The World's Progress Part 54

III. THE BATTLE AND THE ROUT.

_Men._ The kings came and fought; Then fought the kings of Canaan, In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:-- They took no gain of money.

_Women._ They fought from heaven, The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.

The river Kishon swept them away,-- That ancient river, the river Kishon!

_Men._ O my soul, march on with strength!

Then did the horsehoofs stamp By reason of the prancings, The prancings of their strong ones.

_Women._ Curse ye, Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; Because they came not to the help of the Lord, To the help of the Lord against the mighty!

IV. THE RETRIBUTION.

_Men._ Blessed above women shall Jael be the wife of Heber the Kenite, Blessed shall she be above women in the tent!

He asked water, and she gave him milk; She brought him b.u.t.ter in a lordly dish.

She put her hand to the nail, And her right hand to the workman's hammer; And with the hammer she smote Sisera.

She smote through his head, Yea, she pierced and struck through his temples.

At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay: At her feet he bowed, he fell: When he bowed, there he fell down dead!

_Women._ Through the window she looked forth, and cried, The mother of Sisera, through the lattice, "Why is his chariot so long coming?

Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?"

Her wise ladies answered her, Yea, she returned answer to herself, "Have they not found, Have they not divided the spoils?

A damsel, two damsels to every man; To Sisera a spoil of divers colors, A spoil of divers colors of embroidery, Of divers colors of embroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil!"

_All._ So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might!

Having overcome the Canaanites, the Israelites were not destined to long enjoy peace. Their own kinsmen, the Ammonites and Moabites looked with envy upon their good fortune in winning such desirable land and tried now to rob them of it. Notwithstanding the fact that the Israelites, Moabites and Ammonites had all a common ancestry, they were never on that account restrained from plundering one another's territories.

Forced to take a definite stand against them, the Hebrews cast about for a leader. Jephthah was named. He was an outlaw, a bold border man, who belonged to the Hebrew race, and his bravery was unquestioned. When besought, he agreed to drive out the Ammonites on one condition only: that he be acknowledged chieftain after the battle. This being conceded, he led the Hebrew forces. It was in keeping with his rough, reckless nature that he should vow to sacrifice the first living thing he met upon his return were he victorious. The Ammonites were defeated and to Jephthah's utter consternation, his daughter, his only child, rushed forth to meet him. We are told that his vow was kept, and thus we know that human sacrifices were sometimes offered to Jahweh.

During the era of the Judges, the Philistines on the southwest began to expand, upon land already settled by the Israelites. They overran the Plain of Sharon, and the Hebrews who had peopled the plain were driven into the hills. This crisis brought forth Samson, one of the chiefs who essayed to stay the power of these new enemies. He was a simple child of nature--a giant in strength, a weakling in steadfast purpose. He lacked the capacity to plan a campaign and execute it. The stories of his prodigious power, his feats pf physical endurance, are too well known to require repet.i.tion. They were lauded by his admirers and delighted in by the Israelites when directed against their enemies, but his blows were invariably given to avenge personal wrongs, and he left his people no farther on their way against the Philistines than he found them.

The great difficulty during this period was that there was no tendency to hold long together. "Israel had within itself the worst of enemies and a germ of destruction. This was the proud sense of independence and the strongly-developed family feeling of the nomad, which did not immediately vanish from the national character with the surrender of the nomadic fashion of life. After the united effort under Joshua had but barely laid the foundation, the people again broke up into tribes and clans, which now aimlessly sought new places of settlement, each on its own account and unmindful of its neighbors."[1]

This tendency to fall apart was the most dangerous sign of Israel's progress, and we shall see how it lasted through her history.

Nevertheless, for the time being the lesson was learned that only by uniting against the enemy could victory be won. The era of the Judges so far impressed this truth upon the minds of the Hebrews that we note the beginnings of Hebrew unity.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Hist. of People of Israel, 47.

CHAPTER X.

