Stories of the Prophets Part 22

O, my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and sprinkle thyself with ashes; Take up mourning as for an only son, bitter lamentation; For the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us."

From Dan and Mount Ephraim in the north the evil tidings announcing the approach of the Scythians had already been brought to Jerusalem.

These savages were approaching Judea like a destructive hot wind and a whirlwind from the wilderness, like a lion gone up from his lair "to lay waste the earth."

"Announce in Jerusalem, 'There they are!'

Robber bands are coming from a far distant land; Yea, they are raising their cry against the cities of Judah, Lying in wait in the field over against her on every side, Because she hath rebelled against me, saith the Lord."

The farmers were deserting their lands and the villagers in the outlying parts of the country their homes, rushing south to the protecting walls of Jerusalem. The roads were filled with frightened men, women and children. They were not the happy pilgrims who went down to Jerusalem for the great holidays. In their fear they jostled each other and even fought to get ahead of each other. They cared nothing for their fellows. Everyone aimed to reach the capital first.

Jeremiah saw all this, and knew exactly what the result would be when the robber bands came to besiege the city. Already the farthest outlying sections had been ravaged, towns destroyed, fields laid waste, and the inhabitants driven in all directions.

No wonder that Jeremiah was filled with woe. He tried very hard to restrain himself, not to p.r.o.nounce the doom of his people. But a great force within him urged him to speak:

"My anguish, my anguish! I am pained to the depths of my heart.

My heart is in a tumult within me, I cannot keep silent, For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war!

Destruction succeeds destruction, for the whole land is laid waste.

How long must I see the signal, hear the sound of the trumpet!

For my people are senseless, they know me not, They are foolish children, and they have no understanding; They are skilled! in doing evil, but they know not how to do right!"

In Jerusalem there were many who believed that they were innocent of any wrong-doing because they were worshiping G.o.d the only way they knew; but what they knew was the same old heathen way. There were many, indeed, who continued their wicked practices secretly even in places where, by King Josiah's orders, the idolatrous shrines and sanctuaries had been destroyed.

What brought pain and sorrow to Jeremiah more than anything else was the fact that the people insisted that they were not sinning, that they were living in accordance with the laws of G.o.d.

To them Jeremiah answered:

"Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see and know, And seek in its open s.p.a.ces, if ye can find a man, If there is any who does right and seeks after the truth!

And though they say, 'As the Lord liveth,' surely they swear to a falsehood.

O Lord, do not thine eyes look upon truth?"

Always wanting to be fair and honest in his condemnation of the people, Jeremiah bethought himself that perhaps only the common people who "know not the way of the Lord and the law of their G.o.d" were at fault. Therefore he turned himself to the n.o.bles, to the princes of the realm, to the wealthy and exalted, saying to himself, they "know the way of the Lord and the law of their G.o.d." But to his great dismay he found that these, too, "have all broken the yoke and burst the bonds" that made them the beloved of G.o.d in the ways of their righteousness.

"Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of restraining myself.

I must pour it out upon the children in the street and upon the a.s.sembly of young men, For both the husband and the wife shall be taken, the aged and him that is advanced in years.

And their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields to robbers.

For from the least even to the greatest of them, each greedily robs, And from the prophet even to the priest, each deals deceitfully.

They heal the hurt of my people as though it were slight, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace."

This condition was reason enough for Jeremiah to point out, regretfully,

"Thy conduct and thy acts have procured these things for thee!

This is the cause of thy calamity; verily it is bitter, for it toucheth thy heart."

Yet hopefully he pleaded,

"Cleanse thy heart, O Jerusalem, from wickedness, that thou mayest be delivered.

How long shall thy evil thoughts stay within thee?"

This preaching, pleading, threatening, in which Jeremiah was a.s.sisted greatly by Zephaniah, King Josiah's teacher, and the little crowd of men, "the remnant" of Isaiah's days, whom Hilkiah had gathered about him, now known as the Prophetic Party was not a matter of days or months, but of years.

Josiah, standing practically single-handed among the n.o.bles and the Court Party, the legacy fron his grandfather Mana.s.seh, continued his reforms to the best of his ability.

At last the work was having its effect. The constant hammering away began to tell. Great progress was actually being made in the religious and moral awakening of the people.

