p. 27When Ahab died, ELIJAH, the prophet, was still in the land of the living. Elijah’s figure, next to Moses, stands out as the brightest among the prophets. Though he did not write a book and have a place in Scripture in this sense, he more sensibly influenced the nation’s affairs, and more strikingly manifested the power and glory of God than any of those whose names are on the books of the prophets. He did not sink out of view with his flight from Jezebel. He was in seclusion for a time, but he came out of that seclusion early in the reign of Ahaziah, Ahab’s successor. Ahaziah had an accident that was likely to prove fatal, and being anxious to know how it would turn out, he sent messengers to Ekron, a Philistine city, to enquire at the God of that city (Baalzebub—afterwards known as Beelzebub) whether he would recover.
While this disgraceful scene was being enacted—(a King of Israel sending a public commission of enquiry of a heathen god that was no god, concerning a matter that none but God could tell), the angel of the Lord ordered Elijah to leave his seclusion and go and intercept the messengers at Samaria, and tell them that the King would die. The messengers returned to the King with this message. They did not know who Elijah was. They spoke of him as “a man that came up to meet them.” The King asked what sort of a man he was. His enquiry evoked the only personal description we have of any of the prophets in the Scripture. The messengers said “He was a hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins.” This was not much of a description, certainly. But it was enough to enable Ahaziah to recognise him. He said, “It is Elijah, the Tishbite.”
Ahaziah’s father had tried in vain to get hold of Elijah. Ahaziah thought the opportunity was now favourable for effecting his arrest. He sent a military troop, fifty strong, under a captain, p. 28 to go after him and bring him back. If we think it strange that a sick king, under a prophetic intimation of imminent death, should be guilty of this madness, we must remember that the superstitiousness capable of believing in a heathen idol would naturally regard the powers of Elijah as magical powers resident in Elijah himself which could be nullified by imprisonment and death. The captain and his troop discovered Elijah on the top of a hill, and summoned him in the King’s name to give himself up.
There is a time for everything under the sun. There is a time for the servants of God to be passive and to resist not evil, as when Jesus laid down his life, and as when his brethren, in obedience to his commandments, have to follow his example. But there is a time for the avenging hand to be lifted—as when Joshua was commanded to destroy the Canaanitish nations for their wickedness. Elijah was the prophet of God, not merely to teach the right way, but to punish Israel’s departure therefrom. Hence a famine of three-and-a-half years: and hence now the destruction of this captain and his fifty men by fire sent down at the prophet’s command. Another captain and another fifty men perished in like manner. A third captain and a third fifty, taking a more respectful attitude, were spared, and Elijah, by direction of the angel, went down with them to the king and personally delivered the message of death, and came away again in safety.
This incident concluded the work of Elijah, and the time came “when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind” (2 Kings ii. 1). It is an extraordinary fact that Elijah alone of the prophets (Enoch, the seventh from Adam, excepted) should not die. Paul’s comment in Enoch’s case probably furnishes the explanation of the case of Elijah: “Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God” (Heb. xi. 5). The one feature specially visible in Elijah’s life is the one he referred to when excusing himself for having fled from the face of Jezebel: “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword.”
God is jealous of His honour, though full of compassion and kindness. We may therefore understand how pleasing to Him would p. 29 be Elijah’s undiluted and untiring zeal on His behalf. For the same reason we may understand how God would feel at liberty (as we might express it) to exempt Elijah from the common lot of men, in translating him like Enoch, “that he should not see death.” The offensiveness of sin, which brings death, is its violation of the divine supremacy, and therefore of the divine honour. Its antidote, in the sense of allowing God to forgive, is the recognition, the assertion, the vindication of that divine supremacy. This is what was done in the condemnation of sin in the crucifixion of Christ. It is what, in another form, “pleased God” in the case of Elijah, and admitted of his removal without death.
The translation of Elijah, as a miracle, will be found fully considered in The Visible Hand of God.
When Elijah was removed, ELISHA, whom God had nominated to him as his successor (1 Kings xvi. 19), took Elijah’s place as the representative and vindicator of the honour of God in the midst of Israel. We read that “the sons of the prophets,” when they saw him, said, “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha, and they came to meet him and bowed themselves before him” (2 Kings ii. 15). The sons of the prophets had known him some time previously as Elijah’s companion, as the chapter relating to Elijah’s removal shows. That God had named him as Elijah’s successor would also probably be known to them. At all events, after Elijah’s removal, we find Elisha and the sons of the prophets living together as one family in various places.
