Sometimes the Hebrews would keep the wheat and barley unthreshed with the sheaves piled up in grain ricks and would thresh it out, a little at a time, in the low, half-concealed wine presses, which were dug in the rock. No one's life was safe where these marauders were in the habit of coming, and no family could be sure of food to carry them over the winter months.

GIDEON, THE ABIEZRITE

In the tribe of Manasseh there was a little clan called Abiezer. One night a band of Midianites came on camels and raided the villages of this clan, killing some of the people, and carrying away whatever they found of value. They then fled back across the Jordan River to the desert before enough Hebrew men could get together to resist them.

The counter-raid.—In the heart of one young man, the brother of some who were killed, God planted a sudden determination to put a stop to these murders and robberies. He called for volunteers to pursue this band across the river, and when some three hundred had responded they set out in hot haste, down the hillsides into the plain of the Jordan, up the slopes on the eastern side, and out onto the plains where the Midianites supposed they were safe. It was hard to track them over these solitary wastes; and they had their swift camels. But Gideon trailed them; stealing up at night, he surprised them. They fled in terror leaving much spoil, and for many years the Hebrews were not molested by this particular tribe of desert wanderers.

The kingdom of Gideon.—Out of this experience the Hebrews in central Canaan gained another lesson in cooperation; and they made up their minds to profit by it. Here is a man, they said to themselves, who can lead us to victory against our foes. If we all agree to do as he says we can all stand together, each for all and all for each. So they came to Gideon, and asked him to be their ruler. He refused at first, but it is clear that he finally accepted and really became king over some of the tribes and clans of central Canaan. One of his sons, a certain Abimelech, seized the kingdom after Gideon's death and proved to be a selfish tyrant. He was killed by his enemies, and that was the end of the dynasty of Gideon. "How can we have unity and cooperation under a strong leader," the Hebrews asked themselves, "and not at the same time be in danger of slavery under a ruthless tyrant?" That was a difficult question.

THE PHILISTINES

Meanwhile a national enemy far more dangerous than any previously mentioned had begun to threaten their existence as a people. About the same time that the Hebrews settled in Canaan there had landed from ships on the southwestern coast some newcomers of another race, perhaps akin to the Greeks; they were called Philistines. They quickly became a rich and powerful nation, holding the coast towns of Gath, Askelon, Gaza, Ashdod, and Ekron. They were ambitious to become masters of the whole land of Canaan. Their soldiers, in well-trained bands, built forts and established garrisons here and there, in the leading towns, and compelled the Hebrews to pay tribute.

At the same time they did not protect the country from other enemies. For example, there were the Amalekites on the southern border, who were robber-nomads, just like the Midianites on the east. There were the people of Ammon, a town east of the Jordan. From these and other petty enemies the Hebrews suffered much, and the Philistines did nothing to help them. All they cared about was the tribute. "O for a leader like Deborah and Gideon!" the Hebrews once again began to cry.

The messengers with the raw meat.—One day messengers came hurrying through the towns and villages of central Canaan bearing sacks or baskets of raw beef chopped into small squares. To the leading men of each village, they handed a piece of the bloody flesh with this message: "This piece of ox flesh is from Saul, the son of Kish, of Gibeah in Benjamin. As this flesh is cut into small pieces so will the flesh of the men of your village be chopped up if you do not come at once, armed for battle, to help our brothers in Jabesh in Gilead east of the Jordan, which is besieged by the Ammonites." "Who is Saul?" many asked, and few could answer. Some perhaps were able to explain that he was a brave and able young farmer, a friend of a prophet named Samuel, in the tribe of Benjamin. But it was the raw meat that persuaded them to obey the summons. Here is a real leader, they said, a man who means what he says. And two or three nights later an army of Hebrews, with Saul in the lead, came dashing in among the tents of the Ammonites who were besieging Jabesh and put them to flight. The Gileadites were saved; and for years to come they remembered Saul with gratitude.

THE KINGDOM OF SAUL

Shortly after this victory there was a great gathering of the Hebrews of Benjamin and some of the neighboring tribes and Saul was elected as king. Would he also become a tyrant? Would he make their children slaves and take the best of their flocks and herds and wheat and oil, leaving them in poverty while he lived in luxury? There were many who thought so. The prophet Samuel, himself Saul's friend, warned them of the danger although he helped to make Saul king. But the danger from the Philistines was so great and they had suffered so much from their enemies on account of their lack of unity that they were willing to take the risk of organizing themselves as a kingdom under Saul.

The first victories over the Philistines.—Soon there came a summons to battle. The first encounter turned out well for the Hebrews. One of Saul's sons named Jonathan was especially brave and skillful as a leader, and was much loved by the people. Other victories followed. More and more clans and tribes flocked to Saul's standard. A young man from Judah, named David, became famous as a captain and was made the chief commander of Saul's armies. The Philistines were not driven out from their forts, but they were held in check and the sky seemed brighter. There was a chance now for victory and peace. Everyone was hopeful for better things. When the soldiers came back from fighting the Philistines, the women would go to meet them with songs and dances. One of their songs ran like this:

"Saul has slain his thousands And David his ten thousands."

Saul's jealousy.—When Saul heard of this couplet he was jealous. "They gave more glory to David than to me," he thought. "One of these days, they will make him king in my place." His son Jonathan did not share his fears. He loved and trusted David. But from that time forward Saul hated David, and finally drove him out as a fugitive. Instead of fighting the Philistines he spent all his strength chasing David from town to town and from cave to cave. Of course the Philistines took advantage of this quarrel between the two ablest men among their foes and came back with a strong counter attack. Saul's own life was forfeited and that of Jonathan also in a disastrous defeat. The Philistines were masters once more. Saul's kingdom also had proved for the most part a failure.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Locate on the map the Midianites and the Philistines.

2. Why would it have been a calamity for the world if the Philistines had conquered the Hebrews?

3. Study carefully the parable of Jotham (Judges 9. 8-15). In the light of this shrewd illustration, why is it hard to get good men to run for political office, even to-day?

4. If we should undertake to have an entirely different kind of mayors, aldermen, governors, Presidents and so on, perhaps really good men would accept these offices. What kind?



CHAPTER XIII

THE NATION UNDER DAVID AND SOLOMON

After Saul's death his son Ishbaal fled across the Jordan where the Philistines were not yet in control, and was accepted as king by the East Jordan tribes. More and more, however, the hearts of all the Hebrews turned toward the young David, who, under the Philistines, to whom he paid tribute, now became king over the tribe of Judah in the south.

DAVID AS A LEADER

David was a born leader. Physically he was an athlete. With his sling he could throw stones straight, as Goliath, the Philistine giant, discovered to his sorrow. He had the gift of winning friends, even among those who might naturally have been his enemies, for example Jonathan and Michal, son and daughter of Saul, and Achish, the Philistine king. His followers with few exceptions were deeply devoted to him, risking their lives, sometimes, to gratify his slightest wish. He was wise in his dealings with men, knowing when to be stern and when to be lenient.

The nation united under David.—For a few years there was more or less of war between the followers of David and the followers of Ishbaal. David did not like this war. He had no heart for fighting his own kinsmen, the people of the north. His method was to win them over without conquest. His chief difficulty in this was to restrain his own followers. Fighting always leads to more fighting. A bitter personal feud flamed up between Joab, David's chief general, and Abner, who was the real power in the other kingdom. David did not dare to punish Joab, yet he plainly showed his displeasure. When finally Ishbaal himself was murdered in his sleep, David put the assassins to death.

- Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration Fund. -

By this policy he pleased the people, both in the north and in the south. And after seven years of division the leading men of all the tribes came to David at Hebron, in Judah his headquarters, and made him king over the entire Hebrew nation, north, east, and south.

David's victories.—Soon after this David declared his independence of the Philistines. War broke out and for a time it went against the Hebrews. But in the end they were able to rally their resources under their new leader, and inflicted two crushing defeats on their old enemies, which made them instead of the Philistines once and for all the masters of Canaan.

From the Philistines David turned against the other petty enemies who had so often taken advantage of the weakness of the Hebrews. Already, while a vassal of the Philistines, he had thoroughly punished the Amalekites, in the deserts of the south; and now he gave the Ammonites and Moabites and other enemies on the east a taste of Hebrew warfare. Before many years passed they had all learned their lesson, and there was peace in Canaan.

PROGRESS IN CIVILIZATION

During all those years when the Hebrews were fighting for existence life in their little villages and towns had been anything but pleasant. Not only was there constant danger from human enemies and from famine, there was also a lack of the comforts and pleasures of civilized life. There were no books to read, no musical instruments to play on, and few opportunities for any kind of recreation. They had only coarse, rough clothing to wear, and coarse, ugly furniture for their homes.

The development of commerce.—Now that peace and security had been achieved, David did much to make the daily lives of all his people happier. One way was through commerce. The great merchants of those days were the Phoenicians, the people of Tyre and Sidon, whose daring sailors steered their ships into every harbor on the Mediterranean Sea and even out upon the stormy Atlantic and up to the tin mines of Britain.

