Part 3

Notwithstanding the wealth and great ability of the Jewish nation, they have always been a people under reproach. In trade, if people wish to describe any one as covetous, grasping, and avaricious, it is not an uncommon thing for people to say that he is “a regular Jew,” and thus, whatever a person may be in himself, the name “Jew” is a term of opprobrium throughout the world.

But reproach is not all, nor nearly all; for they have had to endure the most terrible persecutions. They have been treated most barbarously by the nations amongst whom they have been scattered. It has mattered little whether they have been living amongst Pagans, Mahommedans, or spurious Christians, though I fear it must be admitted that the treatment by spurious Christians has been the worst. But I need not dwell on these horrible atrocities; for they are fresh in our own memories. We have only to go back to the newspapers of last year to learn what the poor Jews endured in Southern Russia. Their property was plundered, their homes burnt, their daughters—oh, I cannot tell you the horrors!—and their whole families cast out on a pitiless world to perish from cold, hunger, and nakedness; and all this in the face of the whole of Europe in this enlightened nineteenth century.

(5.) _Preservation_.

But in the midst of all this they have been preserved. Kindness has not fused them, reproach has not shamed them, and persecution has not destroyed them; so that after eighteen centuries they are in the midst of us still—still scattered through the world, still remaining a separate people, still under reproach and persecution, but still moving amongst us as an active, intelligent body of men; in the midst of us, but not of us; living in England, but not Englishmen; the subjects of another dynasty, the proprietors of another land, and the scions of another home.

Now I wish to put it to all thinking and observing men, Can they refer me to any other people in the world in which these five facts are found to meet? Do they know of any other people that was ever so completely removed from its home, that was ever so effectually dispersed amongst the nations, that has been kept so distinct, that has endured such reproach and persecution, and that, notwithstanding all, has been so long preserved? There have been amongst other races conquests, massacres, and migrations; but I venture to affirm, without the slightest hesitation, that you may search history from one end to the other, may ransack its pages for all that you can find respecting the nations, and I venture to affirm, without the slightest fear of contradiction, that you will not find one in which any of those facts have taken place as they have with the Jews, and still less one in whom in this most extraordinary manner they have all been found to meet.

But now comes the question, How is all this to be explained? What is it that has made the Jews such an exceptional people? What is it that has made their experience so entirely different to that of all the other peoples upon the earth? I ask the infidel to tell me if he can, but I know he cannot; I ask the man of science to explain it on scientific principles, but I know he cannot. But I ask the believer to explain it, and he can do so in a moment by the simple answer, “It is the hand of God.” But some man may say, “How do you know that it is the hand of God? What proof have you that it is His doing?” A perfectly clear proof that it is impossible to deny. There is a _sixth_ fact quite as plain as the other five; _i.e._, that all the five facts were predicted in the prophecies, and that centuries before the dispersion took place it was clearly foretold in the prophecies of the Word of God. These facts were all foretold in prophecy, and therefore we are firmly persuaded that they were all brought about by God. The fulfilment of prophecy is a proof that the whole is of God.

In proof of this let us refer to a few passages.

I spoke of the fact of their _expatriation_, or expulsion from their own land. Now what did Moses say of it fifteen hundred years before it happened? Only mark his words: “Ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.” (Deut. xxviii. 63.)

I spoke of their _dispersion_ amongst the Gentiles. Now what did Moses say of it? “Thou shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.” (_v._ 25.) “And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (_v._ 64.)

I spoke of their _distinctness_. Now what did Balaam say of it? “The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned amongst the nations.” (Num. xxiii 9.) And though these words were spoken no less than three thousand three hundred years ago, do they not predict exactly that which you may see this very day in London, Liverpool and in every other great city of Europe?

I spoke of _reproach and persecution_. And returning to Deut. xxviii., what do we there find? In verse 33 you find the prediction of persecution and spoliation. “The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway.” And in verse 37 the reproach in foretold: “And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byeword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.”