THE MORALITY OF THE HEBREWS PRIOR TO THE KINGDOM.

It is a mistake to suppose that the lofty conceptions of Israel's later seers and prophets were manifest among the people from the earliest times. Quite the reverse was true. Like all primitive people, the Hebrews pa.s.sed through the usual stages of development, religiously and morally. Sufficient evidence goes to show that they worshipped many G.o.ds in the beginning, as did other Semitics. Joshua once reminded them of their earlier faith:

"Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other G.o.ds."[1]

"In many respects doubtless their religion was closely akin to that of neighboring Semitic people. They had their sacred pillars, trees, and other emblems of the divine power and presence; they carried with them _teraphim_, which were apparently images venerated as household G.o.ds. In many of their beliefs and practices they did not rise above the general level of their age."[2]

During their long sojourn in Egypt, as might have been expected, they grew to worship Egyptian G.o.ds. "Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt."[3]

The explanation which has seemed to make clear the unique development of the Hebrew above other Semitics, is this one--only recently offered. It is well-known that the Israelites were originally henotheists--that is, they believed in many G.o.ds--believed that many divinities were powerful, but they gave allegiance to one, the G.o.d of their tribe. This G.o.d belonged to their tribe, and shared its successes and failures. Now when Moses accepted Jahweh, G.o.d of the Midianites, he persuaded the Israelites to forsake the G.o.ds they were worshipping and give their homage to Jahweh. At the foot of Sinai he caused them to make a covenant with Jahweh: the G.o.d was to give them protection, and they were to worship him alone. Because he was an adopted G.o.d and not a member of their tribe, he was bound to protect them only when they served him faithfully. The adopted G.o.d could cast off his adopted people if they failed to fulfill their part of the contract. The Hebrews always said that they were a peculiar people. They repeatedly referred to the fact that G.o.d could cast them off if they were unloyal to him. Such a thing is unknown among other nations. No other G.o.d could cast off his people; he was one of them. This explains also why the Hebrews were always so ready to abandon their G.o.d and take on the G.o.ds of their neighbors.

"In any case it is clear that Jahweh was not originally the G.o.d of Israel, but only became such in consequence of the work of Moses and of the events of the exodus....

"Israel's relation to Jahweh was unique.... He was not an ancestral G.o.d who stood in a natural and necessary relation to his people, like the G.o.ds of other Semitic tribes; but he was the G.o.d of Sinai and of Midian, who had come into connection with Israel only through his own free, moral choice. Israel belonged to him, not by birth, but by election. Its existence and its continuance were dependent upon his sovereign good pleasure, and he might cast it off as easily as he had adopted it. Under these circ.u.mstances he had the right to make conditions upon which his favour should depend such as other G.o.ds could not make. This fact does not explain the ethical character of the Mosaic religion; it explains only why an ethical religion was promulgated at this particular time."[4]

It is the custom of all primitive people to ascribe their early laws and government to divine origin. This rule is seldom varied, and was adhered to by the ancient Hebrews. Instead of conceiving the G.o.d-Spirit as having endowed Moses with true insight, wise judgments, and high ideals, the Israelites believed that their Covenant had been dictated, word by word, by Jahweh, while it was further claimed that tablets with words inscribed upon them were given Moses by G.o.d himself. As a matter of fact, the earliest decalogue differed widely from the one best known.

The commandments first given the people after they were led forth from Egypt were probably the ones recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, and were something like these:

1. Thou shalt worship no other G.o.d.

2. Thou shalt make thee no molten G.o.ds.

3. The feast of unleaven bread shalt thou keep.

4. Every firstling is mine.

5. Thou shalt keep the feast of the weeks.

6. Thou shalt keep the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year.

7. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.

8. The fat of my feast shall not be left over until the morning.

9. Thou shalt bring the best of the first fruits of thy land to the house of Jehovah thy G.o.d.

10. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Because Moses was known to the Israelites as a law-giver, laws pa.s.sed long after his death were attributed to him, quite as laws which came into being years after the death of Hammurabit in Babylon were probably attributed to this great national law-giver.

