Books: Stories of the Prophets

I >> Isaac Landman >> Stories of the Prophets

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Now, Ahaz was like that ancient Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, or
like his own predecessor, Rehoboam, who "took council with the young
men that were grown up with him." Ahaz did not call Isaiah, the old
friend and counsellor of the royal house, to advise him in his great
extremity.

Isaiah, however, called to God to save his nation--if the nation would
be saved--and did not wait for an invitation from the young king.
While Ahaz, his advisors and the commanders of his army, were examining
the water supply of Jerusalem, preparatory to the inevitable siege,
Isaiah went out to meet him. The prophet came upon the royal party at
the end of the conduit of the upper reservoir, in the highway of the
Fuller's field.

Isaiah, who had been quietly and carefully studying the entire situation
since the embassy came to Jotham, understood well enough that an
intrigue must be brewing in Jerusalem against the young King. When the
report reached the city that the enemy was on the march, Isaiah's
searching inquiries and careful observation of the leaders of the
capital resulted in the discovery that the son of Tabeal was in league
with Rezin and Pekah. It was Isaiah at this meeting, who informed Ahaz
that his immediate danger was as much within his own city as from the
enemy that was approaching. No wonder, then, that "his heart trembled,
and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with
the wind."

But Isaiah immediately reassured the trembling Ahaz in the following
words:

"Take heed and keep thyself calm; fear not, neither be
fainthearted because of these two fag ends of smoking
firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria
and of the son of Remaliah. Syria, with Israel, hath purposed
evil against thee, saying, 'Let us go up against Judah and
distress it and overpower it and appoint the son of Tabeal
king in its midst.' But thus saith the Lord God: It shall not
stand, neither shall it come to pass, for, the head of Syria
is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and the head
of Israel is Samaria and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
Verily, if you will not hold fast, ye shall not stand fast."

Ahaz laughed at the idea of keeping quiet and having no fear, under
the conditions. He turned away impatiently from the prophet and
proceeded with his business of examining the reservoir. Isaiah,
however, would not be put off with mere impatience.

"Ask thee a sign of the Lord, thy God," he cried to Ahaz. "Ask it
either in the depths of Sheol or in the heights above."

But Ahaz replied, "I will not ask, neither will I put the Lord to
the test."

Then Isaiah said:

"Hear now, O House of David! Is it too small a thing for
you to weary men, that ye must also weary my God? Therefore
the Lord, Himself, will give you a sign. Behold, a young
woman will bear a son and call his name Immanuel (God is
with us). Before this child shall know to refuse the evil
and choose the good those two kings before whom thou
tremblest shall be deserted."

Ahaz was tired of mere words. Advice he had enough; he wanted now to
act. In fact, when the knowledge of the political intrigue in
Jerusalem became known to him, he immediately made up his mind what to
do. He, therefore, again turned from Isaiah and ordered his retinue to
continue the examination of the water supply.

Isaiah then tried another form of argument with this cowardly young
king, in order to bring him to his senses. He, himself, was positive
that Tiglath-Pileser, who was at that time in Asia Minor, had, no
doubt, been informed by his spies of the action taken by Rezin and
Pekah. Isaiah felt sure, also, that Tiglath-Pileser would immediately
invade Syria. He knew, in addition, that neither Rezin nor Pekah was
strong and powerful enough, at this time, to wage a protracted war
with Assyria; that is why he described them as "two fag ends of
smoking firebrands." He, therefore, concluded that, at the first
information of Tiglath-Pileser's march into the northern country,
Rezin and Pekah would have to return to defend their own lands.

On the other hand, Isaiah knew that, if Ahaz did anything that would
in any way displease the mighty King of Assyria, the latter would,
after finishing his campaign in Syria and Israel, attack Judah.
Therefore, he warned Ahaz in these words:

"God will bring upon thee and upon thy people and upon thy
father's house days such as have not been, since the day
Ephraim departed from Judah, through the King of Assyria.
Curds and honey will be that child's food (in the wilderness)
when he knows to refuse evil and choose the good."