The last fact of which I spoke was the _preservation_, the long preservation, through those eighteen centuries of unequalled trial; and again we turn to Moses, and find him saying, “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.” (Lev. xxvi. 44.)

Now all these passages are taken from the Pentateuch, the earliest book of the Scriptures; and I have referred especially to them because some people appear to speak with disrespect of the Pentateuch. But here we see the Pentateuch prophecies fulfilled in this nineteenth century in so remarkable a manner that no observant man can deny it.

But if people prefer prophecies of a later date they shall have them; for time makes no difference to truth, and the inspiration of the Scriptures extends through its whole length.

We find that they have been driven from their country, and can no longer inhabit the land which is their own. Now what did the prophet Isaiah say? “Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” (Chap. vi. 11, 12.)

We found that they are scattered amongst all the nations of the world. Now what did God predict by the mouth of Ezekiel? “The whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.” (Chap. v. 10.)

We found that, though scattered, they are preserved as a distinct and separate people. Now what did God foretell by the prophet Amos? “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” (See ix. 9.)

We found that in their dispersion they have been the object of cruel reproach, and have endured much fierce persecution. Now what said Jeremiah, the prophet of God, in chap. xxix. 18? “And I will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them.”

But we found also that, notwithstanding all, they have been preserved in a most marvellous manner; so that at the end of eighteen centuries they are still amongst us a separate people, and preserved in the providence of God. And is it not all explained by that wonderful prophecy of Jeremiah? “If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.” (Chap. xxxi. 36.)

Such passages might be multiplied to almost any extent, as they abound throughout the prophecies; and I have merely selected a text from the Pentateuch and another from the later prophets to illustrate each of the five facts to which we all are witnesses. And are they not sufficient? How was it, I ask, that these great prophecies were given, some fifteen hundred years, and some five hundred years, before the dispersion? Was it accident? Was it calculation or guesswork? How should the writers have calculated, or, how should they have guessed? One thing is perfectly plain. They could not have been written after the event; for ever since that time the Jews have been dispersed over the world, and in all their dispersions have carried with them these prophecies. If they were forged afterwards, how did the forger get them into circulation amongst all the scattered Jews throughout the world, and that before there was a printing-press? They must have been written before the event; and before the dispersion what human mind could calculate the condition of the Jews after eighteen centuries of wandering? Think calmly over it. Consider well the five facts; test them both by history and the statements of modern travellers; and I cannot doubt for one moment that the conclusion of any thinking and intelligent man must be that the history of the Jewish people has been ordained of God, and that the Scriptures foretelling it were inspired by His Spirit, I cannot imagine how it is possible to avoid the conclusion that it is His hand which has ordered all in His sovereign providence, and His Spirit which has so clearly and so unmistakably foretold it all in His Word. While, therefore, we grieve over the Jew, and long to see, not only the nation safe in Palestine, but the individual safe in his own Messiah, we consider it no small gift in these sceptical days that we have him living amongst us as one of a separate people, and so bearing an unconscious testimony to the truth and inspiration of the prophecies of God.

But I cannot stop there; for it is not the inspiration of the Scriptures only to which the Jews bear unconscious testimony, for they are witnesses also to the faithfulness of God. Here they are after eighteen centuries of dispersion, during which they have lived without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; during which they have been exposed to isolation, to temptation, to reproach, to spoliation, and to most unjust persecution; but not one grain has been lost from the seed, and here they are, Jews still. Aye, and what is more wonderful than anything, they are thus preserved in mercy, notwithstanding all that they have done, even in the rejection of their own Messiah. How could it be, and how can such preserving mercy be explained? Just turn to one text out of many that may unlock the mystery. It is written, in Psalm cv. 42, “He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant.” There was His own covenant given to Abraham, and our heavenly Father is faithful to it still. Three thousand eight hundred years have not exhausted His faithfulness, and even the sin of the Jew has not prevailed over the fidelity of our God to His friend. Oh, what a lesson does this teach us as to the faithfulness of our God! Will He break the covenant which He has made with us in Christ Jesus? Will He depart from the promise which He has ratified in the precious blood of the chosen Messiah? Is not the covenant with Christ as sure as that with Abraham? And though we may be deeply conscious how unable we are to stand, and still more deeply conscious how unworthy we are to be preserved, may we not rest in the peaceful assurance of His covenant grace, and apply to all His people in Christ Jesus these wonderful words in Jeremiah xxxi. 37: “Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord”?