And now came the joyous news that Psammetich I., Pharaoh of Egypt, had sent an emba.s.sy to meet the invading Scythians in the north, before they approached Egyptian territory; that he bought the savages off by means of gifts and large sums of money; that the danger of an invasion of Egypt, and therefore of Judah, was past.

The Prophetic Party pointed to the sparing of Judah from the ravages of the Scythian scourge as G.o.d's way of showing his approval, not alone of the king's outward reforms, but of the people's inner awakening to lives of righteousness.

And soon after, the most important event in the whole history of Israel up to that time, an event that had a lasting influence, not alone upon the Jews but upon the whole world, occurred in the temple in Jerusalem.

CHAPTER V.

_The Great Discovery._

The great deliverance from the Scythian invasion strengthened Josiah and the Prophetic Party in their work of reform. They felt that their G.o.d had spared them because much of the idolatrous worship had already been stopped in Jerusalem and many of the pagan shrines destroyed.

The king also determined to repair and rebuild certain parts of the Temple. The great building that Solomon erected now looked like a hodge-podge of architecture. No repairs whatever had been made on it since the days of King Joash, about two hundred years before, while many additions in the interior and in the courts had been made by Ahaz and Mana.s.seh.

Josiah determined to clear out everything foreign connected with the Temple; inside and out he was going to restore it as it was in the days of Solomon, and to beautify it. Walls were cracked and foundations had settled at different points. The alterations and repairs planned, accordingly, were very extensive and were to be done immediately.

But the Temple treasury and the coffers of the royal house were empty.

The enormous tributes that the predecessors of Josiah were forced to pay to a.s.syria had greatly reduced the financial resources of both king and Temple.

Josiah, therefore, introduced a new method of collecting funds for the proposed work. He placed great collection boxes at the Temple gates.

All who visited Jerusalem and the Temple were expected to make some contribution. Money came in fast, especially when, under the supervision of Hilkiah, the masons and the artisans and the workmen of all kinds had actually started operation.

In addition, Josiah caused collections to be made for this purpose all through his kingdom, including the old kingdom of Israel, where a remnant of the people still remained. With theis money, the hewn stone and the timber necessary for the repairs were bought and the workmen paid.

It is recorded that everyone did his work faithfully and efficiently and that the building, for that reason, was being restored in exceptionally quick time.

On a certain day, in the year 621, Josiah sent Shaphan, his minister of foreign affairs, to the Temple to empty the collection boxes and to report back to him on the progress of the repairs.

When Shaphan came to the Temple, Hilkiah approached him carrying a parchment statement, "I have found the Book of the Law in the House of G.o.d;" and Hilkiah handed the book to Shaphan.

Being questioned, Hilkiah explained that the book was discovered in one of the corner-stones of the Temple. It had probably been placed there by King Solomon himself, he explained, at the time when the Temple was built. But after Solomon's death, during the constant war between Israel and Judah and the inroads that idolatry had made in both countries, the real, genuine "Book of the Law" that was to have been the basis for government, the const.i.tution of both Israel and Judah, had evidently been lost sight of and forgotten. Now, by the merest accident, it was found again.

When Shaphan glanced through it he immediately saw what a wonderful discovery had been made. So he took the book to the king. He reported to Josiah first, that the money was collected, material paid for and workmen satisfied; then, that the King's orders regarding the repairs of the Temple had been faithfully carried out; finally, that Hilkiah had discovered a book and that he had delivered it to him. The king, having heard the whole story of the discovery, ordered Shaphan to read the book to him, aloud.

What Shaphan read amazed Josiah and the few advisers whom he had called in to listen to the reading. Everything in it seemed to be the exact opposite of conditions as they existed in Judah. The laws for sacrifices and ceremonies in the Temple; the statutes regarding the priesthood in the Temple; the observances of the holidays; the commandments regarding duties of officers of the law and the administration of justice; the humane laws between man and man, all were different from, actually opposed to, the practice of priest, judge and people in Josiah's entire kingdom.

During the reading of the book Josiah recognized how little real headway his reforms thus far had made. When he heard Shaphan read:

"The judges shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

Thou shalt not pervert justice; thou shalt not respect persons; neither shalt thou take a bribe, for a bribe blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. Justice and only justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy G.o.d giveth thee",

he understood how far from this ideal his people had strayed.