Stories of the Prophets Part 24

"Amen, Oh Lord."

And all the a.s.sembly once more responded:

"Amen, Oh Lord."

Great feasting and rejoicing throughout the entire city by all the people followed during the whole festival. It was the greatest Pa.s.sover in the history of Judah and Jerusalem, and of it is recorded:

"And the children of Israel that were present kept the Pa.s.sover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. And there was no Pa.s.sover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Pa.s.sover as Josiah kept, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Pa.s.sover kept."

When the festival and the celebration were over, the spirit thereof did not die with the departure of the people from Jerusalem to their homes in all parts of the country. Josiah went to work in earnest to accomplish his share of the keeping of the new covenant. He dismissed every idolatrous priest in the land and destroyed every vestige of their worship in Jerusalem, in every town and village and on every high place.

Up in Israel he carried on this work under his personal direction, and at Bethel, with his own hands, he destroyed the altar erected by Jereboam I. at the time of the division of the kingdom.

It was while in northern Israel, where he ordered the dead bones of the idolatrous priests to be burned upon the very altars at which they worshiped, that Josiah espied two sepulchers, of a type that he had not met before. They were so unlike the sepulchers of the idolators that he marked them especially and talked about them. One of the monuments, he was told, "is the sepulcher of the Man of G.o.d who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar at Bethel;" and when he found that the other ancient monument was the last bed on earth of "the Prophet that came out of Samaria,"

he ordered that neither one should be touched. The memory of those early prophets was sacred and hallowed to the king.

Within a few years, all this work undertaken by Josiah was accomplished.

Genuine love of G.o.d and genuine living in accordance with His commandments seemed to have been restored everywhere among the people.

In addition, the political changes that were taking place in a.s.syria, Babylonia and Egypt, left Josiah entirely at peace to work out the destiny of his own people and kingdom.

In the year 608, however, in the thirty-ninth year of Josiah's reign, he entered upon a political campaign that proved to be the first and greatest mistake of his life and resulted not alone in his death, but in a great religious and moral decline that eventually led to the destruction of Jerusalem and Judah.

CHAPTER VII.

_To the Fore Again._

The mystery of the Scythian invasion of Asia has not yet been clearly solved. The results of that invasion, however, shook thrones and shattered kingdoms and changed the face of the then known civilized world.

a.s.syria was the greatest sufferer, for the Scythian ravages had so weakened the great empire that it never recovered. Incidentally, this same cause reawakened the spirit of conquest in the Medes, led to the re-establishment of the independent Babylonian kingdom and brought about, indirectly and unnecessarily, the death of the good King Josiah.

During the last years of Ashurbanipal's long and brilliant reign over a.s.syria, the Medes, under their king, Phraortes, turned the tables on a.s.syria and invaded the empire. Ashurbanipal's army defeated the ambitious Mede and drove him back into his own territory. But his son and successor, Cyaxerxes, having made certain changes in the organization of the Median army, again invaded a.s.syria and actually besieged Nineveh.

At the same time the Scythians began to swarm over Media, and Cyaxerxes was forced to return to his own country and defend it.

Cyaxerxes, being a wise as well as a great king, managed to buy off the barbarian Scythians and later actually trained them for service in his army, both as teachers of archery and as mercenaries.

In the meantime, the a.s.syrian successor of Ashurbanipal made the mistake that cost him his life and his empire. He appointed Nabopola.s.sar, a Chaldean of ancient lineage and of enthusiastic patriotism for his age-old country. Nabopola.s.sar immediately entered into an alliance with Cyaxerxes that had for its purpose the overthrow of Nineveh and the establishment of Babylonia as an independent state.

Nabopola.s.sar declared himself king of Babylonia, to the great dismay of the a.s.syrian court. To seal his alliance with the Medes, a marriage was arranged between Amytis, Cyaxerxes' daughter, and Nebuchadrezzar, his son and Crown Prince.

Nineveh was attacked at the same time by the Babylonians and Medians in the year 608. The great capital was besieged for two years. So fierce was the vengeance wrought upon the city and its inhabitants by the united armies that when the capture was finally made both were completely blotted out. For many centuries not even the location of Nineveh could be found.

This occurred in the year 606. The end of Nineveh brought to a close the history of the great a.s.syrian power that had ruled so masterfully over the then known entire world. It also brought about a situation that had its direct effect upon the beginning of the end of the Kingdom of Judah.

In Egypt history was in the making. Psammetich I, a Libyan soldier, recognizing in the crumbling of a.s.syrian power his own opportunity, made himself master of the country and established a new dynasty in Egypt. His son and successor, Pharaoh Necho, grasped the chance given him by Nabopola.s.sar's attack on Nineveh to win back the provinces along the Mediterranean, that had been Egyptian before they were conquered by a.s.syria.