Incidents in their communal life show the powerful activity of the Spirit of God at the command of Elisha: e.g., the healing of the bitter spring at Jericho; the destruction by two she-bears of forty-two young blasphemers; the succouring of an army with a supply of water in a desert place; increasing a widow’s pot of oil to many gallons; the cure of a great woman’s barrenness; the subsequent raising of her dead son to life; the antidoting of poisoned food; the multiplication of a small supply of food to feed a hundred men; the cure of Naaman’s leprosy: the smiting of Gehazi with leprosy, &c. (2 Kings ii. 21, 24: iii. 15-20: iv. 14-17, 38, 42: v. 1-14, 25-27). He likewise influenced the public affairs of the country by the power at his disposal, for we find it a matter of notoriety that he reported to the p. 30 King of Israel the words spoken by the King of Syria in his chamber (vi. 12); and that he led a Syrian army, smitten with blindness, into the heart of their enemy’s country, not to be destroyed, but to be hospitably entertained and dismissed (vi. 19); and afterwards anointed a successor to the throne (ix. 1-9). In his very death, the power resident with him was manifest; a dead man being hurriedly thrown upon his bones received such an electric shock from the contact that life revived (xiii. 20).
Elisha, like Elijah, departed without writing a book. His life was more an acting than a literary life: and his actions were more characterised by the miraculous element than any of the prophets except Moses—agreeably to the saying of Elijah (2 Kings ii. 10), that if he saw him after his elevation from the earth, his petition that he should be endowed with a double portion of Elijah’s spirit would be granted.
It strikes the mind at first as a strange thing that such a display of miraculous power should occur in connection with that section of the nation (the ten tribes) which apostatised from the law and rebelled against the house of David. If we may speculate as to its object, we are probably not far wrong in supposing it was intended to preserve alive the elements of faithfulness that were at work in spite of the national apostasy, which might otherwise have been extinguished by the influence of idolatrous kings and rulers. God told Elijah that He had “reserved to himself seven thousand men that had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.” This is probably a representative rather than a literal number. Whether or no, it shows that here and there, throughout the ten tribes, there were families that remained true to the law of the Lord, in the midst of the general declension.
To ensure the continuance of these, and also to maintain a divine testimony against the national corruption, and perchance, influence them to return to the God of their fathers, God showed His hand in their midst by the notable work of Elijah and Elisha. The spirit of divine compassion was the moving spring of the ministry of the prophets, as we learn from the statement at the close of their history: “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers . . . because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place” (2 Chron. xxxvi. 15). The practical effect of p. 31 the Elijah-Elisha work is visible in the almost over-weening regard in which Elijah is held among the Jews to the present day; and in another form, may be traced in the racial faithfulness to the law of Moses among those masses of Jewish population who are the undoubted descendants of the ten tribes in Russia, Poland, Roumania, Austria, and Germany. Such a thing as an idolatrous Jew is rarely to be found in the land of their captivity, though they were so prone to idolatry when they lived in their own land.
After the death of Elisha, it would seem as if the prophetic institution had gradually faded away. We read no more of “the sons of the prophets” during the hundred years or so that elapsed from the death of Elisha to the captivity of the ten tribes (B.C. 724). We read only of one or two individual prophets who stand forth for a moment in the gathering darkness like solitary twinkling stars in the advancing night: such as the mention of JONAH, son of Amittai, as a prophet whose word was fulfilled in a temporary restoration of Israel’s coasts under Jeroboam II.; and in the indication that the written prophecies of HOSEA and AMOS covered the reigns of one or two of the last of the ten-tribe kings (Hosea i. 1; Amos i. 1).
There is a greater activity of the prophetic function, and less of the miraculous element, in the reigns of the kingdom of Judah. May we suppose that this was because of the greater faithfulness of Judah. Miracles are “a sign to unbelievers,” to use Paul’s expression; they are intended to create faith. Where faith already exists, they are superfluous. So with regard to the activity of prophecy. Paul in the same connection observes that prophecy is for the edification and comfort of them that believe. Judah, nationally speaking, was of this class, though with periods of lapse, consequently, prophesying was more common among them than among the ten tribes, while the sons of the prophets as a wonder-working institution was more common among the latter. Most of the books of the prophets were produced in connection with the kingdom of Judah—a fact which may have its explanation in the suggestion just made—which is greatly strengthened by the fact that the Lord Jesus sprang out of that kingdom.