Very wisely David made a treaty of friendship with Hiram, king of Tyre, and as a result Phoenician artists and artisans came down to Jerusalem and helped to beautify the city. Phoenician wares also began to be peddled in all the towns of Canaan: fine linen fabrics, such as the Hebrews did not know how to weave; beautiful jars and cups, such as Hebrew potters had not learned to fashion; jewels of silver and gold and precious stones, over which Hebrew maidens hovered with longing eyes. Soon one could see that the homes in these little towns of Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim were cleaner and better furnished, and the people were more neatly dressed. Commerce of the right kind is always a blessing.

Education.—Better than fine clothes and jewels and furniture are the things that feed the mind. David himself was a skillful harpist, and no doubt this helped to make harp-playing popular. On one occasion the ark of Jehovah, the sacred chest which had been carried in the desert, was brought up to Jerusalem. It was accompanied by a chorus of singers and a band of instrumental players, "with harps and lyres and cymbals." In the worship of the temple at Jerusalem music from this time on had an important place. And all up and down the land here and there, one could hear in humble homes the tinkle of harp strings; and boys and girls who liked music could learn to play.

If not in David's time, then very soon after, the first Hebrew history books were written. These contained stories which had been handed down from generation to generation; stories about the beginnings of things; stories about Abraham and Moses and other early heroes.

There were, of course, only a few copies of written rolls of stories, as compared with the millions of volumes which are constantly being turned out to-day by our great printing presses. But these few were much read, and those who read committed many of the stories to memory so that they could repeat them again and again in their home circles. In this way life grew more rich in pleasure and interest for many a Hebrew youth and maiden.

DAVID'S SUCCESSOR, SOLOMON

After David's death his son Solomon was made King. He also encouraged commerce, both by land and by sea. His ships sailed down the Red Sea to India, and back, and over the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. They brought back, according to the author of First Kings, "gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks."

Solomon's folly.—Alas for the happiness of the people, Solomon was a different kind of a man from his father. Like so many other sons of good kings he was spoiled by too much luxury and too little discipline. He had the reputation of being very wise, but in reality he was very foolish. His chief ambition was to have splendid palaces, and to make a great display of riches, like the kings of Egypt and Babylonia.

In order to build these fine buildings and have great numbers of servants it was necessary to extort the money from his people by heavy taxes. They were also compelled to labor without pay in his quarries and elsewhere. So with all the increased wealth in the land and with all the seeming progress in civilization, the common people were really wretched—almost worse off than in the old days of disunion and confusion and fear.

The disruption of the kingdom.—As a result of this cruelty and oppression, the northern tribes, after Solomon's death, rebelled against his son Rehoboam, who seemed likely to become even more of an oppressor than his father. The tribe of Judah in the south remained faithful to the family of David. So the nation was split in two parts, which were never reunited.

If only all kings could be like David! He indeed was far from perfect; he was guilty of some very wicked crimes. But on the whole he came nearer than most kings to the best ideals of the Hebrews for their rulers: a man "from among thy brethren: ... neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold, ... that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, ... and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand nor to the left."

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up Joab in a good Bible dictionary, and see how much David owed to this extraordinary man for his success.

2. Read 2 Samuel 23. 13-17, as a good example of the devotion and loyalty David was able to awaken in his followers.

3. With which did David do the more for the happiness of his people, with the sword, or with his harp?

4. Why did Solomon grow up with selfish and extravagant habits and ideals? Read 2 Samuel 11, 12 for an explanation.



CHAPTER XIV

THE WARS OF KINGS AND THE PEOPLE'S SORROWS

The Hebrews did not greatly better themselves by the division of the kingdom and by the revolt of the northern tribes from Solomon's son. There were still kings both in the north and in the south. And all they cared about was glory and luxury for themselves.

AN ERA OF PERPETUAL WAR

In order to get glory and wealth these kings made war on neighboring countries. For a long time there was war between the northern and southern Hebrews. There were long and very bloody wars between the Hebrews and the Arameans, whose kings ruled in Damascus. There were many wars between rival candidates for the throne among the Hebrews themselves. Especially was this true in the northern kingdom where, during the two hundred years of its separate existence, there was a revolution on an average every thirty or forty years. In such cases all the members of the existing royal family would be assassinated and all persons who defended them or were suspected of sympathizing with them were put to death. After the murder of hundreds and sometimes thousands the new upstart conqueror would proclaim himself king.

Famine and pestilence.—These constant wars not only brought wounds and death and sorrow to many homes, they also kept all the people poor and increased the deadliness of the other great historic curses of humanity, such as famine. The money and labor spent on war might have been used in terracing hillsides and fertilizing fields, so that in times of drought the crops would not wholly fail and starvation and death might thus have been pushed back a little further from the cottages of the poor.

Wars also bring disease. In those days, epidemics of disease were frightfully common at best. They knew nothing about sanitation. Even in the most important cities, sewage and garbage were dumped in the streets. Leprosy was an everyday sight. Rats and other vermin swarmed everywhere except in the palaces of the rich; and when the soldiers came home from war, bringing with them typhus fever or cholera or the plague, the people died like flies.

The dynasty of Omri.—Among the best of the successors of David and Solomon were Omri and his son Ahab, in the north. They made peace with the southern Hebrews in Judah and renewed the old alliance with Tyre. They built as their capital the beautiful city of Samaria. Ahab especially was greatly admired as a brave warrior and as a king who on the whole tried to serve his country well. Yet even Ahab was a despot. His own glory and wealth were to him of chief importance, and his people's needs and sufferings secondary.

BACK TO THE DESERT

Under these conditions it was natural that many people should look back with longing to the olden times, especially to the time of Moses, before the people had left the desert and settled in Canaan. All these newfangled ways, they said, are evil. They have brought us only trouble. Especially bad is the worship of these Baals instead of Jehovah, the God of our fathers. No doubt Jehovah is jealous and angry and has brought war and famine and pestilence upon us for just this reason. Many, indeed, who did not altogether object to the civilized customs of Canaan were uneasy in their minds because of the worship of the Baals. When Ahab made his alliance with the king of Tyre he had built, in Samaria, shrines to the Baal of Tyre. This was in accordance with the religious ideas of those days. When two countries made an alliance there was supposed to be an alliance between their gods. But the Hebrews had made a special covenant to worship no other gods but only Jehovah. So there were many who were opposed to the worship of the Baals.

The Rechabites.—One Hebrew clan known as the Rechabites, actually became nomads again and did all they could to persuade others to do the same. They gave up their houses and lived in tents. They pledged themselves to drink no wine or strong drink, and they were enthusiastically devoted to the worship of Jehovah only. Naturally they hated Ahab for bringing in the worship of the foreign gods of Tyre. They did much to cause the overthrow of the dynasty of Ahab in favor of a general named Jehu, who was pledged to drive out the Phoenicians and their gods.

THE PROPHETS

There were also certain specially religious people, called prophets, some of whom saw the evils which were ruining the happiness of the people and fought against them. In the earliest days, these men who were called prophets were much like the soothsayers of other nations. They were supposed to have a special power of speaking revelations from God. Sometimes they went into trances. Sometimes they caused exciting music to be played in their hearing. Most of them spoke what seemed likely to be popular with their hearers. For example, once when Ahab wanted to start a new war against Damascus, he sent for prophets and some four hundred were brought to him. "Shall we go to war or not?" he asked. All but one, knowing that Ahab's heart was set on the matter, answered, "Jehovah says, go to war, and he will give you victory."

Micaiah.—The true prophets, however, were men of truth who worshiped Jehovah and waited for his teaching. Such a man was Micaiah. When Ahab asked him, "What do you say?" his answer was like the others. But his manner was so sarcastic that the king kept asking him. He finally declared that Jehovah had revealed to him that the proposed expedition would end in disaster. For this Micaiah was thrown into a dungeon. But his prophecy came true. The Hebrews were defeated, and Ahab himself was killed.

Elijah.—The greatest leader in this movement back to the desert and to Moses, was a prophet named Elijah. He was like the Rechabites in his aims. He was dressed like a desert nomad and his whole life was given to the cause of the old desert religion. He had a very clear understanding as to what was best in that religion. It was not merely because Jehovah might be jealous of other gods that Elijah fought against Baal worship, but also because Jehovah really stood for justice and righteousness as against the unrighteousness of the Baals. Elijah was not only a champion of Jehovah; he was a champion of the poor against their oppressors, a champion of the common people against the despotism of kings, as is so vividly and thrillingly illustrated in the story of Naboth's vineyard.

Elisha.—Elijah's work was carried on after his death by another prophet named Elisha. He also seems to have been a friend of the common people. Many traditions of his helpfulness to them are recorded in the second book of Kings. But his chief aim was to overthrow the dynasty of Ahab. It was Elisha who, with the help of the Rechabites, launched the revolution of Jehu.

