this kind, and in similar speeches, Isaiah tried to
describe the condition of Judah to its people. The cowardice of Ahaz
in throwing himself at the feet of the Assyrian had, indeed, smitten
the land and the people very sore. The large tribute to Tiglath-Pileser
had to be collected and paid. The burden was terrible to bear. In the
meantime, Judah's enemies from the south and along the Mediterranean
coast took advantage of the weakened condition of Judah and attacked
the country from many points.
Isaiah tried, with all his might, to bring the people, as a whole, to
an understanding of Judah's condition. He wanted them to join "The
Remnant" and to live their lives in accordance with his teaching,
which were really not his, but God's. Only in this way, Isaiah said,
could a country that had fallen deeply into sin and unrighteousness,
and was at the mercy of its enemies, be saved:
"Your land is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire,
Your tilled land--before your eyes strangers devour it;
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
Like a lodge in a field of cucumbers, like a watchtower.
Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant,
We should almost be as Sodom,
We would have been like Gomorrah."
This simile, comparing Jerusalem to these ancient cities of evil
repute, was answered by Isaiah's opponents with the statement that the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah were idol worshipers, but that the people
of Judah brought their sacrifices to the Temple and observed the
holydays in accordance with the ancient laws. This was the same kind
of an argument as the citizens in Samaria gave to Amos and Hosea.
Isaiah, however, who knew, and had taught "The Remnant" that sacrificing
animals was not the true manner of worshipping God, replied as follows:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye Rulers of Sodom;
Give heed to the instruction of our God, ye people of Gomorrah!
What care I for the great number of your sacrifices? saith the Lord.
I am sated with the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of
fed beasts,
And in the blood of bullocks and lambs and he-goats I take
no pleasure.
When ye appear before me--who has required this of you?
Trample no more my courts, bring no more offerings,
Vain is the odor of incense--it is an abomination to me;
I am not able to endure a fast and a solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed days my soul hateth.
I am tired of bearing it.
When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.
Also, if ye make many prayers, I will not hear."
Then Isaiah launched forth into one of the most beautiful speeches that
he delivered in his whole career. In it he brought home to the people
the true idea of the religion which God had commanded to Israel, and
through which Judah could be regenerated, strengthened and saved:
"Your hands are stained with blood;
Wash, that ye may be clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from before mine eyes.
Cease to do evil; learn to do good;
Seek justice; relieve the oppressed;
Vindicate the orphan; plead for the widow."
In one of the sublimest passages that any prophet ever uttered, Isaiah
promised the people God's forgiveness in the following wonderful appeal:
"Come now, let us argue together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet,
They may become white as snow;
Though they be red as crimson,
They may become as wool;
If ye willingly yield and are obedient,
Ye shall eat the good of the land,
But if you refuse and rebel,
Ye shall be devoured by the sword.
The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it!"
While Isaiah thus pleaded and threatened, he gained many additions to
"The Remnant," but he failed to create a deep impression either with
the reigning house or with the powerful priesthood or with the
majority of the rich in Jerusalem and Judah.
In the meantime, a vassal of Assyria, in far-off Babylonia, rebelled
successfully. Immediately, various Palestinian states, including
Judah, began to prepare a similar attempt to free themselves from the
Assyrian yoke.
Ahaz had died in 721, the year in which Sargon the Great captured
Samaria, after a two year's siege, and effectually reduced the kingdom
of Israel. Hezekiah, his young son, to whom Isaiah looked for the
ideal prince he had pictured, succeeded him.
The calamity of the northern kingdom did not seem to bring Isaiah or
Ahaz any warning. The king had been paying his Assyrian tribute
regularly and faithfully; the prophet had centered his hope in "The
Remnant" and in the crown prince, and bided his time.
When, however, six years later, in the year 715, Hezekiah joined the
coalition of Palestinian states against Assyria, Isaiah was not only
disappointed, but became greatly alarmed.
To permit Hezekiah to follow the advice of his father's counselors,
Isaiah knew would be national suicide. For three years, therefore,
while the agitation for coalition and rebellion was going on, Isaiah
cast off his prophet's mantle and sandals, and walked barefooted and
in the garb of a captive through the treets of Jerusalem, as an object
lesson to the people of Judah, to show them what might await them if
they rebelled against Assyria.
But even this, for the time being, was of no avail. Rebellion was in
the blood of the king and the court clique. Somehow the very thought
of it in Jerusalem seemed to reach the Assyrian capital. Hardly had
Hezekiah begun to carry his contemplated revolt into action when
Sennacherib, the new Assyrian king, was on the march.
Once more Judah was invaded by the Assyrian hosts, and once more
Judah's rulers bent their knee in submission and undertook to pay a
tribute that was heavier than ever before.
Yet Isaiah, though heartbroken, was in no way dismayed. His unbounded
faith in the final triumph of God's purposes led him to go on,
fearlessly, to oppose the king and his associates to the very end.
CHAPTER VII.
_Like Father, Like Son._
A chain, we are told, is as strong as its weakest link. The weak link
in the long chain of Assyrian provinces was the fact that whenever a
new king came to the throne, if he happened to be away, fighting in
the field, he had to hurry back to the capital, backed by the complete
military force under his command, in order to establish himself firmly
in his dominions.
Immediately upon the withdrawal of the king's armies from the field,
all the provinces that hated Assyria bitterly, rebelled. Naturally,
all the work of conquest had to be done over again. Then, when another
change took place in the rulership of Assyria, the new king met the
same conditions and the same difficulties.
When Tiglath-Pileser died, Shalmaneser IV., who laid siege to Samaria,
was forced to reconquer all the Syrian and Palestinian tributaries.
The great Sargon, who reduced Samaria and carried its inhabitants
captive into the northern part of the Assyrian Empire, left his
successor, Sennacherib, no better legacy.
With Sennacherib's ascension to the throne in the year 704, therefore,
the usual thing happened--rebellion broke out all along the line of
his possessions.
