Stories of the Prophets Part 19

Micah employed the same vivid, picturesque language in his speeches of peace as he did in his addresses of war. There is extant a remarkable oration in which he pictures a religious controversy between G.o.d and his people, and in which he makes a declaration of what _true religion_ is that has not been better phrased in all the thousands of books that have been written on religious subjects since that day.

The address is in the form of a dialogue between G.o.d and Israel, and reads as follows:

"Hear ye now what the Lord is saying: 'Arise, contend thou before the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice.

Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversty, And ye enduring rocks, the foundations of the earth: For the Lord hath a controversy with His people, And He will plead with Israel."

Then G.o.d is pictured pleading with the people:

"O my people, what harm have I done unto thee?

And wherein have I wearied thee?

Testify against me.

Is it because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, And redeemed thee out of the house of bondage, And sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam?

O my people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, devised, And what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him; (Remember what took place) from s.h.i.ttim unto Gilgal, That ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord."

As with the purely religious teachings of the older prophets, the people could not quite understand Micah. They believed that religion consisted in offering the prescribed sacrifices regularly, and that, in having fulfilled this obligation they had performed their religious duties.

The average Judean's idea of religion, of the relationship between man and G.o.d, was that of a _bargain_ between man and G.o.d; so many sacrifices brought to G.o.d, so many favors from G.o.d, in return; the more precious and numerous the sacrificial oils and burnt offerings, even to one's children, offered to G.o.d, the more precious and numerous would be the blessings from G.o.d.

To this false idea Micah replies, with irony that stings, in these words:

"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, And bow myself before G.o.d on high?

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?"

To which G.o.d answers, through Micah, in the world-famed and unparalleled definition of religion:

"It hath been declared unto thee, O man, what is good: Yea, what doth the Lord require of thee, But to do justice, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy G.o.d?"

THE PROPHET OF WOE AND HOPE

CHAPTER I.

_The Escape._

The entirely unexpected a.s.sa.s.sination of King Amon, of Judah, in the year 639, surprised and appalled the entire country, as well as Jerusalem, the capital.

King Amon had succeeded his father, Mana.s.seh, to the throne of Judah but two years before. He had had no chance to show the character of man he was and the type of a ruler he would be, and yet, without apparent knowledge on anybody's part that a conspiracy was brewing among the princes of the royal palace itself, Amon's life was s.n.a.t.c.hed away in a most cruel manner.

The evening of the tragedy in the king's household was no different than the many others that had preceded it during the time of Amon's reign. The king and queen had just said good-night to their eight-year-old son Josiah and his little friend Jeremiah, who had spent the day with the young prince, and had sent them to bed, in the wing of the palace occupied by the princes, in care of Ebed-melech, a young Ethiopian slave, of whom both boys were very fond.

Jeremiah, who was the son of the high priest Hilkiah, lived in Anathoth, the exclusive suburb to the north of Jerusalem, where the wealthy, priestly families had their homes.

It was after much begging on the part of Josiah with his royal father, and on the part of Jeremiah with his mother, that permission was given Jeremiah to accompany his father into Jerusalem and to spend the day and night with Josiah in the palace.

The high priest and the king were great friends, though they differed from each other on matters of politics and religion. Hilkiah was a follower of the religious practices and ideals of the prophet Isaiah, while Amon was inclined to follow the religious practices and ideals of his father, King Mana.s.seh.

A very strange thing happened in Jerusalem and Judah when both the good King Hezekiah and the great prophet Isaiah died and young Mana.s.seh came to the throne. The many religious and social reforms that were inst.i.tuted by Hezekiah under the guidance and inspiration of Isaiah, and which saved the country from the ravages of the a.s.syrian conqueror, were brought to a sudden halt by King Mana.s.seh.

It seems that the young king was entirely under the influence of the party at court. This party composed mostly of Mana.s.seh's young friends differed with the opinions of the old men who stood by Hezekiah and Isaiah. It was the story of Rehoboam and of Ahaz all over again. The king listened to the advice of his boon companions instead of to the counsel of the sages.

Mana.s.seh had another reason which, in his own mind and in the minds of his advisers, justified the reaction he led against the teachings of "the remnant" founded by Isaiah, and later taken up by Hezekiah.

a.s.syria, after the death of Sennacherib, had become the great world power at which all the a.s.syrian kings, from Tiglath-Pileser III down, had aimed. Sennacherib's successors actually conquered Egypt twice, thus extending the sway of a.s.syria, with its capital at Nineveh, over the whole of the then known world.

