Books: Stories of the Prophets
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Isaac Landman >> Stories of the Prophets
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"Behold, we have come unto thee,
For thou art the Lord our God."
To this false idea that God-worship and idol-worship are the same thing,
Jeremiah gave answer patiently and kindly, as if reasoning with children,
recalling what God had accomplished for Israel in the past and the duty
of obedience to His voice by Israel's descendants in the present:
"Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills,
the tumult of the mountains; truly the Lord our God is the
salvation of Israel. But the shameful thing (idolatry) hath
devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their
flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let
us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us;
for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our
fathers, from our youth even unto this day; and we have not
obeyed the voice of the Lord our God."
Then Jeremiah delivered a message of hope, of God's promise to the
people, in case they should return from their backsliding:
"If thou wilt return, O Israel," saith the Lord, "if thou
wilt return to me and if thou wilt put away thine
abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be
removed; and thou shalt swear, 'As the Lord liveth,' in
truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations
shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."
Jeremiah aimed at first merely to arouse the people to a knowledge of
their false point of view toward God; but he soon discovered that he
was on the wrong track. Pleading, persuasion, promises and prophecies
of hope had no more effect upon the daily life of the people than did
Josiah's destruction of the shrines and sanctuaries upon their
religious practices.
It was at this time that evil days came upon the Empire of Assyria. It
was crumbling to pieces. From north of the Black Sea and from east of
the Carpathian Mountains savage hordes of Scythians were swarming over
Assyria. Nomads, without any settled country whatever, they were
sweeping eastward and southward, down across the shores of the
Mediterranean, creating devastation everywhere. They were not only
eager for the far-famed riches of Assyria, but looked toward the
south, even as far as Egypt.
And the little kingdom of Judah lay directly in their path, as it did
during former attempted conquests of Egypt.
Jeremiah once more recalled the vision of the seething caldron, with
the strong wind from the north, threatening to pour out the hot
contents over the land.
Poor Judah! The country was seething with destructive idolatry within,
and the seething hordes of Scythians were endangering its life from
without.
Poor Jeremiah! What was there for him to do now? A double calamity was
hanging over his people and his beloved country. Even if he stood alone
he must try to save them both.
So he began a campaign, the burden of which was two-fold. He undertook
to warn the people against the danger which even King Josiah had
recognized and of the new danger that was threatening from the north.
He felt sure, as had the other prophets before him, that unless the
people turned from their backsliding they would lack the moral courage
to withstand the foreign foe and could never gain God's help and
protection in fighting their enemies.
Once more he returned to his early methods of pleading with the
people. He appealed to them to restore the relationship of children
and father that had existed between them and God from the earliest
days. He recounted their history from the slavery of Egypt to his own
day. He pointed to the wonderful things that God had performed for
them, but it all seemed of no avail.
Then he turned to the people with the threats of the danger from the
north. He tried to impress them with the idea that God was sending the
Scythians as an instrument with which to punish the idolatrous and
immoral Judeans.
"Behold a people is coming from the northland,
And a great nation is arousing itself from the uttermost parts
of the earth.
They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless.
Their din is like the roaring of the sea, and they ride upon horses.
Everyone is arrayed as a man for battle against thee, O daughter
of Zion.
"We have heard the report of it, our hands become feeble;
Anguish taketh hold upon us;
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the highway,
For there is the sword of the enemy, terror on every side.
O, my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and sprinkle thyself
with ashes;
Take up mourning as for an only son, bitter lamentation;
For the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us."
From Dan and Mount Ephraim in the north the evil tidings announcing
the approach of the Scythians had already been brought to Jerusalem.
These savages were approaching Judea like a destructive hot wind and a
whirlwind from the wilderness, like a lion gone up from his lair "to
lay waste the earth."
"Announce in Jerusalem, 'There they are!'
Robber bands are coming from a far distant land;
Yea, they are raising their cry against the cities of Judah,
Lying in wait in the field over against her on every side,
Because she hath rebelled against me, saith the Lord."
The farmers were deserting their lands and the villagers in the
outlying parts of the country their homes, rushing south to the
protecting walls of Jerusalem. The roads were filled with frightened
men, women and children. They were not the happy pilgrims who went
down to Jerusalem for the great holidays. In their fear they jostled
each other and even fought to get ahead of each other. They cared
nothing for their fellows. Everyone aimed to reach the capital first.
Jeremiah saw all this, and knew exactly what the result would be when
the robber bands came to besiege the city. Already the farthest
outlying sections had been ravaged, towns destroyed, fields laid
waste, and the inhabitants driven in all directions.
No wonder that Jeremiah was filled with woe. He tried very hard to
restrain himself, not to pronounce the doom of his people. But a great
force within him urged him to speak:
"My anguish, my anguish! I am pained to the depths of my heart.