A disappointing outcome.—Jehu was really no better than Ahab. He was willing to drive out the priests of the Phoenician Baal, and he offered many sacrifices to Jehovah. But his chief ambition was for himself. Instead of bringing peace and justice to the poor, suffering, war-scourged people, his reign was horrible for its bloody killings. No one was safe from his murderous jealousy.

There was needed something more than a mere revival of the "old time religion" of Moses. There had to be purer and nobler ideas of Jehovah, a better knowledge of the real nature of Jehovah and of what Jehovah demanded of men, and of the kind of worship which would please him. Till then there was little hope of happiness for men and women and little children.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read 2 Kings 6. 24-30 for a vivid picture of the sufferings of the common people of Israel, as a result of constant wars.

2. Read 1 Kings 20. 1-34 for some light on Ahab as an able king. What qualities are displayed by him, in the narrative of this chapter?

3. Look up Rechabites in the Bible dictionary for a more complete narrative about them.

4. Is war more of a curse to the common people to-day than in ancient times, or less? Why? What classes still suffer most from war, the rich and powerful or the common people?



CHAPTER XV

A NEW KIND OF RELIGION

Among all ancient peoples, including the Hebrews, a large part of religion was the burning of animal sacrifices on altars. Whenever a sheep or lamb or kid was slaughtered for food the blood was poured out on the sacred rock, or altar, in which the god was supposed to dwell. Afterward the fat was burned on the same rock. It was believed that the god in the rock drank the blood and smelled the fragrant odor of the burning fat.

Whole burnt offerings.—On special occasions, such as a wedding, the birth of a child, the beginning of a war, or the celebration of a victory, the entire animal was burned on the altar. The first-born calves, or lambs, or kids of any animal mother were also regarded by the Hebrews as sacred and were burned as whole burnt-offerings to Jehovah.

SACRIFICES IN CANAAN

After the Hebrews settled in Canaan they adopted other kinds of sacrifices. Grains and fruits were offered as well as animals. Wine and oil were poured on the altars. Baked cakes were burned. One sheaf from every harvest field of wheat or barley was supposed to be waved back and forth before an altar of Jehovah. This was a sort of religious drama by which Jehovah was thought to receive a share of the grain.

Religious feasts.—In Canaan also the Hebrews observed certain religious festivals, which corresponded to the early, middle, and late harvest seasons; they were called respectively, the "Feast of Unleavened Bread," the "Feast of Weeks" (or Pentecost), and the "Feast of Tabernacles." All of these were joyous occasions somewhat like our Thanksgiving Day, and at all of them each family offered to Jehovah some part of the products of their fields.

PRIESTS AND THEIR DUTIES

The altars where these sacrifices were offered were in charge of a special class of men, the priests. In the early days, in Canaan, there was a little temple, or shrine, outside each town and village with one or more priests in charge of it. Sometimes wealthy men had private shrines and hired their own special priests. It was the business of these men to know just how a sacrifice must be offered in order that it might be pleasing to Jehovah. There were certain rules and regulations handed down from generation to generation. There were certain kinds of animals which could not be offered. It was important to know just what parts of each victim were to be burned. The various meal offerings had to be prepared in a certain way. Yeast could not be used, nor honey.

The increasing number of priestly rules.—As the centuries passed more and more rules were worked out by the priests. This was their whole business in life, and, of course, they made much of it. More and more different kinds of offerings were invented; for example, incense, which was the burning of herbs which made a sweet-smelling smoke. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, especially Leviticus, are largely composed of these rules for sacrifices. The animals had to be washed, killed, and skinned, according to certain directions. The blood had to be disposed of according to strict rule—some placed in the horns of the altar, some on the priests, some on the worshiper bringing the offering, and so on. And the more there were of these rules, the more priests there had to be to remember and enforce them. Thus it came about that all too frequently sacrifices came to be the chief thing in religion. Religion meant sacrifices and not much else.

THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II

Jeroboam II, who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel for some forty years, beginning about B.C. 790, was in some ways like Ahab, who lived a century earlier. He was victorious in war and brought peace and prosperity to his nation. These years of peace brought little happiness, however, to the common people of Israel. They had already become so poverty-stricken during the long years of petty but cruel wars, under the earlier kings since Solomon, that they were practically at the mercy of a small class of nobles and wealthy merchants who grew richer all the time while the people grew poorer.

Evil days.—These rich men used false weights and measures. In buying wheat from the farmer they would use heavy weights, and get more than was right; in selling to the poor of the cities they used light weights, and so gave out little for much. They corrupted courts and judges, so that no poor man could get his rights. They charged enormous rates of interest for the money which the poor were obliged to borrow. All over the land the mass of the people were living in hovels and selling their sons and their daughters into slavery to keep from starving, while the rich men and their families lived in luxury and in wasteful, extravagant display.

None of this shameful injustice seemed to weigh heavily on any man's conscience, for they were careful to keep up all the sacrifices to Jehovah. And was not Jehovah showing his pleasure by granting them these long years of peace and prosperity? They forgot the old lessons of Jehovah's justice which the nation had learned from Moses. Even Moses, according to their traditions, had given laws about sacrifices and offerings. These seemed to be the essential thing. So they kept on offering up costly sacrifices at their great temples and shrines, with stately and gorgeous ceremonials, and thought to themselves, "How pleased Jehovah must be!"

AMOS

There came one day to King Jeroboam's own shrine at Bethel a man in the garb of a shepherd and speaking in the name of Jehovah, like the prophets. But what strange words are these which he utters?

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your ... meal-offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

What this shepherd prophet was proclaiming was a religion in which burnt-offerings, or sacrificial ceremonies of any kind had little or no place, but which expressed itself in justice and righteousness toward one's fellow men. What Jehovah wants is not sacrifices at all, he said, but to stop cheating the poor: to throw away your false balances, and set free the slave.

Amos' dire forebodings.—In many addresses, as reported in the book which bears his name, with bitter and thrilling eloquence Amos tried to drive home this great message to the hearts of his fellow countrymen. He warned them that unless they heeded, disaster would come to the nation. For as surely as Jehovah demanded justice, so surely would he punish injustice. Terrible are his pictures of the calamities with which the guilty Israelites would be visited. Nor did he appeal wholly to fear. There is now and then a pleading note in Amos. Honest and burning indignation and threats are indeed most common in the pages of his book; yet listen to this:

"Thus the Lord God showed me: and, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth ... and ... when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small."

There speaks the shepherd pleading for his little sheep—"How can Jacob stand, for he is small?"

THE RESULTS OF AMOS' WORDS

Amos' mission to the northern kingdom seemed to be a failure. He had come up from his sheep tending, in his home in Tekoa, in Judah, because he felt burning within him a message for his people. But he soon went home. The chief priest at Bethel drove him out. And apparently the people did not care. No doubt even the poor people in whose cause Amos had so eloquently spoken were shocked by his words. "What, are not our sacrifices holy and pleasing to Jehovah? Would he have us stop offering up burnt-offerings? That is almost blasphemous."

Bread upon the waters.—Yet there were some who listened. And the proof is found in the existence of the book of Amos in the Bible. Some one cared enough to preserve and copy the first manuscript of Amos' sermons and to make still other copies. Another proof is the fact that within that same century three other supremely great religious teachers caught up his great idea of a new kind of religion and repeated it in new and wonderfully convincing ways. Of these other prophets we shall learn more in the chapters to follow.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Glance over the book of Leviticus, also the latter part of Exodus, and the book of Numbers. How important did the Hebrews evidently consider the carrying out of sacrifices?

2. Look up in the Bible dictionary Jeroboam II and Amos. Find out more (1) about the times in which Amos lived and (2) about his personal history and character.

3. Read as much as you can in the book of Amos: chapters 1 and 2 and 7 and 8 are most important for our study.

4. Are religious ceremonies ever substituted to-day for the religion of justice and right? If so, explain how.



CHAPTER XVI

A NEW KIND OF WORSHIP

Amos seemed to think of sacrifices and burnt-offerings as mere formalities which distracted men's attention from the thing of real importance, namely, just and righteous dealing between man and his neighbor.

There was another prophet who lived a little later than Amos. Perhaps as a youth he heard Amos speak. This was Hosea, who probably came from Gilead east of the Jordan. This man saw even deeper into the truth of religion than Amos, and his messages wonderfully completed and rounded out the great true words which the older prophet had so bravely spoken.

THE GOOD AND THE EVIL IN THE OLD SACRIFICES

The old religion of sacrifices was by no means wholly evil. When a family in those days sat down to a happy feast and gave some of everything in gratitude to Jehovah, God really was there, not in the sacred rock, but in their love for one another and for him. When they poured out libations and burned fat on the altar, God was indeed glad, not because of the smell of the smoke or because he enjoyed drinking the blood, but because his children were grateful.

Wrong ideas of God.—On the other hand, these sacrifices, when misunderstood, tended to give people a wrong idea of God as one who was greedy for food and gifts. There was the greater danger of this wrong idea because of the character of the priests who were supposed to represent Jehovah. Many of them were very greedy indeed. The story of Eli's sons in 1 Samuel 2. 12-17 is an illustration. The priests were supposed to receive for their own personal support a part of all the gifts which were brought to the shrine. But the sons of Eli made it the rule that whatever came out of the meat kettle on a three-pronged fork stuck in by the priest should belong to him. Very often, it is plain, the priest got everything. And naturally the people came to think of Jehovah as like his priests—as a Being who cared only for gifts.

