The Expositor's Bible Part 50

Never was there a more defiantly ostentatious revolt against G.o.d and against His prophet! Remonstrance seemed hopeless. What could Jeremiah do but menace them with the wrath of Heaven, and tell them that in sign of the truth of his words the fate of Pharaoh Hophrah should be the same as the fate of Zedekiah, King of Judah, and should be inflicted by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar.[911]

So on the colony of fugitives the curtain of revelation rushes down in storm. The prophet went on the troubled path which, if tradition be true, led him at last to martyrdom. He is said to have been stoned by his infuriated fellow-exiles. But his name lived in the memory of his people. It was he (they believed) who had hidden from the Chaldaeans the Ark and the sacred fire, and some day he should return to reveal the place of their concealment.[912] When Christ asked His disciples six hundred years later, "Whom say the people that I am?" one of the answers was, "Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He became, so to speak, the guardian saint of the land in which he had suffered such cruel persecutions.

But the historian of the Kings does not like to leave the close of his story in unbroken gloom. He wrote during the Exile. He has narrated with tears the sad fate of Jehoiachin; and though he does not care to dwell on the Exile itself, he is glad to narrate one touch of kindness on the part of the King of Babylon, which he doubtless regarded as a pledge of mercies yet to come. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the capture of Jerusalem, and thirty-seven since the captivity of the exiled king, when Evil-Merodach, the son and successor of Nebuchadrezzar, took pity on the imprisoned heir of the House of David.[913] He took Jehoiachin from his dungeon, changed his garments, spoke words of encouragement to him, gave him a place at his own table,[914] a.s.signed to him a regular allowance from his own banquet,[915] and set his throne above the throne of all the other captive kings who were with him in Babylon. It might seem a trivial act of mercy, yet the Jews remembered in their records the very day of the month on which it had taken place, because they regarded it as a break in the clouds which overshadowed them--as "the first gleam of heaven's amber in the Eastern grey."

FOOTNOTES:

[894] So Gratz and Cheyne.

[895] Jer. x.x.xi. 15-17.

[896] Jer. xxvi. 24.

[897] Jer. xl. 12.

[898] Some identify it with _Shaphat_, a mile from Jerusalem.

[899] They are called _sari_ ("princes").

[900] There is no Elishama in the royal genealogy, except a son of David. Ishmael may have been the son or grandson of some Ammonite princess. An Elishama was scribe of Jehoiakim (Jer. x.x.xvi. 12).

[901] The Hebrew text calls these ten ruffians _rabbi hammelech_, "chief officers of the king" of Ammon.

[902] Josephus records or conjectures that the governor was overpowered by wine, and had sunk into slumber (_Antt._, X. ix. 2).

[903] In Jer. xli. 9, for "because of Gedaliah," the better reading is "was a great pit" (LXX., f??a? ??a).

[904] Ishmael--a marvel of craft and villainy--put into practice the same stratagem which on a larger scale was employed by Mohammed Ali in his ma.s.sacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo in 1806 (Grove, _s.v._ _Bibl.

Dict._). For "the midst of the city" (Jer. xli. 7), we ought to read "courtyard," as in Josephus.

[905] Comp. Jehu's treatment of the family of Ahaziah (2 Kings x. 14).

[906] The dark deed is still commemorated by a Jewish fast, as in the days of Zechariah (Zech. vii. 3-5, viii. 19).

[907] Isa. xix. 18-22.

[908] Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1; Ezek. x.x.x. 18; Jer. xliii. 7, xlvi. 14; Herod., ii. 30.

[909] Fl. Petrie, _Memoir on Tanis_ (Egypt. Explor. Fund, 4th memoir), 1888.

[910] Jer. xliii. 13, Beth-shemesh. Only one pillar of the Temple of the Sun is now standing. It is said to be four thousand years old. It is certain that Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and defeated Amasis, the son of Hophrah, B.C. 565, reducing Egypt to "the basest of kingdoms"

(Ezek. xxix. 14, 15). Three of Nebuchadrezzar's terra-cotta cylinders have been found at Tahpanhes.

[911] How far the prophecy was fulfilled we do not know. a.s.syrian and Egyptian fragments of record show that in the thirty-seventh year of his reign Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and advanced to Syene (Ezek.

xxix. 10).

[912] 2 Macc. ii. 1-8; comp. xv. 13-16. The tradition is singular when we recall the small store which Jeremiah set by the Ark (Jer. iii. 16).

[913] Evil-Merodach (Avil-Marduk, "Man of Merodach") only reigned two years, and was then murdered by his brother-in-law Neriglissar (Berosus _ap._ Jos.: comp. _Ap._, i. 20). The Rabbis have a story--perhaps founded on that of Gaius and Agrippa I.--that Evil-Merodach had been imprisoned by his father for wis.h.i.+ng his death, and in prison formed a friends.h.i.+p for Jehoiachin.

[914] "Lifted up his head." Comp. Gen. xl. 13, 20.

