Stories of the Prophets Part 13

"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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 mult.i.tude of many peoples That roar like the roaring of the seas!

And the rus.h.i.+ng of nations, That rush like the rus.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.sented gladly. He promised help and protection to Hoshea, as he did to Ahaz, for voluntary submission to a.s.syrian rule.

So Hoshea conspired against Pekah in Samaria, slew him, proclaimed himself king under the protection of a.s.syria. 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.shur, his own capital.

Among the princes who hob-n.o.bbed 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 a.s.shur, the a.s.syrian G.o.d. During the religious exercises at the Damascus festival, in which all the a.s.syrian va.s.sals partic.i.p.ated, Ahaz was particularly struck with the beauty of this altar. Thereupon he sent to Urijah, the high priest in Jerusalem, "the fas.h.i.+on of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmans.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d.

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 a.s.syrian wors.h.i.+p, into the cult of the Temple, simply to please and gratify his a.s.syrian 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: "G.o.d 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 G.o.d had selected as the center of His wors.h.i.+p, or upon the people whom G.o.d 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 G.o.d's protecting hand over His people, he could not conceive that G.o.d would desert them for long. G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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, G.o.d-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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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.