THE FALLING AWAY.
Though Jerusalem was almost wild with joy—and, indeed, so utterly had the
Greek army disappeared that deliverance was complete for the time—Judas’s
heart was full of sad forebodings. Demetrius, he knew, had a steadfastness
of purpose which augured ill for the future. He was not a madman like
Epiphanes, nor a child like Eupator; but a cool-headed, resolute man, who
had seen something of the world, and would carry out his plans with both
perseverance and skill. Would he sit down under the defeats which he had
received and recognize Jewish independence? Judas thought it unlikely. The
vengeance might be laid aside, but it would be sure to come. Could he hope
to repeat these victories again and again? Once before he had been reduced
to the greatest straits, and had only escaped by an unexpected change in
the purpose of the young Antiochus. Could he look for anything so
marvellous again? Only one plan appeared to him to be possible, and he
lost no time in calling a council of his principal followers and
announcing it to them. It was certain, he told them, that there would be
another war, and a war that would last for years, if only the Jewish
people could hold out so long. “We warriors may endure it, and if the
worst come to the worst, we can but fall on the field of battle. But what
of the old and the weak? What of the women and children? And then we are
not united. Our foes are of our own household. We have to fight not only
against the Greek, but against the Jew also. And even in this assembly
there are some,” he went on, with an emphasis which could not be mistaken,
“who speak evil of me behind my back. What, then, shall we do? Speak, any
one who has counsel to give.”
The appeal was met with silence, and the speaker continued, “You have
nothing to advise. Listen, therefore, to my counsel, and resist it not in
haste because it seems strange. There is a nation that, rising from a
beginning small as ours, has now made for itself a great dominion. They
are stern to their enemies, but they are just and faithful to their
friends. Like Israel in the earlier and better days, they have no king to
rule them after his own pleasure, but an assembly that weighs every plan
carefully and wisely. And in battle they cannot be resisted. Have you
heard of such a people?”
One or two voices answered with the word “Rome.”
“You have said well,” he said; “it is of the Romans that I have been
speaking. Let us make alliance with them. We shall be, as it were, an
outpost for them against the King of Syria, against whom they have fought
already, and, doubtless, will fight again. And they will be a protection
to us. And with the Romans on our side, we need fear the Greeks no more.”
One or two of the council were in Judas’s secret. Others had guessed, more
or less correctly, what he was intending, but on most the announcement of
his intention fell like a thunderbolt. For a few moments there was the
pause of intense astonishment. Then followed a burst of indignation, in
which, of course, the Chasidim led the way.
“Say not,” cried one of their chief speakers, “the Romans are like to
Israel because they have no king. Did not Samuel say to the people, when
they fell away from their faith because of Nahash the Ammonite, and would
have a king after the manner of the heathen round about, ‘The Lord your
God is your King.’ And shall we, knowing that the Lord Jehovah is the King
of the Jews, reject Him from reigning over us, and choose us for rulers an
assembly of some three hundred idolaters. Will you set these men of sin to
be lords over the City of God?”
“Nay,” replied Judas, “you speak unadvisedly and rashly. We shall have our
own rulers. We shall worship after our own way. The Romans will help us in
war; and we shall help them as we only can. Did not David make friendship
and alliance with Hiram, King of Tyre, and did not Solomon, in whose reign
was peace, make that friendship and alliance yet closer?”
The Chasidim replied, quoting the prophets and denunciations of the
Egyptian alliance. “Even that accursed Rabshakeh,” they said, “spoke the
truth, when he said that Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was a bruised reed which
will go into a man’s hand and pierce it, if he lean upon it. So shall it
be with thee, if thou lean upon Rome.”
The war of words raged long and furiously. The Chasidim had the best of
the argument, but to the majority of the council the prospect of a settled
peace was irresistibly alluring. And the influence of Judas, too, was
overpowering. By a large majority it was decided to send to Rome,
Eupolemus, the son of John, and Jason, the son of Eleazar,(27) envoys who
had been selected for the mission by Judas himself.
When the resolution had been passed the council broke up, and the Chasidim
dispersed with dark looks and saddened hearts. The next few days passed in
uncertainty and gloom. No news had come from Antioch as to the movements
or intentions of the King. But there was little doubt as to what he would
do. Whatever they might try to believe in their secret hearts they could
not but own that when the opportunity came Demetrius would deal them a
blow into which he would put all his strength.
And how would that blow be met? Would they be able to escape it, or parry
it, or stand up against it? The Chasidim, the Ironsides, the men who had
been the stay and strength of Judas’s armies, who had followed him to
victory at Beth-zur, at Beth-horon, at Adasa, were miserably dejected. The
embassy to Rome had broken their spirits. The issue, before so simple to
these stern souls, narrow, perhaps, in their range of vision, but of a
clear and single eye, was now confused. While they fought for the Lord
against the gods of the heathen, they could confidently expect that He
would show Himself greater than all gods, and this faith had made them
irresistible. But now, if Jew and Roman were to fight side by side, with
what confidence could they call upon the Lord of Hosts? Was He the Lord of
_that_ host, in whose ranks were ranged the battalions of the
uncircumcised?