PALESTINE.

CAN stones speak? Can rocks make their voice to be heard? The Lord said of His people on His entrance into Jerusalem, “If these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out.” And this is very much what those very stones are now doing; for the stones of Palestine are beginning to speak with a voice so clear and decisive that it seems a perfect marvel that any thinking man should be able to resist their evidence. Now therefore, if God permit, we will study their testimony; we will put the rocks into the witness-box, and endeavour calmly to learn from them what they teach us of the truth of God. There are three subjects on which their evidence is conclusive—the geographical accuracy, the historical truth, and the prophetic inspiration of the Scriptures. Let us examine them on all three points, and may that divine Spirit who inspired the word of His own great grace bring it home to our understandings and our hearts!

I. THE GEOGRAPHICAL ACCURACY.

We must remember that a large portion of the Old Testament consists in the history of that chosen line which connected the Lord Jesus Christ with Abraham, and that the country which we generally call “Palestine” was given to that family as their home. It was in that country that Abraham sojourned, and that his family lived for the 1,400 years between the Exodus and the Advent. It is obvious therefore that the history of that family during all those centuries must abound in allusions to the different places in that country, and as the history enters very much into social life, we must naturally expect very frequent allusions to the places in which the people lived.

It is important for us also to remember that the history was not one book written by one author at one time, but that much of it was evidently contemporary history; so that there were different books written by different authors at different times, beginning with Moses 3,300 years ago, and ending, as some suppose, with Ezra, or Nehemiah, about 2,300 years ago.

Now the question is, “Do the various allusions to places which lie scattered up and down the history agree or disagree with what we know of those places from observation on the spot?” Through the patient labours of some eminently scientific men working for the Palestine Exploration Fund, we know a vast deal more of the country than has ever been known since the dispersion of the people. We have before us the result of a most careful scientific survey, from which we may learn in perfect confidence the evidence of the rocks. What we have to do therefore is to lay side by side the evidence of the rocks and the evidence of the Books—to compare the two carefully, and to ascertain whether or not the “witnesses” agree. The ancient rule was, that “out of the mouth of two witnesses shall every word be established.” Here then there are two witnesses—the rocks and the Books—do they or do they not agree?

Let us begin with the Book of Joshua, a book recording the original invasion of the country, and the distribution of the land among the tribes. In the ten chapters, beginning with the 13th, we have a full account of that distribution, and a clear definition of the boundaries of eleven tribes, with a list of forty-eight cities assigned to the sons of Levi. This list and these boundaries have been most carefully examined by the officers of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the remarkable result is that they can trace almost every place mentioned in Joshua; and what is more remarkable still, “there is scarcely a village which does not retain for its desolate heap or its modern hovels the Arabic equivalent for the name written down by Joshua 3,300 years ago.” In many cases there is nothing more than a cluster of a few wretched Arab huts, or a heap of shapeless ruins; but so complete has been the identification that there is no doubt left respecting Joshua’s boundaries; and if the Jews were to return to-morrow, and in returning were to observe the distinction of the tribes, those officers could at once point out to them their several homes, and show them exactly what portion of the country was originally assigned to them by lot.

