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Title: The promised land
Bible stories retold
Author: Catharine Shaw
Release date: January 31, 2024 [eBook #72839]
Language: English
Original publication: United Kingdom: John F. Shaw & Co. Ltd, 1928
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROMISED LAND ***
Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
[Illustration: THE FINDING OF MOSES.]
THE PROMISED LAND
BIBLE STORIES RETOLD
BY
CATHARINE SHAW
Author of "Suffer Little Children," "Long Ago in Bible Lands,"
"Stories from the Book of Books," Etc.
JOHN F. SHAW (1928) & CO. LTD.
3, Pilgrim Street, London, E.C.4.
BRITISH MANUFACTURE.
CONTENTS.
I. THE SLAVE BOY
II. JOSEPH AS A VICTOR
III. THE GOOD LITTLE SISTER
IV. SAMSON
V. THE CHARIOT OF FIRE
VI. IN THE CAVE
VII. MOSES IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN
VIII. A GOOD REPORT OF THE LAND
IX. MOSES HIDDEN IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK
X. AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED
XI. TO THE CITY OF REFUGE
XII. THE LETTER THAT WAS LAID BEFORE THE LORD, AND THE LORD'S ANSWER
XIII. THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
XIV. THREE COMMANDMENTS ABOUT EARTHLY THINGS
XV. THREE COMMANDMENTS ABOUT OUR HANDS—OUR TONGUES—AND OUR HEARTS
XVI. TAKEN FROM THE BROOK
XVII. THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS: AND HOW THEY WERE BROKEN
XVIII. THE NEXT TWO COMMANDMENTS: AND HOW THEY MAY BE KEPT
XIX. THE POTTER'S VESSEL
XX. JEHOSHEBA, THE GOOD AUNT
XXI. GOD FEEDS ELIJAH
XXII. RUTH
XXIII. ON MOUNT GILBOA
XXIV. ABSALOM
XXV. THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET
XXVI. THE LORD ANSWERS ELIJAH BY FIRE
XXVII. JOSHUA'S COURAGE
XXVIII. THE FIERY FURNACE
XXIX. QUEEN ESTHER'S REQUEST
XXX. A GREAT RAIN, AND A TIRED PROPHET
XXXI. SOLOMON'S WISDOM AND SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
XXXII. JEHU—THE ELEVENTH KING OF ISRAEL
XXXIII. A STORY OF VICTORY
XXXIV. THE GREAT FEAST
XXXV. DANIEL IS A CAPTIVE
XXXVI. THE SECRET IS REVEALED TO DANIEL
THE PROMISED LAND
[Illustration]
I. THE SLAVE BOY
GENESIS, CHAPTERS 39 TO 50
GOD prepares wonderful things for those who love Him!
Some of the things we see now, in this life. Some of them we must be
content to wait for, till we go to be with God in Heaven.
God says in Isaiah 64 that "Since the beginning of the world, men have
not heard . . . neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He
hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."
But even in this life, if we love God, and watch to see the answers
to our prayers, we shall see numbers of things which God our Heavenly
Father helps us in—numbers of pleasures which He puts in our lives;
numbers of dangers that He saves us from; numbers of times when He
brings good out of what seemed to us to be only disappointment and
trial.
Well! That was how it was with Joseph!
You remember about his dreams and the jealousy of his brothers? You
remember how he was sent by his father Jacob, quite a long journey, to
carry messages to his brothers, and to bring back word whether they and
their flocks were well and in safety.
Joseph was seventeen at this time, and he went, willingly enough, for
he did not know that his brothers' hearts were full of hatred towards
him.
At last he found the place where they were feeding their flocks; and
as they saw him coming, they said to each other, "Behold this dreamer
cometh!" And they at once began to plan his death!
Nothing was easier, all that long distance away from his father, in
a wild uninhabited country where but few strangers passed, and where
there were caves and pits in which evil deeds might easily be hidden.
But all this while, unknown to those cruel brothers, God was watching
over Joseph.
When his eldest brother, Reuben, heard the others plotting to kill him,
he advised their putting him into a pit, instead of taking away his
life, intending to come back himself, and to take him out, and deliver
him safely to his father.
[Illustration: Sold him for twenty pieces of silver.]
But while Reuben was away tending his flocks, Joseph came to the rest
of his brothers, and they at once stripped him of the beautiful coat
his father had made for him, and then they cast him into an empty pit.
But they sat down to eat a meal themselves!
Presently they saw a band of Merchants coming towards them on camels,
and Judah said to his brothers, "Let us not kill Joseph, but let us
sell him to these Ishmaelites!" So they drew Joseph up from the pit,
and sold him for twenty pieces of silver.
[Illustration: JOSEPH SOLD BY HIS BRETHREN.]
Then the Ishmaelites passed on with their camels; but they did not know
that they were carrying away one whom the holy God was watching over.
So the brothers were left, and the coat of many colours was left too.
But when Reuben came back, and looked into the pit, and found it empty,
his heart failed him.
He tore his clothes, exclaiming, "What shall I do?" For he knew how
dearly old Jacob loved this boy of his, and how could he go back to his
father and tell him the truth?
But the other brothers killed a kid and dipped Joseph's coat in the
blood, and sent it to their father, saying that they had found it like
this, and that probably some evil beast had devoured him.
Then Jacob grieved for his son, with bitter grief, and said he should
go to his grave mourning for him.
Now God loved Jacob very much; and though He allowed him to pass
through this great sorrow, yet He was, in His own way, preparing a
great joy for him in the future. For that young lad who was carried
away on those camels, down to Egypt, was bought by a kind master, and
lived happily in his house for years.
It is true that after a time, troubles came; for Joseph was falsely
accused, and was cast into prison for two years.
But God was with him there (as He is always with those who love and
serve Him), and Joseph behaved so nicely, that the Keeper of the
prison began to trust him, and at length gave him the care of all the
other prisoners. Everything that Joseph did was prospered, because God
blessed him so much.
By and bye Pharaoh, King of Egypt, had a dream which he could not
understand, and as they all knew in the prison, that Joseph could tell
the meaning of dreams, Pharaoh was told about him, and the Great King
sent for him, and explained his trouble to him.
Then God told Joseph the meaning of Pharaoh's dream, which was, that
there would be seven years of rich harvests, and then seven years of
very poor harvests.
So Joseph advised Pharaoh to look out a wise man to save up all the
corn in the plentiful years, so that the people might have food in the
scanty years.
And Pharaoh chose Joseph to be over everything, and to see to the corn,
and save it up; and Pharaoh dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes, and
put a ring on his hand.
Joseph was very humble, and he loved God very much. He kept on telling
Pharaoh that it was God who helped him to do all these wonderful things.
At length the seven years of plenty were over, and the famine came into
all the countries round Egypt, and everybody came to Egypt to buy corn
of Joseph. And among them his ten brothers came too!
You can read in your Bibles in the 45th and 46th Chapters of Genesis,
how Joseph forgave his brothers, and how he told them how God had meant
it for good to save much people alive.
Then he gave his brothers food; and sent wagons to Canaan to fetch his
dear old father down to Egypt to live near him, and be taken care of.
And this was how God brought it about, that old Jacob saw his beloved
son again.
[Illustration]
II. JOSEPH AS A VICTOR
You have all heard of Joseph, and remember very well about his being
Jacob's favourite son; and how jealous his ten brothers were that their
father made him a beautiful coat of many colours.
Joseph was a kindly young fellow of seventeen, and he did not bear
any grudge against his brothers, but talked to them and told them his
dreams, as any boy would now-a-days.
But these dreams made his brothers even more angry than their father's
love for him, and they hated him.
When people begin to cherish hatred in their hearts, it is not long
before it comes out in their actions.
So when Jacob sent Joseph a long journey to see if all was well with
his brothers and the flocks, they saw him coming from afar, and began
to plan how they could get rid of him and his dreams.
But there was one thing those ten brothers did not think of. They had
made a clever plan to murder their brother when he was so far away
from home, but they did not remember that their father Jacob's God
was Joseph's God as well; and that He was watching over that boy of
seventeen, and had a glorious work for him to do by and by.
So God put it into Reuben's heart to advise that Joseph should not be
killed, but be put into a pit; intending presently to take his brother
back to their father.
But while he was away, a company of merchants came by on camels, and
the brothers at once decided to take Joseph out of the pit and sell him
as a slave.
When Reuben came back, the camels had passed on their way down to Egypt
carrying Joseph with them. The pit was empty, Jacob's darling boy was
gone!
And when the cruel sons brought the coat of many colours, all stained
with the blood of a kid, Jacob felt sure some evil beast had killed
Joseph, and that he should go down to the grave mourning for him.
Do you think those brothers ever had a truly happy moment for years and
years?
We read afterwards how they said one to another in Egypt, when
God brought their sin to their remembrance: "We are verily guilty
concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he
besought us, and we would not hear." And how Reuben had answered them,
"Did I not speak to you saying, 'Do not sin against the child,' and ye
would not hear?"
So the Midianites and their camels came down to Egypt, and Joseph was
sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and Captain of the Guard.
It would take too long to tell you here, and you can read it for
yourselves in the beautiful account of it in Genesis, chapter xxxix,
how God took care of Joseph in every way. How he was raised to favour
in his master's house; how he was falsely accused and cast into prison;
how again after being put in fetters and irons (as we read in Psalm cv.
18), he was brought into the favour of the keeper of the prison; how he
listened to the prisoners' dreams, and told them the meaning of them;
how, in consequence of the interpretation of these dreams coming true,
he was taken before Pharaoh to explain to the great king his dream; and
how God gave Joseph an insight into the future that made him know that
there would be seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine;
and how he advised Pharaoh to lay up a store of corn for the scarcity
that was coming.
[Illustration: He was taken before Pharaoh
to explain to the great King his dream.]
Pharaoh was so pleased with Joseph, and found his advice so good, that
he raised him to great honour. He put his own ring on Joseph's hand and
dressed him in beautiful clothes, and gave him a chariot to ride in,
and made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
What Joseph had predicted surely came to pass; and when the scarcity
came, all the nations around came to buy Pharaoh's corn, which Joseph
had so carefully stored up; so that Pharaoh became very rich.
Why do you suppose all this happened to Joseph?