Isaiah ceased. He had delivered his message, had counseled and warned
the king. He made it clear to Ahaz that, if he did anything except
trust in the power and care of God for his people, Judah, like Syria
and Israel, was destined to become a wilderness in the short time that
it takes a child to reach that age when it can begin to think for
itself.

Ahaz, however, acted upon his own and his young men's counsel. Hardly
had he returned to the palace that day, when he sent messengers
carrying the following letter to Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria:

"I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from
the power of the King of Assyria and from the power of the
King of Israel, who have attacked me."

Ahaz followed up this message by ransacking the Temple in Jerusalem
and the treasures of the royal palace, sending both as a gift and
bribe to Tiglath-Pileser.

Then exactly what Isaiah foresaw happened. Tiglath-Pileser immediately
invaded Syria and attacked Damascus. Rezin and Pekah were forced to
hurry back to defend their own countries, and Judah was saved from
Syro-Israelitish attack; but Ahaz had already thrown himself at the feet
of the great Assyrian conqueror, with terrible results to his own
country.

CHAPTER IV.

_On Deaf Ears._

Though the spineless Ahaz sent his cowardly note, and the presents
that followed, to Tiglath-Pileser secretly, the truth leaked out.
Great indignation was aroused among certain opponents of the king in
Jerusalem at the discovery of his act of treachery to the nation, and
a new party was formed to fight against submission to Assyria.

The aim of the new movement was, principally, to preserve the independence
of Judah. The only avenue open seemed to be the alliance with Israel and
Syria that the lamented king, Jotham, would not enter into.

With Ahaz looked upon as a traitor, the only one whom these patriots
could turn, was the Prophet Isaiah, who loved his land and knew its
traditions. So, the leaders of the patriotic party came to him with
their plans. But Isaiah stood firm in the position he had taken with
Jotham against entangling alliances.

He shocked these gentlemen with a well-spoken rebuke. He told them that
the patriotism Judah needed was not of alliances and war, but of faith
in God, of trust in Him who always guards and protects a righteous nation
against its enemies.

Isaiah knew well enough the weakened and helpless condition of both
Israel and Syria. To join with them in a war against Tiglath-Pileser
would mean even greater ruin for Judah than the peaceful submission of
Ahaz. He pictured the results of such an alliance in the following words:

"Because this people have rejected the waters of Shiloah that
flow softly,
And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son,
Therefore the Lord is about to bring upon them
The waters of the River Euphrates, mighty and great,
(Even the King of Assyria, in all his glory).
And it shall rise above all its channels,
And overflow all its banks;
And it shall sweep onward into Judah,
And it shall overflow and pass over it,
Reaching even to its neck,
And its outstretched wings shall cover the breadth of thy land,
O Immanuel."

To the king, the prophet sent a concise message that would have been
heeded and understood by any one but a weakling like Ahaz. Isaiah
referred to the utter helplessness into which Ahaz had cast Judah by
his cowardly self-subjugation to Tiglath-Pileser. He pictured what
might happen when that mighty monarch would receive the king's pitiful
cry for help:

"In that same day the Lord will shave with the razor hired
beyond the Euphrates the head and the hidden hair; and it
shall even sweep away the beard."

Despite Isaiah's efforts, the peace party that stood by Ahaz, and the
war party that desired an alliance with Pekah and Rezin, continued
their separate agitations.

The capture of the town of Elath, at the head of the Arabian Gulf, by
a detachment of the Syrian army, strengthened Ahaz in his belief that
help could come only from Tiglath-Pileser. On the other hand, it
convinced the war party that only the union with Samaria and Damascus
could restore to the country this center of Judah's lucrative trade,
that commanded the commerce to the south.

Isaiah recognized the uselessness of appealing to either of these
opposing parties. He determined to appeal to the country at large, to
the whole people, who were interested not in party quarrels, but in
the welfare of the nation. He wanted to create a public opinion in
favor of peace and in opposition to entangling alliances, either with
Assyria or with the Palestinian coalition.

On his own property, in the heart of Jerusalem, where all the passers-by
could see and read it, Isaiah erected a great sign which read:

"SWIFT BOOTY--SPEEDY PREY."