The prophets that appeared in Judah, after the revolt of the ten tribes, were twenty-two in number, and twenty-five if Hosea, Amos, p. 32 and Jonah be included. The reason for doubting the propriety of their inclusion is that though their prophecies related to affairs of Judah, they themselves may have appeared in Israel or the ten tribes, as they treat of the affairs of the ten tribes. Of the whole number, sixteen wrote books which have been preserved, namely, those whose names appear in the compilation of Scripture. Some whose names are not on the list of the twenty-five, wrote books which have not been preserved, viz.: NATHAN the prophet, GAD the seer (1 Chron. xxix. 29), AHIJAH the Shilonite and IDDO the seer (1 Chron. ix. 29), Shemaiah (2 Chron. xii. 15).
Some have felt concerned at the absence of these books so referred to in Scripture. There is no need for concern. The books that have been preserved, viz., the “all Scripture” of Paul’s declaration to Timothy (2 Tim. iii. 15) are affirmed, on the authority of the Spirit of God, to be sufficient for the making of men “wise unto salvation.” If the others had been necessary for their sufficiency in this respect, they would have been preserved. Curiosity might wish to know their contents, but as products of inspiration, the deepest study must have failed to discover in them anything inconsistent with the same inspiration in the other books. It is barely possible they may have contained the casual quotation or two that occur in the New Testament from the Old Testament Scriptures for which nothing corresponding can be found in our present compilation. At all events, the loss is inconsiderable in a spiritual sense. Godly men find the Scriptures as they are, all-sufficient for conviction, enlightenment, holiness, comfort, and salvation. As for those who are not influenced by the Scriptures as we have them, it is very certain that they would be no better off with a hundred extra books.
With regard to those prophetic books that have been preserved, it has to be observed that they are not arranged in the Bible in the order of the date of their production. It was not necessary for spiritual purposes that they should be so arranged, or that order of arrangement would have been observed. Still, it is necessary to know to what period of Israel’s history a particular prophetic book belongs. This, as a rule, is indicated in the opening verse of each book; but in one or two cases, we have no such indication, and the position of the book in these cases would be misleading in point p. 33 of date—(a comparatively unimportant item in a writing recording divine thoughts).
Ezra is said to have been the servant of God who put the books of Scripture together in one volume in their present order. He was doubtless guided in the matter as much as in the conduct of the expedition from Babylon to Jerusalem (Ezra vii. 6; viii. 21-23). It is, on the whole, in good chronological sequence; but the following is the real order in point of time of the books of the prophets, which we purpose considering in the course of these articles: 1, Jonah (B.C. 862); 2, Joel (B.C. 800); 3, Amos (B.C. 787); 4, Micah (B.C. 750); 5, Hosea (B.C. 740); 6, Nahum (B.C. 713); 7, Isaiah (B.C. 698); 8, Zephaniah (B.C. 630); 9, Habakkuk (B.C. 626); 10, Jeremiah and Lamentations (B.C. 588); 11, Obadiah (B.C. 587); 12, Ezekiel (B.C. 574); 13, Daniel (B.C. 534); 14, Haggai (B.C. 520); 15, Zechariah (B.C. 520); 16, Malachi (B.C. 397). We do not propose to consider them in this order, but in the order in which they occur in the Bible—which is a very good order as regards their size and comparative importance.
The prophets who arose in Judah after the revolt of the ten tribes appear casually in the historic narrative. There was first SHEMAIAH, who was contemporary with that revolt, but comes in sight as a prophet only after its occurrence. He did so at an acute crisis in Israel’s affairs. The ten tribes had rebelled and appointed Jeroboam king over them: and Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, who had just come to the throne, was contemplating military measures of coercion, when “The word of God came unto Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the King of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel. Return every man to his house, for this thing is from me.” To this message, the people were obedient, and thus the word of a prophet averted civil war.
There was next the case of ODED and his son AZARIAH, twenty years or so later, during the reign of Asa, son of Abijah, son of Rehoboam. Asa began his reign well. He had not been p. 34 long on the throne when a huge Ethiopian host came against the little Kingdom of Judah. Asa went out at the head of the small army of Judah, and before the battle, prayed thus: “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude.” The battle was a great victory for Judah, and on the return of the army to Jerusalem, “The Spirit of God came upon Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while ye be with him: and if ye seek him he will be found of you, but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season, Israel hath been without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn to the Lord God of Israel and sought him, he was found of them. And in those times, there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city, for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”
These words greatly encouraged Asa, and he proceeded to carry out various reforms with vigour. But later in his reign, another prophet (one HANANI) had another message for him which was not so pleasing. Under the fear of invasion from Baasha, king of the ten tribes, Asa purchased the help of Benhadad, the Syrian king, by despoiling the temple, and sent the gold and silver and treasures to that monarch. When the cloud had passed, “Hanani the seer came to Asa, King of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the King of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the King of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims an huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: p. 35 therefore from henceforth, thou shalt have wars” (2 Chron. xvi. 7). Asa was enraged at this message, and put the seer in prison, and at the same time in his vexation dealt roughly with the people.