It was because God loved Joseph; he had been His faithful servant all
his life. Because He had purposes of mercy not only to the brothers who
had been so cruel, but to the world, in which a dreadful famine was
coming; and also to the sorrowing father, who had lost the light of his
eyes when Joseph was taken from him!
Ah! If we only look out for God's ways, and ponder over them, we shall
understand more of "the loving-kindness of the Lord."
And now, because there was corn in Egypt, and because there was a
fearful famine in the land of Canaan, it came to pass that the shepherd
brothers went down to buy corn, and Joseph, the great ruler, instantly
recognized them; and he sent them back with corn for their families,
and by and by to fetch his dear old father to come to him till the
famine was over. And that was how it was God gave His servant Jacob his
heart's desire. You can just imagine with what joy Joseph set out in
his chariot to meet his father!
Jacob, who was now a hundred and thirty years old, lived near his dear
son Joseph for seventeen years, till his death.
Then the brothers were afraid, that now their father was gone, Joseph
might requite the wrong which they had done him. So they went to him,
and earnestly asked him to forgive them.
And Joseph wept at their words, and freely forgave them; and said that
God had turned their thoughts of evil into good, to keep much people
from dying of famine.
And this is how "the Children of Israel" came to settle down in Egypt
for four hundred and thirty years.
[Illustration]
III. THE GOOD LITTLE SISTER
EXODUS 2.1-10
YEARS and years ago, there was a little girl standing by the
great River Nile, which as you know, runs through Egypt into the
Mediterranean.
There she stood, quite alone, first glancing back to see if anyone
might be coming that way, and then looking earnestly towards the river,
fringed at that place with bulrushes, which sometimes grew as high as
ten or twelve feet.
Why was the girl looking so earnestly at those bulrushes as they swayed
in the breeze? Or why did she again turn anxiously to see if any
Egyptian Soldier should be coming down to the River's brink?
Did she know of something which was hidden there? Something very, very
precious?
Perhaps, wearied with standing and watching in two directions, Miriam
sat down, and resting her elbows on her knees, looked only towards the
river; and as she sat so silently and patiently there, her mind went
over the past months of anxious fears, which had almost overwhelmed the
family of Israelites of whom she was the only daughter.
She knew that about 400 years before, the Children of Israel, whom the
Egyptians called the Hebrews, and we now call the Jews, travelled down
from the land of Canaan (Palestine) to the land of Egypt.
They were the children of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob; and
because of a great famine in all the countries round, these Israelites
came down to Egypt to buy corn. You have all heard the story of Joseph
who was sold into Egypt by his brothers? Well, God had sent this Joseph
to Egypt, on purpose, to store up the corn for the famine which was
coming.
So Joseph gave his brothers as much corn as they needed, and sent them
back to fetch his dear old father Jacob. And that is how the Israelites
came down into Egypt, and settled there with their flocks and herds,
for they were Shepherds.
But by and bye the Egyptians began to get jealous of them. They
increased in numbers so fast, and were so prosperous, because God
blessed them abundantly, that the King of Egypt sent out a command that
all the little boys who were born to the Israelites must be killed, and
only the little girls saved alive.
This was a very cruel command, and the Israelitish women were very
sorrowful at having all their baby boys thrown into the river.
At length, one baby boy was born, whom his Mother managed to hide in
their little home for three long months; but he was a beautiful, strong
child, and soon, his mother found that it was impossible to hide him.
She and her husband loved and served God, and we read in the 11th
Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the 23rd verse, that it was
"by faith" that they hid him so long, looking up to God in Heaven to
save their darling boy.
Then Jochebed made a sort of basket-cradle of the reeds from the
River, and she daubed it with slime and made it water-tight. And then
she called her little daughter Miriam to her side, and they laid the
beautiful baby in his little bed, and Miriam took the basket and
carried it down to the water's edge. And, when no one was looking,
she hid it in the thick bulrushes which grew there. Then she sat at a
distance and watched.
By and bye Miriam saw Pharaoh's daughter, the Princess, and her
maidens, come down the road towards the water, and though her heart
beat fast, and she was dreadfully afraid, she found they had only come
to bathe in the river.
Then she saw as they walked along by the edge, that Pharaoh's daughter
noticed something strange among the rushes, and sent her maid to fetch
it. And when the Princess opened the basket, there was the beautiful
baby crying, and Pharaoh's daughter was grieved to see it cry, and
she said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children!" How all the maidens
crowded round to gaze at the beautiful baby!
It seems as if Miriam had been coming nearer and nearer, till she stood
among the group of maidens who were gazing down at the sweet baby; and
she said, looking up into the Princess's face, "Shall I go and call
to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for
thee?"
And here I notice two or three things about this young girl. First, I
think she loved God, and like her Father and Mother, she trusted Him.
Next, I see that she was a patient little girl, and an obedient girl.
She did what her mother had told her most faithfully. She also used
the common sense God had given her; and in spite of her awe of the
Princess, she bravely did the wisest thing she could have done.
She saw that Pharaoh's daughter had taken a great liking to her baby
brother, and I think she thought this might be God's way of saving him
from death.
So the Princess said "Go!" And Miriam ran, like an arrow from a bow,
straight to her Mother, to tell her to come and see after her own baby!
You can think of that Mother's joy. God had seen the faith of that
Hebrew Father and Mother, and had answered their prayers to save their
child.
And when Jochebed hurried to the River side, and lifted the baby from
its cradle into her safe arms, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take
this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."
Oh! How thankfully did the mother carry her baby back to their little
home!
There she took care of him till he was old enough to be taken to the
King's Palace, where he was called "the son of Pharaoh's daughter." It
was she who gave him the name of Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew
him out of the water."
Long afterwards, when God chose Moses to bring the Children of Israel
out of Egypt, his sister Miriam went with him.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IV. SAMSON
AFTER Joshua was dead, the Children of Israel began to be very slack in
serving God; and worse than all, they set up other gods, and worshipped
them, as the heathen did around them.
God was very longsuffering, and He raised up Judge after Judge who
delivered them from their enemies; but soon the people fell into
idolatry again.
At length, God was so grieved at their evil ways that He delivered them
into the hands of the Philistines for twenty years. And then He raised
them up another Judge.
There was a man who served God, whose name was Manoah; and he had a
godly wife, but they had no children.
One day, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife, and he told
her that she would have the joy of having a little son, who, when he
was grown, should deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
But the angel gave Manoah's wife very strict instructions. Neither she,
nor her child, were to take any wine or strong drink, and the boy was
not to have a razor come on his head from the day of his birth to the
day of his death! He was to be what was called "A Nazarite unto God."
And Manoah prayed earnestly that God would send the angel to them again
to tell them how to bring up the child who was to come to them.
And God listened to Manoah's prayer; and as the woman was in the field,
the Angel came again to her; and she ran hastily to Manoah, and told
him.
Then Manoah begged the man to let him dress a kid and offer him
food-but the man said he would take no food, but they could offer a
sacrifice to God, if they wished it.
And when the sacrifice was offered, and the smoke arose from the Altar,
the Angel of the Lord went up toward heaven, and ascended in the flame
from off the Altar.
Then Manoah said, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!"
But his wife argued from all that had happened, that if the Lord had
intended to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering,
neither would He have showed them all these things.
[Illustration: It was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming
around.]
At length the child came, and they called him Samson. As he grew to
manhood, he found that God was giving him wonderful strength.
One day a young lion came out and roared against him. And the Spirit of
the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion, and killed him,
just as he might have rent a kid; for he had no weapon in his hand.
When Samson next passed that way, he looked for the carcase of the
lion, and there it was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming
around, as they had built a honey-comb in the body of the lion.
So he ate some of the honey, and took the rest to his father and
mother; but he did not tell them that he had killed the lion.
Then Samson made a great feast for seven days, for he had married a
Philistine girl, to the great sorrow of his parents. And while they
were feasting, he and the thirty young men who were his companions,
Samson gave them a riddle to find out, promising that he would give a
large prize if they could discover it; but if not, they were to give
him a prize.
This was the riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the
strong came forth sweetness."
The young men puzzled for several days, and at last they persuaded
Samson's young wife to get the secret from him. And at length she
begged so hard that he told her the answer.
Then she went to her people, the Philistines, and told them.
When the seven days were up, the young men gave the answer: "What is
sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?"
But Samson was very angry when he found that they had persuaded his
wife; and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines, and
brought the spoil and divided it among the young men who had answered
his riddle. And then in fierce anger, he returned to his father's house.
But his wife was given to one of the companions who used to be his
friend, and Samson never saw her again.
Samson judged Israel for twenty years, and by his great personal
strength and courage, he gained many victories over the Philistines.
But he made a great mistake, which resulted in his death.
The Philistines at once took advantage of this, and promised a heathen
Philistine woman great riches if she would find out, and tell them, the
secret of his wonderful strength. In an evil moment, he told her that
it was because he was a Nazarite, and that no razor had ever come upon
his head!
So, when he was asleep, Delilah managed to cut off his hair; and then
she sent for the lords of the Philistines, who hurried to the spot.
They easily bound Samson because his strength was gone from him; and
they put out his eyes, and sent him to grind in the prison-house.
It would take me too long to tell you how his hair began to grow again,
and his strength began to return. Or how he was taken out to make sport
for the Philistines, and how he begged the boy who led him to let him
feel the pillars of the house where three thousand Philistines were
watching him from the roof.
Samson asked God to give him strength for this, once more; and then he
bowed himself with all his might, clasping the pillars in his arms, and
the house fell, and he, and all the three thousand Philistines, were
buried beneath the ruins.
What a difference there was between Manoah's godly wife, and Samson's
heathen!
[Illustration]
V. THE CHARIOT OF FIRE
BUT now the time had come when the Lord was going to take Elijah up to
Heaven in a whirlwind.
So Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal, and as they journeyed, he said
to him: "Stay here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel."
But Elisha would not allow him to go alone, so they went to Bethel
together.
When they reached Bethel, the sons of the prophets who lived there came
out to meet Elisha, and they said to him: "Do you know that the Lord is
going to take your master away from you to-day?"
And Elisha said: "I know it; but hold your peace."
And so it went on till they reached Jericho, and here again the sons of
the prophets came to Elisha with their question: "Do you know that the
Lord will take your master from your head to-day?"
