Hebrew Life and Times Part 10

There are other mischievous delusions in regard to the character of G.o.d which we find among all races in the early childhood of their history. They think of their G.o.ds 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 superst.i.tious fears in the hearts of the people which made it possible for the priests and the prophets to join with the rich n.o.bles 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d? 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 G.o.d."=

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 superst.i.tious fear?

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

4. Are superst.i.tion 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 G.o.d OVER ALL PEOPLES

THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH

The destruction of the northern kingdom by the a.s.syrian 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 a.s.syrians 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 a.s.syrians against us! Why, that is absurd! We are Jehovah's people, and he is our G.o.d. What has he to do with the a.s.syrians? 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 wors.h.i.+p him." So they reasoned.

=Jehovah too weak to protect his people?=--When, therefore, the a.s.syrians actually did come marching down from the Euphrates River, hundreds of thousands of them with their gleaming armor and their mult.i.tudes 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 G.o.d, Jehovah, was too weak to protect his people against the greater G.o.ds of Nineveh. The a.s.syrians said to them:

="Let not thy G.o.d in whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of a.s.syria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of a.s.syria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the G.o.ds 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 G.o.dS

With their faith in Jehovah breaking down there was a great running here and there after other G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds.

According to the beliefs of that age, when two nations made an alliance their G.o.ds were included in it. To overcome the a.s.syrians, therefore, it would be necessary to make an alliance with some other nation whose G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 a.s.syrians 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 G.o.d made him stand like a rock while the mult.i.tudes 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 G.o.d of righteousness, Jehovah; and that the attempt to find safety for their nation by alliances with other nations and their G.o.ds 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 unsurpa.s.sed. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d of righteousness and justice and love, was _the G.o.d of all humanity_. There were no limits to his realm. All tribes and kingdoms and races were subject to his holy law. The a.s.syrians 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 pa.s.s.

=Isaiah's faith.=--With such a G.o.d 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 G.o.d, ... 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 G.o.ds. They will fail you. Most likely they will selfishly betray you. Only do the will of the just G.o.d, 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.