He meant this to indicate to the people that the triumphs of either
the champions of peace or the champions of war would mean ruin to the
nation at the hands of Assyria.

About this time a son was born to Isaiah. He gave a magnificent feast
to the leading people of Jerusalem and, to bring his conviction home
more forcibly, named the boy "Swift Booty--Speedy Prey."

At the close of the feast he addressed his guests and said, in part:

"Before the boy knows how to cry, 'My mother' and 'My father,'
they shall carry off the riches of Damascus and the spoil of
Samaria before the King of Assyria."

At a great meeting in Jerusalem, soon thereafter, Isaiah again took up
the burden of his argument against Israel and Syria. He predicted the
inevitable destruction of these two kingdoms, because they were in
rebellion against Assyria, and he pointed out the consequent
foolhardiness of involving Judah in the oncoming disaster. Regarding
Israel he said:

"In that day the glory of Jacob shall grow dim,
And the fatness of his flesh wax lean.
And it shall be as when a harvester gathers standing grain,
And his arms reap the ears;
Yea, it shall be as when he gleans in the valley of Rephaim,
And the gleanings thereof shall be as the beating of an olive tree--
Two or three berries on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the boughs of a fruit tree,
Saith the Lord, the God of Israel."

Then, addressing himself as if he were speaking to the people of
Israel, but hoping to drive the lesson home to the people of Judah,
who were listening to him, he spoke most regretfully:

"For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation
And hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength."

Turning to a consideration of the second of the allies, Syria,
Isaiah continued:

"Soon shall Damascus cease to be a city
And shall be a ruinous heap.
Its cities shall be given up to flocks
Which shall lie down, with none to make them afraid.
Ephraim shall lose her bulwark,
And Damascus her sovereignty,
And the rest of Syria shall perish;
Like the Israelites shall they be,
Saith the Lord of Hosts."

These descriptions of what would happen to Syria and Israel, however,
did not go unchallenged. The prophet was told that he had evidently
forgotten that all the nations in Palestine and along the Mediterranean,
except Judah, were parties to this coalition against Tiglath-Pileser.
Isaiah laughed. With fine scorn he cried:

"Ah! The multitude of many peoples
That roar like the roaring of the seas!
And the rushing of nations,
That rush like the rushing of many waters!
But he shall rebuke them and they shall flee far off,
And shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And like the whirling dust before the storm.
At eventide, behold, terror;
Before the morning, they are no more."

Then, as if addressing himself to all the petty northern countries
that were trying to drag his own beloved fatherland into the whirlpool
of disaster, Isaiah spoke as follows:

"Make an uproar,
And be broken in pieces;
And give ear, all ye of far countries;
Gird yourselves and be broken in pieces,
Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to naught;
Speak the word and it shall not stand;
For God is with us."

And in answer to the appeal of the people as to what ought to be done
in this national crisis, Isaiah replied:

"Call ye not conspiracy all that this people calleth conspiracy.
What they fear do not fear, nor be filled with dread.
The Lord of Hosts, Him regard as the conspirator!
Let Him be your fear and your dread!"

CHAPTER V.

_The Survival of the Fittest._

While Isaiah was thus attempting to influence the two parties in
Jerusalem, exactly what he had warned Ahaz of happened. The Assyrian
forces made a speedy march into Syria, with Damascus as the point of
attack. The combined Syro-Israelitish army, upon hearing of
Tilgath-Pileser's new move, abandoned the siege of Jerusalem and hurried
back to defend their own countries.

The great Assyrian conqueror easily subdued all the land about
Damascus and finally besieged the city itself. Rezin offered him
desperate resistance, but it was useless. Tiglath-Pileser destroyed
all the forests, fruit groves and fertile fields in the vicinity of
the city, until both food and water failed the defenders.

In a last sally from the doomed city, the Syrian troops were literally
cut to pieces. Rezin escaped with his life, and, disguised and alone,
re-entered Damascus. But he was caught, brought before Tiglath-Pileser
and put to death.