In Palestine, King Hezekiah of Judah became the leader of a movement
for a strong organization of all Palestinian and Syrian states and
cities with the purpose of concerted rebellion against the new king.
So strong was the patriotism aroused among the various peoples that
Padi, king of the city of Ekron, who would not join the proposed
coalition, was captured by the citizens, bound in chains and handed
over a prisoner to Hezekiah in Jerusalem.
It did not take Sennacherib long to make up his mind what to do. His
predecessors had shown him the way. He organized a strong force,
composed mostly of mercenaries, and marched at once into Phoenicia.
City after city fell before his prowess and he worked his way rapidly
into Palestine. Unfortunately for Hezekiah and his allies, no
concerted action could be agreed upon by them. Each one feared for
himself; each one tried to be on the safe side.
Sennacherib took advantage of the situation in this rebellious
district of his empire. He marched his armies, victorious throughout
Phoenicia, into Palestine, meeting with success after success. The
city of Tyre resisted most nobly on its own account, but it was no
match for the Assyrians. Immediately after that Ekron, too, fell, and
Judah itself was overrun by Sennacherib's troops.
The great disappointment of the Palestinian allies in this struggle
for independence during the years 703-701, was that the help they
looked for from the Arabian tribes to the south was very meagre, and
that the horses and chariots they counted upon from Egypt did not
materialize at all.
In Jerusalem, the prophet Isaiah counseled against the proposed
rebellion from its very beginning. He warned Hezekiah, the leaders in
Jerusalem, and even the nations who were entering into the coalition
with Hezekiah, of the folly of this step. Knowing, as he did, the
situation, the weakness of the leaders, the corruption within Judah
and the demoralization of the army and the people generally, because
of greed and oppression, he understood that Sennacherib's forces would
rout the Palestinian forces unmercifully.
He wanted no coalition. He wanted Hezekiah and the Judeans to trust
wholly in God. "Quietness and trust" was his motto and "Abiding faith
in God" his standard.
"By repenting and remaining quiet you shall be delivered;
In resting and in trusting shall your strength consist."
Hezekiah, like his father, Ahaz, however, placed his trust in himself
and in the power of his armies. There was no doubt in Hezekiah's mind
but that the assistance that would come from Egypt would strengthen
him sufficiently to defeat Sennacherib and gain complete independence
for Judah.
Isaiah, who knew differently, preached openly against Hezekiah; but he
had no more influence with the king than he had had with his father:
"Woe to the rebellious sons, is the oracle of Jehovah,
Carrying out a plan which is not mine,
Establishing a treaty contrary to my spirit,
So that they heap sin upon sin;
Who would set out for Egypt without asking my decision,
To flee to the shelter of Pharaoh,
And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
The shelter of Pharaoh will be your shame,
And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion."
While Isaiah's position among the people, and his standing in the
community in Jerusalem, made Hezekiah fear to do him bodily harm, or
even to arrest him, the king and his counselors, who were, naturally,
eager to gain all the assistance possible from the people at home,
sent out men who were in favor of fighting Assyria to refute the
opinions and arguments of Isaiah.
These men also called themselves prophets of God; but Isaiah saw in
them only false prophets:
"For it is a rebellious people, lying sons,
Sons who will not heed Jehovah's instruction,
Who say to the seers, 'See not!'
And to those who have visions, 'Give us no vision of what is right!
Speak to us what is agreeable, give us false visions!
Turn from the way, go aside from the path,
Trouble is no more with Israel's Holy One.'"
When Sennacherib's armies finally came into Judah, Isaiah still saw
the possibility of saving the country from the horrors of devastation,
and he warned the king and people in these words:
"Therefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel,
Because ye reject this word,
And trust in perverseness and crookedness and rely thereon,
Therefore this guilty act shall be to you
Like a bulging breach in a high wall about to fall,
Suddenly, in an instant, will come its destruction;
Yea, its destruction shall be as when one dashes an earthen vessel
in pieces, shattering it ruthlessly,
So that not a potsherd is found among the pieces
With which to take up fire from the hearth or to draw water from
a cistern."
Notwithstanding the utter failure that faced Hezekiah in his course,
neither he nor his counselors gave heed until Sennacherib had captured
and destroyed forty-six fortified Judean cities and towns and had
actually begun preparations for a siege of Jerusalem.
It was then that Hezekiah came to his senses. When Sennacherib was at
Lachish, Hezekiah sent him a message which was almost a duplicate of
the one sent by Ahaz to Tiglath-Pileser:
"I have offended; withdraw from me; whatever you lay on me I
will bear."
The tribute that Sennacherib laid on Hezekiah was three hundred
talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To meet this, Hezekiah
was forced to ransack the Temple in Jerusalem and the treasure-chamber
of the royal palace. He was even forced to strip the doors and pillars
of the Temple of their gold decorations in order to make up the
enormous tribute to send to Sennacherib.
Judah once more lay a helpless tributary at the feet of Assyria.
Sennacherib withdrew his armies and returned to Nineveh. Hezekiah had
proved himself both a coward and a traitor; a traitor because he did
not do all in his power to assist such allies as Tyre and Ekron; a
coward because, unlike Tyre and Ekron, he did not fight Sennacherib to
the bitter end.
It was only after his own country had been terribly devastated by the
Assyrian mercenaries that he followed the advice which Isaiah gave him
in the first place. Had he followed it before, he would have saved not
alone his country and his people from the ravages of war, but he would
have been spared the payment of so large a tribute and the desecration
of the Temple.
The real reason why Sennacherib withdrew from before Jerusalem was the
fact that, while he was engaged in Palestine, all the Babylonian
provinces rebelled. He, therefore, received Hezekiah's message with a
great deal of pleasure. In truth, he was eager to act upon it, for he
had to hurry to Babylonia to subdue the rebels there.
Immediately after the Assyrian troops were out of Palestine, however,
Hezekiah returned to his old policy and began a war to regain the
forty-six cities which Sennacherib had conquered and in which he had
left Assyrian governors.