My heart is in a tumult within me, I cannot keep silent,
For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war!
Destruction succeeds destruction, for the whole land is laid waste.
How long must I see the signal, hear the sound of the trumpet!
For my people are senseless, they know me not,
They are foolish children, and they have no understanding;
They are skilled! in doing evil, but they know not how to do right!"
In Jerusalem there were many who believed that they were innocent of
any wrong-doing because they were worshiping God the only way they
knew; but what they knew was the same old heathen way. There were
many, indeed, who continued their wicked practices secretly even in
places where, by King Josiah's orders, the idolatrous shrines and
sanctuaries had been destroyed.
What brought pain and sorrow to Jeremiah more than anything else was
the fact that the people insisted that they were not sinning, that
they were living in accordance with the laws of God.
To them Jeremiah answered:
"Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see and know,
And seek in its open spaces, if ye can find a man,
If there is any who does right and seeks after the truth!
And though they say, 'As the Lord liveth,' surely they swear to
a falsehood.
O Lord, do not thine eyes look upon truth?"
Always wanting to be fair and honest in his condemnation of the
people, Jeremiah bethought himself that perhaps only the common people
who "know not the way of the Lord and the law of their God" were at
fault. Therefore he turned himself to the nobles, to the princes of
the realm, to the wealthy and exalted, saying to himself, they "know
the way of the Lord and the law of their God." But to his great dismay
he found that these, too, "have all broken the yoke and burst the
bonds" that made them the beloved of God in the ways of their
righteousness.
"Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of
restraining myself.
I must pour it out upon the children in the street and upon the
assembly of young men,
For both the husband and the wife shall be taken, the aged and him
that is advanced in years.
And their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields
to robbers.
For from the least even to the greatest of them, each greedily robs,
And from the prophet even to the priest, each deals deceitfully.
They heal the hurt of my people as though it were slight,
Saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace."
This condition was reason enough for Jeremiah to point out, regretfully,
"Thy conduct and thy acts have procured these things for thee!
This is the cause of thy calamity; verily it is bitter, for it
toucheth thy heart."
Yet hopefully he pleaded,
"Cleanse thy heart, O Jerusalem, from wickedness, that thou mayest
be delivered.
How long shall thy evil thoughts stay within thee?"
This preaching, pleading, threatening, in which Jeremiah was assisted
greatly by Zephaniah, King Josiah's teacher, and the little crowd of
men, "the remnant" of Isaiah's days, whom Hilkiah had gathered about
him, now known as the Prophetic Party was not a matter of days or
months, but of years.
Josiah, standing practically single-handed among the nobles and the
Court Party, the legacy fron his grandfather Manasseh, continued his
reforms to the best of his ability.
At last the work was having its effect. The constant hammering away
began to tell. Great progress was actually being made in the religious
and moral awakening of the people.
And now came the joyous news that Psammetich I., Pharaoh of Egypt, had
sent an embassy to meet the invading Scythians in the north, before
they approached Egyptian territory; that he bought the savages off by
means of gifts and large sums of money; that the danger of an invasion
of Egypt, and therefore of Judah, was past.
The Prophetic Party pointed to the sparing of Judah from the ravages
of the Scythian scourge as God's way of showing his approval, not
alone of the king's outward reforms, but of the people's inner
awakening to lives of righteousness.
And soon after, the most important event in the whole history of
Israel up to that time, an event that had a lasting influence, not
alone upon the Jews but upon the whole world, occurred in the temple
in Jerusalem.
CHAPTER V.
_The Great Discovery._
The great deliverance from the Scythian invasion strengthened Josiah
and the Prophetic Party in their work of reform. They felt that their
God had spared them because much of the idolatrous worship had already
been stopped in Jerusalem and many of the pagan shrines destroyed.
The king also determined to repair and rebuild certain parts of the
Temple. The great building that Solomon erected now looked like a
hodge-podge of architecture. No repairs whatever had been made on it
since the days of King Joash, about two hundred years before, while
many additions in the interior and in the courts had been made by Ahaz
and Manasseh.
Josiah determined to clear out everything foreign connected with the
Temple; inside and out he was going to restore it as it was in the
days of Solomon, and to beautify it. Walls were cracked and foundations
had settled at different points. The alterations and repairs planned,
accordingly, were very extensive and were to be done immediately.
But the Temple treasury and the coffers of the royal house were empty.
The enormous tributes that the predecessors of Josiah were forced to
pay to Assyria had greatly reduced the financial resources of both
king and Temple.
Josiah, therefore, introduced a new method of collecting funds for the
proposed work. He placed great collection boxes at the Temple gates.