And again Elisha sorrowfully answered: "Yes, I know it; hold ye your
peace."
Then Elijah said to him: "Stay here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath
sent me to Jordan."
But Elisha gave the same answer to him as he had given before, that he
would not on any account leave him. So they went on together.
The sons of the prophets evidently knew that something very wonderful
was going to happen, and as they saw the two men going towards Jordan,
fifty of them gathered together and stood to view from afar.
So they came to the river Jordan, and Elijah wrapped his mantle
together and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and
thither, and they two passed over on dry ground.
Then Elijah said to Elisha: "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am
taken away from thee."
And Elisha said: "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be
upon me!"
Elijah answered him that was a great thing he had asked, but if Elisha
saw him when he was taken away, then he would know that his request was
granted.
And as they were talking, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses
of fire, and they were parted from each other; and Elijah went up by a
whirlwind into Heaven.
And Elisha saw it, and he cried: "My father, my father, the chariot of
Israel and the horsemen thereof."
And he took Elijah's mantle that fell from him, and smote the waters of
Jordan again, and they were divided before him, and he passed over.
Then the sons of the prophets begged to be allowed to go to search for
Elijah, or to find his body, but Elisha was unwilling, and begged them
not to go, for he knew it would be useless.
But fifty of them went out and searched for three whole days, but did
not find him.
[Illustration: Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.]
How could they, when he was gone up to heaven in a chariot of fire?
And now in the New Testament, nine hundred years after that chariot of
fire, which took Elijah to Heaven, we read of him again on the top of a
mountain talking to Jesus while He was on earth!
It was not long before our Lord's death on Calvary that He took His
three disciples, Peter, James, and John, up to a high mountain and was
transfigured before them.
You will perhaps ask: "What does transfigured mean?" It means—changed,
altered—made exceedingly bright and beautiful.
The Lord Jesus had been on earth for thirty-three years. He had gone
about when He was young like an ordinary boy, and afterwards like an
ordinary man; except that He did no sin, and was perfectly holy and
loving; and was full of mercy and kindness to every one He met.
But now the time had come for Him to suffer on the Cross, to bear the
punishment of our sins. And our Heavenly Father wished to give those
three disciples a glimpse of the glory which Jesus had left when He
came to earth, and to which He was going back, when He had done all the
work which His Father had given Him to do.
So when they reached the top of the mountain with Jesus, suddenly they
found that His face was changed into a face of glory, and His clothes
became white and glistening. And soon they saw that Jesus was talking
with two men—Moses and Elijah—who had come down from the glory of
Heaven to talk with Him about His death which would soon happen at
Jerusalem.
Can we not imagine the joy of Moses and Elijah, and the adoring worship
of their hearts, as they talked with their beloved Lord? No wonder that
Peter said in one of his Letters afterwards in speaking of this scene:
"We . . . were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God
the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice from the
excellent glory: 'This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.'
And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were with Him
in the holy mount."
Then a bright cloud overshadowed them, and when it had passed away,
Moses and Elijah were no longer there, but Jesus only!
And Jesus came and touched them, and told them not to be afraid.
And then as they went down from the mountain, He explained to them that
He would very shortly have to die; but that they were not to tell of
the Vision they had seen, till after He was risen from the dead.
Jesus said Himself to two of His friends after His resurrection: "Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"
And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them all
through the Bible the things which were written there about Himself.
[Illustration]
VI. IN THE CAVE
AFTER David had conquered the giant, and had brought his head to the
king, Saul for a while was very proud of his young soldier, and made
much of him in every way. And David behaved himself wisely; and Saul
set him over his men of war, and he became very popular among the
people.
Meanwhile Jonathan, Saul's son, thought there was no one in the world
like David! He loved him as his own soul.
He took off his own beautiful clothes, which belonged to him as the
king's son, and put them on David, even presenting him with his sword,
his bow and his girdle.
But a jealous feeling began to rankle in the breast of the king.
He heard the women singing who came out to meet him from the cities,
after David's slaughter of the giant, and these were the words they
sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands."
This made the king very angry, and from that day forth, he determined
to kill David.
So King Saul hunted David up and down the land. Jonathan was devoted
to him, and helped him to escape many times. He endeavoured to be a
peacemaker, and assured his father that David had no evil designs
against him. But it was all of no use. Jealousy, which the Bible says
is "cruel as the grave," had entered into Saul's heart, and it poisoned
all his thoughts.
Then David again had a great victory over the Philistines, and Saul was
so jealous that he threw his javelin at him. David, however, escaped,
and the javelin went into the wall, where he had been sitting playing
his harp to Saul.
He fled down to his house, but Saul sent men to watch for him and to
kill him in the morning. So Michal, his wife, persuaded him to fly that
night, for she was sure he would be slain.
Michal was Saul's daughter, and she loved David. So she let him down
through a window, and he escaped.
Then Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a
goat's-hair pillow for a bolster and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul's messengers came to take David, Michal said: "He is
sick."
Then Saul sent back the messengers and ordered them to bring David in
his bed!
But when the messengers came in, there was only an image in the bed,
and David was far away!
So it went on, till David was hunted from place to place, all over the
land, and driven, with the men of war who followed him, to live in the
mountains, and among rocks and caves, to get away from Saul's vengeance.
One day, as Saul was pursuing hotly after David, who he heard was in
the wilderness of Engedi, he was very weary with travel, and finding a
large dark cave, he entered it, and lay down to get some sleep.
Little did Saul guess, that the man he had come to seek was close to
him, and that in the darkness of the cave, and hidden by the jutting
sides, David and his men were quietly watching him.
When Saul had fallen into a deep sleep, David's men whispered to him
that the day had come when the Lord had delivered his enemy into his
hand!
So David went forward, and as he approached Saul, he saw that his
robe, with which he had covered his feet, lay partly on the ground.
So he softly cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, and went back to his
hiding-place.
But David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's robe; and he
hastily forbade his men to touch the king, for was he not the Lord's
anointed?
Presently Saul awoke from his sleep and went out of the cave, and David
followed him and called out to him, "My lord the king!"
And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped and bowed low before him.
And David said to Saul: "Why do you regard men's words, telling you
that I seek your hurt? Look, how this very day the Lord has delivered
you into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill you; but my eye
has spared you, and I said, 'I will not put forth my hand to hurt the
Lord's anointed!' Moreover, see, my father, here is the skirt of your
robe in my hand! Surely you know now that I have not tried to hurt you,
and yet you have hunted my soul to take it! The Lord is judge between
us; He will plead my cause, and will deliver me out of your hand!"
When David had said these gentle and brave words, Saul said: "Is this
thy voice, my son David?" and Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
Then he said to David: "You have been more honourable than I have, for
you have rewarded me with good, and I have rewarded you with evil.
Therefore may the Lord reward you good for what you have done to me
this day."
And then he went on to tell David that he knew he would be king one
day, and he earnestly begged him to be merciful to his father's house
and not let his name perish out of the land.
So David promised him, before the Lord.
Then Saul went to his home, and David returned to his stronghold.
Saul later on again attempted to capture David, taking with him three
thousand men.
David heard where Saul was camped, and taking Abishai with him, entered
Saul's camp by night.
They found Saul asleep with his captain in a trench, with his men lying
all around.
Abishai wished to kill Saul, but David refused, saying, "Destroy him
not: for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and
be guiltless?"
So they took Saul's spear and water-bottle that was against his head
and got away without anyone seeing them.
So David again spared the life of the man who for years had tried to
kill him.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VII. MOSES IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN
EXODUS 2.13-25
MOSES grew up from that little babe who had been hidden in the flags or
reeds of the Nile, and he had been educated in all the learning of the
Egyptians, as if he had been the real son of Pharaoh's daughter.
God was watching over Moses all the time, and preparing him for the
great and wonderful work he was to do.
Do we all sometimes feel it very hard to learn difficult tasks? Do we,
as we grow older, sometimes wonder what work God is getting us ready to
do for Him?
I remember when I was young, how I was asked to stay for a fortnight
at a lady's house whom I had never seen, or heard of, before. She
called on my father, and said she should like to know his two eldest
daughters, and would he allow us to come and stay with her?
So we went; we were about nineteen and twenty at that time, and we felt
very homesick and strange at first. But do you know? That was one of
the best things that ever happened to both of us!
That dear, kind old lady, had a heart full of love to Jesus our
Saviour; and she used her money, and her house, and her influence, to
help young people to love Him too. And when we got to know her, we had
such a happy time, and set to work ourselves to try to bring others to
love Jesus. Well, that was God's love in training us for what He wanted
us to do afterwards. So, with Moses; he went in and out of Pharaoh's
Court, and learned many things which were most useful to him, all his
life, in God's Service.
The Children of Israel, or the Hebrews as they were called at this
time, were slaves in Egypt, and one day Moses saw an Egyptian using one
of the Hebrews very badly. So Moses interfered, and killed the Egyptian
who was ill-treating one of God's people.
This made Pharaoh very angry, and he tried to kill Moses.
So Moses fled, and by and bye, he reached the land of Midian, where he
sat down by a Well, and rested himself.
[Illustration: MOSES IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN.]
This Well belonged to the Priest, or Prince of Midian; and he had seven
daughters, who every day came to the Well, and filled the troughs for
their father's flocks to drink.
But some shepherds came and drove the girls away, wishing, I suppose,
to use the trough to water their own flocks, without waiting for the
maidens to finish their task.
But Moses stood up and helped them, so that they watered their father's
flock very quickly.
When they came home, their father asked them how it was that they
returned so soon?
And they said: "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the
shepherds, and also drew water for us!"
In the East, people are very hospitable, and ready to entertain
strangers; and directly Reuel (or Jethro) heard what his daughters
said, he exclaimed: "Where is he? How is it that you have left the man?
Call him, that he may eat bread."
[Illustration: By and by, Moses and Zipporah had a little son.]
So Moses was very happy to stay with Jethro, and soon he married one of
Jethro's daughters, named Zipporah. And by and bye Moses and Zipporah
had a little son, whom Moses named Gershom.
But while all this was going on in Midian, the plight of the Hebrews
who were in Egypt grew worse and worse.
The King, who had wanted to kill Moses, had died, and the Children of
Israel sighed under the cruel bondage that the Egyptians put upon them.