The next prophet that appears on the scene is JEHU, the son of Hanani, that is, probably, the son of the seer imprisoned by Asa, of whose end we have no knowledge. (Perhaps he died in prison.) It was during the next reign (Jehoshaphat) that his brief ministry occurred. Jehoshaphat, in all respects but one, a worthy successor of David, had paid a friendly visit to Ahab, the idolatrous king of the ten tribes, and had assisted him in a military expedition against Ramoth Gilead. On his return to Jerusalem, Jehu “went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God” (2 Chron. xix. 2).
Jehoshaphat evidently received this message in a very different way from his father Asa. There is no mention of angry words or spiteful deeds towards the prophet or any one else. On the contrary, Jehoshaphat proceeded to put the affairs of the land more in harmony with the law of God. He took steps to bring the Ephraimites back to the Lord God of their fathers. Moreover, he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city by city, and said to the judges, Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now, let the fear of the Lord be upon you: take heed and do it, for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts. Also in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the priests and of the chief of the fathers of Israel for the judgment of the Lord, and for controversies when they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully and with a perfect heart. And what cause soever shall come to you of your brethren that dwell in the cities between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgments, ye shall even warn them that they trespass not against the Lord, and so p. 36 wrath come upon you and upon your brethren. This do and ye shall not trespass. And behold Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the Lord, and Zebadiah, the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, for all the king’s matters: also the Levites shall be officers before you. Deal courageously, and the Lord shall be with the good” (2 Chron. xix. 4-11).
This was a very different sequel to the prophet’s reproof from the rage and the oppression vented by Jehoshaphat’s father upon Jehu’s father under similar circumstances. It prepares us for the behaviour of Jehoshaphat in the presence of a great national peril that presently threw its shadow over Jerusalem. “Then came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea (Dead Sea) on this side Syria.”
“And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest thou not over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham, thy friend, for ever? And they dwelt therein and have built thee a sanctuary. . . . And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. . . . O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company: neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.”
It was in the presence of an immense concourse of people—“all Judah, with their wives and children”—that this prayer was prayed. It was an impressive prayer because very earnest and sincere, and coming out of the mouth of a righteous man.
“Then upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Aaron, p. 37 came the Spirit of the Lord, in the midst of the congregation. And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou, King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. To-morrow, go ye down against them. Behold they come up by the cliff of Ziz: and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves: stand ye still and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not nor be dismayed. To-morrow, go ye out against them, for the Lord will be with you.”
At the hearing of this inspiring message, Jehoshaphat and the whole assembly fell on their faces on the ground and worshipped. What a spectacle! A contrast to the shoutings and yellings of a Gentile mob on the eve of war. After a few moments, the assembly rose to their feet, and the choral priests then, “with a loud voice on high,” stood up and praised the Lord God of Israel. Early next morning, the crowds streamed out of Jerusalem to go to meet the advancing foe. As they went forth, Jehoshaphat addressed them: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” Arrived on the ground where they were to take up position, a most singular preparation for battle was made.
Singers went out before the army, and sang, “Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.” “And when they began to sing and to praise,” the Lord caused confusion in the ranks of the embattled foe. “The children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another, And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth.” For three days, Judah had nothing to do but to strip the dead and take away an enormous booty of “riches and precious jewels.” On the fourth day they had an assembly for praise in the valley of Berachah. “And then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to p. 38 Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord” (2 Chron. xx. 1-28).
A finishing cloud in Jehoshaphat’s reign brings another prophet into view. Although Jehoshaphat did not resent the reproof administered to him by Jehu, early in his reign, on account of his alliance with Ahab, and so far profited by it that he does not appear to have renewed his intimacy with Ahab, he evidently failed to see clearly the inadmissibility of friendship with that king’s house, for after Ahab’s death, and after the stirring episode above narrated, he got into friendly relations with Ahab’s son, Ahaziah, and went so far as to enter into arrangements for the building of a navy for their joint benefit. The navy was fitted out, and there was a prospect of a good trade to Tarshish, when the Lord interfered: “ELIEZER, son of Dodavah, of Mareshah, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works.” In accordance with this prophetic intimation, in the language of accomplished fact, “The ships were broken that they were not able to go to Tarshish” (2 Chron. xx. 35-37).
