Stories of the Prophets Part 11

It was in this year Uzziah died; and it was on the day of the king's funeral that Isaiah saw the remarkable vision in the Temple.

Up to that hour Isaiah was conscious only of the fact that something must be done in Judah to save it from the evils of injustice and unrighteousness that were being practiced by the rich and powerful upon the poor and weak. From that hour on he knew that G.o.d had called him to be His prophet, that G.o.d had selected him to bring the truth home to the Judeans and, if possible, to save the nation from the doom that awaited the sister-nation, Israel.

What Isaiah saw and heard in the Temple at the close of that memorable day, gave him the germ of an idea as to what G.o.d demanded of him to do. Time, thought and experience ripened that idea into a plan. The course of events offered him the opportunity to put the plan into action.

Isaiah could not count on Jotham to inst.i.tute and carry out reforms in the religious beliefs and practices of the people, in their commercial wrongdoings, in the corrupt law courts and in the general oppression of the lower cla.s.ses. He had to begin work on his own initiative; and he began it with the people themselves, in the City of Jerusalem.

He came to the Temple Mount one day, when many pilgrims were gathered there. He listened attentively, with the rest, to travelers from Arabia, who were relating wonderful tales of adventure. From stories of adventure in foreign lands the pilgrims drifted into stories of happenings in their own country. Some related rumors of what was going on in Samaria; others spoke of the possibility of Judah's being forced to fight a.s.syria some day. Some laughed at such a suggestion; others were in grave doubt whether such an emergency would find the nation prepared. Some spoke of the evils that were sapping the strength of the people; others complained that the king, instead of attending to his business of State, was busying himself with his wealth of herds and vineyards.

Here Isaiah, who had been silently listening to the discussions, offered to recite a poem, an original composition. The suggestion was received with loud applause and Isaiah began:

"Let me sing a song of my friend, My friend's song about his vineyard."

At this introduction everybody settled down comfortably to listen, and Isaiah continued:

"My friend hath a vineyard On a fertile hill; He digged it and gathered out the atones, And planted it with choicest vine; A tower he built in the midst of it And hewed out a wine press.

He looked to find grapes that were good, And it yielded only wild grapes."

Isaiah's listeners were disappointed. The story not only lacked excitement, it even lacked interest. They s.h.i.+fted in their places uneasily, but Isaiah caught their attention again by continuing:

"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, And ye people of Judah.

Judge, I pray you, betwixt me And betwixt my vineyard.

What more could be done to my vineyard Than that which I have done?

When I looked to find grapes that were good Why yielded it wild grapes?

"And now, pray, I will tell you What I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, That it shall be devoured; I will break down the wall thereof, That it shall be trodden down; Yea, I will make a waste thereof, That it shall not be pruned or weeded.

Then it shall put forth thorns and thickets of brambles; The clouds I will command that they rain not thereon."

Everybody understood now that Isaiah was speaking a parable and that its application was to them and to their country. But who was the "friend" who possessed this vineyard? Isaiah did not hold the questioners in long suspense:

"For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel, And the men of Judah are His cherished plant; And he looked for justice, but, behold! bloodshed; For righteousness, but, behold! a cry of distress."

Then Isaiah launched forth into a powerful denunciation of the social evils of which Judah and the leading Judeans were guilty--a sixfold woe that was rus.h.i.+ng the Nation on to destruction.

"Woe unto them that join house to house, Who add field to field, Until there is no s.p.a.ce left, And they dwell alone in the midst of the land.

"Woe unto them that rise at dawn To pursue strong drink, Who tarry late into the night Until wine inflames them; But they regard not the work of the lord And see not what His hands have made

"Woe unto them that draw guilt upon themselves With cords of folly, And sin as with a cart rope!

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; That put darkness for light, and light for darkness; That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own conceit!

"Woe unto them that are heroic in drinking wine, And valiant in mixing strong drink!

Who, for a bribe, justify the wicked And strip the innocent man of his innocence!

"Therefore, as the fire devours stubble, And as hay shrivels in a flame, So their root shall be as rottenness And their blossom go up as dust; Because they have rejected the teaching of the Lord of hosts, And despised the word of Israel's Holy One."

So intensely absorbed in his speech was Isaiah, and so deeply interested was the vast a.s.sembly whom he was addressing, that no one took note of a splendidly arrayed group of men who had come up and stood with the rest, listening.

