Books: Stories of the Prophets
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Isaac Landman >> Stories of the Prophets
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The impression made upon the assembly was wonderful. As Josiah
proceeded with his reading the murmurs and low exclamations of
surprise changed into a deep and impressive silence that was not
broken even when the King had finished and had laid aside the Book of
the Law.
Reverently and with bowed head, Josiah raised a prayer unto God:
"Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, O Lord,
and bless Thy people Israel."
And with one voice the whole assembly answered, softly:
"Amen, Oh Lord, Amen."
Then Josiah addressed the people. He pleaded with all the fervor and
sincerity of his soul for them to re-establish, on that day, the
ancient covenant between them and their God. This they did with a
great shout of acclamation. Josiah continued:
"This day the Lord thy God commandeth thee to do these
statutes and ordinances; thou shalt therefore keep and do
them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast
avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and that thou
wouldest walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his
commandments, and his ordinances, and hearken unto his voice;
and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be a people for
his own possession, as he hath promised thee, and that thou
shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high
above all nations that he hath made in praise, and in name,
and in honor; and that thou mayest be a holy people unto
the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken."
When the King had finished and sat down, a great murmur welled up
from the assembled people, until it grew into one great shout from
the multitude:
"We have heard and shall do accordingly."
Thus the people of Judah and Israel once more took upon themselves the
duty and burden to be a holy people unto the Lord their God, as they
had done at Sinai in the days of Moses.
There was one man in the assembly, however, who not entirely carried
away by the enthusiasm of the moment. It was Jeremiah. He knew well
enough how a people, excited by a new and novel situation, would make
promises which perhaps later they would be disinclined to keep. The
mere acceptance of the covenant did not already mean the carrying out
of its statutes in their daily life.
Therefore, Jeremiah arose in the midst of the assembly, and, before
the people were dispersed, struck one note of warning:
"Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this
covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron
furnace, saying, 'Obey my voice, and do them according to
all which I command you; so shall ye be my people, and I
will be your God; that I may establish the oath which I sware
unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and
honey, as at this day.'"
In conclusion, Jeremiah bowed his head and expressed the hope of the
realization of the new covenant with the words:
"Amen, Oh Lord."
And all the assembly once more responded:
"Amen, Oh Lord."
Great feasting and rejoicing throughout the entire city by all the
people followed during the whole festival. It was the greatest
Passover in the history of Judah and Jerusalem, and of it is recorded:
"And the children of Israel that were present kept the
Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread
seven days. And there was no Passover like to that kept in
Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any
of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept,
and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel
that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the
eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept."
When the festival and the celebration were over, the spirit thereof
did not die with the departure of the people from Jerusalem to their
homes in all parts of the country. Josiah went to work in earnest to
accomplish his share of the keeping of the new covenant. He dismissed
every idolatrous priest in the land and destroyed every vestige of
their worship in Jerusalem, in every town and village and on every
high place.
Up in Israel he carried on this work under his personal direction, and
at Bethel, with his own hands, he destroyed the altar erected by
Jereboam I. at the time of the division of the kingdom.
It was while in northern Israel, where he ordered the dead bones of
the idolatrous priests to be burned upon the very altars at which they
worshiped, that Josiah espied two sepulchers, of a type that he had
not met before. They were so unlike the sepulchers of the idolators
that he marked them especially and talked about them. One of the
monuments, he was told, "is the sepulcher of the Man of God who came
from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the
altar at Bethel;" and when he found that the other ancient monument
was the last bed on earth of "the Prophet that came out of Samaria,"
he ordered that neither one should be touched. The memory of those
early prophets was sacred and hallowed to the king.
Within a few years, all this work undertaken by Josiah was accomplished.
Genuine love of God and genuine living in accordance with His
commandments seemed to have been restored everywhere among the people.
In addition, the political changes that were taking place in Assyria,
Babylonia and Egypt, left Josiah entirely at peace to work out the
destiny of his own people and kingdom.
In the year 608, however, in the thirty-ninth year of Josiah's reign,
he entered upon a political campaign that proved to be the first and
greatest mistake of his life and resulted not alone in his death, but
in a great religious and moral decline that eventually led to the
destruction of Jerusalem and Judah.