[915] To be thus ??t??pe???, or s?ss?t??, of the king was a high honour (Herod., iii. 13, v. 24. Comp. Judg. i. 7; 2 Sam. ix. 13, etc.).

EPILOGUE

"On Jordan's banks the Arab's camels stray, On Zion's hills the False One's votaries pray, The Baal-adorer bows on Sinai's steep; Yet there--e'en there--O G.o.d, Thy thunders sleep."

BYRON.

"G.o.d, Thou art Love: I build my faith on that."

BROWNING.

Before concluding I should like to add a few words (1) on what some may regard as the too favourable att.i.tude towards what is called the "Higher Criticism" adopted in this book; and (2) on the deep, essential, eternal lessons which we have found in chapter after chapter of it.

1. As regards the first, I need only say that the one thing I seek, the sole thing I care for, is Truth,--truth, not tradition. Even St.

Cyprian, devoted as he was to custom and tradition, warns us that "Custom without Truth is only antiquated error," and that what we believe must be established by reason, not prescribed by tradition.

And it cannot be laid down too clearly that the old view of Inspiration--which defined it as consisting in verbal dictation, which made the sacred writers "not only the penmen but the pens of the Holy Spirit," and which spoke of every sentence, word, syllable, and every letter of Scripture as Divine and infallible--was a dangerous and absolute falsity, and that any attempt in these days to enforce it as binding on the intellect and conscience of mankind could only lead to the utter s.h.i.+pwreck of all sincere and reasonable religion. "Not needlessly," says the learned author of _Italy and her Invaders_--himself an able opponent of many modern conclusions on the subject--"should I wish to shake even that faith which practically believes that the whole Bible, exactly in its present shape, yes, almost the English Bible just as we have it, came straight down from heaven.

But we do want to get away from all mere theories as to the way in which G.o.d _might_ have revealed Himself, and to learn as much as we can of the way in which He _has_ revealed Himself in actual fact, and in real human lives."[916]

To do this has been one of my objects in this volume, and in the preceding volume on the First Book of Kings.

2. We have now only to cast one last glance on this book, and on the lessons which it is meant to teach.

Consider, first, its deep and varied interest. It has the combined value of History and of Biography; and, in dealing with both, its aim is to pa.s.s over all minor and earthly details, and to show the method of G.o.d's dealings both with nations and with the individual soul.

If we look at the book only as a History, it shows us in the briefest possible compa.s.s a series of national events of the greatest importance in the annals of mankind. We become witnesses of the fierce occasional struggles between Israel and Judah, and of the constant warfare of both with those wild surrounding nations--the people of Moab, and of Edom, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines also, and them that dwell at Tyre. We watch the indomitable resistance of Tyre to a.s.syria and Babylon. We see the Northern Kingdom of Israel rise into wealth, power, and luxury, only to sink into deep moral corruption, until, at last, the patience of G.o.d is exhausted, and He obliterates its very existence in an apparently final and irremediable overthrow. We witness the rise, culmination, and fall of Syria; the culmination and the cras.h.i.+ng overthrow of Nineveh; the rise and the splendour of Babylon. We see the surging tide of the nomad Scythians and Cimmerians rise into flood and ebb away with spent and shallow waves. We see the petty fortress of Zion triumph in its defiance of the mighty hosts of Sennacherib because it is strong in reliance upon G.o.d, and we see it grow faithless to G.o.d until it succ.u.mbs to the captains of Nebuchadrezzar. Again and again we observe that the Almighty stills the raging of the sea, the noise of his waves, and the madness of the people.

The conviction is borne upon our soul with overwhelming power, as we read the pages of Amos, of Isaiah, and of Jeremiah, that, in spite of all their rage and tumult, and apparently irresistible dominance, G.o.d still sitteth above the water-floods, and G.o.d remaineth a King for ever.

Side by side with this spectacle of the dealing of G.o.d with nations, in which we see written in large letters, in characters of blood and of fire, His dealing with guilty nations, we have abundantly in these chapters the narrower yet more intense interest which arises from the contemplation of human nature--one and the same in its general elements, but infinitely varied in its conditions--in the lives of individual men.

It is revealed to us as in a picture--it is brought home to us, not by didactic inferences, but with the silent conviction which springs from the evidence of facts--that wealth is nothing, and rank nothing, and power nothing, but that the only thing of essential importance in human lives is whether a man does that which is good or that which is evil in the sight of the Lord. Good and bad kings pa.s.s before us; and though the best kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah, were no more free from earthly misfortune than are any of the saints of G.o.d--though Hezekiah had to suffer anguish and humiliation, and Josiah died in defeat on the battle-field,--yet we are irresistibly led to the belief: "Say ye of the righteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him; for the work of his hands shall be done to him."