In the meantime, all Israel and Samaria quaked at the fate that
awaited them. Pekah, who had been lending Rezin what help he could,
without entirely weakening himself, was ready and willing to give the
Assyrian battle. Tiglath-Pileser, however, had his hands full with
Damascus. He therefore, welcomed the suggestion of a certain Hoshea,
son of Elah of Samaria, who offered to follow the example of the
traitor Menahem.

Tiglath-Pileser assented gladly. He promised help and protection to
Hoshea, as he did to Ahaz, for voluntary submission to Assyrian rule.
So Hoshea conspired against Pekah in Samaria, slew him, proclaimed
himself king under the protection of Assyria. and sent tribute to
Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. Cowardice and treachery thus once more
sealed the fate of the kingdom of Israel.

After the fall of Damascus, the victorious Assyrian ordered a great
_Durbar_ to celebrate his victory in that city. All the tributary
kings in Palestine were commanded to meet him and pay homage to him
there.

The splendor and display of the gathering was rivaled only by the
magnificence of the welcome the terrible monarch received on his
return to Asshur, his own capital.

Among the princes who hob-nobbed with their master at Damascus were
the cowardly Ahaz and the traitorous Hoshea. But both were happy in
that their countries escaped the awful havoc they witnessed in
Damascus and throughout Syria.

Tiglath-Pileser always carried with him a wonderfully wrought altar on
which he offered sacrifices to Asshur, the Assyrian god. During the
religious exercises at the Damascus festival, in which all the
Assyrian vassals participated, Ahaz was particularly struck with the
beauty of this altar. Thereupon he sent to Urijah, the high priest in
Jerusalem, "the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according
to all the workmanship thereof," with instructions to have it
duplicated for the Temple in Jerusalem.

Isaiah, when he heard of this, was thunderstruck by the audacity of
the king who had no respect for his people or for his God.

Not only was this heathen altar built, but it replaced the ancient
one, which was set aside. Ahaz even went further. When he returned
from Damascus, he himself, instead of the regularly appointed priest,
offered the sacrifices upon the new altar, as he had seen Tiglath-Pileser
do. To cap the climax, Ahaz introduced certain pagan religious ideas,
copied from the Assyrian worship, into the cult of the Temple, simply
to please and gratify his Assyrian master.

With so base a king, Isaiah could hope nothing for the nation. Truly
could he cry out in the anguish of his spirit:

"My people--a boy is their leader!"
"My people--thy guides lead thee astray."

Of one thing, however, Isaiah was positive. When messengers came to
him from various parts of the country to inquire what to do in this
national crisis he answered them all alike: "God hath founded Zion,
and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge."

He was certain that neither a weakling like Ahaz nor a terror like
Tiglath-Pileser could bring destruction upon the city that God had
selected as the center of His worship, or upon the people whom God had
chosen, to reveal Himself to them and to entrust them with His law.

The patriotic and religious backsliding of Ahaz and his counselors,
however, seemed to point to the destruction of both. But Isaiah was
not dismayed. Trusting faithfully in God's protecting hand over His
people, he could not conceive that God would desert them for long. God
would not permit a backboneless king to reign over His people. The
successor to Ahaz would be a different type of man--an ideal prince in
the sight of God and men:

"And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a branch of his roots shall bear fruit.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
Neither arbitrate after the hearing of his ears;
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
And arbitrate with equity for the afflicted of the land:
And he shall smite the tyrannous with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked,
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his reins,
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall feed together;
And a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall make friends;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall stretch out his hand to the serpent's eye.
None shall do evil or act corruptly in all my holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea."

In all literature there is no more beautiful and meaningful
description of what an ideal ruler should be and of the peaceful and
happy state to which such a ruler could bring his country.

But Isaiah did not lose sight of the fact that just as little as an
Ahaz could accomplish the destruction of the nation, so little could
an ideal king, even if his fond dream would come true, accomplish the
reconstruction of the nation, single-handed and alone.

