CHAPTER XIV.

THE END OF NATIONAL LIFE.

The Hebrew monarchy established under Saul 1095 B.C., continued and cemented under David, and weakened and ruined under Solomon, terminated in the year 975 B.C., lasting altogether one hundred and twenty years.

This marks the culmination of national greatness and glory--and the rapid decline and disintegration.

We now come upon the rise of a new class of men, prophets of a new school--visionary men, dreamers and agitators, reformers--besides miracle-mongers and fault-finders. Discontent reigned. Men began to sing the glories of their past greatness, the wonders of Jehova, the miracles of Moses, and the promises that the Lord had made to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the land that flowed with milk and honey.

It seems almost unaccountable, even from a theological, Christian standpoint, that God, Jehova, the Lord almighty, should not be able to exhibit his wonderful powers regularly, systematically, instead of by fits and starts, on special occasions, after intervening centuries. Why should a God come and go by leaps and jumps, appearing and disappearing at distant ages, now helping and then punishing? Why lead and mislead? Why permit people to be so foolish and senseless as to create rival gods? Why should he be jealous of a wooden god, or of any other kind of an idol?

Why should it be necessary to whip people into understanding God, knowing him? Why were there so many thousand people slaughtered to force conviction of his marvelous powers?

Is it not an outrage on common sense for a God to stoop to mountebank tricks, subterfuge, and delusion, so-called miracles, in order to establish his existence, or his presence?

If God made man, why did he not make him properly to begin with, so as to suit himself at least? Why did he not make him so as to know the father right from the start?

Why should this almighty God, this Jehova, keep his chosen people continually on the rack of transgression, crime, and folly?

Why did he create them so that they should so easily forget him, and devote their reverence, their veneration, their sacrifices, and their prayers to some brass or wooden image?

The excuse so frequently made throughout the Bible, as a reason for losing battles or being made captives, that the Jews forsook their Jehova, their God, is no extenuating circumstance. How comes it that the nations with the heathen gods were victorious and finally conquered the Hebrew nation and led them forth as captives? The heathen gods must have been equal, indeed frequently superior, to the Hebrew God, because they, the heathen gods, were so very often victorious, and finally subdued the Hebrews.

The two nations Judah and Israel fell into idolatry almost immediately. Solomon even preferred Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians; and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites (1 Kings xi, 5), and how many other strange gods we have no record.

Israel began as a kingdom 975 B.C.; Jeroboam, a servant of Solomon, was the first king and Hoshea the last; Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, took Samaria by force, and drove the Ten Tribes into Media captives, in the year 721 B.C.; this kingdom having lasted two hundred and fifty-four years, and having had during that time nineteen kings.

The kingdom of Judah lasted longer, beginning at the same time, 975 B.C. Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, was the first king. The captivity of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem was completed 588 B.C. Judah had existed as a nation about three hundred and eighty-seven years. Jehoiachin and Zedekiah were the last kings. During this period they had about twenty-one kings. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made a conquest of Egypt, besieged Jerusalem, pillaged and burnt the Temple, and carried everything away that he could lay his hands on.

With few exceptions, a worse, a more brutal set of men than these rulers never governed any nation. During their successive reigns, we find an unbroken succession of the barbarities which were at that time the generally recognized method of warfare, accompanied by licentiousness, and all the other savageries of these semi-civilized people.

Prophet traffic flourished in those days. There were as many kinds of prophets as there were gods, with a complement of priests to correspond.

Religious hate and intolerance was manifest on every occasion towards one another. To gain power and control the affairs of state was the chief aim and object. They would curse and destroy one another whenever a favorable opportunity occurred.

Two religious fanatics became especially conspicuous about 918 B.C., Elijah and later Elisha. The antagonism and hostility between the leaders of factions was now very intense. Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of her opponents, and Elijah, who was the leader of the Jehova faction, cursed and raved, and many hundred prophets of Baal were slaughtered (1 Kings xviii, 19, 40). It was brutality against brutality, crime against crime, savagedom against savagedom. The bloody struggle continued right along, the slaying being employed on any and every occasion. Thus he caused the killing of the several fifties, as related in 2 Kings i. Elijah was a zealot; harsh, bitter, and merciless to the opponents of his faith. As to the miracles, they answered the purpose well enough for a lot of ignorant, half-civilized country people. We have had similar tricks repeated by priests all along, deluding, cheating, and defrauding the poor simple-minded, ignorant classes.