CHAPTER VII.
_To the Fore Again._
The mystery of the Scythian invasion of Asia has not yet been clearly
solved. The results of that invasion, however, shook thrones and shattered
kingdoms and changed the face of the then known civilized world.
Assyria was the greatest sufferer, for the Scythian ravages had so
weakened the great empire that it never recovered. Incidentally, this
same cause reawakened the spirit of conquest in the Medes, led to the
re-establishment of the independent Babylonian kingdom and brought
about, indirectly and unnecessarily, the death of the good King Josiah.
During the last years of Ashurbanipal's long and brilliant reign over
Assyria, the Medes, under their king, Phraortes, turned the tables on
Assyria and invaded the empire. Ashurbanipal's army defeated the
ambitious Mede and drove him back into his own territory. But his son
and successor, Cyaxerxes, having made certain changes in the
organization of the Median army, again invaded Assyria and actually
besieged Nineveh.
At the same time the Scythians began to swarm over Media, and
Cyaxerxes was forced to return to his own country and defend it.
Cyaxerxes, being a wise as well as a great king, managed to buy off
the barbarian Scythians and later actually trained them for service in
his army, both as teachers of archery and as mercenaries.
In the meantime, the Assyrian successor of Ashurbanipal made the
mistake that cost him his life and his empire. He appointed
Nabopolassar, a Chaldean of ancient lineage and of enthusiastic
patriotism for his age-old country. Nabopolassar immediately entered
into an alliance with Cyaxerxes that had for its purpose the overthrow
of Nineveh and the establishment of Babylonia as an independent state.
Nabopolassar declared himself king of Babylonia, to the great dismay
of the Assyrian court. To seal his alliance with the Medes, a marriage
was arranged between Amytis, Cyaxerxes' daughter, and Nebuchadrezzar,
his son and Crown Prince.
Nineveh was attacked at the same time by the Babylonians and Medians
in the year 608. The great capital was besieged for two years. So
fierce was the vengeance wrought upon the city and its inhabitants by
the united armies that when the capture was finally made both were
completely blotted out. For many centuries not even the location of
Nineveh could be found.
This occurred in the year 606. The end of Nineveh brought to a close
the history of the great Assyrian power that had ruled so masterfully
over the then known entire world. It also brought about a situation
that had its direct effect upon the beginning of the end of the
Kingdom of Judah.
In Egypt history was in the making. Psammetich I, a Libyan soldier,
recognizing in the crumbling of Assyrian power his own opportunity,
made himself master of the country and established a new dynasty in
Egypt. His son and successor, Pharaoh Necho, grasped the chance given
him by Nabopolassar's attack on Nineveh to win back the provinces
along the Mediterranean, that had been Egyptian before they were
conquered by Assyria.
Without further ado, therefore, Necho, with a great army, started
north, to conquer all of Assyria that he could and add it to his own
Empire. This meant an invasion of Judah.
King Josiah was by no means ready to sit still and fall helplessly
from the frying pan into the fire, as it were. Once entirely free from
Assyria, he intended to maintain his independence. At least, he was
not going to allow Pharaoh Necho to slip the noose around his neck
without a struggle. Josiah, therefore, organized his armies and went
out to meet Necho. This was when the campaign against Nineveh began.
To the Pharaoh's great surprise, when he reached the plain of Megiddo,
he was confronted by Josiah. Necho sent him word that he had no
quarrel with Judah whatever; but Josiah could see nothing in the
future but the sovereignty of Egypt over his dominions and was
determined to retain his independence at all costs. So, the war was on.
It did not last long, however. It seems that not even a single pitched
battle was fought. Josiah was picked off by a Libyan archer in the very
first skirmish and wounded mortally, to the dismay of his entire army.
His old and devoted servant, Ebed-melech, was with the king in his
chariot. The faithful Ethiopian carried the wounded Josiah from the
royal chariot to another one. Protected by a detachment of the body
guard, as if in mockery, Josiah was taken back to Jerusalem, dying.
Before he reached the capital he was dead, and Necho declared himself
master over Judah without the least resistance. He made it, at once,
an Egyptian province.