And their cry came up to God.
And God looked down out of heaven upon the poor, hardly-used slaves,
and He came down from heaven and spoke to Moses about them.
And the words He said are full of the tenderest comfort to all who are
in trouble. For God sees it, whatever it is. Also He listens to our
cry, when things are too hard for us. But best of all, He knows just
what is in our hearts, which nobody else can see or hear, and to this
sorrow He says, "I, even I, am He that comforteth you."
So God said to Moses, "For I know their sorrows; and I am come down to
deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up
into a good land ... flowing with milk and honey."
And God chose Moses, whom He had so wonderfully trained, to be His
Servant, who should deliver the Children of Israel from their hard
slavery.
Moses knew all about Egypt. He could speak the language of the
Egyptians: he understood all about the Court of Pharaoh, and the
customs of the Egyptians. So God sent him straight down to Egypt to
deliver His people, and He gave him this great and beautiful promise to
cheer his heart:
"Certainly I will be with thee."
Then God explained to Moses that Pharaoh would not let them go, but
that He would shew great wonders in Egypt by His Mighty Hand, and after
that, Pharaoh would be so frightened, that he would let them go.
All this came to pass; for God sent plague after plague on the
Egyptians, until at last, in a marvellous way, God delivered the whole
of the Israelites, with all their possessions and flocks and herds,
right out of the hand of Pharaoh. And God brought them through the Red
Sea on dry land, while the great army of the Egyptians who followed
hard after them, with their Chariots and horses, were drowned in the
deep waters, so that there was not one left!
And afterwards, God led His people through the wilderness, and did
bring them into the Land of Canaan as He had promised.
[Illustration]
VIII. A GOOD REPORT OF THE LAND
THE Children of Israel—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—had
come down to Egypt in consequence of the seven years of famine. Joseph
was there, and was great in the eyes of Pharaoh, and the king made old
Jacob and his sons, with their families and their flocks, welcome to
live in the land of Goshen.
For a time, they were very happy and prosperous, and God blessed them
and they increased in numbers and riches.
But by and by, the Egyptians began to look round upon these Children of
Israel, and jealousy of their success filled their hearts.
The Pharaoh who had made them so welcome for Joseph's sake, was dead.
And another king arose who had forgotten all about Joseph, and he began
to lay burdens on the Children of Israel, and to force them to build
his palaces and cities.
[Illustration: He began . . . to force them to build his palaces and
cities.]
At length, the cruelty and the burdens became intolerable, and the Lord
God in Heaven saw their affliction, heard their groaning, and sent down
to deliver them.
Moses was His chosen servant, and under him, after many wonderful
deliverances, the people were brought right out and set free, and were
taken back to the borders of the land which God had promised to give to
Abraham and his children after him.
But the Children of Israel were disobedient, and forgetful of all the
wonders that God had shown them, in delivering them from Egypt. He had
made a way for them to walk dry-shod through the Red Sea; He brought
water out of a rock for their thirst; and He sent down manna every day
for their food.
But because of their murmuring, complaining spirit, God told Moses that
He could not let them go into the land of Canaan just yet.
So He led them about in the wilderness; spreading His cloud over them
in the day to shield them from the sun's scorching rays; and by night
He put a pillar of fire to give them light and comfort.
At length, in the second year after they came out of Egypt, they
reached the wilderness of Paran. And now God told Moses to take one
chief man out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and he was to
send them into the land of Canaan to bring back a report of what they
found there.
There were twelve men chosen, but of these only two, Caleb and Joshua,
were faithful to God all through.
The twelve men set out, and at the end of forty days they returned with
their report of all they had seen.
They brought with them pomegranates and figs; and the grapes were so
plentiful, that from one place called Eshcol they brought a bunch which
required two men to carry it on a pole between them.
For God had promised when they left Egypt, that He would bring them to
a land flowing with milk and honey, and that He would drive out all
their enemies before them.
If only they had remembered this!
So the messengers began to tell their tale. They said that indeed it
was a rich land, flowing with milk and honey. "And see," said they,
"here is some of the fruit of it."
You can imagine for yourselves how Caleb and Joshua stood by, listening
to the eager words of the other ten.
And now came another word, which made those two faithful men
tremble—and it was an unbelieving, faithless word!
"Nevertheless," the ten spies went on, "the cities are walled, there
are giants there, and numbers of enemies dwell on every side; we are
not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we
are!"
Then you can imagine Caleb and Joshua starting forward to still the
people, and they cried: "Let us go up at once and possess the land, for
we are well able to overcome it!"
But the ten spies persisted that they could not go up, and all the
people mourned and wept, and told Moses that they had better return to
Egypt, for they would die in the wilderness, and their wives and their
children would be a prey for their enemies.
Oh, how sad is want of faith! They forgot the power of God and the
promises of God! They let Satan whisper in their hearts that, after
all, God would fail them, and though the land was beautiful and full of
food and plenty—"Nevertheless" there were too many enemies to face.
God was very grieved at the unbelief of the people, and He said that
none of those who had distrusted Him should enter into the land of
Canaan, but their children should in due time enter in and possess it.
This is a solemn lesson for us all. There are right times to say
"Nevertheless."
Peter said to Jesus: "Nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the
net," and they got a great draught of fishes!
Paul said: Nevertheless the Lord stood by me, "and strengthened me,"
and he fought a good fight to the end!
God did not forget the faithfulness of Caleb and Joshua; for Joshua
was chosen, years afterwards, to lead the people into the land and to
fight the Lord's battles; and Caleb, "because he had wholly followed
the Lord," entered with his children into the Promised Land, and had a
happy possession in it.
It was true of them both: "None of them that trust in Him shall be
desolate."
[Illustration]
IX. MOSES HIDDEN IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK
EXODUS 33.17-23
FOR forty years, Moses, the little boy who had been taken out of the
water by Pharaoh's daughter, was brought up in Pharaoh's Palace in
Egypt, where he learned the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in
word and deed.
He evidently knew that he belonged to the Israelites or Hebrews, as
they were called; but it was not till he had reached forty years of age
that he began to look upon the sad plight of his own people.
The Egyptians had gradually made the Hebrews into slaves, and were
using them with great cruelty; but at length Moses understood that God
was going to deliver the people by his hand.
However, the first effort he made, was that he killed an Egyptian who
was hurting a Hebrew man; and this came to the ears of Pharaoh, and he
was so angry that Moses fled away, and never stopped till he reached
the land of Midian.
Here he remained for another forty years. He married a wife and had two
sons, and he tended the flocks of his father-in-law, and lived a very
peaceful life.
But one day God came down and spoke to him. He told Moses that in
Egypt, the condition of God's people was getting worse and worse, and
that He had chosen Moses to be their deliverer.
God said that He would go with him, and help him through; and promised
that they should all serve God on this very Mountain in Horeb, where
God was now speaking to him.
It would take too long to tell you all the wonders that God had to do
to set His people free from their bondage; but at length they escaped
from Egypt—every one of them—they went through the Red Sea on dry land,
because God kept back the water on each side of them; and as they
passed in to the dry pathway God had made for them, He took His Pillar
of Cloud, which used to lead them, and He put it behind them, so that
it was between them and their enemies. And it was a cloud of darkness
to the Egyptians, but it was a bright light to the Israelites, all
night.
When they had passed over, God took the cloud away, and the Egyptians
followed through the Sea, but God let the waters go back on Pharaoh and
his host, and they were all drowned in the sea, and the Israelites were
all safe on the other side.
This is a glorious lesson for us, to show us how God will conquer our
great enemy, Satan, and will bring us safely through, if we trust Him.
When the Children of Israel came to Horeb, God called Moses up on the
Mountain to receive His Commandments, and to listen to all that God
wished him to do; but the people began to get restless and disobedient.
Moses had been on the Mountain for forty days, and they said to Aaron,
the brother of Moses, who was the High Priest, "Up! Make us gods, which
shall go before us, for as for this Moses we know not what is become of
him!"
Then Aaron made a Golden Calf for them to worship!
When Moses came down from talking with God, and found what had
happened, he threw the slabs of stone on which God had written His law,
over the edge of a precipice, and they were broken in pieces beneath
the mountain.
The Lord was very grieved and angry at the disobedience of the people.
And Moses besought the Lord to forgive them; and he even asked God to
blot his name out of the Book where He had written it, sooner than that
the whole Congregation should perish.
And God heard his prayer for the forgiveness of the people, and told
Moses to go forward and lead them to the Land. And God said, "My
Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest."
Now Moses loved God very much, and he answered the Lord, "If Thy
Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, for wherein shall it be
known here, that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it
not in that Thou goest with us?"
And the Lord said unto Moses, "I will do this thing also that thou hast
spoken."
And then Moses, emboldened by God's wonderful kindness in answering
his prayer, made a yet further request. "I beseech Thee, show me Thy
Glory!" he said.
And the Lord promised to shew Moses all His Goodness, and all His
Mercy; but God told him he could not see His face, for the Glory of it
would be too much. The Lord pointed out a place on the mountainside
where there was a clift, or cleft, in a rock, and He told Moses he
might stand within that cleft, and God would put His hand over him, so
that the glory of His face should not be seen.
So Moses hastened into that cleft of the rock, and the Glory of the
Lord passed by, and after He had passed by, Moses was allowed to see
His back, but His face might not be seen.
It is a wonderful story; and I think it should dwell in our hearts,
that the Holiness of God is great beyond what any words of ours can
picture.
There is a prayer of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John, which is
very comforting when we think with solemn awe about the Holiness of God.
"Father I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me
where I am: that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me;
for Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."
God gave His own beloved Son, Jesus our Lord, to wash away our sins,
and make us fit to see his Glory by and bye.
And in the Book of the Revelation we are told, that in Heaven, God's
servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: MOSES SEES THE GLORY OF GOD.]
[Illustration]
X. AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED
NUMBERS 16 AND 17
BEFORE we begin to talk about the pleasant happy story of Aaron's Rod,
and how it came out into buds and flowers, there is a very dark and
sorrowful story which we must think of first.
The Lord told Moses to make a beautiful Tabernacle or Tent, where He
would speak to him face to face; and He appointed the different Tribes
to pitch their tents round it.
God choose Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, to be the High Priest.