Thus three times during Jehoshaphat’s reign did a prophet from the Lord interpose in the affairs of the kingdom—with the object each time of asserting the Lord’s authority or administering the Lord’s reproof—in total contrast to the policy of intermeddling ecclesiastics in European politics, past or present.
The next instance was in the reign of Jehoshaphat’s grandson, Joash. The interval was abundantly illustrative of the mischief of Jehoshaphat’s temporising policy towards Ahab’s house—rebuked by the prophet. As the result of Jehoshaphat’s friendship with Ahab, Jehoshaphat’s son, Jeroboam, married Ahab’s daughter, and this as a cause is bracketed in the same verse with the dire effects that sprang from it. “He walked in the way of the kings of Israel (the ten tribes), like as did the house of Ahab, for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife, and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Chron. xxi. 6). To begin with, he murdered all his brothers, to whom Jehoshaphat, his father, had given provincial governorships. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused p. 39 the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and “compelled Judah thereto.”
These enormities called forth the singular incident of a letter from Elijah some time after he had been removed from the scene. “There came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa, King of Judah, but hast walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house which were better than thyself, Behold with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people and thy children and thy wives and all thy goods. And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day” (verse 12).
This terrible message was fulfilled in a short time. He died of sore diseases (verse 19). The effect of Jehoshaphat’s mistaken friendship was not yet exhausted. Jeroboam’s son, Ahaziah, succeeding to his father, must of course go and see his friends in Samaria, Ahab’s family, for was he not the son of their sister Athaliah? While on that visit he lost his life in the judgments that overwhelmed Ahab’s house at the hand of Jehu, which, on his mother in Jerusalem hearing, “she arose and destroyed all the seed-royal of the house of Judah,” and proceeded herself to reign—a daughter of idolatrous Ahab in the capital of faithful Judah.
Her reign was not long. Through the wise measures of Jehoiada, the high priest, her death was brought about, and a little boy that had been saved from the wholesale destruction of David’s house was proclaimed king. This was Joash, who did well so long as Jehoiada lived to guide him. Jehoiada died when Joash was twenty-six years old, and Joash then yielded to the influence of the young princes brought up with him and turned aside to the idolatries of the land and all the execrable but flesh-pleasing practices therewith associated. “God sent prophets to them to bring them again to the Lord and they testified against them, but they would not give ear. And the Spirit of God came upon ZECHARIAH, the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people and said unto them, Thus saith p. 40 God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, the Lord hath also forsaken you.”
The king was exasperated at this message, and Zechariah was stoned by his orders in the court of the temple. Zechariah, in the act of expiring, exclaimed, “The Lord look upon it and require it,” and truly a terrible retribution came immediately on the princes who had instigated the crime. “It came to pass at the end of the year that the army of the Syrians came up against Jerusalem with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hands. And they executed judgment upon them. They destroyed the princes from among the people and sent all the spoil (of their houses) unto the King of Damascus.” When the Syrians went away, Joash, who was in a state of disease, was murdered by his own servants.
The successor of Joash (his son Amaziah) appears to have taken warning from these terrible events, and returned to the obedience of the Lord’s law from which his father had departed. He re-organised the public and private life of the nation. Among other measures, seeing Israel exposed to danger from marauding neighbours, he hired 100,000 fighting men out of the ten tribes. This was a mistake, which he did not seem to know till “There came a man of God to him, saying, O King, let not the army of Israel go with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim (the ten tribes). But if thou wilt go, do it: be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy, for God hath power to help and to cast down.” The king took the hint, and sent away the hired Ephraimites. Afterwards, Amaziah went wrong, and he was assassinated.
His son, Uzziah, walked in the right way during a long reign of fifty-two years, or the best part thereof. His faithfulness was partly owing to the influence of another ZECHARIAH “who had understanding in the visions of God.” He sought the Lord during the lifetime of that prophet, “and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” (2 Chron. xxvi. 5). Afterwards, Uzziah made the terrible mistake of usurping the functions of the priesthood, and was withstood by Azariah, the high priest, who said to him, p. 41 “It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests of the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed, neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God.” Uzziah was angered at this repulse, and would have resisted, but leprosy smote him as he lifted his hand against the priests, and he beat a retreat covered with shame, and was a leper to the day of his death.
