Moses having brought out of Egypt the people of Israel, and
having conducted it through the Desert as far as the eastern bank
of the Jordan, in sight of Canaan, the Promised Land, his mission
terminates. "Get thee up," says the Eternal to him; "get thee up
into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and
northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine
eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua,
and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over
before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land
which thou shalt see." [Footnote 55]
[Footnote 55: Deuteronomy iii. 27, 28.]
{194}
Moses has been, in the name of Jehovah, the liberator and the
legislator; Joshua is the conqueror, the rough warrior, of yet
signal piety and modesty, the ardent servant of Jehovah, the
faithful disciple of Moses. After passing the Jordan, traversing
the land of Canaan in every direction, and giving battle in
succession to the greater part of the tribes that inhabit it, he
destroys, or expels, or negotiates with them, and divides their
lands among the twelve tribes of Israel. These exchange their
wandering life for that settled agricultural life of which Moses
has given them the law. The descendants of Abraham settle as
masters in the soil in which Abraham had demanded as a favour the
privilege of purchasing a tomb.
{195}
The consequences of this new situation are not long in showing
themselves. The conquest is protracted and difficult: the
violence and rapine that characterise a state of war--one of
dispossession and of extermination--replace amongst the Hebrews
the adventures and the pious emotions of the Desert. In spite of
their successes, the conquest nevertheless remains incomplete:
several of the Canaanitish tribes defend themselves
efficaciously, and cling, side by side with the new comers, to
their territory, their laws, their gods. The twelve tribes of
Israel disperse and settle, each on its own account, upon
different and distant points, some being even separated by the
Jordan. The unity of the Hebrew nation, of its faith, of its law,
of its government, and of its destiny weakens rapidly; the
tendency to idolatry, which the Hebrews had so often evinced when
wandering in the Desert, reappears and developes itself, fomented
by the vicinity of the Polytheistic tribes of Canaan. Not,
however, that we can precisely say that Polytheism prevails
against the One God; but rather that material images of Jehovah
become, in the midst of particular tribes, the object of the
idolatrous worship so strongly prohibited by the Decalogue. "And
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves."
[Footnote 56]
[Footnote 56: Judges iii. 7.]
{196}
Under such influences the moral and social state of the people of
Israel undergoes profound changes; the barbarism, which had been
formerly amongst them fanatical and austere, becomes unruly and
licentious; their chiefs, their Judges, during the epoch which
bears their name, no longer possess, sometimes no longer merit,
their confidence; even the heroic acts of some amongst them--of
Gideon, of Deborah, of Samson,--present rather a strange than an
august character. The Mosaic Theocracy veils itself; the Hebrew
nation becomes disorganized; day by day, the religious and
political anarchy in Israel extends and becomes aggravated.
{197}
But where the Divine Light has once shone, it is never completely
extinguished; and when the voice of God has once spoken, the
sound is never entirely lost, even to ears that no longer listen.
It has been affirmed that after Joshua, in the lapse of time that
took place between the government of the Judges and the end of
the reign of Solomon, the recollection of Moses, of his actions
and his laws, had almost entirely disappeared--had lost all
authority in Israel. Some passages from the biblical narrative
will suffice to remove this error. I read in the Book of Judges,
with respect to the Canaanitish tribes who resisted and survived
in their countries the conquest and settlement of the Hebrew
tribes:--These nations "were to prove Israel, to know whether
they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which he
commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." [Footnote 57]
[Footnote 57: Judges iii. 4.]
And again, in the Book of Samuel, it is the Eternal "that
advanced Moses and Aaron .... which brought forth your fathers
out of the land of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place."
[Footnote 58]
{198}
And in the Book of Kings,[Footnote 59] David, on the point of
expiring, says to his son Solomon, "Keep the charge of the Lord
thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his
commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is
written in the law of Moses."
[Footnote 58: 1 Samuel xii. 6, 8.]
[Footnote 59: 1 Kings ii. 3.]
And when Solomon, after the solemn dedication of his Temple, had
addressed to God his prayer of thanksgiving, "he stood, and
blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel,
according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word
of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses
his servant." [Footnote 60]
[Footnote 60: 1 Kings viii. 55, 56.]
In the customs and lives of the Israelites these "good promises"
had not practically, it is true, preserved all their efficacy:
the worship of Jehovah and the legislation of Moses had fallen
into sad oblivion, and undergone serious changes. But, in the
national sentiment, Jehovah the Eternal was ever the One God, the
True God; and Moses his interpreter.
{199}
Moral and social disorder had invaded the Hebrew Confederation;
the Divine Law and Tradition were incessantly violated, still not
ignored: they ever continued the Divine Law and Tradition, the
objects of the faith and veneration of Israel.
When the evil of anarchy had brought with it great national
reverses,--when the Philistines on the south, the Ammonites on
the east, and the Mesopotamians on the north, had placed in
jeopardy the Hebrew settlement in Canaan,--a general cry arose;
on all sides, the tribes demanded a strong government, a single
chief, one capable of maintaining order within, and supporting
abroad the position and the honour of Israel. A great and
faithful servant of Jehovah, the last of the judges, and the
greatest of the prophets since Moses,--Samuel,--had recently
governed Israel, and strenuously struggled to arrest the progress
of popular vice and misfortune; but he had become old, and his
sons whom he had made "judges over Israel ... walked not in his
ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and
perverted judgment.