CHAPTER VIII.
_The Prophet Triumphs._
The fearful crisis through which Judah and Jerusalem had passed,
before Sennacherib withdrew from Judah to fight his subjects in
Babylonia, set both the king and the people to thinking.
Hezekiah had evidently become convinced that Isaiah's counsel for
peace with Assyria was the best; for, after he had reconquered several
of the fortified cities and towns captured by Sennacherib, he made an
arrangement with the Assyrian king to pay an annual tribute
peacefully, in order that his country should be at rest.
During the ten years that followed, Hezekiah, instead of seeking
alliances with foreign nations, for the purpose of rebellion, devoted
himself to building up his own country, and to reforming his own
people, in line with the preaching of Isaiah.
Once, when Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah called on him at the palace. The
prophet cheered him in his illness and expressed his hope for the
king's speedy recovery. This call established a friendlier
relationship between the king and the prophet.
At another time, Hezekiah invited Isaiah to the palace; and Isaiah was
glad to go, because Hezekiah, in his new policy, was following the
commandments of God which, as taught by Isaiah, were destined to save
the nation from its enemies.
"The Remnant," which Isaiah educated, now grew in great proportions,
until it included the majority of Jews who were leading upright lives.
Isaiah, himself, was established as a true prophet of God among
his people.
Upon his recovery from his illness, Hezekiah began to reform the
religious life of the country. He destroyed the "high places" on which
many people offered sacrifices to strange gods. He broke up the brazen
serpent to which the people sacrificed and which they worshiped from
the days of the Wilderness. He destroyed many idols and practically
banished idolatry from the land. Men turned from their evil ways; they
left off their wrongdoing and dealt justly and honorably, one with
another. Not only did they worship their God, but they had full faith
in Him.
It so happened, therefore, in the year 690, when Sennacherib marshaled
his great Assyrian army, in order to conquer Egypt, that another
crisis came upon Hezekiah and Judah; but neither king nor people
feared the Assyrians, because they now trusted in the God of their
fathers to save them from the hands of their enemy.
Sennacherib had determined to conquer Egypt for two reasons: first,
because none of his great predecessors on the Assyrian throne had ever
gone so far south in their conquest; second, because Egypt was always
stirring up rebellion in the Assyrian provinces of Asia Minor, by
promising them help. Sennacherib figured, therefore, that, with Egypt
thoroughly subdued, the great Assyrian Empire would be permanently
established and strongly founded on absolute union.
Sennacherib made one of his whirlwind marches toward Egypt. A little
poem describing his march, is preserved in an ancient record:
"He has gone up from Rimmon.
He has arrived at Aiath.
He has passed through Migron.
At Michmash he lays up his baggage.
They have gone over the pass.
At Geha they halt for the night,
Ramah trembles.
Gibeah of Saul flees.
Shriek aloud, O people of Gallim.
Hearken, O Laishah.
Answer her, Anathoth.
Madmenah flees.
The inhabitants of Gebin are fled.
This very day he halts at Moab.
He shakes his fist against Mount Zion,
Against the Hill of Jerusalem."
Finally, Sennacherib had a problem to solve: He wanted to be sure of the
friendship of Hezekiah, through whose land he would have to pass on his
way to Egypt. He was afraid on the one hand, that, having passed through
Judah, Hezekiah might rebel and attack him from the rear; on the other
hand, he wanted the city of Jerusalem to be a safe-guard to himself,
so that, if he should be defeated by the Egyptians, he could escape to
its shelter.
Therefore, when he came within hailing distance of Jerusalem, he sent
word to Hezekiah to deliver the city into his hands peacefully, and
also to join with him in the proposed conquest of Egypt. Sennacherib
was willing to furnish two thousand horses if Hezekiah would furnish
him two thousand men to mount them, and to join the Assyrian cavalry.
He did not want to attack Jerusalem, because he could not afford to
waste his strength on a long siege, and thus weaken his forces before
he met Egypt on the battlefield.
But this time, Hezekiah, being older and wiser, and knowing that his
people were certain that God was on their side, sent word back to
Sennacherib that there was no reason whatever for such action on the
part of Judah at this time since the country was at peace with
Assyria, paying the tribute annually.
Encamped at Lachish, on the western border of Palestine, and eager to
press on toward Egypt, Sennacherib thought to force Hezekiah into
helping him by an unusual display of his power; so he sent his
Commander-in-Chief, with a great retinue, to the king in Jerusalem.
A meeting was arranged between them and Hezekiah's representatives
just outside of Jerusalem, at the conduit of the upper reservoir, the
place where Isaiah first confronted King Ahaz.
King Hezekiah, himself, did not go out to receive the emissaries from
the Assyrian army. Instead, he sent Eliakim, who was Governor of the
Royal Palace, Shebnah, the Secretary of State, and Joah, the
Chancellor of the Treasury.
A great assembly of the leading citizens of Jerusalem gathered upon
the walls to see and hear the interview between the agents of
Sennacherib and Hezekiah.
The spokesman for the Assyrians began:
"Thus saith the great king, the King of Assyria, 'What
confidence is this which you cherish? You, indeed, think, a
simple word of the lips is counsel and strength for the war!'
Now, on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
"Indeed, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even
upon Egypt, which, if a man lean on it, will go into his
hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh King of Egypt to all who
trust in him."
Eliakim, speaking of his king, attempted to make clear to the Assyrians
that they were misjudging Hezekiah. He did not lean upon Egypt; no
alliance had been entered into between the two nations; Judah did not
desire to enter into this quarrel at all and relied upon neither Egypt
nor Assyria. "We trust in the Lord our God," concluded Eliakim.
Quick as a flash came back the reply from Assyria:
"If you say to me, 'We trust in the Lord our God,' is not
_he_ the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken
away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship
on this altar in Jerusalem?'
"Now, therefore, give pledges to my master and King of
Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you
are able on your part to set riders upon them.
"How can you repulse one of the least of my master's servants?
