Part 6

When the rest of the army who were on the other side of the valley and on the other side of Jordan saw that Saul and his sons were dead, they fled, and forsook their cities, and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

On the next day, the Philistines came to the battlefield to strip the slain, and when they found the king and his sons, they cut off Saul's head and stripped off his armour, and sent the news to all the country round; and they published it in the houses of their gods and made a great rejoicing.

They hung the dead bodies of Saul and his sons on the wall of Bethshan; but when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of what the Philistines had done, all the valiant men arose and travelled all night and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall; and the men of Jabesh burnt the bodies, and buried their bones under a tree in Jabesh, and made a great mourning for their fallen king for seven days.

This is a very sorrowful story. Saul had set out well, and he had everything in life before him.

He was a great warrior; he had fought many battles against the Philistines and other enemies on every side; but he spoilt all by one great sin. This was the sin of disobedience. He had disobeyed God's direct command.

Not long after Saul was made king, God told him to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites, leaving none behind, not even flocks and herds, or anything that was theirs.

But though Saul went, and gained a great victory over them, he disobeyed God in the end; for he saved alive the king and the best of the flocks and herds, and all that was good, he kept.

Then the Lord sent Samuel to Saul. And Saul hastened to meet him with the words: "Blessed be thou of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord!"

But Samuel answered: "What meaneth then the bleating of sheep in my ears?"

And Saul answered: "The people spared the best of the flocks to sacrifice to the Lord."

And Samuel said to Saul: "Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night."

"When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made head over the tribes of Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.'"

"Wherefore then didst thou fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?"

"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?"

"Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He also hath rejected thee from being king."

This is the reason why God gave the kingdom to David, and allowed Saul to be killed on Mount Gilboa.

XXIV. ABSALOM

THE story of Absalom cannot be anything but a sad one.

He was the third son of David, and his mother's name was Maachah, who was the daughter of the King of Geshur.

He inherited great beauty from both his father and his mother, and was evidently the idol of David's heart. But with all his fascinating beauty, he was not a good man.

His mother was a heathen princess, and Absalom had not been taught in her home the justice, the purity, the forbearance, the love, and the fear of God, which ought to be the ruling-spring of our lives.

His one thought was how to please himself, no matter what impediments stood in his way.

By and by he had cause to be angry with his half-brother Amnon, who had acted very wickedly; but instead of bringing him to be judged by the law, Absalom secretly plotted to kill him.

For this purpose, he invited all the king's sons to be present at a great feast; and he gave his servants orders to set upon Amnon and kill him, when he gave a sign to do so after supper.

When the rest of the king's sons saw this dreadful deed, they all fled on their mules in hot haste; but while they were on their way back to Jerusalem, the tidings reached David that all his sons were dead!

The sorrowful king tore his clothes, and lay upon the earth, and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent.

But Jonadab, David's nephew, tried to comfort the king, by assuring him that only Amnon was dead.

While Jonadab was persuading the king that it was not as bad as had first been told him, they saw a great company coming down the hillside, and Jonadab said to the king:

"See, it is as I said; there are the king's sons!"

Then all David's sons wept for the sad thing which had happened, and David and his servants wept very much.

But Absalom had fled, and had gone to his mother's relatives at Geshur, where he stayed three years. And David mourned for his son every day.

At length Joab, the captain of the host, saw that David's heart was bound up in Absalom, and he persuaded David to send for him to Jerusalem. But though David allowed him to return, he did not see his face for two whole years.

This made Absalom very angry, and because Joab would not carry his messages to the king, Absalom told his servants to set fire to a whole field of Joab's wheat: at last Joab consented to speak to the king, and finally Absalom was allowed to see his father: and David kissed him.

But what do you think Absalom did to that loving, devoted father?

He at once set about trying to seize the kingdom for himself!

He sat in the gate of the city and told the people who passed in and out, that if he were king he would see that every grievance was righted; and he kissed the people as they came and went, and stole their hearts!

Then Absalom asked permission to go to Hebron, and he sent spies all through the land to tell every one that at the sound of the trumpet every one was to say, "Absalom is King in Hebron!"

Thus the conspiracy grew and grew; and I cannot tell you how many sorrowful and wicked things were done while Absalom tried to get the kingdom!

David was indeed at his wits' end; but he remembered that the Lord was his Refuge, and he prayed that the Lord would defeat the counsel of those who were plotting against him.

And God answered his prayer.