A worship based on greed.—The worship of such a god, or of a god who was thought of as being of such a character, would, of course, be very far from the love and adoration which we Christians are taught to offer to our Father, and was really far from the kind of worship advocated by devout Hebrews. It would be a sort of bargain-hunting worship: the people to bring gifts of the fat of lambs and libations of blood and wine, and the god to give them in return good crops of wheat and oil, and figs and grapes, and an abundance of silver and gold. If Jehovah would give these things, then worship Jehovah. If other gods and Baals would give more than Jehovah, worship them.

In short these sacrifices, as Hosea saw, were a kind of worship, and no worship is a mere formality, but is a vast influence for good or for ill. Because of these wrong ideas the sacrifices had come to be more and more an influence for evil. And you cannot have a righteous and happy human family in which men are just and kind to each other, without a true worship, growing out of a true idea of God.

HOSEA'S EXPERIENCE AND MESSAGE

This young man from the lovely, grassy plains and valleys east of the Jordan had had an experience which taught him much. He was by nature a man with a loving heart. He loved his native land with a burning patriotism. By and by there came to him, as to most young men, the experience of a passionate love for a beautiful girl. All the deep wells of tenderness in Hosea's loving heart were hers, and she became his wife. For a time they were happy; then little by little it became clear that this woman, Gomer, did not really love him as he loved her. She only wanted his money. And when she could get nothing more from him, or could get more elsewhere, she left him. She was like the woman in Kipling's poem, "The Vampire," "she did not care." It hurt Hosea. For a time the light of the whole world seemed darkened for him.

Reading a meaning in sorrow.—Then like a flash the thought came to him; Jehovah is just like me in this regard. He wants love, not gifts, from his people, a love which on their part does not fawn for other gifts from him in return, like the cupboard love of kittens purring for cream. He loves his people Israel just as I love Gomer. That is why he asks us not to worship these other gods, the Baals; not because he is jealous but because he is good. He wants us to learn a different kind of worship altogether—a worship which is not prompted by greed but by love.

With his whole soul aflame, Hosea poured these new ideas into the ears of his countrymen.

"I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings."

These great words were quoted by Jesus himself in one of his controversies with the Pharisees; they are one of the supreme utterances of human literature.

STORM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

This new insight of Hosea helped him to interpret hopefully the troubles which at that time were coming thick and fast upon his people. The forebodings of Amos were coming true. The kings of Assyria were ambitious. They had set their hearts upon a great Assyrian empire extending from Babylonia to Egypt. For more than two centuries each new king at Nineveh sent his conquering armies farther west and south. Already in Hosea's day they had more than once invaded northern Israel and had taken away tribute. And the leaders of the nation did not have the brains or the character to avoid a conflict with this merciless and resistless foe.

Jehovah loving even in punishment.—Amos had declared that Jehovah would surely punish his people because of injustices and wrongs which they were inflicting on one another. Hosea agreed, but was able to go further, and say that in these very punishments which were now coming Jehovah was still showing not his anger but his love. He was punishing in the hope that his children might learn their lesson and return to him in love.

Fall of the northern kingdom.—The nation, as a nation, seemed to pay no attention to Hosea's pleadings. They went right on living their selfish and greedy and lustful lives. And in B.C. 721, as a result of provoking the Assyrian king Shalmanezer to a fresh attack, the land was again invaded and the city of Samaria was captured and sacked. Thousands of the northern Hebrews were carried away as exiles to other lands and never returned. The northern kingdom was a failure. The religious ideals and dreams of Abraham and Moses had not yet been fulfilled. The common people had had little opportunity for happiness or growth in knowledge and goodness. But the southern kingdom still existed. And many a disciple of Hosea, some of them carrying scraps and rolls of papyrus on which his sayings were copied, fled to Jerusalem, and there sowed the seed of his great message of a God not only of justice but of love.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read Genesis 4. 1-15. In this story of Cain and Abel is there any hint as to how even an animal sacrifice might be true worship?

2. Look up Hosea in the Bible dictionary, or in the chapter on Hosea in Cornill, The Prophets of Israel. Find out more about the times in which he lived and about his personal history.

3. Read what you can in the book of Hosea. This is rather hard reading, but chapter 11 is not very difficult, and gives a good idea of Hosea's style.

4. Which kind of prayer counts more for the happiness of all, prayers for personal advantage, or prayers of love and gratitude to our Father?



CHAPTER XVII

JEHOVAH NOT A GOD OF ANGER

There are other mischievous delusions in regard to the character of God which we find among all races in the early childhood of their history. They think of their gods not only as greedy but as having arbitrary whims and as often falling into fits of unreasonable and cruel anger.

EARLY IDEAS OF JEHOVAH'S ANGER

The Hebrews were not entirely free from these wrong notions in their conception of Jehovah. Even in the story of Moses, for example, there is a strange narrative which declares Jehovah "met Moses and sought to kill him" and would have killed him except for the ceremonial rite which his wife Zipporah performed.

The story of the ark and the men of Beth-shemesh.—Similar to this is the story of the wanderings of the ark in 1 Samuel. This ark, or sacred chest, was regarded as the special dwelling place of Jehovah in Canaan, his permanent home supposedly being on Mount Sinai in the desert. When the ark was captured by the Philistines a plague broke out in every city where it was taken. Finally it was placed on a new cart with specially chosen cows to draw it, and sent back toward the Hebrew border, and in the course of time it reached the Hebrew town of Beth-shemesh. And we read that "the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the men of Beth-shemesh, when they looked upon the ark of Jehovah. So he smote among them seventy men."[4]

SACRIFICE AS A PROPITIATION OF JEHOVAH'S ANGER

It was just this idea of Jehovah as subject to fits of anger which prompted many of the old sacrifices. It was not merely that Jehovah was greedy and could be bribed with gifts to grant favors, but also that he was dangerous when his anger was stirred and hence sacrifices were necessary to placate him.

Human sacrifices.—An even darker side of the picture is the existence of human sacrifices, even among the Hebrews, in the worship of Jehovah. The pathetic story of Jephthah's daughter is the most conspicuous example. This warrior had promised to sacrifice to Jehovah whatever first came out to meet him, if he returned victorious from war. Alas, it was his own daughter! Yet he did not dare to break his vow.

The story of Abraham and Isaac also proves that human sacrifices to Jehovah were not unknown among the Hebrews. In this story Jehovah finally intervenes and allows Abraham to offer up a ram instead of his own son. Yet the story implies the belief that Jehovah might demand of a father that he kill his own son and burn him on the altar. These ideas continued to be believed even down to the time of the prophets, Amos and Hosea, and the others about whom we will study.

THE PROPHET MICAH AND HIS MESSAGE

About the time that Hosea was finishing his sad career in the north another prophet in the south caught up the torch of light and truth. His name was Micah. Like the two great men who preceded him, Amos and Hosea, his heart was stirred to pity and indignation by the sufferings of the poor and by the injustice and luxury of the rich and powerful. In plain, direct, and fiery sentences he denounced these evils and foretold punishment. Because of these things, he declared that "Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."

Micah was especially bitter against those men who made religion their business, and used it as a means of oppressing the poor—the prophets who proclaim a holy war against those "who put not into their mouths," that is, those who do not give them presents. The priests, Micah says, "teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money."

Micah's great message.—It was, of course, the existence of superstitious fears in the hearts of the people which made it possible for the priests and the prophets to join with the rich nobles in preying upon them. "You give me this or that," "You pay for this sacrifice or that—or I will call down a curse upon you from Jehovah. Some dreadful misfortune will come upon you." With one great word whose throbbing pity for the ignorance and sorrow of men makes it another of the great utterances of human lips, Micah cut the root of all such fears. Jehovah is not that kind of a God, he declared. He does not break out in fits of rage. He does not need to be wheedled back into good nature by costly offerings, perhaps even sometimes with the costliest offerings of all, one's own darling children.

"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? 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? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read the stories of the ark, referred to in this chapter. See 1 Samuel 6. 1-20; 2 Samuel 6. 1-9. What other way of explaining the death of Uzzah and of the men of Beth-shemesh occurs to you rather than the anger of Jehovah? In the case of the men of Beth-shemesh, read 1 Samuel 5, with its clear indications of contagious disease.

2. How has modern science helped to free mankind from the curse of superstitious fear?

3. Look up Micah in the Bible dictionary, and find out all you can about his personal history and work.

4. Are superstition and wrong religious beliefs ever made the means of extortion and oppression to-day? If so, how?

FOOTNOTES:

[4] 1 Samuel 6. 19, Greek version.



CHAPTER XVIII

ONE JUST GOD OVER ALL PEOPLES

THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH

The destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrian armies struck fear into the hearts of the Hebrews of the sister kingdom in the south. No one had dreamed that such a thing could happen. It is true that from the beginning of the terrible onrush the Assyrians had been almost irresistible. All the little nations which had stood in their way had been swallowed up.