And yet you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen! Have I
now come up against this place to destroy it without God's
approval? God it was who said to me, 'Go up against this land
and destroy it'"
Shaken a little bit in their argument, and a great deal in their
faith, Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah held a short consultation. Then
Eliakim said to the spokesman, in a whisper:
"Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Aramaic language,
for we understand it; but do not speak with us in the Jewish
language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
The Assyrian caught the drift of this request at once. He understood
that the people had evidently not given up their idolatrous practices
very graciously and that their trust in the Lord their God was not as
great as that of Hezekiah. He, therefore, answered Eliakim, so that
all could hear:
"Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak
these words? Is it not rather to the men who sit on the wall,
that they shall eat their own refuse and drink their own
water together with you?"
Then, walking away from the official group and facing the assembly on
the walls, he cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, saying:
"Hear the message of the great king, the King of Assyria.
Thus saith the king, 'Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he
will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.'
"Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in God by saying, 'God
will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given
into the power of the King of Assyria.'
"Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus saith the King of Assyria,
'Make your peace with me and come over to me; thus shall
each one of you eat from his own vine and his own fig tree
and drink the waters of his own cistern, until I come and
take you away to a land like your own land, a land full of
grain and of new wine, a land full of bread and vineyards,
a land full of olive trees and honey, that you may live and
not die.'
"But hearken not to Hezekiah, when he misleads you, saying,
'God will deliver us!' Has any of the gods of the nations
ever delivered his land out of the power of the King of
Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are
the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Where are the gods
of the land of Samaria that they have delivered Samaria out
of my power? Who are they among all the gods of the countries,
that have delivered their country out of my power, that God
should deliver Jerusalem out of my power!'"
This speech cast a deep gloom upon the people gathered upon the wall.
All were silent. Not a single man, not even the representatives of the
king, could answer the Assyrians' arguments.
Then Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah hastened back to Hezekiah and repeated
to him the message of Sennacherib through his Commander-in-Chief. As
soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered
himself with sackcloth and went into the Temple. He sent Eliakim,
Shebnah and the eldest of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah, and they said to him:
Thus saith Hezekiah:
"This is a day of trouble and of discipline and of contumely.
It may be God, thy God, will hear all the words of the high
official, whom his master, the King of Assyria, has sent to
defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord
your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the
remnant that is left."
When Isaiah heard the message of the king, he sent back this reply of
hope and courage to the palace:
"Thus saith the Lord: 'Be not afraid of the words that thou
hast heard, with which the servants of the King of Assyria
have blasphemed me. Behold I will put forth a spirit in him
so that he shall hear tidings and shall return to his own
land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his
own land.'"
Hezekiah, acting upon the advice of Isaiah, then sent Sennacherib's
emissaries back to Lachish with a flat refusal to do what the King had
asked him.
When the Commander-in-Chief returned to Lachish, to his great amazement,
Sennacherib and his army were not there. An officer who was left behind,
however, told him that Sennacherib had broken camp and had marched
against Libnah.
The next that was heard of the Assyrian armies in Jerusalem was that a
plague had fallen upon the camp of Sennacherib and that, in great
disgust and disappointment, the king and what remained of his forces,
had returned to Nineveh.
It was at that time that Isaiah gave expression to a conception of
God's relationship to the nations of the earth that was entirely
different from that held by the people up to this time.
According to Isaiah, God had used Assyria as a rod with which to whip
the people of Judah, God's chosen people, into an understanding of His
law and commandments, by which they should live.
Now that Hezekiah and his people had thoroughly reformed and were
following in the ways of God and His commandments, Assyria's work was
done. Because Assyria, however, had prided herself that she had become
a great power in the world on account of her own strength, God would
now destroy Assyria.
This is the dirge that Isaiah sang regarding Assyria and God's hand in
the life and death of nations, while Sennacherib was retreating toward
Nineveh, his capital:
"Woe, Assyria, rod of mine anger,
The staff in whose hand is mine indignation.
Against an impious nation am I wont to send him.
And against the people of my wrath I give him charge,
To take spoil and gather booty,
And to tread them down like the mire in the streets.
But he--not so doth he plan;
And his heart--not so doth it purpose.
For destruction is in his heart,
And to cut off nations not a few.
For he saith, By the strength of my hand have I done it,
And by my wisdom, for I have discerned it;
And I have removed the bounds of thy peoples,
And I have robbed their treasuries,
And like a mighty man I have brought down those who sit enthroned.
And my hand hath seized, as on a nest,
The riches of the peoples.
And as one gathers eggs that are unguarded,
I, indeed, have carried off all the earth."
To this boasting of Assyria, God answers, speaking through Isaiah:
"Before me is thy rising up and thy lying down,
Thy going out and thy coming in.
I know thy raging against me
And thine arrogance hath come to my ears.
Therefore I will put my ring through thy nose,
And my bridle between thy lips,
And will make thee return,
By the way in which thou hast come."
Not long after this, while Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of
Nisroch, in Nineveh, he was attacked by his own sons and killed, and
Esarhaddon, one of his sons, succeeded him on the throne of Assyria.
CHAPTER IX.
_The Fruit of His Labor._
Blessed is the man whose toil and striving of a lifetime bring
results, even though he, himself, does not live to see them!
Thrice blessed is the man, the fruit of whose labor is garnered while
he is among the living, to see and enjoy it!
The prophet Isaiah was a thrice-blessed man. Although no one knows
where or how he died, every one knows where and how he lived, and how
his life was fruitful in blessings for his people.
He saw kings come and go on the throne of Judah. He passed through
many crises in the history of his country. He experienced many woes
because of his patriotic devotion to the welfare of his land and
people.
But through it all he remained, uncomplainingly, staunch in his faith
and true to his God. He believed, implicitly, in the justness of God
and, therefore, in His demand of righteousness as the standard of
living for the people. Isaiah's own strength, in time of trial and
tribulation, came from his trust in God; and that same trust he urged
upon Jerusalem and Judah in his day and, through his discourses, upon
all men, for all time.