We all have a guide in life. "We are not left to steer our course even by the stars, which the clouds of earth may dim. The s.h.i.+p has something on board which points towards the spiritual pole of the universe. I will not venture to call it an _infallible_ guide. It wavers with tremulous sensitiveness; it may be deflected by disturbing influences; but still in the main it points with mysterious fidelity towards the pole of our spirits, even G.o.d. And what is this compa.s.s which we have for our guidance? Some would call it Conscience; but we call it by a holier name, and say that even as the needle is acted on by the magnetic current, so our spiritual compa.s.s is the spirit of man acted on by the Spirit of the living and infinite G.o.d." The lesson of this book--of every book of biography or of history--is that men are n.o.ble and useful in proportion as they are true to that law of an enlightened conscience which represents to them the will and the voice of G.o.d.

Ahaziah and Jehoram of Judah, tainted with the blood of Jezebel, and perverted by the example of Ahab, live wretchedly, reign contemptibly, and perish miserably; while good Jehoshaphat and pious Josiah are richly blessed. In the vaunting elation of Amaziah, in the blood-stained ferocity of Jehu, in the ruthless examples of usurpation and murder set by king after king in Israel, and in the consequences which befell them, we see that "fruit is seed." Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, Athaliah, have to pay a terrible price for brief spells of troubled royalty; and the slow corruption and disintegration of the people reflects the vile example of their rulers. Like king, like people; like people, like priest. We look on at a succession of thrilling scenes--the horrors of beleaguered cities, the raptures of unexpected deliverance, the insulting vanities of triumph; we hear the wail that rises from long lines of fettered captives as they turn their backs weeping upon their native land. And we are told "strange stories of the deaths of kings." We see the King of Moab sacrificing his eldest son to Chemosh upon the wall of Kir-Haraseth in the sight of three invading hosts. We shudder to think of Ahaz and Mana.s.seh pa.s.sing their children through the fire before the grim bull-headed monster in the valley of the children of Hinnom. We see the two ghastly piles of the heads of young princes on either side the gates of Jezreel. We see Jehu driving his fierce chariot over the body of the painted Tyrian Queen. We catch a glimpse of the sackcloth under the purple of the King of Israel as he rends his clothes at the horrible cry of mothers who have devoured their babes. We see the child Joash standing with the high priest in the Temple amid the blast of trumpets, while the alien murderess is pushed out and hewn to the ground. We see Mana.s.seh dragged with hooks to Babylon. We watch the haggard face of the miserable Zedekiah as his sons are slaughtered before the eyes which thenceforth are blinded for evermore. We burn with indignation to see the villain Ishmael close with corpses the well of Mizpah. But even when the phantasmagoria seems most appalling and most b.l.o.o.d.y, we watch the Day-star from on high begin to shed its glory over the grey east. In due time that Day-star was to rise in men's hearts and on the world, with healing in His wings; and we feel that somehow, beyond the smoke and stir of earth's anguish,

"G.o.d's in His heaven, All's right with the world."

And like a Greek chorus amid the agonies of destiny stand the prophets, those clearest and greatest of moral teachers. They, in spite of their holiness and faithfulness, are not exempt from the calamities of life. Amos was insulted and expelled by the high priest of Bethel; Urijah was martyred; Hosea's prophecy is one long and almost unbroken wail; Isaiah was mocked and slandered by the priests of Jerusalem, and, if the tradition be true, sawn asunder; Micah, though spared, prophesied under imminent peril; Jeremiah, saddest of mankind, type of the suffering servant of Jehovah, was smitten in the face by the priest Pashur, thrust into the stocks for the general derision, flung into a deathful prison, let down into a miry well, hurried into exile, defied, denounced, insulted, at last in all probability martyred. Prophets in general were hated and disbelieved.

They were the eternal antagonists of priests and mobs. With priests they had so little affinity, that when a prophet was born a priest, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he might count on the undying hatred and antagonism of his order. Priests, with scarcely an exception, under every erring or apostatising king, from Rehoboam to Ahaz, from Ahaz to Zedekiah, with a monotony of meanness, did nothing but acquiesce, careful mainly for their own rights and revenues; prophets did little but raise, against them and their party, an unavailing protest. When, in the days of the priest-regent Jehoiada, the priests had power, he had made a special ordinance that there should be overseers in the Temple whose function it should be to put in the stocks and the collar "every man that is mad, and that maketh himself a prophet";[917] and Shemaiah was quite indignant that there should be any delay in putting this convenient ordinance into force. Priests were chiefly absorbed in functions and futilities in the exact spirit of their guilty successors in the days of Christ. There could be little sympathy between them and the inspired messengers who spoke of such reliance on observances with almost pa.s.sionate scorn, and to whom religion meant righteousness towards men and faith in the Living G.o.d.

This high lesson of Prophecy came into greater prominence with each succeeding generation. It had been taught by Amos, the first of the literary prophets, with emphatic distinctness. It was summarised by Hosea in words which our Saviour loved to quote: "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." It had been uttered by Micah in an outburst of splendid poetry which summed up all that G.o.d requires. It was reiterated in many forms by Isaiah and by Jeremiah in words of richer moral value than all that came from the teaching of the priestly functionaries from the days when Aaron seduced Israel with his golden calf till the days when Caiaphas and Annas goaded the mult.i.tude to prefer Barabbas to Jesus, and to shout of their Messiah, "Let Him be crucified."