Without further ado, therefore, Necho, with a great army, started north, to conquer all of a.s.syria that he could and add it to his own Empire. This meant an invasion of Judah.

King Josiah was by no means ready to sit still and fall helplessly from the frying pan into the fire, as it were. Once entirely free from a.s.syria, he intended to maintain his independence. At least, he was not going to allow Pharaoh Necho to slip the noose around his neck without a struggle. Josiah, therefore, organized his armies and went out to meet Necho. This was when the campaign against Nineveh began.

To the Pharaoh's great surprise, when he reached the plain of Megiddo, he was confronted by Josiah. Necho sent him word that he had no quarrel with Judah whatever; but Josiah could see nothing in the future but the sovereignty of Egypt over his dominions and was determined to retain his independence at all costs. So, the war was on.

It did not last long, however. It seems that not even a single pitched battle was fought. Josiah was picked off by a Libyan archer in the very first skirmish and wounded mortally, to the dismay of his entire army.

His old and devoted servant, Ebed-melech, was with the king in his chariot. The faithful Ethiopian carried the wounded Josiah from the royal chariot to another one. Protected by a detachment of the body guard, as if in mockery, Josiah was taken back to Jerusalem, dying.

Before he reached the capital he was dead, and Necho declared himself master over Judah without the least resistance. He made it, at once, an Egyptian province.

The mourning for the dead King in Jerusalem and Judah was sincere and widespread. It is recorded that many odes by the poets and musicians of that day were written in his memory and that Jeremiah lamented for his friend in accents more woeful than did David for Jonathan. Ebed-melech hung around the sepulcher of his beloved master for many days. It was months before he returned to the palace to resume his duties.

"Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him."

To indicate the force and power of Josiah's life with the people of Judah, and the genuine value in their own lives of the late king's reforms, the people at large pa.s.sed over Eliakim, Josiah's eldest son, and raised his second son, Jehoahaz, to the throne of Judah.

Eliakim was a weakling, who loved ease and luxury above everything else. The people feared that he would not continue the life and work of his father. Jehoahaz, on the other hand, was a true son of his father, and would have made a splendid successor to the throne of Josiah, had not Pharaoh Necho interfered with the will of the people of Judah.

In the third month of the young king's reign (he was only twenty-three years old) Necho ordered him to appear before him at Riblah, on the Orontes. Arrived there, Jehoahaz was immediately thrown into chains and sent a prisoner to Egypt.

Necho then proclaimed Eliakim King of Judah and to show his complete mastery over king, land and people, he changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim.

The mourning in Jerusalem and Judah was now twofold. The people wept for their beloved king who was dead and for his beloved son who was a prisoner beyond hope.

A few men like Hilkiah and Jeremiah, and the others of the Prophetic Party, saw in Jehoahaz's successor the coming of more evil days for Judah. To those who hoped that there might again be a political change and that Jehoahaz would return from Egypt, to reign in his father's stead, Jeremiah held out no hope:

"Weep not for him who is dead, nor wail for him; weep rather for him who is gone, for he shall not return, and never again shall he see the land of his birth. For thus saith the Lord, concerning Shallum (Jehoahaz), the son of Josiah, who was king instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place: 'He shall not return thither again, but in the place whither they have led him away captive he shall die, and this land shall not see him again.'"

Soon after Jehoiakim came to the throne, word came from Egypt that Jehoahaz had died. It was then that Jeremiah, who with Shaphan and Hilkiah had quietly aided the king in his policy of reform, but had retired to his home in Anathoth when these reforms began to bear fruit, heard again the call to go out and prophesy to the people of Judah. Danger was threatening from the throne and this danger brought Jeremiah out of his seclusion, to the fore again.

CHAPTER VIII.

_The Shadow of a King._

Pharaoh Necho's ambitions were short-lived.

The child's-play conquest of Judah was not to be repeated in dealing with the conquerors of Nineveh.

Nebuchadrezzar really had no thought of extending the sway of his reborn Babylonia to Egypt; but he would not countenance for a moment Necho's encroachment upon a.s.syrian territory.

In dividing up the a.s.syrian Empire, Cyaxerxes was perfectly satisfied with the absolute independence of Media and such a.s.syrian possessions as adjoined his country. The rest, to the west and south, including ancient Syria and Judah, was apportioned to his son-in-law. There was no quarrel about the division.

Syria and Judah being his, Nebuchadrezzar swore by all his G.o.ds that Necho should be made to suffer for his audacity.