Aaron was the head of the tribe of Levi, and his family were the only
ones who were allowed to approach God in the offerings which were to be
presented for sin; and to offer the sweet Incense on the Golden Altar
of Incense, which was in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.
God said this Incense was to be made in a special way, and no one was
to make any like it. And the Lord warns the people that "the stranger
that cometh nigh shall be put to death."
Even Aaron's two elder sons, Nadab and Abihu, died before the Lord in
the wilderness of Sinai, when they took their censers, "and put fire
therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not."
These things were well known, and understood by the Israelites; but
so evil are men's hearts and so easily excited to jealousy, that
three men named Korah, Dathan and Abiram, gathered together a number
of the Princes of the Congregation, and came to Moses and Aaron with
complaints, that Moses and Aaron were taking too much upon themselves,
and that all the Congregation were equally fit to draw near to God, and
to do those parts of the Holy Service, which God had appointed that
only Aaron and his sons should do.
Moses was dreadfully grieved, and he fell on his face in bitter sorrow.
Then he told Korah and the Princes that they were to present themselves
at the door of the Tabernacle on the following day.
[Illustration: The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up Dathan and
Abiram.]
He said to them, "This do: Take you censers, Korah and all his
company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord
to-morrow."
But Moses warned them that the Lord would choose who was holy, and who
should draw near to Him.
Korah and his company would not heed the warning. They had time to
think over and repent of their sin, for the Lord is a God ready to
pardon. But they went on in their proud arrogance, and oh! to what a
dreadful end it led them.
So the next day Korah gathered all the Congregation together against
Moses and Aaron, at the door of the Tabernacle. But Dathan and Abiram,
who specially strove against the authority of Moses, would not come up,
but remained in their tents.
Then the Lord told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves quickly from
the Congregation that He might consume them all in His anger.
But once more Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, and interceded with
the Lord for those people who had not joined in the rebellion; and
the Lord heard their prayer, and told Moses to send the people to a
distance, lest they should be consumed in the sins of these rebellious
men.
So the people fled from round about the tents of Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram.
And then God sent an earthquake, and the Earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed up Dathan and Abiram, and their families and their tents.
And as the Congregation fled still further from the awful cry of them,
a fire came out from the Lord, and destroyed Korah, and the two hundred
and fifty Princes, who had offered Incense.
It is an awful thing to risk God's punishment.
This is a very, very sad story; but it is written down in the Bible, to
show that we must obey God's commands, and seek Him in the way He has
provided.
In the Old Testament times, the way to approach God was by the Priests
whom God had appointed to present the Offerings for sin, and to burn
the Incense; but now, since God sent His dear Son, Jesus Christ, to
make atonement for our sins, Jesus is the Way to God. He is "the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world."
After all these dreadful things happened, the Lord spoke to Moses
again. God told him that each of the Princes at the head of the Twelve
Tribes, was to bring a rod, with his name clearly marked on it, and
Moses was to take the twelve rods and place them in the Tabernacle
before the Ark of the Testimony.
Aaron the High Priest was the head of the Tribe of Levi, and his rod,
with his name on it, was to be sent in with the others.
And God said, "The man's rod whom I shall choose, shall blossom; and I
will make to cease the murmurings of the Children of Israel, whereby
they murmur against you."
Moses did this, and went in on the morrow to look at the rods; and
"behold the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded, and
brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded Almonds."
[Illustration: AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED.]
Then Moses carried all the rods out for the children of Israel to see,
and the Lord said, "Bring Aaron's rod again before the Testimony, to
be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away
their murmurings from me, that they die not."
[Illustration]
XI. TO THE CITY OF REFUGE
WEARY and spent, the man ran; traversing the hot desert roads in the
daytime; and hurrying on through the night if perchance there were a
moon or stars to guide him; or else crouching in some corner behind
some rock, till daylight enabled him to hurry forward once more!
Why was the man running over the ground at his topmost speed? Was he
carrying a message, or bringing bad news, or what could it be?
No, he was hurrying to a place of safety!
But why? you may ask. Was he being pursued, or what was it?
Yes, he was being pursued by a man who was called "The Avenger of
blood."
For God's law was, that a man who had hated his neighbour and had
planned to kill him and had carried out his purpose should surely be
put to death.
So if any one was killed among the Children of Israel, at once "the
Avenger of blood" hurried to the spot and seized the murderer, who was
then examined before the priests and the judges; and witnesses were
called to give evidence as to whether the prisoner had intended to kill
his neighbour, so that the judges might decide whether he were guilty
or not. God's law made it necessary that there should be more than one
witness before a man could be condemned.
But if a death were caused by an accident, God provided a way of escape
for the manslayer, and it is this way of escape that I am going to tell
you about.
When the Children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness for forty
years—for their murmuring and disobedience, as God had said—they came
at length to the land of Canaan; and here God told Moses to divide the
land among the different tribes, and instructed him to separate Six
Cities in different parts of the land, three on one side of the River
Jordan, and three on the other side.
These six cities were to be called "cities of refuge," and God told
Moses to make good roads leading to them, so that if any one killed
a man by accident or at unawares, he might flee to one of those six
cities, at his utmost speed, and not lose his way in his haste; for
when once there, he would be sheltered, and in safety, so that the
Avenger of blood might not catch him and kill him.
You will find in the 19th chapter of Deuteronomy the wonderful
directions which God gave Moses about these cities.
God said, that any one who killed his neighbour ignorantly, and had not
intended to hurt him, might flee to the city of refuge, and be safe.
If a man and his neighbour went into a wood to cut down a tree, and the
axe-head of one of them flew off and struck the other man, so that he
died, then the manslayer as he was called could flee to one of those
cities, and live! Or if a man let a stone fall upon his neighbour by
accident, and it killed him, he could flee to the city of refuge, and
live!
[Illustration: For when once there, he would be sheltered and in
safety.]
As soon as he entered the city of refuge, the elders of the city
came forward and inquired into the circumstances which had made him
fly there; and so soon as they were satisfied that the death of his
neighbour was an accident, and that he was not worthy of death, they
made him welcome to their city, and henceforward the city of refuge was
to be his shelter.
But if any man hated his neighbour, and laid in wait for him, and rose
up against him, and smote him mortally, so that he died, and were to
flee into one of these cities, then the elders of his city should send
and fetch him from there, and deliver him unto the hand of the Avenger
of blood that he should die. These were the rules which God made.
The man who hurried to that city of refuge knew in his own heart
whether he was guilty or not; and if he knew that it was an accident
which had happened, then when he reached the city how gladly did he
pass the gate, and get safely inside!
You can imagine how he sank down breathless and faint within that
portal, and how thankful he was in his own heart that God had provided
a way of escape for him!
In this city of refuge, he must stay; nor was he free to leave it for a
single moment, till the death of the High Priest who might be living in
those days. It might be many years, or it might be only a short time;
but whether long or short there was no safety for him outside those
walls. If he ventured out, if the Avenger should meet him, he would
certainly be killed.
And it seems to me that there are one or two lessons which we may learn
from this story, which God has written for our learning.
May we not think of Jesus Christ our Saviour as our City of Refuge?
And if He is, shall we not, beneath the Sheltering Walls of His
Salvation, be at rest from all our fears?
We read, in the 6th of Hebrews: "That . . . we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us."
That man, running from the Avenger, wanted life!
And if we fly to Jesus Christ to get life, we find that He, Himself, is
the Way—the plainly marked, loving path to safety.
He is the Truth, for His promises are faithful.
He is the Life, for there is no eternal life apart from Him.
How tenderly He says to us: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you Rest."
[Illustration]
XII. THE LETTER THAT WAS LAID BEFORE THE LORD,
AND THE LORD'S ANSWER
HEZEKIAH, King of Judah, did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none
like him among all the Kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
Immediately after he came to the throne, he destroyed all the high
places where the people had worshipped false gods, and he broke their
images; and he followed the commandments of the Lord with all his heart.
And the Lord was with him, and he prospered in all he set his hand to.
He defeated the Philistines, and rebelled against the yoke of the King
of Assyria, and refused to serve him.
Meanwhile, however, Hoshea, who was then King of Israel, was very
much harassed by the Assyrians, and God permitted them to come into
the land of Israel and besiege Samaria for three years. They took it,
and carried numbers of captives into the land of Assyria, because His
people had transgressed His commandments.
The Assyrians, having gained these victories, turned their attention to
the land of Judah, over which the good King Hezekiah reigned, and they
fought against and took some of the fenced cities.
Then Hezekiah sent a present to the King of Assyria, hoping to bribe
him not to pursue the war any further.
To make this payment Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the
Temple of the Lord, and sent all the money that was in the Treasury.
But the riches which were known to belong to the Kings of Judah and
Israel were an immense attraction to their enemies: so that instead of
turning back, the King of Assyria sent his greatest generals with a
host of soldiers to surround Jerusalem and besiege it.
When they reached the conduit of the upper pool, which supplied water
to the city, Rabshakeh called to King Hezekiah to come out to them.
Then Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah came forward to hear what Rabshakeh
had to say.
And Rabshakeh's first words were full of pride and threatening: "Thus
saith the great King, the King of Assyria, 'What confidence is this
wherein thou trusteth? In whom dost thou trust? If ye say, "We trust in
the Lord our God," Hezekiah has broken down His altars and told Judah
they are to worship in Jerusalem!'
"Now therefore ... I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou
canst on thy part put riders upon them!"
Then Hezekiah's messengers begged Rabshakeh to speak in the Assyrian
language, and not in Hebrew, which the people understood.
But Rabshakeh was more insulting than ever; and told all who listened
to him, that it was vain for Hezekiah to say "The Lord will deliver
you!" Sennacherib had conquered other nations, and their gods had not
delivered them! And the Lord would not deliver Jerusalem out of his
hand.
But Eliakim told the people not to answer a word. Then they returned to
the king with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Then Hezekiah rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, and went up into
the house of the Lord, and sent his messengers to Isaiah the Prophet,
saying that it was indeed a day of trouble, and surely the Lord had
heard the words of Rabshakeh.
But the Prophet Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: "Thus saith the
Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the
servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will send
a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his
own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."
So Rabshakeh returned, and when he found fresh troubles in his own
land, he sent a message by letter to Hezekiah, saying they were not to
rejoice that they had escaped their enemy! For they would surely come
and fight against them another time!