"And it came to pass as they still went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (2 Kings ii, 11). How could a man go up to heaven? The atmosphere around this terrestrial globe is about two to three hundred miles in hight. The law of gravitation prevents the smallest particle from leaving the earth's surface, much more a body of the weight of a man. The whirlwind belongs to the earth, and never reaches beyond a certain hight. Besides, everything taken up by a whirlwind or cloud in due time returns to mother earth. As for the horses and chariot of fire, in later days pious persons pretend to have seen similar appearances. A man sitting before a fire fancies he sees all kinds of pictures and faces; they are the reflections of his mind. So when one fancies representations of figures and objects in the clouds, or in the moon, they are either delusions of vision, or the fancied picture of the imagination. There are delusions of hearing. An unsound condition of the nervous system may produce hallucinations of such a nature; a disease or a mental derangement may occasion this sort of nervous disturbances.

A new feature was introduced by these men--the healing art, resuscitating the supposed dead, casting out evil spirits, laying on hands, etc. A sillier piece of charlatanism was never put in print than Elisha's miraculous resuscitating trick on a child in a cataleptic fit (2 Kings iv, 34, etc.).

A craftier or more cunning piece of business was exciting Jehu, King Ahab's general, to rebel, and to slaughter the whole of the king's family. Elisha sends a young prophet to Jehu to pour oil on his head and anoint him king, on his promise to exterminate the king's family (2 Kings ix): "For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel" (2 Kings ix, 8).

Ahab, Jezebel, and Ahab's seventy sons were all slaughtered. All the great man's priests, and his kinsfolk, were slain. And Elisha called together all the prophets of Ahab's faction, all those that worshiped Baal, and killed them all off. General Jehu was made king as a recompense for the services he had rendered to the Elisha faction. That was about 884 B.C.

Usurpation, conspiracy, and bloody crimes mark this period. Intrigue, robbery, spoilings, lust, and degradation seem epidemic in these nations. When they were not fighting each other, they were warring with these barbarities.

Elijah had undoubtedly a powerful party at his command when he prompted Jehu to revolt and assume the reins of government. He had everything pretty well organized when Elijah said, "And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay."

"Yet I have left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings xix, 17, 18). These seven thousand were no doubt his immediate disciples, not the commoner herd of people.

He selected a man to succeed him, whom he no doubt knew well--a farmer, for Elisha was plowing when he was chosen as chief agitator, arch-conspirator, and inheritor of all the rights and privileges of a revolutionary leader (1 Kings xix, 20, etc.).

This plowman, prophet, and conspirator combines in himself also the healer, preacher, and leader, etc. He cures Naaman's leprosy, causes iron to swim, brings blessings to some and curses to others.

These knavish tricks succeeded with the ignorance and superstition of the day. The people could be swayed in any direction by a clever, determined, bold talker, consequently were easily excited into the committal of any acts, no matter how revolting or brutal.

These political factions led by prophets and priests were not so gentle and polite towards one another as they are at the present day. The church ruled. Gods of either side alternately were in power. Those in power killed off those who were out of power.

Whether it is Elijah or Elisha, leaders of the Jehova party, or Queen Jezebel, leader of the Baal prophets of the other party, the result always depends upon numbers and clever leadership.

Ferocious brutality never ceases but for a short while. There is not a spark of humanity, no mercy, not an act of kindness or consideration.

Menahem was king of Israel 772 B.C. He smote Tipsha and all that were therein. "And all the women therein that were with child he ripped up" (2 Kings xv, 16).

Thus we have page after page marked with bloody crime in the book called sacred history, scripture, and what not. And alas! this is God's work, God's own book, God's own people.

Much has been said about the inaccuracies in the Bible--the contradictions, the errors that are found. We are not concerned in any of them. We are interested in directing the attention of the reader to the book called holy scripture, a book believed to have been written by supernatural inspiration, relating to certain acts done by God; and these acts, accompanied by wonders, were performed for a people especially selected by him, that were under his protection, guidance, direct supervision; and their leaders, lawgivers, kings, priests, prophets, and teachers were by reason of their holiness in communication with this God, either directly or indirectly, and thereby were endowed with powers that rendered them capable of doing things contrary to the fixed laws of nature.

We have endeavored to point to a few of the acts of the greatest and best men figuring in that book called scripture. These men were not divine nor were their acts divine. Their acts were not humane, nor anything approaching what is understood to be humane at the present age. On the contrary, their acts were barbarous, savage, brutal, cruel, and in many instances outrageous.