The mourning for the dead King in Jerusalem and Judah was sincere and
widespread. It is recorded that many odes by the poets and musicians
of that day were written in his memory and that Jeremiah lamented for
his friend in accents more woeful than did David for Jonathan. Ebed-melech
hung around the sepulcher of his beloved master for many days. It was
months before he returned to the palace to resume his duties.
"Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to
the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his might, according to the law of Moses; neither after
him arose there any like him."
To indicate the force and power of Josiah's life with the people of
Judah, and the genuine value in their own lives of the late king's
reforms, the people at large passed over Eliakim, Josiah's eldest son,
and raised his second son, Jehoahaz, to the throne of Judah.
Eliakim was a weakling, who loved ease and luxury above everything
else. The people feared that he would not continue the life and work
of his father. Jehoahaz, on the other hand, was a true son of his
father, and would have made a splendid successor to the throne of
Josiah, had not Pharaoh Necho interfered with the will of the people
of Judah.
In the third month of the young king's reign (he was only twenty-three
years old) Necho ordered him to appear before him at Riblah, on the
Orontes. Arrived there, Jehoahaz was immediately thrown into chains
and sent a prisoner to Egypt.
Necho then proclaimed Eliakim King of Judah and to show his complete
mastery over king, land and people, he changed Eliakim's name to
Jehoiakim.
The mourning in Jerusalem and Judah was now twofold. The people wept
for their beloved king who was dead and for his beloved son who was a
prisoner beyond hope.
A few men like Hilkiah and Jeremiah, and the others of the Prophetic
Party, saw in Jehoahaz's successor the coming of more evil days for
Judah. To those who hoped that there might again be a political change
and that Jehoahaz would return from Egypt, to reign in his father's
stead, Jeremiah held out no hope:
"Weep not for him who is dead, nor wail for him; weep rather
for him who is gone, for he shall not return, and never again
shall he see the land of his birth. For thus saith the Lord,
concerning Shallum (Jehoahaz), the son of Josiah, who was
king instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this
place: 'He shall not return thither again, but in the place
whither they have led him away captive he shall die, and this
land shall not see him again.'"
Soon after Jehoiakim came to the throne, word came from Egypt that
Jehoahaz had died. It was then that Jeremiah, who with Shaphan and
Hilkiah had quietly aided the king in his policy of reform, but had
retired to his home in Anathoth when these reforms began to bear
fruit, heard again the call to go out and prophesy to the people of
Judah. Danger was threatening from the throne and this danger brought
Jeremiah out of his seclusion, to the fore again.
CHAPTER VIII.
_The Shadow of a King._
Pharaoh Necho's ambitions were short-lived.
The child's-play conquest of Judah was not to be repeated in dealing
with the conquerors of Nineveh.
Nebuchadrezzar really had no thought of extending the sway of his
reborn Babylonia to Egypt; but he would not countenance for a moment
Necho's encroachment upon Assyrian territory.
In dividing up the Assyrian Empire, Cyaxerxes was perfectly satisfied
with the absolute independence of Media and such Assyrian possessions
as adjoined his country. The rest, to the west and south, including
ancient Syria and Judah, was apportioned to his son-in-law. There was
no quarrel about the division.
Syria and Judah being his, Nebuchadrezzar swore by all his gods that
Necho should be made to suffer for his audacity.
Necho encamped at Riblah, after the victory over Josiah. Riblah,
situated in the broad valley between the Lebanon and Hermon ranges,
was destined to be the scene of several tragedies in Judean history.
It was here that Necho awaited the outcome of the struggle at Nineveh.
He did not have long to wait. Nineveh gasped her last in the year 606.
Nebuchadrezzar left his father-in-law to complete the destruction of
the glory of Assyria, and, flushed with victory, marched at once
against the Egyptian invader.
Necho was prepared for this. He broke camp at Riblah and proceeded to
meet Nebuchadrezzar. The Babylonian and Egyptian armies faced each
other at Carchemish by the Euphrates, in 605; and the result once more
cast Judah into the political balance.