Moreover, the prophets Amos and Hosea had plainly foretold that some such calamity would be sent upon Israelites by Jehovah on account of their sins. But very few of them believed these brave and lonely preachers of the truth. "Jehovah send the Assyrians against us! Why, that is absurd! We are Jehovah's people, and he is our God. What has he to do with the Assyrians? He may chastise us, but not by sending foreign armies to conquer us. What would he do if we should be conquered? He would have no nation to worship him." So they reasoned.

Jehovah too weak to protect his people?—When, therefore, the Assyrians actually did come marching down from the Euphrates River, hundreds of thousands of them with their gleaming armor and their multitudes of horses and war chariots, and besieged and captured the city of Samaria, leaving it a ruin, most of the Hebrews, north and south, were sick with fear and bewilderment. For them with their false notions it could mean only one thing: their God, Jehovah, was too weak to protect his people against the greater gods of Nineveh. The Assyrians said to them:

"Let not thy God in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them?... Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim?"

Against such taunts as these, the Hebrews, with their mistaken beliefs, could bring no answer.

THE CRAZE FOR FOREIGN GODS

With their faith in Jehovah breaking down there was a great running here and there after other gods and strange religions. Instead of trusting quietly in Jehovah's watchful care many of the people resorted in their terror to soothsayers and mediums, to "wizards that chirp and mutter." Jerusalem seems to have become almost as full of them as the cities of the Philistines, which had always been famous for their fortune-tellers and necromancers.

Alliances with other nations.—Another favorite way of seeking safety was through alliances with other nations and their gods. According to the beliefs of that age, when two nations made an alliance their gods were included in it. To overcome the Assyrians, therefore, it would be necessary to make an alliance with some other nation whose gods were very powerful. So the people of Jehovah began to "strike hands with the children of foreigners." The rulers of Jerusalem set about making coalitions with the other nations of western Asia: with the Philistines, the Syrians, the Phoenicians and, most of all, the Egyptians. The gods of the Egyptians were supposed to be especially strong: Osiris and Isis were the chief of their deities and they were believed to be the gods of the underworld—of Sheol, or Hades, the abode of the dead. So when these poor ignorant politicians at Jerusalem finally did succeed in arranging for an alliance with the crafty and deceitful kings of Egypt they said to themselves: "Now we are safe. The Assyrians cannot hurt us now. We have made a covenant with Death."

THE STATESMAN-PROPHET, ISAIAH

It is good to know that among many misguided people there was one man whose wisdom of the eternal Truth of God made him stand like a rock while the multitudes ran to and fro in uncertainty and despair. Isaiah was a comrade and co-worker in spirit with the prophets named in the three preceding chapters, Amos, Hosea, and Micah. It is by no means impossible that he had listened to the sermons of Hosea, and thus caught from him his inspiration. He must certainly have known Micah personally, for they lived and preached only some twenty-five or thirty miles apart—Micah in the village of Moresheth and Isaiah in the city of Jerusalem.

Isaiah's message.—Isaiah's special message to his people was that all the nations of the world are subject to the righteous rule of the God of righteousness, Jehovah; and that the attempt to find safety for their nation by alliances with other nations and their gods was utterly foolish and wrong. Undoubtedly this message found a response in the hearts of those who remained faithful to Jehovah.

This message grew out of the great and splendid ideas as to Jehovah's character which Amos and his successors had been working out: that he was a God of righteousness and love, not greedy for burnt-offerings, not flaring up into fits of anger, and needing to be soothed and mollified by peace offerings; but a God who asks only for justice and fair-dealing among men, and for true love in response to his own. Isaiah repeated these great truths to his own people in Jerusalem in glowing words whose eloquence is unsurpassed. For example:

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow....

"I will turn my hand upon thee, and will thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city."

Isaiah's originality.—The prophets and leaders who came before Isaiah had not fully grasped the idea of a God of all nations instead of one. Amos and Hosea had only caught glimpses of it. Before their time, even the greatest of the leaders of Israel had thought of Jehovah as for the most part the God of Israel only. But now in the midst of the terror of cruel armies and ruined cities and smoking fields, when no one knew what to believe or where to look for comfort and protection, this great Isaiah was able to realize that Jehovah, the God of righteousness and justice and love, was the God of all humanity. There were no limits to his realm. All tribes and kingdoms and races were subject to his holy law. The Assyrians are but "the axe that he hews with." His providence rules over all. Whatever wicked men may say or do, his will is done in the end. His plans are brought to pass.

Isaiah's faith.—With such a God as this in whom to trust, Isaiah was able to show himself to his countrymen as a wonderful example of the power of faith. When they were panic-stricken he was calm. "Thus saith the Lord God, ... In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Do not rush off to other nations and other gods. They will fail you. Most likely they will selfishly betray you. Only do the will of the just God, who rules the nations, and quietly trust him. Do that and no evil can befall you. He is all-wise and all-powerful, and he is good.

So at last, the religion of the one All-Father, which we call monotheism, was born in the mind and heart of a man, and began to be clearly proclaimed by human lips.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up "Isaiah" in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Isaiah 6. 1-8 for his own story of the experience which led him to be a prophet.

3. What parts of this story in Isaiah 6. 1-8 express the idea of one great God of all nations? Look up "Monotheism" in the dictionary.

4. Read chapter one or chapter five of the book of Isaiah for a good example of his eloquent preaching.



CHAPTER XIX

A REVISED LAW OF MOSES

Amos and the great prophets who followed him met with the same fate as many other pioneers—only a few of their hearers heeded their words, or even understood them. But four great leaders in one century—Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah—could hardly fail to make some real impression on the minds and lives of their nation. Isaiah was perhaps the most influential, partly because the others before them had prepared the way and partly because he himself lived and preached to the people during a long period of time—more than forty years.

Isaiah's disciples.—Another reason why Isaiah exerted so great an influence was that he organized little groups of his disciples into circles for study. These groups met together from time to time, and read aloud the sermons of Isaiah and the other prophets, and talked about how to apply them to their lives. We can see them seated in a circle in the evening on the floor of one of those little homes opening into a narrow Jerusalem street. There would be a candlestick in the center, or an upturned bushel measure, with a candle on top of it. The circle would be composed of men; but on the outside eagerly listening would be women and children. One of the men in the circle would be seated by the candle reading from a roll of papyrus on which were written the sermons of one of the prophets.

THE EVIL DAYS OF MANASSEH'S REIGN

It is well that these reading circles were started, for they kept alive the new truth of the reformer-prophets during the reign of a bad king, Manasseh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets. But Manasseh, who became king when Isaiah was an old man, was opposed to all these new ideas. Most of the people of Judah probably agreed with him. They still clung to the belief that the one sure way for a nation to be prosperous was to offer sacrifices to the most powerful gods. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their worship of Jehovah, was still subject to the empire of Assyria. Great sums had to be paid every year as tribute. "What fools those prophets are!" men said, as they talked together in the streets. "See how much stronger the Assyrian gods are than Jehovah!" "Last month I had to pay ten shekels for the tribute!" "If we want to prosper, we must worship the gods of Assyria."

Manasseh's persecution.—Manasseh therefore proceeded to introduce the worship of the moon-god, and the sun-god, and other deities of Nineveh. He even set up altars to these divinities in the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. When the disciples of the prophets spoke against all this he had them seized and killed, until he had "filled Jerusalem with innocent blood." Many a good man who had listened to the reading of Isaiah by candlelight in one of those reading circles now had to hide himself in some closet or cistern from the soldiers of Manasseh. There is a tradition that the aged Isaiah himself was put to death during this persecution.

Not all of those who opposed Manasseh were killed, although they were finally compelled to keep silence. Those little study circles still held meetings in secret to read and talk and pray; and they kept looking forward to a time when a different kind of a man would be king, and when they would be able once more to lead the people into the way of justice and true worship.

In one of these little groups a remarkably wise plan was suggested. Let us take the laws which have been handed down to us from Moses, it was said, and work them up into a sermon. Every one reverences Moses. Let it include the farewell address which Moses is said to have spoken to his people just before he died, and put into it all the laws of Moses, and let us show what they really mean. And by and by when Manasseh is dead we may be able to read it to the people, and perhaps they will listen.

THE WRITTEN LAW

The new law book—Deuteronomy.—So they wrote the new book, and it is preserved in our Bible as the book of Deuteronomy. We find in it all the old laws which had been handed down from early times, and which were called the "laws of Moses." And we find on every page sentences which show the influence of the great prophets, from Amos to Isaiah. Isaiah's influence is perhaps the most plainly seen, especially his teaching that the people should worship Jehovah alone as the one ruler of the world. In Deuteronomy also we find a very solemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and worship only Jehovah, the one true God. This is the commandment which Jesus called the first and greatest of all.

"Hear, O Israel. The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Such a law as this of course forbade all those covenants with other gods which Isaiah denounced.