This general fact is quite sufficient to prove the general accuracy of the geography of the Book. But the general fact does not stand alone, and there are countless details which are almost more conclusive than the close agreement which we find existing between the list by Joshua and that by scientific men. Let us consider one of these details, and examine one neighbourhood in the light of modern science. The neighbourhood shall be that of Bethel and Hai. Respecting Bethel, no one, I believe entertains a doubt. It was named by Jacob “Bethel,” or the house of God. It was afterwards called “Bethaven,” or “the house of vanity,” in consequence of the idolatry of Jeroboam; and the extensive ruins now found there are called Beitin. Now Bethel does not stand alone, for it is frequently connected with Hai; so that Abraham’s second halting-place, as recorded in Gen. xii. 8, was on a mountain “having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east.” There were two ranges of hills running from north to south, with a valley between them, and on a hill standing in that valley Abraham pitched his tent, and built an altar unto the Lord. Now, as I have just said, there is not the slightest doubt about the identification of Bethel. But what are we to say of Hai? In Joshua viii. we have an accurate description of its capture, and every detail of the attack can be verified on the spot. But we cannot find the name. There is a heap, or mound, on the slope of the hill, which no doubt marks the site. But the name Hai is completely lost. The name given to the mound is Tell. Now Tell is the word for heap, so that Tell Ashtereh is the heap of Ashtaroth, and Tell Kedes the heap of Kadesh. But to this heap there is no such name attached, and the only name is Tell. “Tell” alone marks the spot. And now turn to Joshua viii. 28: “And Joshua burnt Hai, and made it an heap” (_i.e._ a Tell) “for ever, even a desolation unto this day.” The name given by the modern Bedouin is exactly that of the ancient record, and the testimony of the stones is in perfect agreement with the scriptural narrative.

But this is not all. I have already pointed out that the hill between Bethel and Hai was Abraham’s second halting-place; and if we turn to Gen. xiii. we shall find, in verses 3, 4, that after he had been down into Egypt he returned to that same spot, and there once more he called on the name of the Lord. It was there that he made Lot the generous offer of the choice of the land, and that “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan.” But at first sight this seems impossible, for between Bethel and Jordan there is a lofty range of hills running from north to south, and completely obstructing the view; and so the merely superficial observer might say that the Book was wrong. But before we come to any such decision we must consult the stones. And what will they say to us? Go up the heights above Bethel on the west, and they will tell you that there is no view of the plain of Sodom there. Go up on the eastern side to the Tell that once was Hai, and there is no view there. But now go to the mountain having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east, the very spot where, according to the 13th chapter of Genesis, Abraham and Lot were standing; and there through a gap in the hills you see the very sight that tempted Lot, and you look on the plains of Sodom, as Lot looked on them not much less than 4,000 years ago.

And what makes the agreement still more wonderful is that the Book was written by one who was not an inhabitant of the country, and who had never stood on that mountain-top. It is obvious from the history that Moses was never there, and accordingly it is obvious from the Book that it was written on the eastern side of Jordan. In all the Books written in Palestine the expression “Beyond Jordan” is employed to describe the eastern side. But it is not so with the Book of Genesis. In chapter l. 10 there is the mention of the “threshing-floor of Atad,” where Joseph and his company made a mourning for Jacob, and in verse 11 this place is said to be “beyond Jordan.” But Atad was on the west side of Jordan, for it was amongst the Canaanites, and is believed by learned men to have been between the Jordan and Jericho. To Moses, therefore, approaching Canaan from the east, it was “beyond Jordan.” To any pretender writing after the occupation of the promised land it would have been “on this side Jordan.” But to Moses, who died on the eastern side, and never set his foot on the western side, it was “beyond.” He may have seen it from Pisgah, but that was all. He never set his foot there, for he never crossed the Jordan. So he never set his foot on the mount between Bethel and Ai; but he wrote with the most minute geographical accuracy. And thus we have the testimony of the stones that the Book of Genesis was not only the Book of truth, but, may we not add, that Moses was inspired by God Himself to write with such perfect truthfulness of places which he had never seen?

This one instance must suffice as an illustration of _geographical_ accuracy, and we may hasten to consider the second point; viz.:—

II. HISTORICAL TRUTH.