Then Hezekiah received the letter and read it, and carried it up into
the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And he prayed to
the Lord, and told Him it was quite true that other nations had been
defeated by the cruel King of Assyria, but they had not the Lord God
of Israel to trust in; and then he ended with these words: "O Lord
our God, I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know, that Thou art the Lord God, and Thou
only!"
And then the Lord gave His long glorious answer: "Thus saith the Lord
concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor
shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank
against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and
shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this
city, to save it, for Mine Own Sake, and for My servant David's sake."
"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out,
and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and eighty-five
thousand men: and when they arose early in the morning they were all
dead corpses."
So Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed and returned to Nineveh; and
as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, his two sons
smote him and killed him.
God's words had come true.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XIII. THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
WHEN David grew old, one of his sons, named Adonijah, exalted himself,
to make himself king instead of his father.
He conferred with Joab the captain and with Abiathar the priest, and it
was arranged that all the sons of the king should be invited to a great
feast; but when the invitations were given, it was found that he had
not included his brother Solomon, nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah the
soldier, nor Nathan the prophet, who were all devoted friends of King
David.
So Nathan the prophet spoke to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, and
begged her to go to King David and tell him that Adonijah had set
himself up as king; and to remind David that he had promised her that
he would give the kingdom to Solomon his son.
David was very much troubled with what Bathsheba and Nathan told him,
and he solemnly assured them that God had promised the throne to
Solomon, and to no one else; and he then sent for Zadok, and he told
him and Nathan to anoint Solomon King over Israel at once, and to blow
with the trumpet and say, "Solomon is King!"
And he told them that Solomon was to ride on the king's own mule, and
sit on the king's throne.
So they took a horn of oil out of the Tabernacle and anointed Solomon.
And they blew the trumpet, and all the people said: "God save King
Solomon!" And the people came up after him, rejoicing with music and
great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
Thus Solomon was established in his kingdom, and reigned over all
Israel and Judah.
Now Solomon loved the Lord—and it says "the Lord loved Solomon."
One day he went up to the high place at Gibeon to sacrifice to the Lord
there; and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar. And
the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream; and God said:
"Ask what I shall give thee!"
Then Solomon thanked God for the great kindness which He had shown
David his father, in giving him a son to sit on his throne; and
acknowledged how David had walked before the Lord in uprightness of
heart. And then he added: "O Lord my God . . . I am but a little
child . . . give me therefore an understanding heart to judge Thy
people; for who is able to judge so great a people?"
And the Lord was pleased with Solomon's request, and He told him that
because he had asked this thing, and not asked for himself riches or
honour or long life, God would grant his prayer for an understanding
heart, and would add besides riches and honour, so that there should be
no king like Solomon in all the world, nor ever would be again.
And then, after these gracious and wonderful assurances, the Lord God
added this warning—and it seems to me that the warning comes home to
every one of us now: "If thou wilt walk in My ways to keep My statutes
and My commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen
thy days."
Then Solomon awoke from his dream, and he came to Jerusalem and offered
burnt offerings unto the Lord there.
He at once set about ruling his kingdom and exercising the wonderful
wisdom which God had given him.
And this was why, when he had built cities and palaces, and gathered
gold and silver and spices in abundance; when he had been permitted to
build a magnificent Temple for the Lord, the Queen of Sheba heard of
his fame, concerning the Name of the Lord, and travelled many hundreds
of miles from the south below Egypt, to prove Solomon with hard
questions and to see the glories of his kingdom.
[Illustration: She gave Solomon gold, and a very great store of spices.]
And Solomon answered all her questions, and showed her all his work and
his riches. When she had seen the house he had built and the food daily
spread on his table, and the number of his servants, and the ascent
which he had built to go up to the House of the Lord, the queen seemed
to have no more strength in her, and she exclaimed:
"It was a true report that I heard in mine own country, but the half
was not told me!"
"Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand
continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom."
"Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee
on the throne of Israel . . . to do judgment and justice."
And she gave King Solomon gold, and a very great store of spices and
precious stones, which she had brought on her camels from afar.
And Solomon gave her whatever she asked of him, besides the royal
presents which, as a great king, he bestowed upon her unasked.
There is a verse in Isaiah and another in the Psalms which I love to
read, which seem to remind us not only of the Queen of Sheba, but of
that glorious day which is coming by and by for those who are the
children of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:—
"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived
by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath
prepared for him that waiteth for Him."
"Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of
joy: at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."
[Illustration]
XIV. THREE COMMANDMENTS
ABOUT EARTHLY THINGS
_V. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long
upon the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee."_
OUR best and most beautiful example of this loving, dutiful obedience
is given us in the early days of our Lord's life on earth.
We read of it in the second chapter of Luke.
Jesus was twelve years old, and He knew that His Heavenly Father had
given Him a great work to do here in this world. One day in Jerusalem
He had stayed in the Temple talking to the learned Doctors of the
Law, and Joseph and His mother missed Him from among the company who
were journeying homewards to Nazareth; and when they found Him in the
Temple, His mother said, "Thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing!"
And His gentle answer is a pattern to all of us: "Wist ye not—" (Did
you not know)—"that I must be about My Father's business?" He was
reminding her then of God, Who had sent Him, His only begotten Son,
into the world to save sinners.
But with all that in His heart, the Bible goes on to tell us, "Jesus
went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." That means
that He was perfectly obedient in His earthly home.
Then we have the sweet example of Ruth the Moabitess.
Her husband was dead. But Ruth was devoted to her mother-in-law, and
when Naomi wished to return to the land of Israel, though all Ruth's
friends lived in Moab, she entreated to be allowed to take that long
journey with Naomi, and to stay with her always.
And as you can read for yourselves in the Book of Ruth, she was
wonderfully blessed through her goodness to her mother-in-law. God
watched her sweet and dutiful behaviour, and He gave her the great
honour of being one of the ancestors of King David, and then, through
him, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born at David's city, Bethlehem,
thirteen hundred years afterwards.
Thus the Commandment that contained a promise of blessing was fulfilled.
_VI. "Thou shalt do no murder."_
What is murder? It is hatred in the heart, cherished and unpardoned,
unconfessed to God, which ends in a cruel deed.
If we find in our own hearts an unforgiving spirit—a grudge against any
one—a wish, perhaps, to do them harm or pay them back—let us beware!
Our Lord says: "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught
against any one!"
Now I am going to tell you about a murder, which was a very sad one.
David, as you know, loved God very much; but he had grown very rich
and powerful, and he had begun to value earthly things more than God's
Commandments.
[Illustration: Uriah, in the forefront of the battle.]
He wanted to get rid of one of his soldiers, who was at the war
fighting for him. Why did he want to get rid of him? Because David had
taken from him something which that soldier valued beyond all other
things! I will tell you what that thing was afterwards.
So David told his great captain, Joab, to set this soldier, called
Uriah, in the forefront of the battle, and then to retire from him,
so that he should get killed. So Joab, who was an unscrupulous,
untrustworthy man, did as the king commanded him. Then he sent back
word to David at Jerusalem about the great battle, and mentioned that
Uriah was killed.
"But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord."
The precious possession which David had taken for himself, while Uriah
was at the war, was Uriah's dearly loved wife: and David had broken two
of God's direct commands—one was, "Thou shalt do no murder," the other
was:
_VII. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."_
—Which is taking another man's wife away from him.
Then there came another messenger to David. Not from the battlefield,
where Uriah lay dead, but a message from God Himself, sent by the
Prophet Nathan to the king.
And the Prophet told David this story: "There were two men in one city:
one was rich, and the other poor."
"The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: the poor man had
only one little ewe lamb, that he had brought up at home, and that
played with his children and drank out of his own cup."
"And a traveller came to see that rich man; and the rich man grudged to
take any out of his own flocks to feed the traveller, but took the poor
man's ewe lamb!"
When David heard this story he was very angry with the rich man, and
told Nathan he ought to be punished.
And then Nathan said to the king: "Thou art the man!"
"Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil
in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah with the sword, and hast taken his
wife to be thy wife."
"Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house."
Then David was dreadfully sorry. He saw his great sin in the sight of
the Lord, and he earnestly asked to be forgiven.
If you read the fifty-first Psalm you will see how sorry he was.
And the Lord did forgive him; but David had to bear the effects of his
sin the whole of his life afterwards.
[Illustration]
XV. THREE COMMANDMENTS
ABOUT OUR HANDS—OUR TONGUES—AND OUR HEARTS
_VIII. "Thou shalt not steal."_
PERHAPS you draw back, and say, "Steal! Surely no one would think I
would steal!"
But when we come to think it over, there are a good many ways of
stealing; or being tempted to steal. There are little unfairnesses
that many practise, without in the least realizing that they lead to
dishonesty. A boy who cheats over his lessons goes very near the mark!
A girl who borrows from her class-mate a sixpence to buy a hair ribbon,
and does not return it, goes very near the mark too!
Satan is so wary, and we are so un-wary!
I heard of a dear, good woman the other day.
She had a very hard life to make both ends meet. And one day, the
person who was lodging with her left her purse on the table.
The woman would never have thought of opening the purse and taking out
her neighbour's money! Oh no!
Satan was too wary to suggest that!
The dear woman went to move the purse to a place of safety, and it was
very full of money, and fell open, and the contents in a moment lay
scattered on the floor: shillings, sixpences, half-crowns!
Then Satan saw his opportunity. As the dear woman stooped to gather
the money, the thought crossed her heart: "She would never miss one of
these coins! And I do need them so—"
And then the dreadfulness of the temptation came upon her, and she fell
on her knees.
"Dear Lord, forgive me!" she murmured, and hurried to gather up the
money, and to restore the purse to its owner. God had helped her to be
brave!
What made Judas betray his Lord?
Was it not that he was a thief, and had the bag, and carried about with
him what was in it?
He thought if the chief priests would give him those thirty pieces of
silver, he would be a rich man all his days instead of a poor man!
Did he ever enjoy those thirty pieces of silver?
There was a boy I heard of lately, who was tempted: and he took an
orange from a greengrocer's shop. But his heart smote him; and that
evening he wrote this letter to the greengrocer's wife in a round,
boyish hand:—
"Dear Madam,—I am very sorry for stealing an orange from you
yesterday, while in your shop. I must apologize as I am a Christian,
but was tempted."