A company of slaves, escaping from servitude after serving for two or three generations, and having possessed but a crude civilization previous to that experience, would require only the simplest laws, and any one reading the various rules and regulations attributed to this period will easily see how crude was the stage of development which made such instruction necessary. As time went on, and the people advanced and became more enlightened, new laws were possible. These continued to be known as the "Laws of Moses," as laws in all early countries have been attributed to some renowned personage, to give them added force.

In these early periods which we have been studying, the religion of the Hebrews possessed many features in common with those of surrounding nations. We read that the "Children of Israel walked through the fire,"

which means that they sacrificed their first-born in flames as offerings to their G.o.d. Jahweh was believed to be a jealous G.o.d, vindictive, demanding cruel treatment of captives, and fierce and relentless in battle. A man cannot get a higher ideal of G.o.d than that of a perfect human being, and this was an age when all ideas and ideals were crude.

When the Hebrews settled Canaan, they learned much from the earlier inhabitants of the land. Becoming farmers, they quite naturally fell into the way of worshipping the G.o.d of harvests, and other agricultural deities of the Canaanites. The "high places" are repeatedly spoken of, these being places where other G.o.ds were worshipped. When roused by danger, they renewed their covenant with Jahweh and returned to more careful performance of their part of the early agreement.

The system of polygamy was well established. Several of the patriarchs took two or more wives. If a man died childless, it was not only customary but a duty that the next in line should marry the widow and raise up seed to his memory. This is expressly shown by the story of Ruth, most attractive in its early simplicity. We learn more of the every day life of the Israelites in the period following Hebrew occupancy of Canaan from this little idyl than from any other source, or from all other sources combined.

So far as germs of government and judicial administration of the people thus far discernible are concerned, they had seemingly not progressed farther than the instruction of Moses led them. The years spent in the wilderness after the exodus were very essential to the future welfare of the Hebrew nation. Their government--to whatever extent they possessed one--was closely allied to their religion. There were many experiences met with in these forty years which seemed to prove Jahweh's care and protection over them, and Moses was regarded as his representative on earth, who received his instructions from Jahweh and delivered them to his people.

"His words were Jehovah's message to them. As he led them in their wilderness wandering, they felt themselves under the direct guidance of their G.o.d; he attended to the simple ritual of the desert sanctuary at Kadesh; to him, as the representative of Jehovah, were referred the more difficult cases of dispute which arose; his decisions had all the weight of Jehovah's authority. _In this way he laid down by practical ill.u.s.tration the principles of that civil and religious law which bears his name._ As these cases multiplied, he was led to const.i.tute a rude patriarchal tribunal composed of the elders of the tribes. In this simple organization is found the germ of the Hebrew judicial and executive system.

"Thus Moses was the man who under divine direction 'hewed Israel from the rock.' Subsequent prophets and circ.u.mstances chiselled the rough boulder into symmetrical form, but the glory of the creative act is rightly attributed to the first great Hebrew prophet. As a leader, he not only created a nation, but guided them through infinite vicissitudes to a land where they might have a settled abode and develop into a stable power; in so doing, he left upon his race the imprint of his own personality. As a judge, he set in motion forces which ultimately led to the incorporation of the principles of right in objective laws. As a priest, he first gave form to the worship of Jehovah. As a prophet, _he gathered together all that was best in the faith of his age and race_, and, fusing them, gave to his people a living religion."[5]

Before the time of the monarchy, their darkest years were those wherein the Israelites departed from this Mosaic teaching; their best periods, those in which they a.s.similated it and attempted to carry it out. To whatever extent they developed strength and stability for their future nation before the birth of their kingdom, such strength came as a result of the Mosaic religious and moral teaching.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Joshua, 24, 2.