What was necessary, therefore, was the raising and educating of a new
generation of citizens in Judah; a just, patriotic, God-fearing
company of men who, when the hoped-for king shall have come to the
throne, would support him, with their valor and their lives, in
building up the entire nation to walk in God's way.

So Isaiah began quietly with his own family first, and later with a
few friends and disciples who believed as he did. "Binding up the
admonition and sealing the instruction among my disciples," said
Isaiah, "I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the
House of Jacob, and in Him will I trust. Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are signs and symbols in Israel from the
Lord of Hosts who dwells in Mount Zion."

Isaiah's idea was similar to that of Moses in the olden days in the
wilderness. The present generation, ruler and people, that did not
place its trust wholly in God, would slowly die out; a new generation,
better and more fit, would survive to save the nation.

Just at this time, when Isaiah began his slow work of upbuilding the
nation, a son and heir was born to the king. Isaiah accepted this
incident as a message of approval of his course from God. He and his
disciples looked to this prince to be the ideal king; and in
celebration of the event Isaiah greeted the heir apparent in the
following fine outburst of hope for the future:

"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 wonder-counselor,
Divine hero, father of glory, prince of peace.
For the increase of dominion and for peace without end,
Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom,
To establish and support it by justice and by righteousness
From henceforth, even forever; the favor of the Lord of Hosts
will perform this."

CHAPTER VI.

_Working With the Remnant._

Isaiah called his little band of disciples and followers "The Remnant."
He referred to them as "The Remnant" because he knew that, if only
these remained true and faithful to God, for their sakes God would not
forsake the Fatherland.

It was upon "The Remnant" that he placed the future welfare of his
country. Through these few he hoped to regenerate the rest of his
people, despite the corruption and wrongdoing of their leaders. He
aimed, especially, to prepare the young generation for patriotic,
God-fearing, God-trusting lives.

The prophet had set for himself no easy task. He met opposition from
many directions. The king himself opposed him for political reasons.
The priests, who sided with the king in his introduction of Assyrian
rites and practices in the Temple service, opposed him on religious
grounds; so that, for many years, Isaiah simply devoted himself to
teaching and preaching moral living, just and righteous dealing and
absolute trust in God.

"Hear, O heavens, and give heed, O earth, for the Lord speaketh:
Sons have I brought up and placed on high, but they have proved
false to me.
The ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib,
But Israel has no knowledge; my people have no insight;
Ah! Sinful nation, people deep laden with guilt,
Race of evil-doers, perverse children!
They have forsaken the Lord;
They have spurned the Holy One of Israel;
They have become rebellious.

"On what place can you yet be smitten since you continue rebelling?
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint,
From the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness,
Only wounds and bruises and fresh sores,
Which have not been dressed nor bound up nor softened with oil."

With words of this kind, and in similar speeches, Isaiah tried to
describe the condition of Judah to its people. The cowardice of Ahaz
in throwing himself at the feet of the Assyrian had, indeed, smitten
the land and the people very sore. The large tribute to Tiglath-Pileser
had to be collected and paid. The burden was terrible to bear. In the
meantime, Judah's enemies from the south and along the Mediterranean
coast took advantage of the weakened condition of Judah and attacked
the country from many points.

Isaiah tried, with all his might, to bring the people, as a whole, to
an understanding of Judah's condition. He wanted them to join "The
Remnant" and to live their lives in accordance with his teaching,
which were really not his, but God's. Only in this way, Isaiah said,
could a country that had fallen deeply into sin and unrighteousness,
and was at the mercy of its enemies, be saved:

"Your land is a desolation, your cities are burned with fire,
Your tilled land--before your eyes strangers devour it;
And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard,
Like a lodge in a field of cucumbers, like a watchtower.
Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a remnant,
We should almost be as Sodom,
We would have been like Gomorrah."

This simile, comparing Jerusalem to these ancient cities of evil
repute, was answered by Isaiah's opponents with the statement that the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah were idol worshipers, but that the people
of Judah brought their sacrifices to the Temple and observed the
holydays in accordance with the ancient laws. This was the same kind
of an argument as the citizens in Samaria gave to Amos and Hosea.

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