Signed . . .
"I enclose a penny stamp for the cost of same."
That confession must have cost that boy a great deal to do! But he was
"more than conqueror through Him who loved him!"
_IX. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."_
How did the wicked queen Jezebel manage to get Naboth's vineyard for
her husband? It was by means of false witnesses!
She sent letters sealed with the king's seal to the nobles and elders
who were in the city where Naboth lived, and ordered them to proclaim a
fast, to set him up on high where all the people could see him, and to
get two wicked men to give false witness against him, to accuse him of
blaspheming God and the king. Then he was to be carried out of the city
and stoned.
So the elders did as Jezebel told them, and poor Naboth, who had done
no wrong, was cruelly killed.
And now I am going to tell you the story of the sin which brought this
about.
God said in His Tenth Commandment—
_X. "Thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shall not
covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his."_
Covetousness is one of the sins that hides deep in a man's heart, and
if given way to may spoil all his happiness.
King Ahab had a palace at Jezreel; and near to the palace was Naboth's
vineyard, which was his family possession.
As the king passed to and fro, he began to covet the vineyard of Naboth
in order to make himself a garden; and at length he asked Naboth to
exchange his vineyard with him for another better one, or offered to
buy it from Naboth for money.
This seemed at first sight a reasonable offer; but Ahab knew perfectly
well that no Jew would sell his father's inheritance, and that he
valued it almost like his own life.
So Naboth refused, and the king went back to his palace heavy and
displeased, and went and lay upon his bed and would not eat.
When Jezebel found out what was the matter, she begged Ahab to get up
and eat; and she promised that she would get the vineyard for him!
And this was how it came to pass that those false witnesses swore away
Naboth's life!
When Ahab knew that Naboth was dead, he went down to take possession of
the vineyard.
But the Lord sent this message to the king by Elijah, His Prophet—
"Thus saith the Lord: Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? Thus
saith the Lord: In the Place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth,
shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."
It is a very solemn thing to break God's commands. Shall we not pray,
as we think of them: "With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me
not wander from Thy Commandments!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XVI. TAKEN FROM THE BROOK
I SAMUEL 17.12-52
A GREAT Giant had come out of the land of the Philistines to fight
against the Israelites.
He was about 11 feet high-that is higher than a tall doorway, and no
ordinary man could attempt to fight with him, with any hope of victory,
be he ever so brave.
This Giant, Goliath of Gath, appeared every day for forty days, defying
the Armies of Israel, and challenging them to send out a man to fight
with him.
The Giant struck terror into the hearts of the Armies of Israel.
Now there was a youth named David, ruddy and beautiful, who was on the
Mountains of Palestine, tending his father's flocks.
As he sat watching the sheep, the Holy Spirit taught him many of the
Psalms we all love, such as, "The Lord is my Shepherd."
One day a lion came out of his lair and took a lamb of the flock, and
David, knowing that God was his strong Helper, went out after the lion,
and smote him and got the lamb out of his mouth, and when the lion
turned on him, David caught him by the beard and killed him. And a bear
came in the same way, and he killed him too.
One day David's father, Jesse, sent him to see how his brothers, who
were at the war, were getting on; and when he reached the Camp, the
first thing that he heard was the news of this dreadful Giant, who was
defying the Israelites every morning and every evening.
And David said, "Who is this heathen Philistine, that he should defy
the Armies of the Living God?"
David's eldest brother was angry with him for what he said; but David's
words were heard by the other soldiers, and they repeated them to King
Saul.
And Saul sent for him, and when David came into his presence, he said
to the King, "Let no man's heart fail him because of the Giant, I will
go and fight with him!"
[Illustration: The giant struck terror into the hearts of the armies of
Israel.]
But Saul looked at David and said, "You are not able to fight with the
Giant."
Then David told the King about the lion and bear, and he said, "The
Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw
of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
So Saul agreed to his going, and put some armour on him; but David told
the King he could not go with these, for he was not used to armour.
Then David took his staff in his hand, and went to the brook and chose
out five smooth stones, and he put them in his shepherd's bag that hung
at his side.
Before we go on to what David did with those stones, there are two
or three interesting things in this story which we shall do well to
notice; for they will be, if we think of them, a great help to us in
our own lives.
We all have, like David, a tremendous enemy to face. This is Satan; and
he comes to us every day, like the Giant Goliath, and he tries to make
us afraid. He wants us to live without thinking about God; he wants us
to forget that there is a great Helper for us in every time of need.
But David truly loved God with his whole heart, and he was very brave;
but it was in God's strength that he had determined to meet the Giant.
So he went to the brook, and chose some of the smooth stones that he
was accustomed to use.
It was a very simple weapon; and doubtless he had often practised
slinging stones, as he sat watching his sheep, and knew how to aim well.
And, if we want to conquer Satan when he tempts us to do wrong, we must
take the weapon God has given us to use—which is His own word. Just
say, "Lord, help me!" or "Lord, save me!" and Satan will be driven away.
I shall never forget being called to comfort a dear dying girl, who was
much worried by Satan's suggestions. I stood by her bedside and quietly
repeated these words of God to her, from Isaiah 59.19: "When the enemy
shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a
standard against him."
In a moment the cloud of sorrow and fear passed from her face; and God
never let Satan worry her again!
So you will find God's words will be just like David's smooth stones,
when he went up to meet the Giant!
[Illustration: DAVID GOES TO MEET GOLIATH.]
And Goliath said, "Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? Come
to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to the
beasts of the field!"
Then David answered, "Thou comest to me with a sword and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand . . . and I will smite thee, and take thy head from
thee. For the battle is the Lord's."
So, as the Giant came forward towards David, David ran to meet him, and
put his hand into his bag and took a stone, and slang it, and it hit
the Giant on his forehead, so that he sank down on the ground on his
face. Then David ran, and took Goliath's own sword, and cut off his
head with it.
And when the Philistines saw that their Champion was dead, they fled,
and the Israelites followed after them and the Victory was won.
[Illustration]
XVII. THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS:
AND HOW THEY WERE BROKEN
"I am the Lord thy God, Which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
_I. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."_
_II. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a
jealous God."_
THE Children of Israel had left Egypt. God had brought them out with a
strong hand. They had left their enemies the Egyptians, some of them
dead in their houses, for all the firstborn were dead; and some of
them overwhelmed in the Red Sea, where they had attempted to follow
the Israelites, for whom God had made a way on dry ground, through the
midst of the waters.
And now God had led them about in the wilderness, for they were
obstinate and disobedient, and He could not let them go into the
Promised Land of Blessing, because their hearts were too hard to learn
His great lessons.
In the third month after leaving Egypt, they came into the wilderness
of Sinai, and the whole congregation camped before the mount.
Then God called Moses to come to Him to the top of the mountain; and
here God spoke to him, and sent him down to repeat to the congregation
all the words which He had told him.
And God told Moses that it was a very solemn thing for Him to speak in
their hearing, so they were to set bounds round the mount, that no one
should come too close.
God said that He would come to Moses in a thick cloud; but that the
people should hear His Voice when He spoke, and should believe Moses
for ever.
While God was telling Moses all these Commandments, on the top of the
mountain, there were thunderings and lightnings, and the voice of a
trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord Jehovah descended
upon it in fire; and even the mountain trembled at the Presence of the
Holy God.
And this was the First Commandment—
"Thou shalt have no other gods before ME!"
Nothing else in the world nearer and dearer to us than God!
I heard the other day of a terribly injured soldier, who sent this
message to one who had written to sympathize in his great deprivation:
"Don't pity me; the sacrifice has been worth it; for I have found God!"
Oh! What it is to learn that!
Now we come to the Second Commandment—"Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image."
[Illustration: Moses cast down the two Tablets which God had written.]
When the Children of Israel stood round that mount, and heard God say
that, if they would obey His voice, they should be a peculiar treasure
to Him, they promised that they would faithfully keep all that the Lord
said.
But I am sorry to tell you that they soon forgot their promises, and
did the very thing God had told them not to do. And this was how it all
happened.
Moses was up on the mount with God for forty days and forty nights,
and God gave Moses the two Tablets of stone, on which God Himself had
written His Ten Commandments.
But forty days and forty nights seemed a long time to the thousands
of people waiting below on the plains; and they "gathered themselves
together unto Aaron, and said, Up! make us gods, which shall go before
us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of
Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!"
Then Aaron bade them bring him gold from their ornaments, and he cast
the gold into the fire, and it melted down into a great piece of gold,
which looked like a calf.
Aaron took a tool and moulded it, and the people said, "These be thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!"
Then they offered sacrifices to the golden calf, and feasted, and rose
up to dance.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for the people
have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. Now,
therefore . . . let Me alone, that I may consume them!"
But Moses besought the Lord most earnestly to turn from His anger,
and asked Him to remember His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and
begged Him to forgive the sin of His people.
So Moses went down the mountain with God's Law in his hands. But when
he and Joshua, who was with him, saw from the mount what had happened,
and that the people had already broken God's two first commandments,
Moses cast down the two Tablets which God had written with His own
Hand, and they fell beneath the mountain and were broken to pieces.
And the Lord sent a sore punishment to the people who had sinned, and
three thousand of them died.
The next day Moses went up to the Lord again, and his words of entreaty
are most touching—
"Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of
gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I
pray thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written."
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him
will I blot out of My Book."
This is an awfully solemn story. We do not read that the people
themselves repented—if they had, the Holy God would have forgiven them
out and out.
For He says in the 55th of Isaiah—
"Let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to
our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
[Illustration]
XVIII. THE NEXT TWO COMMANDMENTS:
AND HOW THEY MAY BE KEPT
_III. "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord My God in vain;
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."_
THINK of the name of the person whom you love the best in the world,
and then think how you would feel if you heard any one speak against
that name. Would not you feel grieved? Would you not turn away from
the one who spoke against that loved name? And say: "I cannot hear you
speak like that—I love that name above any on earth."
Yes; if you think of it, you will see that it is so.
And if we feel so about an earthly love, and an earthly name, what
ought we to feel about that "Name which is above every name"?
No wonder God says in His Holy Law: "Thou shalt not take the Name of
the Lord thy God in vain!"
