Stories of the Prophets Part 15

He wanted no coalition. He wanted Hezekiah and the Judeans to trust wholly in G.o.d. "Quietness and trust" was his motto and "Abiding faith in G.o.d" his standard.

"By repenting and remaining quiet you shall be delivered; In resting and in trusting shall your strength consist."

Hezekiah, like his father, Ahaz, however, placed his trust in himself and in the power of his armies. There was no doubt in Hezekiah's mind but that the a.s.sistance that would come from Egypt would strengthen him sufficiently to defeat Sennacherib and gain complete independence for Judah.

Isaiah, who knew differently, preached openly against Hezekiah; but he had no more influence with the king than he had had with his father:

"Woe to the rebellious sons, is the oracle of Jehovah, Carrying out a plan which is not mine, Establis.h.i.+ng a treaty contrary to my spirit, So that they heap sin upon sin; Who would set out for Egypt without asking my decision, To flee to the shelter of Pharaoh, And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt.

The shelter of Pharaoh will be your shame, And the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion."

While Isaiah's position among the people, and his standing in the community in Jerusalem, made Hezekiah fear to do him bodily harm, or even to arrest him, the king and his counselors, who were, naturally, eager to gain all the a.s.sistance possible from the people at home, sent out men who were in favor of fighting a.s.syria to refute the opinions and arguments of Isaiah.

These men also called themselves prophets of G.o.d; but Isaiah saw in them only false prophets:

"For it is a rebellious people, lying sons, Sons who will not heed Jehovah's instruction, Who say to the seers, 'See not!'

And to those who have visions, 'Give us no vision of what is right!

Speak to us what is agreeable, give us false visions!

Turn from the way, go aside from the path, Trouble is no more with Israel's Holy One.'"

When Sennacherib's armies finally came into Judah, Isaiah still saw the possibility of saving the country from the horrors of devastation, and he warned the king and people in these words:

"Therefore, thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye reject this word, And trust in perverseness and crookedness and rely thereon, Therefore this guilty act shall be to you Like a bulging breach in a high wall about to fall, Suddenly, in an instant, will come its destruction; Yea, its destruction shall be as when one dashes an earthen vessel in pieces, shattering it ruthlessly, So that not a potsherd is found among the pieces With which to take up fire from the hearth or to draw water from a cistern."

Notwithstanding the utter failure that faced Hezekiah in his course, neither he nor his counselors gave heed until Sennacherib had captured and destroyed forty-six fortified Judean cities and towns and had actually begun preparations for a siege of Jerusalem.

It was then that Hezekiah came to his senses. When Sennacherib was at Lachish, Hezekiah sent him a message which was almost a duplicate of the one sent by Ahaz to Tiglath-Pileser:

"I have offended; withdraw from me; whatever you lay on me I will bear."

The tribute that Sennacherib laid on Hezekiah was three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To meet this, Hezekiah was forced to ransack the Temple in Jerusalem and the treasure-chamber of the royal palace. He was even forced to strip the doors and pillars of the Temple of their gold decorations in order to make up the enormous tribute to send to Sennacherib.

Judah once more lay a helpless tributary at the feet of a.s.syria.

Sennacherib withdrew his armies and returned to Nineveh. Hezekiah had proved himself both a coward and a traitor; a traitor because he did not do all in his power to a.s.sist such allies as Tyre and Ekron; a coward because, unlike Tyre and Ekron, he did not fight Sennacherib to the bitter end.

It was only after his own country had been terribly devastated by the a.s.syrian mercenaries that he followed the advice which Isaiah gave him in the first place. Had he followed it before, he would have saved not alone his country and his people from the ravages of war, but he would have been spared the payment of so large a tribute and the desecration of the Temple.

The real reason why Sennacherib withdrew from before Jerusalem was the fact that, while he was engaged in Palestine, all the Babylonian provinces rebelled. He, therefore, received Hezekiah's message with a great deal of pleasure. In truth, he was eager to act upon it, for he had to hurry to Babylonia to subdue the rebels there.

Immediately after the a.s.syrian troops were out of Palestine, however, Hezekiah returned to his old policy and began a war to regain the forty-six cities which Sennacherib had conquered and in which he had left a.s.syrian governors.

CHAPTER VIII.

_The Prophet Triumphs._

The fearful crisis through which Judah and Jerusalem had pa.s.sed, before Sennacherib withdrew from Judah to fight his subjects in Babylonia, set both the king and the people to thinking.

Hezekiah had evidently become convinced that Isaiah's counsel for peace with a.s.syria was the best; for, after he had reconquered several of the fortified cities and towns captured by Sennacherib, he made an arrangement with the a.s.syrian king to pay an annual tribute peacefully, in order that his country should be at rest.