When Isaiah had finished speaking, and the people had caught their breath again, some one shouted:

"Behold! The king!"

Isaiah looked over the heads of the crowd toward the newcomers, and there he beheld Jotham and a retinue of n.o.bles, laughing heartily, no doubt, at his masterful effort.

Fearlessly, and without a moment's hesitation, the prophet did what he had threatened Jotham he would do--he denounced his friend, the king, before his people:

"The Lord standeth forth to present his case, And He standeth up to judge His people.

The Lord entereth into judgment With the elders of His people and their princes.

'Ye, yourselves, have devoured the vineyard.

The spoils of the needy are in your houses.

What do you mean by crus.h.i.+ng my people And by grinding the face of the needy?'

Saith the Lord, G.o.d of hosts."

Laughing still more heartily at this madness of his old friend, Jotham easily made his way to where the prophet stood. He placed his arm around Isaiah's shoulder and invited him to go with him and his companions to the palace.

Isaiah did as he was bidden. All the way Jotham and his friends made fun of the feverish enthusiasm with which the denunciations were delivered, but Isaiah did not feel hurt. His heart was quite at peace.

At last he had launched forth upon the work to which G.o.d had so unexpectedly and so marvelously called him!

When Jotham and his friends arrived at the palace, a joint emba.s.sy from Rezin, the king of Syria, and from Pekah, the king of Israel, was awaiting them. To the amazement of them all, the amba.s.sadors placed before Jotham a demand that Judah join forces with Syria and Israel, forthwith, and fight Tiglath-Pileser, the king of a.s.syria, who was then threatening to invade Damascus and Samaria!

CHAPTER III.

_A Coward on the Throne._

King Jotham was wise enough to follow the advice of the Prophet Isaiah in his reply to the emba.s.sy from Rezin and Pekah. At the Council of State, called to consider the message from the kings of Syria and Israel, Isaiah counselled an unhesitating and decisive refusal of their demand. While, therefore, the amba.s.sadors were received and entertained royally in Jerusalem, they returned to their respective sovereigns, their mission unaccomplished.

The answer that Jotham sent back to Damascus and Samaria was plain, simple and to the point. Judah, he said, had no interest in the political policies and intrigues of Syria and Israel and would not join a coalition against a.s.syria.

Both Rezin and Pekah stormed against Jotham and his advisors, but to no avail. Judah was strong, independent and at peace, and Jotham would not involve his country in a quarrel with which he had nothing to do.

Conditions in Israel were different, however. The majority of the people chafed under the indignity of being tributary to a.s.syria. They hated King Menahem who, in his fear, sent the tribute to Tiglath-Pileser and became his voluntary subject. Menahem was hated by the rich merchants and large landowners as well as by the people generally, because on them the burden of the tribute fell the heaviest. The powerful Samarians, therefore, formed themselves into a party to oppose the king.

King Rezin, of Syria, who was watching his opportunity to rebel against a.s.syria, kept alive this hostile spirit against Menahem in Samaria and Israel. Rezin was working toward a coalition of all the countries along the Mediterranean sea that were tributary to Tiglath-Pileser, so that in their combined strength they might rise and throw off the a.s.syrian yoke.

The leaders of the opposition to the king,--the national patriots--in Samaria, hoped that Pekaiah, Menahem's son and successor, would prove himself a truer son of his country than his father. They looked to him to refuse the payment of the a.s.syrian tribute and to re-establish the independence of the Kingdom of Israel; but they were disappointed.

Pekaiah followed in the political footsteps of his father and the hopes of the Samarian patriots waned when he succeeded his father on the throne.

Rezin, however, was not to be denied in the plan he had laid out for himself and for the other a.s.syrian tributaries. Pekaiah reigned in Samaria less than two years, when, in 735, through the a.s.sistance of Rezin and the connivance of the patriotic party in Samaria, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by one of his generals, Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

Pekah was thus raised to the throne of Israel with the avowed purpose of uniting with Rezin in the proposed rebellion against Tiglath-Pileser.

Israel wanted, and needed, the help of Judah in the desperate conflict that awaited them. The smaller countries north of Israel and Syria, crushed under the burden of their a.s.syrian tribute, gladly joined the Syro-Israelitish coalition; but the emba.s.sy to Jerusalem returned empty-handed. Rezin and Pekah, however, were not dismayed by the refusal of Judah to join them. They bided their time for a better opportunity.