At length Absalom came out against his father with a large army. There was a great battle: but the people begged David not to go to the battle himself, but to let them fight for him, and for the kingdom.

So David sat in the gate: and as his armies passed through ready for battle, he said to Joab, and to all the captains of the host: "Deal gently with the young man, even with Absalom!" And the people heard him.

So the soldiers went forth into the country, and by and by the battle was chiefly fought in a large wood, where many of Absalom's army were killed.

As Absalom was riding quickly in the wood to escape from the soldiers, he went under an overhanging tree in his haste, and his head caught in the boughs and he could not extricate himself. The mule went on and he was left hanging there.

Some one hurried to Joab and told him, and Joab, disregarding the earnest entreaty the king had given him, took three darts and thrust them through Absalom's heart.

So he died, and they put his body in a pit in the wood and threw a great heap of stones upon it.

Absalom had built himself a great tomb in the King's Dale, but he was never laid in it. Oh, the sorrow of that ending!

When the messengers came in from the battle, as David sat near the gate and watched, his first question to each runner was: "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And when they broke it to him, that Absalom had died and the victory had been complete, David turned from them, and made his way up, weeping, to the chamber over the gate, and as he went, he said:

"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

XXV. THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET

1 KINGS 13

LONG ago, soon after the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, they asked Aaron to make a Golden Calf for them to worship, which could be carried in front of them, and would, they hoped, lead them into the Promised Land. But we know how dreadfully they sinned in this.

And five hundred years after that, Jeroboam, King of Israel, made two Golden Calves, and built two altars, one in Dan at the North of Palestine, and the other in Bethel at the South of his Kingdom.

He told the people of Israel that it was too far for them to go to worship at Jerusalem, three times in the year, and that they could go instead to worship his Golden Calf, and could offer sacrifices upon the altars he had built.

Now God had told the Jews that Jerusalem was the place He had appointed for Worship; and also that only God's Priests, the sons of Aaron, were to offer either Sacrifices or Incense to Him.

One day, when King Jeroboam was himself offering incense on the altar he had made in Bethel, a Prophet of the Lord was sent to him with a message from God.

And this was the message—That one day, on this; very altar, the priests whom Jeroboam had made from the lowest of the people, should be offered, and their bones should be burnt upon this altar.

God gave a Sign, by which King Jeroboam should know that the Prophet's words were true, and that he had been sent by God.

This was the Sign. This altar of Jeroboam's should be rent—torn in pieces—and the ashes should be scattered on the ground.

King Jeroboam was very angry at the message, and he tried to seize the Prophet, but his hand dried up, and he could not use it.

And the Sign came to pass at once, for the altar fell to pieces and the ashes were scattered.

Jeroboam was very frightened, and begged the Prophet to ask the Lord to restore his hand.

And the Prophet did; and Jeroboam's hand was made quite well again.

Then the King pressed the Prophet to come in to refresh himself, and to receive a reward.

But the Prophet answered that the Lord had strictly forbidden him to eat bread or drink water in that place. So he turned away, to go back by another road, as the Lord commanded him.

But now a great temptation met him.

For as the Prophet was turning away from Bethel, an old Prophet who lived there, thought he would ask him to come back and rest at his house. He had heard how the Prophet had cried against the Altar, and he longed to hear all about it.

But the Prophet again explained that the Lord had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place.

Then the Old Prophet lied to him, and said that an Angel had told him he was to ask him home to refresh him.

So the Prophet listened to his fellow-prophet, instead of obeying God, and he turned back and went in, and ate and drank.

But when he had finished the meal, the Word of the Lord came to the Old Prophet, with a terrible message to the disobedient man.

"Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the Lord, and hast not kept the Commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee . . . thy carcase shall not come to be buried in the sepulchre of thy fathers."

So the Old Prophet gave the message, and he sorrowfully saddled the ass of the disobedient Prophet, and sent him forth on his return journey. But very soon a lion met him in the way, and slew him; and his body lay by the roadside, and the lion and the ass stood by, but the lion did not eat either of them.

By and by people passed that way, and they hastened to the city to tell what they had seen.

Then the Old Prophet told his sons to saddle his ass, and he hurried along the road until he came to the spot where the dead Prophet lay. And he found all as he had been told, and saw that the Lord had not allowed the lion to touch the dead man, or the ass.

Then the old man laid the body of the Prophet on his ass, and brought him back to bury him in his own grave; and he mourned bitterly for him, for he knew he had tempted him, and had been the cause of his death.