All who visited Jerusalem and the Temple were expected to make some
contribution. Money came in fast, especially when, under the supervision
of Hilkiah, the masons and the artisans and the workmen of all kinds
had actually started operation.
In addition, Josiah caused collections to be made for this purpose all
through his kingdom, including the old kingdom of Israel, where a
remnant of the people still remained. With theis money, the hewn
stone and the timber necessary for the repairs were bought and the
workmen paid.
It is recorded that everyone did his work faithfully and efficiently
and that the building, for that reason, was being restored in
exceptionally quick time.
On a certain day, in the year 621, Josiah sent Shaphan, his minister
of foreign affairs, to the Temple to empty the collection boxes and
to report back to him on the progress of the repairs.
When Shaphan came to the Temple, Hilkiah approached him carrying a
parchment statement, "I have found the Book of the Law in the House of
God;" and Hilkiah handed the book to Shaphan.
Being questioned, Hilkiah explained that the book was discovered in
one of the corner-stones of the Temple. It had probably been placed
there by King Solomon himself, he explained, at the time when the
Temple was built. But after Solomon's death, during the constant
war between Israel and Judah and the inroads that idolatry had made
in both countries, the real, genuine "Book of the Law" that was to
have been the basis for government, the constitution of both Israel
and Judah, had evidently been lost sight of and forgotten. Now, by
the merest accident, it was found again.
When Shaphan glanced through it he immediately saw what a wonderful
discovery had been made. So he took the book to the king. He reported
to Josiah first, that the money was collected, material paid for and
workmen satisfied; then, that the King's orders regarding the repairs
of the Temple had been faithfully carried out; finally, that Hilkiah
had discovered a book and that he had delivered it to him. The king,
having heard the whole story of the discovery, ordered Shaphan to read
the book to him, aloud.
What Shaphan read amazed Josiah and the few advisers whom he had
called in to listen to the reading. Everything in it seemed to be the
exact opposite of conditions as they existed in Judah. The laws for
sacrifices and ceremonies in the Temple; the statutes regarding the
priesthood in the Temple; the observances of the holidays; the
commandments regarding duties of officers of the law and the
administration of justice; the humane laws between man and man, all
were different from, actually opposed to, the practice of priest,
judge and people in Josiah's entire kingdom.
During the reading of the book Josiah recognized how little real
headway his reforms thus far had made. When he heard Shaphan read:
"The judges shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
Thou shalt not pervert justice; thou shalt not respect
persons; neither shalt thou take a bribe, for a bribe
blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of
the righteous. Justice and only justice shalt thou follow,
that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee",
he understood how far from this ideal his people had strayed.
When he heard the great declaration of God's unity,
"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; and
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy might",
he understood how little he had accomplished throughout his reign, in
attempted suppression of the worship of many gods.
When he heard the scribe read aloud that it is God's will to be
worshiped only in that "place which the Lord your God shall choose out
of all your tribes to put His name there," he determined, more than
ever before, to pull down every shrine and pagan sanctuary and to
center the worship of the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem alone.
At the end of the book, Shaphan read a series of wonderful blessings
that were promised king and people, if they would live in accordance
with the commandments contained in the Book of the Law--and Josiah saw
visions of peace and prosperity for his kingdom. But the reading of
the last lines cast a heavy gloom upon the little party, for the book
concluded with the enumeration of a series of evils upon evils that
would surely befall king and people should they not live in accordance
with these commandments:
"All these curses shall come upon thee and follow thee and
overtake thee until thou art destroyed, because thou hast
not hearkened unto the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments
and His statutes which He commanded thee."
Upon hearing this very dramatic conclusion, Josiah came down from his
throne and bowed himself to the ground. He rent his clothes and wept
aloud, as if he were mourning for one who had died and whom he had
loved best of all in the world.
Then, restraining himself and collecting all his strength, he turned
to Shaphan and Hilkiah and the others, who had been listening to the
reading, and said:
"Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are
left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book
that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is
poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the
word of the Lord, to do according unto all that is written
in this book."
Leaving the King's presence, Hilkiah and his companions held a short
council to determine what to do next. The Book of the Law was so
extraordinary that they needed the wisdom of some sage to explain to
them how to proceed.
Those of the Prophetic Party understood well enough what this book
was. They considered that it was a copy of the law which Moses was
ordered to "put by the side of the Ark" and which Solomon probably
placed in the corner-stone of the Temple when he built it. They who
had been trained by the descendants of the little party of faithful
Judeans whom Isaiah had gathered about him, knew that this law had
been continually violated since the days of Hezekiah and practically
forgotten. Therefore they wanted someone who was an authority, one who
would be trusted by all the people, to interpret this book and to
declare it to be the genuine Law of Moses.