In the meantime, Jeremiah was forced back to his labors by the
conditions at Jerusalem. Necho knew what he wanted when he substituted
Jehoiakim for Jehoahaz on the throne of Judah. Jehoiakim was weak,
pliable, incapable of big things. Jeremiah knew that, too. Therefore,
he had to go to work again.
Jeremiah raised no false hopes, based on anything Jehoiakim would do
for himself or for Judah. Even while Josiah lived, the crown prince
showed the type of man he was. Instead of applying himself to the work
of succeeding to the throne, he spent his time in riotous pleasure,
and his father's money in lavish extravagance.
As crown prince, he built himself a sumptuous new palace. Unlike
Josiah, when the Temple was repaired, Jehoiakim did not pay fair
wages, and oppressed his artisans and mechanics. When he sat in
judgment, he did not judge righteously.
Therefore, at Josiah's unexpected death, Jeremiah approved the action
of the people in raising the unfortunate Jehoahaz to the throne.
Necho's substitution of Jehoiakim filled the prophet with alarm. The
happy years of Josiah's reign vanished like a mist; and, with a heart
that was heavy-laden, Jeremiah left Anathoth, where he had been living
quietly with his relatives and friends, and went down to the turmoil
in Jerusalem.
Satisfying himself that he had not exaggerated the situation in the
capital, and, seeing now that the calamity of Josiah's death was more
far-reaching than he had at first supposed, Jeremiah addressed himself
to Jehoiakim with the following warning:
"Woe to him who buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his
chambers by injustice;
Who causeth his neighbor to labor without wages, and giveth him
not his pay;
Who saith, 'I will build me a vast palace with spacious chambers;
Provided with deep-cut windows, ceiled with cedar and painted
with vermillion.'
Dost thou call thyself king because thou excellest in cedar?
Thy father--did he not eat and drink and execute law and justice?
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well.
'Was not this to know me?' saith the Lord.
But thine eyes and heart are bent only on thy dishonest gain,
And on the shedding of innocent blood and on oppression
and violence!"
Nor did Jeremiah hesitate to point out that such a state of affairs
could not exist long and that such a king could not reign long over
Israel.
He even foretold the fate of Jehoiakim. He knew that the political
situation, as it would develop when Nineveh was conquered, would once
more embroil Judah. Jehoiakim, he was sure, could not stand the test.
Therefore, he could see nothing but the fall and untimely death of
Jehoiakim, and he added, "They shall not lament over him, saying one
to another, 'Oh, my brother!' or 'Oh, my sister!' They shall not wail
for him, saying, 'Oh, Lord!' or 'Oh, his glory!' but shall be glad
when he is 'buried as an ass is buried, drawn out and cast forth.'"
On that very day came the news of the Battle of Carchemish. It was one
of the epoch-making struggles of ancient history. Victory perched
proudly on the banner of Nebuchadrezzar and Necho was utterly routed,
fleeing toward Egypt, the Babylonians in hot pursuit.
Within that very year all signs of Egyptian rule in Syria and
Palestine were wiped out. "The king of Babylon had taken from the
brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king
of Egypt." Judah became a Babylonian province and Jehoiakim but the
shadow of a king.
CHAPTER IX.
_The Temple of the Lord._
Nebuchadrezzar had taken up his headquarters where Pharaoh-Necho had
encamped at Riblah, and there received the homage of the little Syrian
and Palestinian states that he had wrested from Egypt.
To Jeremiah's great surprise, Jehoiakim sent a secret embassy to
Nebuchadrezzar vowing allegiance to Babylon.
Jehoiakim's submission pleased Jeremiah. He saw in it a splendid
opportunity for Judah. All that was needed now was to keep the people
in the path of right. Their future, he felt, could be worked out well
enough as long as the country was at peace, free from the ravages of
war.
But here Jeremiah was met by a new difficulty. Josiah's reformation,
followed by his death and the quick changes in the country's political
fortunes, had not worked out very satisfactorily. People began to
doubt the wisdom of the whole proceeding.
In the first place, some said that God was displeased at Josiah's
overriding the traditional forms of worship. The opportunity for God
to show that displeasure was at Megiddo, and, therefore, Josiah lost
his life there. All the people, it was plain, had not yet arrived at
the conception of God held by a Jeremiah or Josiah.