Thus it was given Isaiah to see the fruit of his labor in the peace
and prosperity of Judah during the remainder of his life which he,
undoubtedly, spent in peace with his family in his home in Jerusalem.
It is no wonder that he conceived the ideal of a time of universal
peace, in which God shall be the God of all the nations, an era in
which all peoples shall come to Him, and believe in Him, and follow in
His law, and live such just and righteous lives that there would be an
end to war in all the earth:
"It shall come to pass, in the end of days,
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the
top of the mountains,
And it shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow unto it.
And many nations shall go and say,
'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountains of the Lord,
And to the house of the God of Jacob;
And he will teach us of His ways,
And we will walk in His paths.'
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,
And He shall judge between the nations,
And arbitrate for many peoples;
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more."
THE COMMONER
CHAPTER I.
_His Awakening._
Sloping down from the Judean hills toward the plain of Philistia and
the Mediterranean Sea is the Shefelah, or Lowlands, a section of
Palestine, far-famed for its stretches of rich farm lands, vineyards
and olive groves.
These foothills were once the constant battlefield on which the
Israelites from the hill country and the Philistines from the plain
struggled for mastery; but, since the days of King Amaziah, who
conquered Philistia soon after he came to the throne of Judah, in the
year 798, the Shefelah, far away from the political turmoils in
Samaria and Jerusalem, was one of the most peaceful and richest farm
sections in Israel or Judah.
Up in Samaria, in the year 734, Hoshea, son of Elah, had played the
traitor and had bent his head to Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrian
conqueror. Up in Jerusalem, Ahaz, son of Jotham, had acted the coward
and had slipped his neck under the Assyrian yoke. But down in the
Shefelah, on the lower highlands, politics and political intrigues
played little part in the lives of the humble peasant folk.
Numerous towns and villages dotted the Shefelah, especially on the
highway running northeast from Gaza, in Philistia, to Jerusalem, in
Judah. These towns and villages were the centers where the neighboring
farmers gathered at set times and where the many daily wage earners
lived all the time.
Rich and fertile sections like the Shefelah were the backbone, the
strength and the power of Israel and Judah. While the high and mighty
princes and merchants lived in the capitals and squandered their
wealth, the simple and hard-working farm folk and wage earners made up
the bone and muscle of the population, raised the necessities of life
and, in times of need, furnished the sinews of war.
Yet, notwithstanding the fertility of the Shefelah, its rich fields
and olive groves, its plentiful and well-watered pasture lands, the
farmers in the entire section, had to live from hand to mouth. Though
they labored hard at their toil, they were, in fact, poor and unable
to lay aside anything for a rainy day.
It was very difficult to become reconciled to such a condition of
affairs. No one seemed interested enough to fathom the reason for it,
except a certain young peasant, named Micah, who had a home in the
town of Moresheth, and was the proud possessor of several well-paying
olive groves and vineyards in the vicinity.
Micah's interest in the population was aroused, one day, when the
widow of one of his neighbors came to him for advice. Her husband had
owned a farm, adjoining one of Micah's pastures, on which there was a
heavy mortgage. Now that the head of the family was gone, the merchant
in Jerusalem, who held the mortgage, threatened to eject the widow and
the children, because they could neither pay the amount borrowed nor
the interest due thereon.
The sturdy young peasant, brought up in a home of severe simplicity,
where gentleness and kindness were taught and practiced, pitied the
woman and her children in their sad plight and loaned her the needed
interest payment to stave off ejection from her home. Thereafter, he
looked after her family until the oldest son was able to manage his
own affairs.
Talking to some of his day-laborers he discovered a very amazing
situation. He found that most of them had, at one time or another,
owned their farms, but had lost possession of them through lawsuits,
in which mortgage holders from Jerusalem had involved them, or through
unjust treatment on the part of tax collectors and corrupt judges.
More amazing still was the knowledge that, all through the Shefelah,
the majority of vineyards and olive groves were not owned by those who
cultivated them, at all, but that they formed the vast estates of the
princes and wealthy men of Jerusalem.
The beautiful and fertile Shefelah, then, was not the habitation of
happy and contented tillers of the soil, who sang at their tasks and
prided themselves upon their independence! It was in the heavy grip of
a _land trust_, controlled by the great interests in the capital!
This knowledge caused Micah to enter upon his investigations with
greater interest and deeper feeling. He discovered that the nobility
and the rich were fattening upon the sweat and toil of the rural and
working population. A farmer thrown into debt was sure to lose his
acres, and a wage earner, having no possessions that could be taken
from him, was sure to lose his liberty. Widows and orphans were
quickly robbed of their inheritances by the greedy land-grabbers of
the metropolis, aided by a corrupt judiciary.
All this was a severe shock to the young peasant. He, himself, born
and raised on a farm, had inherited his father's estates free from
debt. He lived simply, worked hard, saved a neat sum every year--and
imagined that every one else was doing the same.
Awakened to the real condition of affairs, Micah now determined to
leave his estates in the care of his trusted overseers and to go to
the great and famed cities of his land, to study at first hand the
causes that had made possible the terrible economic and social wrongs
in his section of the country.
CHAPTER II.
_The Cause of the Common People._
Micah, the Moreshtite, came to Jerusalem when the capital was at
comparative peace. The struggle between King Ahaz and the Prophet
Isaiah had narrowed down to an armed neutrality, as it were--the king
was paying his tributes to Tiglath-Pileser and the prophet was
preparing his "Remnant" for the day when the crown prince, Hezekiah,
would come to the throne.
The young peasant took no sides and embraced no causes in Jerusalem.
He stood aside, the better to study conditions as an onlooker. To his
great dismay and sorrow, he found the situation even worse than he had
imagined it. It was true of the rich and mighty of the capital that
"They covet fields and seize them,
And houses, and take them away.
They oppress a man and his house,
Even a man and his heritage."
This much was clear on the surface of things.
Rapacity on the part of the rich meant oppression
of the poor; increase of power for the mighty meant
decrease of opportunity for the humble tiller of the
soil and for the wage earner.