He charged his sons, that when he came to die, they were to bury him in the same grave with the Prophet; and he added a solemn assurance that the words of God which the Prophet had uttered against King Jeroboam's altar in Bethel, and against the other idolatrous places which he had built, should surely come to pass.

All this was literally fulfilled three hundred years after, in the reign of Josiah, the good young King. We read the account of it in three verses in 2 Kings 23.15-18.

But King Jeroboam, knowing of this Prophecy, remembering as he must that his withered hand had been healed by God, did not set his heart to seek God and to find forgiveness.

He went on in his evil ways all his life, until at length we read in the Bible the name by which he was known after his death, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."

This long ago story speaks an ever-living lesson.

The God who commands will enable us to obey. Let us seek Him with all our hearts: let us learn His will in the Bible, and then the promise to each one of us will come true—

"To him that soweth righteousness, shall be a sure reward."

XXVI. THE LORD ANSWERS ELIJAH BY FIRE

1 KINGS 18, 19

THEN after a long time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year of the famine, saying to him, "Go, show thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth."

So Elijah went back from Zarephath, and came down to Samaria to show himself to Ahab; and the famine was very sore there.

Ahab had a trusted servant called Obadiah, who was governor of his house; and this man "feared the Lord greatly."

That meant, he did that which would please God, and earnestly obeyed Him in all things. Once, when the wicked queen, Jezebel, tried to kill all the Prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took fifty of them and hid them in a cave, and fed them with bread and water, and so saved their lives.

So because the famine was very terrible in Samaria, Ahab called Obadiah, and told him that they would both go out into the country with the horses and mules and find all the brooks and streams that were left, where a little grass might be growing, to save the horses alive.

Ahab went one way and Obadiah another, and as Obadiah was seeking for water, he met Elijah, who was on his way to Ahab, as the Lord had told him. When Obadiah saw him, he bowed himself to the earth before God's Prophet; and then Elijah said, "Go and tell thy lord that Elijah is here."

Obadiah hesitated very much to carry this message, as he was afraid that the Spirit of the Lord might carry Elijah away, so that he could not be found. He reminded Elijah that he had "feared the Lord" since he was a child, but that Ahab would certainly slay him if he carried such a message to him as that!

Then Elijah promised him, that he would surely show himself to Ahab that very day.

So Obadiah went and told Ahab, and the king came out to meet Elijah.

Then Ahab said to him, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"

And Elijah answered, "It is thou and thy father's house that have troubled Israel, because ye have forsaken the Lord's commandments and have worshipped Baal!"

Then he told Ahab to gather together the people, and all the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the grove, who sat down daily at Jezebel's table, and to take them to Mount Carmel, and meet him there.

So a number of the people, and all the prophets of Baal, came together to Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came to the people, and he said, "How long do you mean to halt between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him! but if Baal, then follow him."

And the people did not answer a word.

Then Elijah said, "I am the only Prophet of the Lord, and Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one for themselves and slay it, and dress it, and put it on the altar, with no fire under."

"And I will slay and dress the other bullock, and put it on the altar, and put no fire under. And the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God!"

So the priests of Baal took their bullock and did as Elijah had said; and they cried unto the name of their god from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, hear us!"

But there was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the Altar which was made.

Then Elijah mocked them, and told them to cry aloud, as their god was talking, or on a journey, or asleep, and must be awaked! And they cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives. And thus they went on till the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near unto me."

And he repaired the Altar of the Lord that was broken down, and built it up with twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel; and he cut a deep trench round the Altar, and put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood.

Then he told the men to fill four barrels with water, and to pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood; and this he ordered to be done three times, so that the water ran all about the Altar; and he filled the trench with water.

Elijah knew what his God, Jehovah, was going to do, and what a glorious ending there would be!

So at the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah drew near to the Altar and prayed: and he said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God . . . and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word."

"Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench."

"And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God!"

"And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape! And they took them and brought them down to the brook Kishon." And they were all killed. The children of Israel had acknowledged their God at last!

Then Elijah turned to Ahab the king, who, like the people, had cast himself in awe and reverence upon the ground. And he said to Ahab, "Arise, and eat, for there is a sound of abundance of rain!"

XXVII. JOSHUA'S COURAGE

JOSHUA 1.1-18

After the death of Moses, when the Lord, Himself, had buried His faithful servant, the Lord came to Joshua and told him that he was to be the one who should lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land.

