Hebrew Life and Times Part 11

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 G.o.d 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 MANa.s.sEH'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, Mana.s.seh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets.

But Mana.s.seh, 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 G.o.ds. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their wors.h.i.+p of Jehovah, was still subject to the empire of a.s.syria. 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 a.s.syrian G.o.ds are than Jehovah!" "Last month I had to pay ten shekels for the tribute!" "If we want to prosper, we must wors.h.i.+p the G.o.ds of a.s.syria."

=Mana.s.seh's persecution.=--Mana.s.seh therefore proceeded to introduce the wors.h.i.+p of the moon-G.o.d, and the sun-G.o.d, 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 Mana.s.seh.

There is a tradition that the aged Isaiah himself was put to death during this persecution.

Not all of those who opposed Mana.s.seh 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 wors.h.i.+p.

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 Mana.s.seh 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 wors.h.i.+p Jehovah alone as the one ruler of the world. In Deuteronomy also we find a very solemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and wors.h.i.+p only Jehovah, the one true G.o.d. This is the commandment which Jesus called the first and greatest of all.

="Hear, O Israel. The Lord our G.o.d is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d 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 G.o.ds 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 wors.h.i.+p, 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 Pa.s.sover, 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

Mana.s.seh 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 Mana.s.seh. 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 Mana.s.seh 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-G.o.d and the moon-G.o.d and other emblems of a.s.syrian wors.h.i.+p. 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 pa.s.sages 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 G.o.d 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 battles.h.i.+p or a Bible cla.s.s?

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 G.o.d 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?