The next appearance of a prophet in Israel’s affairs was in the reign of Ahaz, grandson of Uzziah. Ahaz did not that which was right, but imitated the corrupt ways of the ten tribes: in punishment whereof, besides allowing the Syrians to get the upper hand of him, God gave Judah into the hands of the ten tribes, who, in a sanguinary campaign, destroyed vast multitudes and took an enormous number of captives. The captives were brought to Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, and they were about to experience the usual fate of captives in being sold into slavery, when “a prophet of the Lord (who) was there, whose name was ODED” addressed a very solemn message to the king and his officers: “Because the Lord God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand and ye have slain them with a rage that reacheth up into heaven. And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you, but are there not with you sins against the Lord your God? Now hear me, therefore, and deliver the captives again which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.”
This speech greatly impressed leading men in Samaria who had not taken part in the war. They withstood the military men and said, “Ye shall not bring in the captives hither; for, whereas we have offended against the Lord already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass.” The military men were abashed at this attitude, and allowed the princes to settle the matter. These nominated a commission, who sent the captives home after seeing that they were clothed and fitly provided for out of the great “spoil” the army had brought. “They clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them and shod them, and gave them to p. 42 eat and drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho—the city of palm trees—to their brethren.” There is no more touching episode in the whole history of Israel.
In the next reign (Hezekiah), ISAIAH the prophet took a leading and influential part; but his case may advantageously be deferred until we come to consider his book in detail. The same remark may be made concerning JEREMIAH and EZEKIEL, who belonged to later reigns.
We conclude this preliminary notice of the position of the prophets in Israel’s public affairs by reference to the only remaining instance of note. In this case, a woman comes into view as the mouthpiece of inspiration. It was during the reign of Josiah, the last distinguished era in the history of David’s house. Josiah was called to the throne at a very early age (eight years), on account of the assassination of his father, Amon. Eight years afterwards, when he was sixteen, “while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David, his father.” Four years later, he began to remove the instruments of idolatry from Jerusalem; and when he was twenty-six, he ordered the temple to be cleansed and brought into condition for divine service according to the law. He had not seen the law, but had received such instruction from his teachers as led him to discern his duty in these directions.
While the temple was being cleansed, a copy of the law was found and brought to him. He had it read to him, and was amazed to find that things around him were so far from what the law of God required. His trouble was so great that he wept, and sent a deputation to “HULDAH, the prophetess, wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvath, the son of Nasrah, keeper of the wardrobe,” with this direction: “Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left of Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.”
The prophetess sent back the deputation with this answer: “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon p. 43 this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the King of Judah, because they have forsaken me. . . . As for the King of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the Lord, so shall ye say to him. . . . Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place and humbledst thyself before me and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me. . . . Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers . . . in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and the inhabitants thereof.”
The king having received this message, immediately convened a meeting of the head men and an assembly of the people in the temple, and read to them the book of the law which had been found, and entered into a covenant before them “to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul.” He also caused all that were present to enter into the same covenant—after which, he went to work with their co-operation, to cleanse the country of all idolatrous abominations, and to bring into force the ordinances of the law. While he lived, public life went wholly in this direction. “All his days, Israel departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers” (2 Chron. xxxiv.).
This survey of the work of the prophets, as living and practical participators in the public life of Israel, is a necessary preface to the consideration of the books of the prophets as we have them in the collected writings beginning with Isaiah and ending with Malachi. It was a work extending over about a thousand years. It must strike the least reflective that it was a work with only one meaning—the meaning condensed into the formula, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts.” It was a work in no feature akin to the work of magicians, or soothsayers, or necromancers, or fortune-tellers. There was no pleasing of men, no earning of rewards, no gratification of petty human curiosities, but a uniform solemn condemnation of human disobedience of divine law, at the risk, and often at the sacrifice of life and limb.
p. 44 There is no explaining such a phenomenon of human history except on the principle furnished by itself, and endorsed by Christ in the parable of the rejected messengers (Matt. xxi. 33-41), viz., that God spoke by these men for the instruction and reproof of His people whom He had brought out of Egypt. Any attempt to give it a human explanation will fall to pieces in the hands of the expositor. Let any honest unbeliever make the attempt, and he must necessarily experience the truth of the statement if he possess sufficient experience of men, and capacity to discern between things that differ.