Seeing all this and understanding it, Micah felt himself impelled to
fight the cause of the common people.
Conditions and a sympathetic soul thus made Micah a Prophet.
One of the people, he spoke in their behalf with the feeling and
passion of a man who has been through the mill of bitter experience:
Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits,
As when they glean the grapes of the vintage:
There is no cluster to eat,
Nor first-ripe fig which my soul desireth.
The godly man has perished out of the earth,
And the upright among men is no more:
They all lie in wait for blood;
They hunt every man his brother with a net.
Both hands are put forth for evil,
To do it diligently.
The prince asketh and the judge is ready for reward,
And the great man, he uttereth the evil of his soul;
Thus they weave it together.
The best of them is as a brier;
The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge.
A man's enemies are the men of his own house.
Where shall he look for help and guidance--he, a commoner, without
power, without influence? To whom shall he go for instruction, for
inspiration, to struggle against conditions in the face of which he
was helpless?
Micah returned to Moresheth to think matters over at his leisure. It
was not an easy or simple task that he had voluntarily assumed.
One source of strength he always had to rely upon. Close to the soil,
seeing the Creator's handiwork in the fields at his feet by day and in
the wonders of the starry firmament by night, he was full of the
spirit of God.
At the very outset of his self-imposed mission he could exclaim,
fervently:
"But as for me, I will look unto the Lord:
I will wait for the God of my salvation:
My God will hear me."
God's guiding hand often leads us to our destinations by winding and
unexpected paths. It is strange to record that Micah's first
opportunity, in the task he had set before himself, came to him by way
of Egypt and an Ethiopian usurper. The ambitions of that wily Pharaoh
led directly to the fall of Samaria and to the Commoner's first great
prophetic utterance.
CHAPTER III.
_When Samaria Fell._
A man who is a traitor to his country will, in all likelihood, prove
traitorous to his avowed friends.
Hoshea, son of Elah, of Samaria, was such a man. Tilgath-Pileser, the
Assyrian conqueror of Damascus assisted Hoshea to assassinate King
Pekah, and appointed the assassin to rule in Pekah's stead, in the
year 734 B. C. E., merely as a matter of expediency. It was an easier
method of re-annexing the rebellious Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian
Empire without cost of life or treasure, and he stooped to it.
But when Tiglath-Pileser died and Shalmaneser IV succeeded him on the
throne in Nineveh, Hoshea gave ear to the siren voice of Egypt, and
rebelled.
It is related that Hoshea sent an embassy to King So, more correctly,
Pharaoh Sabako, of Egypt, when that energetic Ethiopian prince became
master over the whole of the ancient Nile country.
The new Pharaoh had ambitions northward. It was he who organized a
coalition of Assyrian provinces in the Mediterranean country, with an
eye to Nineveh. The traitor, Hoshea, proved the miserable stuff he was
made of by joining actively in Sabako's ambitious schemes.
In answer to Sabako, Shalmaneser rushed his veteran troops toward
Egypt. The Kingdom of Israel was the first rebellious province he had
to deal with. Hoshea was prepared when, in 728, Samaria was besieged.
Samaria held out bravely enough for two years, waiting all the time
for help from Egypt. But Sabako's promised armies and funds never
came.
Shalmaneser died during this siege; but his successor, the great
Sargon, came on with re-enforcements and finally, in 721, captured and
reduced Samaria, before Hoshea's Egyptian ally had been heard from.
That was the end of the Kingdom of Israel, founded by Jeroboam ben
Nebat, in the year 937, B. C. E., when he rebelled from Rehoboam, King
Solomon's son. The Kingdom of Israel had lasted just 218 years.
Sargon sent away 27,290 captives, the youth and pride of Israel and
Samaria, and had them scattered widely apart, in all his provinces.
The conqueror, himself, proceeded southward to meet and defeat Sabako,
at Raphia, on the great Nile-delta-highway along the Mediterranean
coast.
While the records do not show that these events made any impression
upon the leaders of thought, such as Isaiah, in Jerusalem, they
brought Micah his first opportunity to prohesy.
Living in Moresheth, on the highroad from Gaza to Jerusalem, Micah,
who up to this time knew only of the corruption of the classes and the
oppression of the masses of Judah, now had first-hand information of
the political situation, as well.
Sargon's armies captured and passed through Gaza on their march to
Raphia. By way of Gaza, Micah learned that Samaria had not been razed
to the ground. There was, therefore, hope for the city and for Israel.
Micah's hope, however, was not political. He, unlike Isaiah in
Jerusalem, was not concerned with politics. His concern was with the
social wrongs and economic outrages of which, as he had now learned,
both Israel and Judah were victims.
There was this distinction, however, Israel had already collected the
wages of its sins, had paid the price and had been chastised by the
rod of Assyria. Judah might be recalled to its better self and escape
a similar calamity.
So, before the dust of Sargon's victorious armies, passing through
Gaza, had settled in the roads, Micah went again to Jerusalem and
launched forth earnestly and with vigor upon his prophetic mission.
In his very first public utterance he drew a deadly parallel between
Israel and Judah:
"Hear, ye peoples, all of you;
Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is:
And let the Lord God be witness against you,
The Lord from His holy temple.
For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place.
And will come down, and tread upon the high places the earth.
And the mountains shall be molten under Him,
And the valleys shall be cleft,
As wax before the fire,
As waters that are poured down a steep place.
For the transgression of Jacob is all this,
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
And what are the high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?"
Fearlessly, with bold strokes, and in vivid pictures, he described the
terrible conditions as he knew them:
"Hear, I pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob,
And ye judges of the house of Israel!
You surely ought to know what is just!
Yet, you hate good and love evil;
You who devour the flesh of my people,
Flay their skin from off of them,
And break their bones!"
It was possible for Judah to be saved, if the governing classes, the
judiciary, the great landowners and the wealthy merchants dealt justly
and righteously with the common people, the poor, the peasant and the
wage earner:
"For this will I lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make a wailing like the jackals,
And a lamentation like the ostriches."