They, the Hebrews, were no better than their neighbors the heathens, whatever their name or nationality might be. The heathen with their idols were just as good in war, in battle, as, if not better than, the Jews were with their God, their Jehova, and the ark, and finally succeeded in subduing the Jews, burning their Temple with God's ark, vessels, etc., taking them captives, and destroying them as a nation.

It is evident from history that the principal men of the nation were corrupt; that both the kingdom of Israel and that of Judah were rotten to the core. They were continually warring with each other, as with other nations. Their abuses gave rise to public agitators, who always found supporters.

Men of the Elijah and Elisha stamp never lose an opportunity, and they made the most of all of it while they lived.

They introduced a school of thought and action that laid the foundation for new sects that culminated in the remote future. The belief in medical miracles was more firmly fastened upon the minds of their followers by the prophets, fortune-tellers, and healers, than by any class previous.

Other nations meantime were progressing in civilization--literature, the art of warfare, etc. Greece was gaining laurels. Homer appeared. Hesiod wrote about 900 B.C. Tyrtæus's Elegies, Archilochus's Satires, etc., about 700 B.C. The Persians and Romans were rising and making rapid progress and conquest, soon to sweep smaller peoples and nations aside. These heathen made conquests, gained victories, transplanted the captives, and were altogether far more prosperous and successful with their idols than the Hebrews were with their God. Nothing else better proves that the struggles for supremacy among the human families were perfectly natural, each side depending always on their leaders, their skill in fighting, their bravery, and their organization; that their Gods, their idols, their oracles, and their priests played but a small part in the transactions of life; and that all the gods, whether idols, or mythological, or Jehovistic, and no matter of what nationality, had all about the same material value, power, and importance.

From our modern standpoint all the gods may be classed in one category. We may safely pronounce them to be creatures of imagination, sprung into existence through ignorance, fears, and superstition. They are all alike false, frivolous, and foolish. They have not a particle of truth in them. And the Gods that are now held in such high esteem by many people, are no better than the Chaldean idols.

Judah is still struggling to retain her grip on her national life. Every effort prolongs the agony. Hezekiah is king 717 B.C. Isaiah is the prophet. Romantic dreamer, songster, critic, and man of visions, he sees distress, ruin, and misery before him; recalls the glories of the past, but sees none of the faults; sees the greatness of the nation of Solomon, David, and Saul, and now beholds the national degradation. He laments this dreadful condition with a bitterness of feeling. Then he hopes against hope that something will happen in the future that will bring about a happy state of his nation and reproduce the golden prosperity of those glittering ages that are gone. This man is a close observer, a visionary man, and a critic. He writes and sings of his own people, of his own country. In the introduction which he gives himself in Isaiah i and ii, he presents his vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem, etc. He reproaches them for their sin, iniquity, corruption, etc.: "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers" (i, 7).

His dream and hope of the future: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (ii, 4).

This entire chapter, like most of the chapters of Isaiah, is a work of the imagination. It is the fancy of a dreamer who mentally sees the thing he longs for. In his nervous exaltation, visions appear, incoherent, meaningless, except to himself. He brings different parts of different objects together, representing things and scenes he is familiar with, in the form of pictures, natural in parts but unnatural and impossible as a whole.

"As for my people, children are their oppressors and women rule over them" (iii, 12). He describes the "tinkling ornaments" about their feet, and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, their chains and bracelets and mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, and the rings and nose-jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins, and the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails, etc. This portion is no doubt realistic. It shows his mental condition and the mood he was in.

His humor changes: "Now I will sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard" (v, 1). In this chapter he touches upon everything that strikes his fancy. Hell, wind, land, instruments, lions, etc., etc., are all introduced. He rambles all over nature. Imaginary ideas are mixed with realities indiscriminately, for illustration, comparison, lamentation, or complaining. High in the temple he sees the Lord sit; sees the seraphim with six wings, etc. (vii). And in chapter viii he has a "great roll and writes in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz." Verse 1: "And I went to the prophetess; and she conceived, and had a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz" (3).

Isaiah lived after the captivity of the Ten Tribes.

He also knows of the constant fighting between the Ten tribes and the two, Israel and Judah. Israel has been carried away captive to other lands and its country has been given to a people called Cutheans, or Samaritans. These cultivated and adopted in some measure the Jewish religion. In moments of despondency he refers to them as he refers to Moab and other nations elsewhere. The whole Christian faith seems to be based on the prophecy of the ninth chapter of Isaiah, 6th and 7th verses. Isaiah starts out in this chapter speaking of the time when God first lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, etc. In the 6th verse he says, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," etc. That man has no reference to Christ as Maher-shalal-hash-baz.