We hear of Joshua many times as we read the life of Moses.

He shared the glorious triumph when the Children of Israel were brought out of Egypt; and soon after that, Moses chose Joshua to lead the people to fight against Amalek.

Next we hear of him as the trusted servant (or minister, as it is called in the Bible), who went up with Moses to the Mountain called Sinai, when Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

Joshua did not go all the way with Moses, but waited somewhere on the mountain till Moses should come down from talking with the Holy God.

And as they went down again, it was he who saw the Children of Israel worshipping the golden calf below.

Next, Joshua was one of the twelve spies who were sent to search out the Land; and you will doubtless remember that ten of these spies brought a bad report, and only two of them, Caleb and Joshua, brought a good report.

We see Joshua's splendid courage through all these circumstances.

He trusted God with all his heart, and the Lord was his sure Refuge and constant Helper.

And it is very wonderful to remember, that among the Israelitish men who came out of Egypt and wandered in the Wilderness for forty years, the only two who entered the Promised Land were Caleb and Joshua, the two faithful spies! All the rest of the Israelitish men who came out of Egypt died in the Wilderness for their disobedience, and only their children entered the Promised Land.

It is a very solemn thing to be disobedient to God.

So as I said, the Lord came and spoke to Joshua, and told him he was to lead the people into the Land of Canaan.

One day soon after this, Joshua sent two spies to bring back word what kind of a land it was which he had to conquer. When they came to Jericho they came to the house of a woman named Rahab, and lodged there.

But the King of Jericho heard of it, and sent to Rahab to give up the men to be killed.

But Rahab had heard of all the wonders that the Lord had done for His people, in bringing them out of Egypt; how He had dried the Red Sea for the people to pass over, and of other great victories; and instead of giving up those two Israelites to the King of Jericho, she quickly hid them on the flat roof of her house, under a lot of flax stalks, and when the messengers from the King came, they did not find them, and Rahab told the King's soldiers that they had better seek the men on the road to Jordan, as quickly as they could.

So the King's men went away to look for them, and the City gates were shut, and all was quiet again.

Then Rahab went up to the roof and told the spies that they must escape at once; and she begged them to promise her faithfully, that when God had given them the Victory, which she was sure He would do, that they would save her life.

So the men told her to bind a scarlet cord in her window which was on the outer wall, that they might recognise the place; and she let them down in the night through this window, and they got away.

All this the men faithfully carried out, and we read in the 11th of Hebrews, written nearly 1500 years after, that it was by faith that Rahab saved the spies, and by this saved her own life too.

God loves for us to have faith in Him! And it was this faith in God which made Joshua courageous all his life.

So Joshua and the people crossed the Jordan and entered into the Land, and came to Jericho; and one day when Joshua was standing viewing the strength of the City, suddenly he found Someone by him with a drawn sword in His hand.

So Joshua went to him at once, and asked "if he were going to fight for the Israelites or for their enemies?"

And the Stranger said: "Nay, but as Captain of the Lord's Host am I now come."

Then Joshua fell on his face and worshipped, for he knew that this was the Lord Who was speaking to him, and Who had taken the Supreme Command!

No wonder that when Joshua was old, and knew he was going to die, that he called all the Israelites together, and rehearsed all the wonderful doings of the Lord; and that he begged them with all his strength to serve and obey the Lord with all their hearts.

And Joshua set up a great Stone to be a Witness to them, that they had promised to love and obey God; and he said the Stone would remind them, lest they should forget their promise and turn back from serving God.

So the Israelites promised to be faithful, and while the elders who outlived Joshua were alive, they did follow the Lord. But after a time they began to forget, and this brought a great deal of sorrow upon them.

Perhaps you think within yourselves, "I should like to obey God, and follow Him! I wonder how I could begin?"

Think of Joshua. He followed the Lord wholly—which meant with all his heart. That was the first thing. So you can pray, "Take my heart, Lord Jesus, and help me to follow Thee!"

Then he obeyed whatever God told him to do. And whatever Command you find in the Bible, as shewing you God's Will—do it!

XXVIII. THE FIERY FURNACE

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S dream of the Great Image had been explained to him by Daniel and his three companions; but the king soon forgot the wonderful interpretation which God had sent him, containing such an unfolding of the future which, in due time, has come to pass.

One great dynasty after another—Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greece, and Rome, have arisen and passed away, till at length, up to now, only the Feet of the Vision of the Great Image wait to be accomplished.