{200}
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and
came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art
old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to
judge us like all the nations." [Footnote 61 ]
[Footnote 61: 1 Samuel viii. 1-5.]
The demand had in it nothing singular; even at the epoch when
God, by his servant Moses, was personally governing Israel, the
chance of the establishment of a human kingdom had been foreseen
and provided for beforehand by the Divine Law: "When thou art
come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt
possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a
king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; thou
shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God
shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king
over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not
thy brother." [Footnote 62]
[Footnote 62: Deuteronomy xvii. 14, 15.]
{201}
Although thus provided for by the Divine Law, the demand of a
king was extremely displeasing to Samuel; "for the kingly rule
was odious to him," says the historian Josephus; "he had an
innate love of justice, and was ardently attached to the
aristocratical form of government, as to the form of polity which
rendered men happy and worthy of God." [Footnote 63]
[Footnote 63: Josephus, Ant. Jud. vol. vi. ch. iii. 3.]
But the Eternal "said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the
people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected
thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them ... Now therefore hearken unto their voice; howbeit yet
protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king
that shall reign over them." [Footnote 64]
[Footnote 64: 1 Samuel viii. 7-9.]
Samuel predicted to the Hebrews how much the kingly form of
government would cost them, all that they would have to suffer in
their families, their property, and their liberties:
"Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and
they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may
be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go
out before us, and fight our battles.
{202}
And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed
them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel,
Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king." [Footnote 65]
[Footnote 65: 1 Samuel viii. 19-22.]
The world's history offers no example where the merits and
defects of absolute monarchy were so rapidly developed, where
they were displayed so strikingly, as in this little Hebrew
monarchy, instituted with the view of escaping from anarchy by
the express desire of the people itself. Three kings succeed to
the throne, in origin, character, conduct, and reign absolutely
dissimilar. Saul is a warrior, chosen by Samuel for his strength,
bodily beauty, and courage; ever ready for the combat, but
without foresight, without perseverance in his military
operations; easily intoxicated with good fortune; hurried away by
brutal, capricious, or jealous passions; now engaged in furious
struggles, now appearing in a dependent position, with his patron
Samuel, his son Jonathan, his son-in-law David; a genuine
barbarian king, arrogant, changeable of humour, impatient of
control, prone to superstition, a moment serving Israel against
her enemies, but incapable of governing Israel in the name of its
God.
{203}
David, on the contrary, is the faithful and consistent
representative of religious faith and religious life in Israel;
the fervent and submissive adorer of the Eternal; he is so at all
the epochs and in the most varying aspects of his career, whether
of humility or of grandeur; at once warrior, king, prophet, poet;
as ardent to celebrate his God in his character of poet, as to
serve Him in the capacity of warrior, or to obey Him in that of
king; equally sublime in his thanksgiving to the Eternal for his
triumphs as in his invocation to Him in his distresses;
accessible to the most culpable human weaknesses, but prompt to
repent the offence once committed; and giving always to impulses
of joy or pious sadness the first place in his soul; very king of
the nation that adores the very God.
{204}
David accomplishes the work of his time: he obtains the object
for which the monarchy had been demanded and instituted: he
leaves behind him the tribes of Israel reunited at home, and
reassured against foreign enemies, proceeding too in the path of
good order and confidence. Heir to his father's work, his
father's success, Solomon comes next, and reigns forty
years--years of almost as much repose as splendour: "God gave
Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of
heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore." [Footnote 66]
"And he had peace on all sides round about him. And Judah and
Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig
tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."
[Footnote 67]
[Footnote 66: 1 Kings iv. 29.]
[USCCB: Footnote 66 should be: 1 Kings iv. 9.]
[Footnote 67: Ibid. 24, 25.]
[USCCB: Footnote 67 should be: 1 Kings iv. 4, 5.]
The kingdom and the kingly authority rose under the government of
Solomon, and throughout all Western Asia, to a degree of power
and splendour before unknown to the Hebrews. A prosperity out of
all proportion with the position of a new king and a small state,
and which reminds us of the rapid histories and the political
comets of the East.
{205}
Solomon at this point lost sight of both wisdom and virtue: the
first hereditary prince of the Hebrew monarchy terminated his
life like a voluptuous sovereign of Ecbatana or of Nineveh; the
son of the pious King David became a sceptical moralist; although
a profound observer of the nature and destiny of man, such
observation had led but to feelings of disgust. Nor did the
monarchy survive the monarch: the nation became effeminate and
corrupt, in the effeminacy and corruption of its sovereign.
Scarcely was Solomon dead, when his monarchy was divided into two
kingdoms, which, at first rivals, became soon openly hostile to
each other; sometimes a prey to tyranny, sometimes to anarchy,
and almost always to war. It was not, as formerly, merely a bad
phase of transition in the history of the Hebrew nation; it was
the commencement of national decline--decline irremediable,
hopeless.
{206}
But what, in this decline, will become of the law revealed on
Sinai to Moses? Is it destined to fall with the monarchy of
Solomon, or to languish and die out in the midst of the struggles
and disasters of Judah and of Israel? Quite the contrary: the
religious faith and law of the Hebrews will not only perpetuate
themselves, but will again shine forth at this epoch of political
ruin.
Above the fortune of states are the designs of God, to which
instruments are never wanting; the kings continue to perpetrate
acts of violence, and the people to show marks of weakness; but
amidst all, the prophets of Israel will maintain the ancient
Covenant, and prepare the coming of that new Covenant which is to
make of the God of Israel the God of mankind.