Micah did more than merely preach and wail. Down in the Shefelah he
set himself to help his fellow-peasants and to correct the injustices
practiced upon them, wherever he could.
But the western foothills were not the whole of Judah; and the origin
and source of the demoralizing wickedness lay not in the farm
sections, but in the capital; and as to the capital, "her wounds are
incurable." The cause of the downfall of Samaria and Israel
"Is come even to Judah;
It reacheth unto the gate of my people,
Even unto Jerusalem."
Therefore Micah, less hopeful than Isaiah, who was biding his time for
a change of heart in the rulers and chiefs of the country, said of the
coming of the day of reckoning:
"Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not answer them:
Yea, He will hide His face from them at that time,
According as they have wrought evil in their doings."
CHAPTER IV.
_Judah Learns its Lesson._
King Hezekiah's preparation for rebellion against Sennacherib, in 715,
shattered any optimistic hopes that Micah held for a continuation of
improvement in the condition of the common people, in which he had
been instrumental up to this time. The costs of war always fell
heaviest on the poor, and the devastating results of war upon the
farming population.
Younger and readier to act than his older contemporary, Isaiah, he was
not satisfied with a negative warning, such as the older prophet gave
the leaders in Jerusalem when he walked about the city barefoot and in
the garb of a slave.
Micah came up to the capital to stir it up; and he did set the people
to talking and to thinking when, in a memorable speech, he differed
fundamentally from Isaiah in his declaration that the Temple, the very
House of God, as well as the city in which it was situated, could and
would be destroyed:
"Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob,
And rulers of the house of Israel,
That abhor justice and pervert all equity;
That build up Zion with blood,
And Jerusalem with iniquity.
The heads thereof judge for reward,
And the priests thereof teach for hire,
And the prophets thereof divine for money;
Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say,
'Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No evil shall come to us.'
Therefore shall Zion, for your sake, be plowed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps,
And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."
Micah, naturally, received opposition from the same clique of false
prophets that opposed Isaiah, and made his labors so difficult and, at
first, unsuccessful; that misled king and people, "that bite with
their teeth and cry, 'Peace,' to make my people to err." To these
Micah gave as well as he received:
"The seers shall be put to shame,
And the diviners confounded.
Yea, they shall all cover their lips,
For there is no answer of God.
But as for me,
I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord,
And of judgment and of might,
To declare unto Jacob his transgression
And unto Israel his sin."
For years Micah kept at his task. He was indeed a tribune of the people,
the champion of their rights against the vested interests, the great
commoner of his day and time, fearlessly and courageously standing out
against all opposition, trusting absolutely in God.
At last came the crisis of 704-1 and Hezekiah's memorable change of
mind and heart. Micah played no mean part with Isaiah, in Hezekiah's
reforms that followed.
Reforms were needed, however, not alone by "the heads of the house of
Jacob" and "the rulers of the house of Israel," not alone in the
courts of law and among the priests and prophets; they were needed as
well in the religious beliefs and practices of the common people,
whose cause was Micah's cause.
With the passing of all political danger to the fatherland, Micah
retired permanently to his farms in Moresheth. There he devoted the
remainder of his peaceful, happy years to teaching the common people,
"_my_ people," as he fondly refers to them, the religious, moral
and ethical life that God demanded of them.
Micah employed the same vivid, picturesque language in his speeches of
peace as he did in his addresses of war. There is extant a remarkable
oration in which he pictures a religious controversy between God and
his people, and in which he makes a declaration of what _true
religion_ is that has not been better phrased in all the thousands
of books that have been written on religious subjects since that day.
The address is in the form of a dialogue between God and Israel, and
reads as follows:
"Hear ye now what the Lord is saying:
'Arise, contend thou before the mountains,
And let the hills hear thy voice.
Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversty,
And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth:
For the Lord hath a controversy with His people,
And He will plead with Israel."
Then God is pictured pleading with the people:
"O my people, what harm have I done unto thee?
And wherein have I wearied thee?
Testify against me.
Is it because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage,
And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam?
O my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, devised,
And what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him;
(Remember what took place) from Shittim unto Gilgal,
That ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord."
As with the purely religious teachings of the older prophets, the people
could not quite understand Micah. They believed that religion consisted
in offering the prescribed sacrifices regularly, and that, in having
fulfilled this obligation they had performed their religious duties.
The average Judean's idea of religion, of the relationship between man
and God, was that of a _bargain_ between man and God; so many
sacrifices brought to God, so many favors from God, in return; the
more precious and numerous the sacrificial oils and burnt offerings,
even to one's children, offered to God, the more precious and numerous
would be the blessings from God.
To this false idea Micah replies, with irony that stings, in these
words:
"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves of a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
To which God answers, through Micah, in the world-famed and unparalleled
definition of religion:
"It hath been declared unto thee, O man, what is good:
Yea, what doth the Lord require of thee,
But to do justice, and to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with thy God?"
THE PROPHET OF WOE AND HOPE
CHAPTER I.
_The Escape._
The entirely unexpected assassination of King Amon, of Judah, in the
year 639, surprised and appalled the entire country, as well as
Jerusalem, the capital.
King Amon had succeeded his father, Manasseh, to the throne of Judah
but two years before. He had had no chance to show the character of
man he was and the type of a ruler he would be, and yet, without
apparent knowledge on anybody's part that a conspiracy was brewing
among the princes of the royal palace itself, Amon's life was snatched
away in a most cruel manner.
The evening of the tragedy in the king's household was no different
than the many others that had preceded it during the time of Amon's
reign. The king and queen had just said good-night to their
eight-year-old son Josiah and his little friend Jeremiah, who had spent
the day with the young prince, and had sent them to bed, in the wing of
the palace occupied by the princes, in care of Ebed-melech, a young
Ethiopian slave, of whom both boys were very fond.