Laws helping the oppressed.—All the prophets had been on the side of the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed them. The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new law so as more fully to protect the poor. They made stronger all the older laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the weak and unfortunate, and they added others: for example, laws protecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws forbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes made to suffer by rich judges.

There was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into a state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven years. The new law book included this law, and added that the master must not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but must give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he looked for a chance to work and earn money for himself. The new law also protected fugitive slaves from other countries. They were not to be returned to their owners.

A compromise.—All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have studied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old worship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and immoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that Jehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.

But the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether. They provided that all the small shrines, called "high places," such as at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be destroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only there. The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no longer be celebrated at home. All the people must come up to Jerusalem for them. No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down idolatry.

THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW LAW

Manasseh reigned fifty-five years. It was a long, weary time of waiting for the disciples of the prophets. The new law book was put away in one of the closets of the temple for safe-keeping. The years went by and most of the men who helped to write it died. At last, however, the end came for Manasseh. After a short period his grandson, Josiah, who was only eight years old, became king. The boy's older relatives and friends were all against the ideas of old Manasseh and on the side of the prophets. Little by little the principles of the prophets were put in practice. Among other things, orders were given to tear out from the Jerusalem temple the images and altars to the sun-god and the moon-god and other emblems of Assyrian worship. The temple was also cleaned and renovated. While the carpenters were at work the new law-book was discovered in the chest where it had been hidden and was brought to the young king and read before him.

Josiah's reforms.—Josiah was deeply impressed and gave orders that the reforms called for by the new law should be carried out. Officers went all up and down the villages and towns of Judah tearing down the little temples, or "high places," where so much heathenism had been practiced. And the people were told that several times each year they were to bring their sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Those were also good days for the common people. There was a king now who "judged the cause of the poor and the needy." Many a poor debtor, when his crops failed, appealed to the king's court in Jerusalem and he himself and his children were saved from slavery and their home from ruin.

The reform only lasted a few years—some twelve or thirteen—and then King Josiah was killed in battle, and much of the old heathenism and greed and injustice came back again in a flood. But the memory of the good days did not quickly fade. It was the first great triumph of the teachings of the prophets—the men who kept alive the true ideals of Abraham and Moses.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read any part of Deuteronomy 1-5. Select any passages which seem to you truly eloquent.

2. Read Deuteronomy 12. 10, 11. What place is referred to by the author, when he writes, "The place that Jehovah your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there"?

3. In the light of the history in this chapter, which is the more likely to change human history, a battleship or a Bible class? Explain.



CHAPTER XX

A PROPHET WHO WOULD NOT COMPROMISE

The new law-book seemed a great victory. Yet sometimes victories are more dangerous than defeats. They lead to self-satisfaction. This was certainly the case with this victory of the authors of Deuteronomy. The people were careful to offer up their sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, and very few offerings were brought to the old village shrines. But the real kernel of the truth which the prophets had proclaimed was in danger of being forgotten. This was the truth that no forms of sacrifice, no solemn religious feasts are of any account in the sight of God unless accompanied by simple justice and brotherly kindness between neighbors. This was the state of affairs against which one more great reforming prophet was raised up to fight—Jeremiah, of the little town of Anathoth, five miles north of Jerusalem.

A CONVERSATION IN A JERUSALEM STREET

To understand clearly what Jeremiah's message was and why it was needed let us listen to a conversation between two citizens of Jerusalem. This one is imaginary. But there must have been many, in reality, very similar to this.

First citizen: Did you hear of my good fortune? I have just got a fine piece of ground for almost nothing.

Second citizen: How?

First citizen: I had loaned some money to an old farmer, and made him pledge me his field as security. Last summer the Babylonian soldiers came through that valley and burned all the wheat and barley stacks. So the old man couldn't pay back the loan. He tried to tell his story to King Jehoiakim, but the king drove him from the palace. So I went and took his field.

Second citizen: What would the prophets have said to a transaction like that? Did not Isaiah call down woes from Jehovah on those who took away poor men's fields?

First citizen: I have just offered a sacrifice to Jehovah.

Second citizen: I suppose, then, it is all right. But did not the prophets speak against sacrifice, unless one remembered justice and mercy?

First citizen: Yes, but they were speaking of the old sacrifices on the "high places," at the village shrines. Everyone knows they were heathen shrines and hateful to Jehovah. I offered my sacrifice at the temple yonder, just as we are told to do in the law of Moses, which King Josiah's servants found in the temple.

Look! Why is all that crowd gathered over there in the temple yard? Let us go and see what is happening. I heard some one say, that a certain Jeremiah who calls himself a prophet, was to speak there to-day. All my friends who have heard him say that he is a false prophet.

(They reach the edge of the crowd. Jeremiah is standing on the steps of the temple, addressing the people, as follows:)

"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow ... then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, ... and come and stand before me in this house, ... and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?"

JEREMIAH'S MESSAGE OF A HEART RELIGION

It is clear that Jeremiah was fighting the same old battle that Amos and the other prophets had fought against a religion of mere empty ceremonies. But the battle had grown even harder, because the old false practices had been accepted as though they were just the kind of religion that Amos had preached. The people said, "We are keeping the law of Jehovah," and so they were satisfied with themselves.

The law to be written on the heart.—Jeremiah saw that this mistake had come from relying too much on a written law. Something more than an outward law was needed before men could succeed in living together as brothers. It is so easy to keep the letter of the law, or to think one is keeping it, while we lose the spirit of it. What is needed, Jeremiah said, is a changed heart. Again and again he cried to the people, "Oh Jerusalem, cleanse thy heart." And in one of the great chapters of the Bible, the thirty-first of the book of Jeremiah, he looks forward to a time when Jehovah and his people should be bound together in a new covenant—not a covenant written on tables of stone like the one which Moses wrote at Sinai:

"But this is the covenant that I will make ... after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts I will write it."

The apostle Paul saw this promise fulfilled by the love which Jesus Christ awakens in men's hearts, so that they gladly and eagerly do the will of God. On account of this prophecy of Jeremiah our Christian Bible is called the New Covenant, or (from the Latin) the New Testament.

JEREMIAH AND THE BABYLONIANS

In Jeremiah's time (a decade or so before and after B.C. 600) the Babylonians had taken the place of the Assyrians as the rulers of the world. There was a powerful king, Nebuchadrezzar, on the throne of Babylon. And the existence of the kingdom of Judah depended on submission to him. But, just as in Isaiah's time a century before, there was now a party in Jerusalem who were constantly plotting to rebel against the Babylonians, hoping for help from Egypt.

Jeremiah as a patriot.—Jeremiah had no sympathy with them. He loved his native land deeply and tenderly. But until the people were worthy of liberty he was sure Jehovah would not give it to them.

Again and again they proved their unworthiness. Once when the Babylonian armies were knocking almost at the gates of Jerusalem they remembered that law about Hebrew slaves, which had been made even more strict in the new law, Deuteronomy. According to this law, no Hebrew could be kept in slavery longer than seven years. So in their fear of the Babylonians these rich nobles solemnly set free a great number of slaves whom they had been illegally keeping in slavery. A few days later the hostile army, for some reason or other, withdrew. And within a month all these slaves who had been set free were seized and reenslaved. How Jeremiah denounced this hypocrisy!

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

If Jeremiah's advice had been followed, the people of Judah would have been spared a world of sorrow. But the leaders of the kingdom seemed bent on dragging the whole nation into ruin. In B.C. 597, Jerusalem was captured and some ten thousand of the inhabitants were carried away as exiles to Babylon.

Even that lesson was not enough. Within a few years the new king, Zedekiah, and his nobles again rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar. Jeremiah protested and was called a traitor. Many times his life was threatened; for a long period he was kept in a filthy dungeon, and almost perished from hunger. But friends saved him. Very soon, in B.C. 586, the city came to the horrible end which Jeremiah had so patiently tried to ward off. The city was captured by Babylonian soldiers and burned. Thousands were carried away as exiles. Thousands more fled to Egypt and to other foreign countries. Only the poorest farmers were left to till the soil. David's kingdom and dynasty were ended.

Jeremiah himself was not taken to Babylon, but remained in Palestine. According to tradition, his last days were spent in Egypt, with a Hebrew colony there. His life had been spent in keeping alive the soul of true religion in an age when few would listen. He is one of the great heroes of uncompromising truth.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up the story of Jeremiah in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Jeremiah 1. 1-9, for a taste of his style of writing.

3. One man sacrifices to a heathen god; another tries to bribe Jehovah with a sacrifice as though he were like the heathen gods:

a. Which is worse? b. Which would the authors of Deuteronomy have considered worse? c. Which would Jeremiah have considered worse?



CHAPTER XXI

KEEPING THE FAITH IN A STRANGE LAND

Twice within twelve years, first in B.C. 597, and again in B.C. 586, the Babylonians took great companies of Hebrews as exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon. Each time there must have been in the line of march some twenty-five thousand men, women, and children—an army which, marching eight abreast, would stretch at least five or six miles.