During both wars in which Egypt was defeated, the little kingdom of Judah was, by its geographical location, the stamping ground for the a.s.syrian armies. Judah was called upon during these wars to do more than pay its regular tribute. It was forced to furnish food, supplies, horses, shelter and camps to the a.s.syrians.

The suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the a.s.syrians was greater than ever before, and the court party asked the king whether the nation was better off when following in the footsteps of Isaiah and Hezekiah and worshiping the G.o.d of Isaiah and Hezekiah, than it would be if it worshiped the G.o.ds of the a.s.syrians, the worshipers of which were always victorious over their enemies.

While the a.s.syrian armies were coming and going through Judah, Mana.s.seh was anxious not alone to show his loyalty to the a.s.syrian throne by the punctual payment of the tribute levied on Judah, but to show also his personal faithfulness to the kings of a.s.syria by paying homage to their G.o.ds.

So Mana.s.seh began a b.l.o.o.d.y campaign against "the remnant", who were now called the Prophetic Party in opposition to the Court Party.

Jerusalem flowed with the blood of the martyrs, who were nowhere safe from the power of Mana.s.seh and the princes.

So great and good a man as the high priest Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father, had to hide his most inward religious beliefs and convictions in order to escape the sword of King Mana.s.seh.

When, after a reign of forty-five years, Mana.s.seh died, the Prophetic Party looked eagerly to Amon, the new king, in the hope that he would change conditions in the land from those established by his father; but Amon permitted all the heathen shrines that were erected everywhere in Judah, and even in the Temple in Jerusalem, to remain.

Just why, therefore, the Court Party a.s.sa.s.sinated King Amon will never be known. The fact remains that on this particular evening in the year 639, armed men sprang up in the palace as if by magic. The royal family was completely exterminated, with the exception of the boy Josiah, who had retired with Jeremiah, his young guest, to the nursery.

Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father, who, after taking leave of his boy and seeing the two youngsters in the care of Ebed-melech, was preparing for the hour's trip to his home in Anathoth, was as completely dazed by the uprising and as unprepared for it as was the king himself.

The conspirators, however, had no design on Hilkiah's life; and so, in the pandemonium that reigned in the palace, Hilkiah stole quietly up to the nursery.

At the door he met Ebed-melech on guard. The young Ethiopian always waited just outside the little princes' apartment until he was sure that the boys' every wish was satisfied and that they were asleep, before retiring to the servants' quarters.

Hilkiah did not speak to Ebed-melech. In his excitement he probably did not see him. He opened the door, which was not locked, hurriedly, and entered, followed closely by the Ethiopian, who surmised, from Hilkiah's appearance, that something unusual had happened.

Instead of finding the boys tucked away in bed, asleep, he found them wide awake, at play. Josiah had leaned a tiny chair up against the posts at the foot of the bed, propped it up with pillows, and, with a wand in his hand, was playing at king. Jeremiah, in another part of the room, had bound and laid several toy animals upon a little table and was playing at high priest.

When Hilkiah broke into the nursery the boys stopped suddenly at their play and looked shamefacedly at the priest. They did not notice the flushed face nor the anxious, eager look in his eyes that changed immediately to hope as he s.n.a.t.c.hed both lads in his arms, bade them be silent and started out of the nursery.

Ebed-melech was at his heels, asking what was wrong. Hilkiah told him of the uprising, in a few whispered words. The Ethiopian thereupon took the amazed Josiah in his brawny arms and led the way through the servants' hall to the court yard.

In the tumult that reigned within the palace Hilkiah, Ebed-melech and their burdens were not noticed by the conspirators. Unmolested, they made their way into the royal gardens. There they hid in the shrubbery with the boys, whose cries had been stopped by commands and pleading.

When the noise quieted down in the palace and the conspirators had evidently been satisfied with their work, Hilkiah, carrying Jeremiah, and Ebed-melech, carrying Josiah, quietly stole out of the garden and made their way through a narrow by-way crossing the Mount of Olives to Anathoth.

They arrived at Hilkiah's home at daybreak, both boys asleep. Jeremiah's mother, almost distracted by anxiety, met the four eagerly at the door, and, after a few words of whispered explanation by her husband, she understood what had happened.

Silently and with the help of servants the two boys were brought into Jeremiah's room, where they slept peacefully, being none the wiser for the tragedy in the palace in Jerusalem.