Jeremiah, who was the son of the high priest Hilkiah, lived in Anathoth,
the exclusive suburb to the north of Jerusalem, where the wealthy,
priestly families had their homes.
It was after much begging on the part of Josiah with his royal father,
and on the part of Jeremiah with his mother, that permission was given
Jeremiah to accompany his father into Jerusalem and to spend the day
and night with Josiah in the palace.
The high priest and the king were great friends, though they differed
from each other on matters of politics and religion. Hilkiah was a
follower of the religious practices and ideals of the prophet Isaiah,
while Amon was inclined to follow the religious practices and ideals
of his father, King Manasseh.
A very strange thing happened in Jerusalem and Judah when both the
good King Hezekiah and the great prophet Isaiah died and young
Manasseh came to the throne. The many religious and social reforms
that were instituted by Hezekiah under the guidance and inspiration of
Isaiah, and which saved the country from the ravages of the Assyrian
conqueror, were brought to a sudden halt by King Manasseh.
It seems that the young king was entirely under the influence of the
party at court. This party composed mostly of Manasseh's young friends
differed with the opinions of the old men who stood by Hezekiah and
Isaiah. It was the story of Rehoboam and of Ahaz all over again. The
king listened to the advice of his boon companions instead of to the
counsel of the sages.
Manasseh had another reason which, in his own mind and in the minds of
his advisers, justified the reaction he led against the teachings of
"the remnant" founded by Isaiah, and later taken up by Hezekiah.
Assyria, after the death of Sennacherib, had become the great world
power at which all the Assyrian kings, from Tiglath-Pileser III down,
had aimed. Sennacherib's successors actually conquered Egypt twice,
thus extending the sway of Assyria, with its capital at Nineveh, over
the whole of the then known world.
During both wars in which Egypt was defeated, the little kingdom of
Judah was, by its geographical location, the stamping ground for the
Assyrian armies. Judah was called upon during these wars to do more
than pay its regular tribute. It was forced to furnish food, supplies,
horses, shelter and camps to the Assyrians.
The suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Assyrians was
greater than ever before, and the court party asked the king whether
the nation was better off when following in the footsteps of Isaiah
and Hezekiah and worshiping the God of Isaiah and Hezekiah, than it
would be if it worshiped the gods of the Assyrians, the worshipers of
which were always victorious over their enemies.
While the Assyrian armies were coming and going through Judah, Manasseh
was anxious not alone to show his loyalty to the Assyrian throne by
the punctual payment of the tribute levied on Judah, but to show also
his personal faithfulness to the kings of Assyria by paying homage to
their gods.
So Manasseh began a bloody campaign against "the remnant", who were
now called the Prophetic Party in opposition to the Court Party.
Jerusalem flowed with the blood of the martyrs, who were nowhere safe
from the power of Manasseh and the princes.
So great and good a man as the high priest Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father,
had to hide his most inward religious beliefs and convictions in order
to escape the sword of King Manasseh.
When, after a reign of forty-five years, Manasseh died, the Prophetic
Party looked eagerly to Amon, the new king, in the hope that he would
change conditions in the land from those established by his father;
but Amon permitted all the heathen shrines that were erected
everywhere in Judah, and even in the Temple in Jerusalem, to remain.
Just why, therefore, the Court Party assassinated King Amon will never
be known. The fact remains that on this particular evening in the year
639, armed men sprang up in the palace as if by magic. The royal
family was completely exterminated, with the exception of the boy
Josiah, who had retired with Jeremiah, his young guest, to the
nursery.
Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father, who, after taking leave of his boy and
seeing the two youngsters in the care of Ebed-melech, was preparing
for the hour's trip to his home in Anathoth, was as completely dazed
by the uprising and as unprepared for it as was the king himself.
The conspirators, however, had no design on Hilkiah's life; and so, in
the pandemonium that reigned in the palace, Hilkiah stole quietly up
to the nursery.
At the door he met Ebed-melech on guard. The young Ethiopian always
waited just outside the little princes' apartment until he was sure
that the boys' every wish was satisfied and that they were asleep,
before retiring to the servants' quarters.
Hilkiah did not speak to Ebed-melech. In his excitement he probably
did not see him. He opened the door, which was not locked, hurriedly,
and entered, followed closely by the Ethiopian, who surmised, from
Hilkiah's appearance, that something unusual had happened.
Instead of finding the boys tucked away in bed, asleep, he found them
wide awake, at play. Josiah had leaned a tiny chair up against the
posts at the foot of the bed, propped it up with pillows, and, with a
wand in his hand, was playing at king. Jeremiah, in another part of
the room, had bound and laid several toy animals upon a little table
and was playing at high priest.
When Hilkiah broke into the nursery the boys stopped suddenly at their
play and looked shamefacedly at the priest. They did not notice the
flushed face nor the anxious, eager look in his eyes that changed
immediately to hope as he snatched both lads in his arms, bade them be
silent and started out of the nursery.
Ebed-melech was at his heels, asking what was wrong. Hilkiah told him
of the uprising, in a few whispered words. The Ethiopian thereupon
took the amazed Josiah in his brawny arms and led the way through the
servants' hall to the court yard.
In the tumult that reigned within the palace Hilkiah, Ebed-melech and
their burdens were not noticed by the conspirators. Unmolested, they
made their way into the royal gardens. There they hid in the shrubbery
with the boys, whose cries had been stopped by commands and pleading.
When the noise quieted down in the palace and the conspirators had
evidently been satisfied with their work, Hilkiah, carrying Jeremiah,
and Ebed-melech, carrying Josiah, quietly stole out of the garden and
made their way through a narrow by-way crossing the Mount of Olives to
Anathoth.
They arrived at Hilkiah's home at daybreak, both boys asleep. Jeremiah's
mother, almost distracted by anxiety, met the four eagerly at the door,
and, after a few words of whispered explanation by her husband, she
understood what had happened.
Silently and with the help of servants the two boys were brought into
Jeremiah's room, where they slept peacefully, being none the wiser for
the tragedy in the palace in Jerusalem.