These must have been sorrowful processions, especially the last of the two. For months they had suffered the horrors of a besieged city. Then had come the break in the walls, the screams of frightened women and children, the heaps of corpses in the streets, and the black smoke and red glare of burning buildings; then the hasty setting out on the long road to Babylon. Some of them perhaps were able to buy asses to carry the little children and a few of their belongings. But most of them had to trudge along on foot, fathers and mothers carrying the babies, and leaving behind them all their possessions except what could be gathered into a towel or a blanket. For a month or six weeks they tramped. If anyone fell sick, there was no time to take care of him. He must drag along with the rest or fall by the wayside until he either recovered or died.

THE SETTLEMENT IN BABYLONIA

When they reached the land of their captors they were not made slaves, but were allowed to make their home together in settlements on land set apart for them. In these colonies they probably worked as tenant-farmers on the estates of Nebuchadrezzar's nobles. In the prophetic book of Ezekiel, who was among these exiles, we read about one of these Jewish colonies by the river, or canal, called Chebar (or in Babylonian Kabaru), which means the Grand Canal.

The attractions of Babylonian life.—What the Babylonians hoped was that these people would forget that they were Hebrews and become Babylonians, just as immigrants from Europe become Americans. This is exactly what happened in many cases. At first, of course, the Hebrews were bitterly homesick. The land of Babylonia was as flat as a floor. The Hebrews longed for the lovely hills and valleys of their native land.

By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst thereof We hanged up our harps, For there they that led us captive required of us songs, And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song In a strange land?

But the years went by, and they had time to look about in the new country. They found it full of opportunities for money-making. The soil, watered by hundreds of canals from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, was wonderfully rich. Everywhere there were prosperous towns and cities with great brick buildings, beautifully decorated with sculpture, and thronged with merchants. Ships laden with wheat and dates and with Babylonian rugs and mantles and other beautiful articles sailed up the rivers, or out to sea toward India. Many Hebrews, or Jews (that is, Hebrews from Judaea), became merchants. In their own land they had been chiefly a nation of farmers. The reputation of the Jews for cleverness in trade began with these experiences in Babylon when hundreds of Jewish boys obtained positions in great Babylonian stores or banks, and by and by set up for themselves as merchants. Among the Babylonian contracts on clay tablets coming down to us from this period are many Jewish names.

THE TEMPTATION TO FORSAKE JEHOVAH

These young Hebrew merchants found themselves in a net-work of foreign religious customs. When a customer signed a contract it was proposed that he offer a sacrifice to the god Marduk, that the enterprise might prosper. There were religious processions and feast days in which everyone joined, just as we hang out flags on the Fourth of July. Foreigners from other lands joined in these rites and thought nothing of it. Furthermore, some of these captive Jews thought that their Hebrew God, Jehovah, had not protected them from these mighty Babylonians. Surely, the Babylonian gods were the stronger, and one should pay them due reverence.

Memories of the prophets.—On the other hand, even the dullest of the Jews must have begun to understand that the religion of their prophets was a different kind of religion altogether—not a religion, but true religion; and that Jehovah was not like the bargaining, jealous gods of the other nations, but was God, with a capital G, the one righteous Creator and Ruler of the world.

Moreover, the prophets who had taught them to think of Jehovah in this way had again and again declared that just this calamity of exile would come upon them if they as a nation continued to disobey Jehovah's just laws; and what they had foretold had come to pass. The prophets must have been right. Their teaching must be true.

Hebrews in other foreign lands.—There were probably almost as many Hebrews in Egypt at this time as in Babylonia. Indeed, even before the destruction of Jerusalem the constant wars on Canaan had compelled great numbers of them to seek for peace and comfort for themselves and their wives and children in Egypt, in Damascus, and even in far-away Carthage and Greece. The Jews to-day are scattered all over the world. This began to be true of them from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.

These Jews who permanently made their homes in foreign countries were called Jews of the Dispersion. And they all faced the same temptations as the exiles in Babylonia. Their problem was how to be loyal to their nation and their religion. Great numbers of them, like Daniel and his friends in the stories related in the book of Daniel, did refuse to sacrifice to heathen gods and held fast to the nobler faith which they had brought with them from Jerusalem. This was not easy. Not only were they tempted to go with the crowd and worship the gods of the land; they were also uncertain just how to worship Jehovah. They could not offer sacrifices to him. Jerusalem was a thousand miles away, and the temple there was burned. Should they build a new temple for him, in Babylon? It was not certain whether that would be lawful. The Jews in Egypt did build a temple to Jehovah. But no others seem to have been able to do this.

KEEPING THE SABBATH

There were some religious customs, however, which could more easily be transplanted. One was the Sabbath Day. In the earlier centuries the Hebrews had observed the day of the new moon with special sacrifices, and also, to some extent, the other days when the moon passed from full to first quarter, then to the second, then to the third—in other words, every seventh day. There was in the days before Moses no thought of resting from labor on these days, except as might have been necessary in order to offer up the special sacrifices.

The Sabbath and the new law of Deuteronomy.—One of the kindly changes which the new law of Deuteronomy introduced was to make the Sabbath a rest day for slaves and all toilers. On the Sabbath "thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, ... that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou."

In Babylonia and other foreign lands faithful Jews were especially careful to keep the Sabbath by resting from all their work. No one else did so, and the custom marked them as Jews. When a Babylonian would propose to buy a wagon load of wheat on the Sabbath the Jew would say, "I cannot sell on that day; it is a Sabbath day to our God." Boys and girls were not allowed to play with their Babylonian playmates on the Sabbath. Such experiences helped them to remember that they were Jews. They thought of it also as an act of respect to Jehovah. It took the place of animal sacrifices. As the time went on there grew up rules and regulations in regard to Sabbath-keeping which became more and more strict and elaborate.

PRAYER AND PUBLIC WORSHIP

Another religious custom which can be practiced anywhere is prayer. It must have been a great and happy discovery to many a homesick Jew when he found that even though the temple at Jerusalem was far away, yet in his own room "by the river Chebar" he could kneel, or even in the street he could for a moment close his eyes and breathe out a prayer to God and find in it fresh strength and hope and courage.

The synagogue.—The weekly Sabbath rest also made it possible for the Jews to meet together on that day for prayer and worship together. The reading circles which Isaiah had organized, and out of which probably came the law-book Deuteronomy, were continued in Babylonia, and the Sabbath morning, afternoon, or evening was a convenient time of meeting. They would gather in some private house and study the law and the writings of the prophets. Then they would pray. Those who were the most learned would read and they and others would pray aloud.

By and by special buildings were set apart called synagogues. As time went on these synagogue services rather than the services in the temple, became the most important part of the Jewish religion. Our morning and evening worship in the Christian Church grew out of the synagogue service. It was the beginning of that worship of which Jesus spoke when he said: The hour cometh when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father.... But ... the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read 2 Kings 25, or Daniel 1.

2. Mention some other temptations which must have come to the Jews, in Babylon, besides the temptation to worship idols. Consider, for example, their new experiences as traders.

3. What are some good ways in which we may be helped to be true to God to-day when we are away from home.



CHAPTER XXII

UNDYING HOPES OF THE JEWS

As the Jewish exiles were led away to Babylon they asked themselves over and over again, "Is this the end of our nation?" It seemed like the end. Their capital city lay in ruins. Their king was blinded and in chains. All the most intelligent people in the country were being led to a distant land, from which most of them would probably never return. The iron rule of the Babylonians was everywhere supreme.

There are other nations and races whose people might not have cared so much even if this had been the end of their national existence. But the Hebrews from the beginning were proud of their race and ambitious for its glory. They believed that it had been promised to Abraham, their ancestor, that they should become a great nation in their land of Canaan. This hope had grown stronger and stronger. Stories of the greatness of King David were handed down from fathers to their children. To the best men and women among them the great teachings of such prophets as Amos and Isaiah were even more worthy of pride. "We have a knowledge of the true God," they said, "such as no other nation has. Surely there is a great future before us." And now all these hopes seemed lost forever.

The discouragement of the poor people in Canaan.—Those who had been left behind in Canaan when the Babylonians conquered the land were even more hopeless and wretched. The exiles soon made a place for themselves in the busy, prosperous land of Babylonia. They earned money and lived in comfort. But the farmers on the stony hills of Judaea suffered untold hardships. Not only were they poor; they were also harassed by bands of robbers. The city of Jerusalem, which had protected them, lay in ashes. The Babylonian governor did not help them. He was there only to collect taxes and tribute. So the old enemies, the robber tribes from the desert, came in and burned and murdered and stole as they pleased. It is not strange that many of these poor people felt that all was over for the Hebrew or Jewish nation. Many of them ceased to worship Jehovah and became heathen, like the other tribes around Canaan.

VOICES OF COMFORT AND HOPE

It was not easy, however, to crush the courage of the Jews. Out of the darkness of those days we hear a whole chorus of voices, all of them saying: "This is not the end of everything for us. Jehovah has not forgotten his promises to our ancestors. He will bring back the exiles from Babylon, and from other distant lands whither they have escaped, and will rebuild Jerusalem in all its beauty, and will restore the glory of our nation in the land of Canaan."