Again, there were others who fell back into the old reasoning that the
gods of the other nations were mightier than Judah's God, and,
therefore, they fell back into the old idolatrous ways. They were
merely awaiting the opportunity to worship the other gods publicly as
some of them were already doing privately.
Then, again, there were many who believed that the new Book of the Law
and the new order of things prohibiting sacrifices in any place except
the Temple in Jerusalem, did not permit of enough sacrificing to God,
and, therefore, was He again visiting the land with the rod of Egypt
and Babylonia.
And, opposing all these, Jeremiah and his followers were positive in
their hearts and souls that sacrifices were by no means the all-important
feature of the worship of God, but, as Jeremiah had reminded the
people on the day of the Great Passover, God asked them only to obey
His voice and to live in accordance with the moral law that He had
commanded them.
"So shall ye be my people, and I will be your God; that I
may establish the oath which I sware unto your fathers, to
give them a land flowing with milk and honey."
King Jehoiakim had no interest whatever in these differing religious
opinions among the people.
As long as he could pay his tribute to Nebuchadrezzar and live
luxuriously and voluptuously in his newly built palace, he cared not
further. Religiously and morally he permitted things to take their own
course, as if morals and religion had no part to play in the strength
and safety of his people and in their national welfare.
Jeremiah was now convinced that it was his duty once more to take up
the brave fight for God and His law. The opportunity came during the
Feast of the Ingathering, in the year 604.
Many thousands had come from all parts of the country to Jerusalem to
celebrate the festival. All brought with them many heads of cattle and
bags of grain and flour for the prescribed sacrifices.
They were a happy company. When the Temple came into view, rising
majestically in the distance, they shouted to each other, "The Temple
of the Lord! The Temple of the Lord!" out of sheer joy in beholding
the sacred structure that meant so much to them.
"The Temple of the Lord! The Temple of the Lord!" they cried, and
pointed to the magnificent edifice which some of them had never
seen before.
Jeremiah listened to these joyous shouts and observed sorrowfully the
self-satisfaction of those who had come to offer their sacrifices. He
was much alone these days. His parents had been dead some years and a
new Priest was in charge of the Temple. Shaphan and all Josiah's old
counsellors were either gone to their reward or had been dismissed
from service by Jehoiakim. Shaphan's two sons, Ahikam and Gemariah,
were indeed high in the counsels of the king, but they bothered little
about Jeremiah and his teachings.
So Jeremiah stood alone, on the first day of the festival, at the
Temple gates. A multitude of people passed him, taking their turn at
bringing their offerings. From within the Temple he heard the sounds
of cattle being slaughtered and smelt the odor of burning flesh. The
noise deafened him; the odors choked him. Here were king, priest and
people leading unrighteous lives and believing that this wholesale
slaughtering and burning was what God demanded of them! Here were
elaborate form and ritual, but no justice and love!
Jeremiah fairly gasped for breath when the full meaning of this came
to him. Turning upon a great crowd that was jammed at the gates,
waiting their turn to enter the Temple, he cried:
"Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel:
"'Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye
flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them
in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices.
"'But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken unto my
voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people;
and walk ye in all the way that I command you that it may
be well with you.
"'Yet they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked
in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil
heart. This is the nation that hath not hearkened to the
voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction. Truth
is perished and is cut off from their mouth.'"
What an amazing outburst! God did not command them concerning
burnt-offerings and sacrifices! The man is ridiculous!
Religious discussions and controversies had often taken place in the
Temple courts. Here was the Forum of the People, in fact, and several
men who had often proclaimed themselves as prophets, speaking the word
of God, joined issue with Jeremiah, whom they now recognized.
"Here is the Temple--the Temple of the Lord," they exclaimed. "What
was it built for, if not for sacrifices?" they wanted to know. "What
other way is there for men to worship God than to bring their
offerings to him?"
Jeremiah replied that sacrifices were instituted by men, by the
priesthood, not by God, and continued, making plain once for all his
understanding of the way God wanted men to show their religion:
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