Some left the leader whom they now regarded as unfaithful to his trust,
and departed to distant villages, hanging up the swords which they were
steadfastly resolved not to draw side by side with the heathen. Others, in
whom the military instinct of discipline, or the personal attachment to
Judas, as the general who had led them so often to victory, were so strong
as to overpower all other considerations, remained with him. Nothing could
take them from his side, but they went with heavy hearts and with an
outlook on the future that was almost hopeless.
Meanwhile the embassy started. What the answer of the Romans would be
Judas did not doubt. They would rejoice to secure the alliance of a people
who could lend them aid so useful. But would the answer come in time to
save the city and the Temple from the wrath of Demetrius?
And indeed that wrath did not linger. Within a month Bacchides was on his
way from Antioch with a force of twenty thousand foot and two thousand
horse. The renegade Alcimus accompanied him, and was to be reinstated in
his high-priesthood. Their line of march was through Galilee. On their way
they took the fortified town of Masaloth, and put the garrison to the
sword. It was about the time of the Passover feast that the invaders
reached Jerusalem. There was some talk about attacking it; but Alcimus was
urgent in resisting the proposal. “The King’s quarrel,” he said, “is with
Judas, who is the cause of all this mischief, and Judas is not here. And
the King has commanded that I should be replaced in my office; but what
shall my office profit me if there be no city for me to govern, nor Temple
in which I am to minister?” Bacchides yielded to these representations,
and leaving the city unhurt marched to Beeroth (a few miles north-east of
Jerusalem) and there pitched his camp.
Among the patriots there was such doubt and dismay as had never been felt
from the day when the aged Mattathias struck the first blow for freedom,
not even in that dark hour when Judas and his famine-stricken followers
were about to make their desperate sally from the Temple fortress. It was
not that they were fighting against overwhelming odds, for they had faced
as great before; it was that they had lost their unquestioning faith in
their leader.
“Ah!” said Micah to Azariah, when they were discussing the matter for the
twentieth time—and indeed it was almost the only subject of their talk—“I
have seen these heathen from near at hand—I say it with shame—and I know
what they are better than you, better than Judas, who is so good that he
can scarcely believe that other men are bad. ‘He that toucheth pitch shall
be defiled,’ says Jesus, the son of Sirach, and though our captain is
greater than other men, in this matter he is but as they are. What madness
drove him to meddle with the accursed thing? God forgive me if I speak
evil of the ruler of my people, but I must say that which is in my heart.”
“Nay,” said Azariah, still loyal to his great-hearted chief, though he too
had doubts which he had to crush down by sheer force of will—“nay, you go
too far. Did not Jehoshaphat, the servant of the Lord, make alliance with
the children of Edom when he fought against Mesha, the King of Moab?”
“But the children of Edom,” answered Micah, “were akin to our people; but
as for these Romans, they are utterly unclean. O, brother, I have often
thought whether, as a faithful servant of the Law, I could remain any
longer with the captain.”
“You will not leave us?” cried Azariah—“it only wants that, and I shall be
ready to fall on my own sword.”
“No; I shall not go. If I am wrong the Lord pardon me; but I cannot go
when so many are falling away. Yet if these Romans come—then I shall
depart.”
“They will not come—at least before the battle. Judas knows it, and it
troubles him. As for me, I know not. But this I know, that he is the
servant of the Lord, and I will follow him to the death. Nevertheless I
cry day and night unto the God of Israel that He will not suffer His
servants to be found fighting in the ranks of them that know Him not.”
There were the same doubts among the faithful in the city. The aged
Shemaiah had been in the Temple all day, assisting at the sacrifices which
were being offered, and the prayers which were being put up for the
success of Judas and his army. All night the services would be continued;
but the old man was utterly worn out, and he had been led back by one of
the Levites to Seraiah’s house.
“Father,” said Ruth, “do you think that our prayers are heard? I know that
God does not vouchsafe the visible signs of His presence in His Temple as
He did in the days of old, and that He does not touch with fire from
heaven the sacrifice that He accepts. But yet He sometimes seems to
answer, and we feel in our hearts that He will give us what we ask. Has it
been so to-day with you, father?”
There was a touching eagerness in her manner, as she put the question. Not
Miriam, not Deborah, had loved their country with a sincerer passion than
did she; and then she had a husband and a brother in the camp, and she
knew that before another sun had set, their fate and the fate of their
country would be decided.
The priest shook his head. “My daughter,” he said, “I can give you no
comfort, for no comfort has been given to me. My heart was cold within me
while I prayed, for I could not forget that the servant of the Lord had
touched the accursed thing when he sought the alliance of the Romans.”
“O sir,” broke in Huldah, who had been eagerly listening, “he did not do
it for his own gain or advancement. He did but seek the peace of Israel.”
“Daughter,” said the old man, solemnly, “there are that cry ‘Peace!
Peace!’ when there is no peace; and that is no peace which can be got only
by unlawful dealing with the heathen. It is God, and God only, that can
give this blessing to His people. And He has greater blessings in store
than this. Does Judas seek to be honoured and to make us honoured by the
nations round about? If he would be in truth the servant of the Lord let
him rather be content with the lot of which Isaiah the prophet speaks: ‘He
is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.’ So only shall he make many righteous; so only shall he be exalted
of God. This is the lot of the chosen people: not to live at ease among
the nations.”