The prophecies in Isaiah.—Many of these voices are found in short passages scattered through the writings of the older prophets. Two of them are in Isaiah 9 and 11.

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: ... the rod of his oppressor thou hast broken.... For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, for fuel of fire. For 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 Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

"In other words," he reasoned, "Jehovah will free us from the tyrannical Babylonians, give us an ideal king, who shall be wise and just and faithful, and under whose rule we shall see no more of the horror and cruelty of war."

Ezekiel's prophecies of hope.—Away off in Babylonia itself Ezekiel helped to keep alive the hopes of the exiles. Even though the nation is dead, he told them, Jehovah can bring it to life. It will be as though the dry and bleaching bones in some valley where a battle was long ago fought should suddenly come together as human skeletons, and warm living flesh should grow upon them once more. Ezekiel worked out a kind of constitution for the new nation and the temple when these should be restored.

All these brave leaders helped the Jews to believe in themselves as a people. They listened to these men as they spoke in their synagogues in Judaea and in Babylonia. They handed from one to another the rolls on which their words were written. And ever the children heard from their mothers these hopes which kept them from being completely discouraged: "We are Jews. The Jewish nation is not going to be destroyed. Some day the exiles in Babylon will return to the old country. We will have a king of our own. And we will build the great nation which Jehovah promised Abraham."

THE BEGINNINGS OF A RESTORED JUDAH

In the year B.C. 538, the Babylonian empire was conquered by Cyrus, the Persian. There was scarcely any resistance on the part of the Babylonians. And one of his first acts in the conquered city was to issue a proclamation that captives and exiles from other lands might return if they wished. It was the chance for which the Jews for forty years had been hoping. Now at last they could go back over that thousand-mile journey, up the Euphrates, across to the coast land, and down to Canaan. But alas! too many years had passed. Most of those who had come to Babylon as grown people and who remembered Canaan as home were now dead. Most of the living Jews had grown up in Babylon and were comfortably settled there. Yet some did return, and from time to time others kept returning. These men who thought enough of their nation to go back to the home land and help it in its weakness and poverty almost always became leaders.

The new temple.—It may have been a group of these leaders returned from Babylon who started the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in the year B.C. 520, just sixty years after the old temple of Solomon was burned by the soldiers of Nebuchadrezzar. There were two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, who did much to stir up the people to this work. Some of their words are preserved in the Old Testament books which bear their names. These men may have been returned exiles. The new building was erected on the same old foundation and was finished in four years. It was dedicated amidst the shouts of the people, while old men and women, who as children had seen the former temple before it was destroyed, wept for joy that at last a house had been rebuilt for Jehovah. It seemed like the beginning of better times for their nation.

THE GREATEST OF THE PROPHETS OF HOPE

Yet the years that followed the building of the new temple were sad and disappointing. The better days did not seem to come. The walls of Jerusalem still lay in ruins. The robber tribes still made their cruel raids. The poor people suffered most, for they were oppressed and plundered by the richer men even of their own people. "What has become of Jehovah?" men asked. "Where are his promises to Abraham? Why does he allow even his most faithful servants to be oppressed—those who do not oppress others; who obey his just laws, and who are merciful to their brothers?"

The great unknown.—About this time there came to the people of Israel a new message from one of the greatest prophets of all those whom God has raised up in any nation. He is sometimes called the "Great Unknown," because we to-day know nothing about his personal life, not even his name. His great messages to his fellow Jews are found in the latter part of the book of Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40. The first verse of this chapter strikes the keynote of comfort which runs through all the chapters to follow.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."

With words that sing like a beautiful instrument of music he tells the people that God has not forgotten them; that the scattered exiles will be brought back to the home land; that the ruined city, Jerusalem, will be rebuilt and made more lovely than before; that a rule of justice will be established; and that the blessings of peace and happiness will come to all.

The greatness of service.—Even better than these promises of happiness, our unknown prophet helped the people to understand more clearly what it means to be a great nation. He did not believe that the God of heaven and earth would make a favorite of any one nation. Instead he taught that Jehovah had chosen Israel to be a servant nation for him, to serve all other nations by teaching them about the true God.

"I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth."

He explained in this way even the undeserved suffering which many of the best people of Israel were enduring. Israel thus became a type of Him who was "despised and rejected of men." To be chastised and afflicted and oppressed is not so hard to bear if it is all a part of Jehovah's plan for men. The ideal in the Old Testament becomes a reality in the New.

So for the first time the idea came into the world that Abraham's dreams of a greater and nobler nation and God's promises to Abraham, Moses, David and the rest were not for the Hebrew people only, but for all men; that beginning with this little nation God was making a better world; a world of love, instead of selfishness and hate; of happy work and play, instead of misery and hopelessness and war.

Of course very few of the prophet's hearers understood him. But more and more the Jews were filled with the thought that somehow God had a great future for them. Boys and girls, as they grew up, wondered if they might not become leaders, a new Moses, a second David, or Elijah, to play some part in bringing the great future which God had promised.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read Isaiah 40 or 49 for a taste of the writing of the "Great Unknown."

2. Read Ezekiel 2. 1-7, or 14, for a similar taste of this prophet's message and style.

3. Which of these two prophets do you consider the greater?

4. Is there evidence to-day that the Jews still believe in a restored nation?



CHAPTER XXIII

THE GOOD DAYS OF NEHEMIAH

About seventy years after the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem a committee of Jews went to Persia to seek aid for their distressed country from their more prosperous kinsfolk. In the Persian capital, Susa, they found a man named Nehemiah, who was cup-bearer and personal adviser to the king of Persia. He was a man of good sense, of kindly sympathy, and of great ability—just the man to help them. They told him how the walls of the city of their fathers had never been rebuilt in all these years since the Babylonians had captured it, and how the poor people suffered from robbers and oppressors, who took advantage of their helplessness.

NEHEMIAH'S GREAT ADVENTURE

All this was news to the young man. They did not have newspapers and magazines in those days, and people in one part of the world knew little about what was going on in other parts, even those near by. The stories told by his brother Jews made Nehemiah sad, and his sadness showed in his face even when he came before the king. This was dangerous, for a part of his duty was to keep the king in a cheerful humor. But his Majesty was not angry, but asked him "Why are you so sad?" Nehemiah answered by telling him the story of his native land and its pitiable condition; and then and there with a prayer in his heart he asked the king to give him a leave of absence, and to permit him to go to Jerusalem and help the people there to rebuild the walls.

- Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration Fund. -

Why walls were greatly needed.—All cities in those days were surrounded by walls. These were necessary, because no government had yet been strong enough to rid the country of the bands of robbers who made their dens in almost every cave or lonely valley. Not only the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, of which Jesus tells, but on almost all roads one was in danger of falling among thieves. In the deserts on the edge of Palestine whole tribes lived by robbery, and were large enough and well enough organized to defeat good-sized armies. Hence no city was safe unless it was well fortified.

Nehemiah's request was granted by the king of Persia. So, with letters to the governors of the provinces through which he was to pass, the young leader set out, perhaps on camel-back, to Jerusalem. After looking about and seeing for himself the condition of the city, and the work which needed to be done, he called the people together and proposed that they rebuild the walls. His energy carried the day. They answered, "Let us rise up and build."

THE WALLS REBUILT

The task which Nehemiah had undertaken was a difficult one. Jerusalem is situated on a ridge, with deep valleys on all sides except the north. The walls did not need to be high where there were cliffs or steep slopes falling away into the valley. But along the entire north side, and in many other places also, they had to be at least thirty feet high, and fifteen or twenty feet thick at the base. The stones and bricks for this were buried in the rubbish where the old walls had been battered down. They had to be dug up and dragged into their places, stone by stone. Most of the work had to be done by hand, although they perhaps used asses with basket-paniers for carrying lime and sand. They may have constructed small cranes for lifting the heaviest stones, but they had very little machinery.

Difficulties overcome.—For a time the work went merrily forward. But soon their rapid progress became known and those who had prospered because of their weakness became jealous. There was a certain Sanballat, governor of Samaria, who wanted to keep Jerusalem helpless so that Samaria might always be the chief city in the land. They were willing that the poor people of Jerusalem should go on suffering from the attacks of cruel bandits if only they themselves could keep on growing richer. He and others did all in their power to stop the work. They organized a force of men and planned to attack and kill the builders. But Nehemiah had his workers carry their swords as they worked, and arranged for signals at which all should rush to the help of any part of the wall which might be attacked. He also kept the people working at top speed from early morning every day "until the stars appeared," and cheered them on when they were tired and discouraged.

Their enemies tried all kinds of tricks; they threatened to report to the king of Persia that Nehemiah was organizing a rebellion; they plotted to seize Nehemiah himself. But the man was too clever for them. The walls kept steadily going up and up. The gates were set in place and locked; and at last, fifty-two days, or just a little more than seven weeks after the first stone was laid on the old foundations, the work was done.