During the ten years that followed, Hezekiah, instead of seeking alliances with foreign nations, for the purpose of rebellion, devoted himself to building up his own country, and to reforming his own people, in line with the preaching of Isaiah.

Once, when Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah called on him at the palace. The prophet cheered him in his illness and expressed his hope for the king's speedy recovery. This call established a friendlier relations.h.i.+p between the king and the prophet.

At another time, Hezekiah invited Isaiah to the palace; and Isaiah was glad to go, because Hezekiah, in his new policy, was following the commandments of G.o.d which, as taught by Isaiah, were destined to save the nation from its enemies.

"The Remnant," which Isaiah educated, now grew in great proportions, until it included the majority of Jews who were leading upright lives.

Isaiah, himself, was established as a true prophet of G.o.d among his people.

Upon his recovery from his illness, Hezekiah began to reform the religious life of the country. He destroyed the "high places" on which many people offered sacrifices to strange G.o.ds. He broke up the brazen serpent to which the people sacrificed and which they wors.h.i.+ped from the days of the Wilderness. He destroyed many idols and practically banished idolatry from the land. Men turned from their evil ways; they left off their wrongdoing and dealt justly and honorably, one with another. Not only did they wors.h.i.+p their G.o.d, but they had full faith in Him.

It so happened, therefore, in the year 690, when Sennacherib marshaled his great a.s.syrian army, in order to conquer Egypt, that another crisis came upon Hezekiah and Judah; but neither king nor people feared the a.s.syrians, because they now trusted in the G.o.d of their fathers to save them from the hands of their enemy.

Sennacherib had determined to conquer Egypt for two reasons: first, because none of his great predecessors on the a.s.syrian throne had ever gone so far south in their conquest; second, because Egypt was always stirring up rebellion in the a.s.syrian provinces of Asia Minor, by promising them help. Sennacherib figured, therefore, that, with Egypt thoroughly subdued, the great a.s.syrian Empire would be permanently established and strongly founded on absolute union.

Sennacherib made one of his whirlwind marches toward Egypt. A little poem describing his march, is preserved in an ancient record:

"He has gone up from Rimmon.

He has arrived at Aiath.

He has pa.s.sed through Migron.

At Michmash he lays up his baggage.

They have gone over the pa.s.s.

At Geha they halt for the night, Ramah trembles.

Gibeah of Saul flees.

Shriek aloud, O people of Gallim.

Hearken, O Laishah.

Answer her, Anathoth.

Madmenah flees.

The inhabitants of Gebin are fled.

This very day he halts at Moab.

He shakes his fist against Mount Zion, Against the Hill of Jerusalem."

Finally, Sennacherib had a problem to solve: He wanted to be sure of the friends.h.i.+p of Hezekiah, through whose land he would have to pa.s.s on his way to Egypt. He was afraid on the one hand, that, having pa.s.sed through Judah, Hezekiah might rebel and attack him from the rear; on the other hand, he wanted the city of Jerusalem to be a safe-guard to himself, so that, if he should be defeated by the Egyptians, he could escape to its shelter.

Therefore, when he came within hailing distance of Jerusalem, he sent word to Hezekiah to deliver the city into his hands peacefully, and also to join with him in the proposed conquest of Egypt. Sennacherib was willing to furnish two thousand horses if Hezekiah would furnish him two thousand men to mount them, and to join the a.s.syrian cavalry.

He did not want to attack Jerusalem, because he could not afford to waste his strength on a long siege, and thus weaken his forces before he met Egypt on the battlefield.

But this time, Hezekiah, being older and wiser, and knowing that his people were certain that G.o.d was on their side, sent word back to Sennacherib that there was no reason whatever for such action on the part of Judah at this time since the country was at peace with a.s.syria, paying the tribute annually.

Encamped at Lachish, on the western border of Palestine, and eager to press on toward Egypt, Sennacherib thought to force Hezekiah into helping him by an unusual display of his power; so he sent his Commander-in-Chief, with a great retinue, to the king in Jerusalem.

A meeting was arranged between them and Hezekiah's representatives just outside of Jerusalem, at the conduit of the upper reservoir, the place where Isaiah first confronted King Ahaz.

King Hezekiah, himself, did not go out to receive the emissaries from the a.s.syrian army. Instead, he sent Eliakim, who was Governor of the Royal Palace, Shebnah, the Secretary of State, and Joah, the Chancellor of the Treasury.

A great a.s.sembly of the leading citizens of Jerusalem gathered upon the walls to see and hear the interview between the agents of Sennacherib and Hezekiah.