First, someone suggested that Jeremiah be called in to interpret the
book, but Hilkiah objected on the ground that Jeremiah was still a
young man and that his opinion probably would not be heeded by all the
people. Shaphan then suggested that the book be taken to Huldah, the
Prophetess, a wise and aged mother in Israel, then living in
Jerusalem.
This suggestion was agreeable to all. With Hilkiah as leader of the
delegation, they came to Huldah, bringing the request from the King.
Her face lighted up benignly when she had read the book, but when she
thought of the reply she had to send back, her brows knitted and
wrinkles of care and pain showed in her face. Returning the scroll to
Shaphan, Huldah said:
"Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Tell ye the man
that sent you unto me: Thus saith the Lord, 'Behold, I will
bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof,
even all the curses that are written in the book which they
have read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken
me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might
provoke me to anger with all the works of their bands;
therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place and it shall
not be quenched.'
"But unto the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the
Lord, thus shall ye say to him: 'Thus saith the Lord, the
God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard,
because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself
before God, when thou heardest his words against this place
and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself
before me and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me; I also
have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee
to thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in
peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will
bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof.'"
The good prophetess knew that what happens to individuals must happen
to whole nations. Here was a people that had been adding evil to evil
and transgression to transgression for many generations. Just as a
person who keeps on sinning and sinning, without reforming in his
heart and in his deeds, arrives at a time when, no matter how anxious
he is to turn from his evil ways, it is too late and he must finally
pay the penalty for his misspent life, so this nation of Judah, into
the very heart of which the cancer of wrongdoing had long been eating,
could not, at this late date, escape its final destruction.
But it is different, as the Prophetess Huldah expressed it, with
individuals who turn from their evil paths while they are young, or who,
like Josiah, attempt to do the right thing in the very midst of evil.
Therefore, she could send back the message to the king, that he,
because of the tenderness of his heart, because of his humility before
God, because of his unquestioned effort to act in accordance with
God's commandments, would return unto the God who sent him here before
the evil days were to come upon the land, before the doom that awaited
his people would encompass them.
The king had been anxiously awaiting the return of his messengers,
when they arrived at the palace from the house of the Prophetess. They
were quickly ushered into the throne room.
It was with great hesitation that Hilkiah finally made up his mind to
report the words of the prophetess, exactly as she had spoken them.
When the priest had finished, a deep, deathlike silence hung over the
room, as if some catastrophe were impending.
Josiah turned away from the little group, rested his arm heavily upon
the throne and leaned his head upon it. Hilkiah, Shaphan and the
others saw and felt the emotion that surged through the young king and
caused his whole frame to tremble. A soft, gentle sound escaped him,
as if he were weeping.
Suddenly, however, Josiah's attitude changed. He ran the back of his
hand over his eyes, straightened up and faced his friends. He was calm,
composed, determined. He had concluded that he, himself, was the least
to be considered in this matter. He needed advice from more older and
more experienced men. Consequently, before the counselors present left
him, Josiah ordered Shaphan to call an assembly of the elders of the
entire people to meet in Jerusalem before the coming Passover.
CHAPTER VI.
_A New Covenant._
Josiah was determined not to give up so easily. He would not admit to
himself that his country and his people were beyond hope. He figured
that perhaps the prophetess had exaggerated purposely in order to
recall the people to their duty to their God and to the country, more
quickly and more conscientiously.
He was not at all happy over the fact that he himself would escape the
threatened destruction of his people. What he wanted was to discover
some possible way, and to make every attempt, to save all his people.
At the council of the Elders, as a first step, he suggested that the
coming Passover be celebrated faithfully in accordance with the
commandments in the rediscovered law book.
Messengers were therefore sent throughout Judah, and even up into
Israel, to announce a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the celebration of
the Passover, by order of the king and the Elders.
Great and happy throngs came to the Capital for the festival. It was a
multitude of people far different in mien and behavior from that same
multitude that had rushed to the protection of the fortified city when
the Scythian invaders had threatened the country a few years before.
Now, when the Passover eve, that is the fourteenth day of the first
month, was at hand, it was found that the great majority of the people
did not bring with them the prescribed sacrifices, either because they
did not know of the custom or because they were too poor.
Such a condition, however, did not dismay Josiah and his officers. He,
himself, out of his own treasury, distributed the means for making the
sacrifices to over thirty-three thousand people. Hilkiah and the heads
of the Temple service, out of their own means, did the same for the
Priests and the Levites. So that everyone present in Jerusalem that
day observed the Passover properly and happily.
On the following morning, that is, on the first day of the festival,
an assembly of all the people present, both great and small, was
called in the Temple courts.
The King and his advisers sat on a platform especially erected for the
purpose. When order was secured, the King arose and stood in his place
and "read of the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in
the House of God, before all the people."
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