And our Lord, in the Prayer which He has told us all to use, says—
"Our Father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name!" It is the
first request of that wonderful prayer.
Do you see the baby boy in your home? He has hurt himself, or got into
some difficulty. He can just say one single word, and that word is
the only name he knows; and you hear him calling out in his distress,
"Mother! Mother!" Over and over, till she comes running in, and in a
moment he is in her arms!
And this brings me to a text I am very very fond of: "The Name of the
Lord is a Strong Tower! The righteous runneth into it and is safe."
A few years ago a sister of mine was walking on a lonely road, and just
as she was crossing a railway bridge between two brick walls a man
sprang out and seized her watch and chain.
No one was in sight, and she knew she was utterly helpless, and that
the man's strength would soon wrench the watch away.
Then she bethought herself of the Name of Jesus! And she called to Him
aloud, "Lord, help me!"
In an instant the man relaxed his hold, dropped the watch and chain,
and made off as fast as he could, and she saw him no more! Surely to
her the Name of the Lord had been a strong tower, she had run into it
and was safe!
And this is only one instance of very many that I have known, when the
Holy Name of our God, or of our dear Saviour, is all-powerful to help
us in our greatest need.
If we hallow the Name of our God in our lives now, there will be a time
when we shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in our foreheads, as
a token that we are His for ever.
And now we come to another thought, about another Commandment—
_IV. "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the
Lord thy God . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth . . .
and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day,
and hallowed it."_
You will see it begins with the one word—
"REMEMBER!"
What are we to remember? A father goes out in the morning, and as he
turns away, he says, "Remember, children, what I have told you to do!"
So our Heavenly Father says to each one of us, about the Sundays that
come every week: "Remember! This is My Day—it is the Sunday of the Lord
thy God!"
Then let us rejoice that such a day is given us. A rest from our
lessons; a rest from our work; a time when we can read a nice book in
which we find something to help us about pleasing God.
Sunday is given us to do good in. Think how our Lord, when He was on
earth, went about healing and comforting on the Sabbath Day! And He
told the people "it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day."
If we look out for opportunities, we can think of things to do that
will help others. We can paint texts to send to invalids or to
cottages; we can put sacred pictures, if we have any, into scrap-books
for the Children's Hospital, or we can paste some white paper on a used
picture post-card, and write neatly a verse or two of a hymn, and send
the cards, when done, to cheer the wounded soldiers! Such a hymn as
"Fight the good fight," or "Jesu, Lover of my soul," or "I heard the
voice of Jesus say."
An elder sister, perhaps, can show the little ones a Bible
picture-book, and tell them some simple stories about Little Samuel or
Joseph. Or she can read aloud a Sunday story-book to the others, while
they paint or chalk some outlined texts.
In a large family I know, this was a very favourite occupation.
Then singing hymns! Oh, how children love hymns!
As you begin to "remember" to make God's Day a holy, happy one, you
will find that there are things to do in it, for His sake, that will
make you happy, too.
It is a day for worship, for rest, for peace, and for loving
ministrations for others, and you will find that "in keeping His
Commandments there is great reward."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XIX. THE POTTER'S VESSEL
THOSE who have visited the East tell us that even to-day the potter
still sits at his work, making jars and jugs to carry the precious
water from the wells.
Now we must suppose ourselves entering the little courtyard where the
potter sits at work, or bending our heads to enter the shady little
building or shed, where the rays of the mid-day sun cannot reach him.
He has just brought a lump of clay, and placed it on the middle of his
wheel, and with his feet, he gives the wheel a twist, and begins to
mould the great lump of clay into a round sort of mass.
[Illustration: THE POTTER'S WHEEL.]
So the visitor ventures to say: "May I ask what you are making, sir?"
And the potter looks up, with a half-smile, as he answers: "I am going
to make a lovely jar," and then his feet twist the wheel round and
round, and the visitor stands by watching.
The potter puts his thumb into the place where the neck of the jar will
be, and as he twists and moulds, the visitor sees before his eyes the
ugly bit of clay coming into an elegant shape.
At length the jar is done, and the visitor asks another question. "What
will you do, now?" he says.
"I shall paint it with beautiful colours—"
"And then?"
"Then I shall put it into the oven and bake it, so that the shape and
the colours will stand fast."
The visitor hesitates. At length, he asks, "You do not make them all
alike? Some are plain and homely; some are beautiful, and I suppose
costly?"
The potter smiles, as he rises and places his jar on a shelf out of
harm's way.
"Well, sir," he says, "it's just as I choose to make them! Some are
so precious in my eyes that I love to look at them; some turn out so
badly, that I have to mould the clay over again. Just as I like, sir;
just as I like! It is my clay, and my work; but I want the pieces that
I make, to come out beautiful and lovely."
[Illustration: I shall paint it with beautiful colours.]
So the potter takes another lump of clay, and goes to his wheel again;
and the visitor, thanking him very much for his kindness, turns away
thoughtfully.
Had he not read somewhere in his Bible about the Clay and the Potter?
"Yes," he said to himself at length. "It was in Jeremiah, and when I
get back to my Hotel, I will look it up."
And he found what he wanted, in the 18th Chapter of Jeremiah, where the
Lord told the Prophet to go down to the potter's house, that He might
tell him there, what he was to say to the Jewish people, who at that
time were sadly disobedient, and had turned away from God.
So Jeremiah went down to the Potter's house; and behold, he was making
something on his wheel.
But as he made it, the vessel which he was moulding was marred, or
spoilt, under his hand; so he turned, and made the piece of clay into
another shape, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
And the Prophet stood and watched him.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and the Lord told him he
was to go to the people of Israel and tell them His message. That if
they continued in their evil ways, He would take them out of their own
land, and from their beloved City, Jerusalem, and He would send them to
be Captives in a distant land.
And God said, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you, as this potter
has done with his clay?"
For God loved the Children of Israel, and He wanted to make them good
and beautiful, like the potter wanted to make his jars.
But the Children of Israel rebelled against God; and though He had
sent great deliverances many times, and brought them right out of the
bondage of Egypt, and into the beautiful land of Canaan, they very
quickly forgot Him again.
They forgot all His love towards them, and began to serve other gods,
which they made with their own hands; and they even sacrificed and
burned their own sons on their altars.
So God sent Jeremiah with His message to them—that if they would turn
away from their evil ways and come back to Him, He would forgive them
and give them every blessing; but if they refused, then Jerusalem
should be destroyed, and God would send those who were left after the
battles into a far country where they should be Captives for seventy
years.
Yet even with all these solemn warnings, the Children of Israel—the
Jews—refused to obey God; and very shortly those things came to pass
which Jeremiah had told them.
But God has given great promises to the Jews, and He is very patient
and longsuffering.
By and by after seventy years, He brought them back in a wonderful way
to their own Land, which they again inhabited, and built cities and
lived in them.
But it was not very long before they again began to depart from God's
laws; they ceased to obey those things which were plainly written in
the Old Testament Scriptures; and at last, when Jesus Christ came to
earth to be their Messiah and King, they did not remember all God
had said in the Bible about Him, and they rose up against Him, and
crucified the Lord of Glory!
And so, again the Heavenly Father, who calls Himself the Potter, has
had to send the Jews out of their Land, and He is moulding them now by
trials and sorrows, so that by and by they may be purified and restored
to His favour.
For when Jesus comes back to Earth, as He surely will, "they will look
on Him whom they have pierced," and will turn to Him, and be saved.
[Illustration]
XX. JEHOSHEBA, THE GOOD AUNT
2 KINGS 11.1-21. 2 CHRONICLES 22, 23, AND 24
QUEEN ATHALIAH, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, was a very wicked
woman.
Her son Ahaziah only reigned one year in Jerusalem, and she was his
counsellor to do evil. But at the end of the year he was slain by Jehu,
and the Throne of Judah became empty.
Then Queen Athaliah determined to destroy all the Royal Princes, and
ordered all the sons of Ahaziah to be killed, in order to reign over
the Kingdom herself.
But while these terrible scenes were happening, and the Princes of
Judah were being killed one after another, there was a Princess,
Ahaziah's sister, who made a brave resolve, and carried it out most
successfully.
She knew that one of the King's sons, whom Athaliah had intended to
kill, was a baby of a year old, and she determined that she would do
her utmost to rescue him from the soldiers who were ordered to carry
out this wicked scheme. This Princess was called Jehosheba, and she
was the wife of the High Priest, and evidently could go into the outer
rooms of the Temple.
So while the shouts of the soldiers, and the cries of those who were
being murdered, were filling the air with terrible sounds of confusion,
Jehosheba stole swiftly to the place where she thought she should find
the baby boy, and hiding him under her beautiful robes she bore him
into the Temple, far away from the noise and turmoil, and she hid him
in a bedchamber, under the care of his trusted Nurse.
[Illustration: BORE HIM INTO THE TEMPLE.]
The bedchamber was probably a little room where the mats and bedding
for the priests who lived in the Temple, were kept, and at night they
were brought out and laid upon the floor in the larger chambers; for
that is the custom in the East.
No one missed the little child, for Athaliah believed that all the
Royal Princes were slain. So she immediately put herself on the Throne,
and reigned over the kingdom, practising all her wicked ways as before,
in defiance of the Commands of God.
You will not wonder that she came to a very sorrowful end, as we shall
hear presently.
Meanwhile, Joash, the little heir to the throne, was kept hidden safely
in the Temple. You can picture to yourselves how Jehosheba would have
often gone to that far-off bedchamber to play with her little nephew,
and how she would teach him all she could, to prepare him for the
Kingdom.
It is evident also, when we read the accounts, that her husband,
Jehoiada, the High Priest, was often with the child: for by and by
when six years had passed away, and little Joash was seven years old,
Jehoiada determined that he should be crowned King.
So he called the Captains of the army, and they started out all over
the land of Judah, and gathered the Levites from all the cities, and
the chief fathers of the people, and they all came up to Jerusalem.
[Illustration: Then Jehoiada . . . put the crown on his head.]
Jehoiada shewed them the little King, and made arrangements for their
guarding him on the Coronation Day. He also armed them with spears and
shields and bucklers which had been King David's, and said to them,
"Behold the King's son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons
of David."
So the Captains and the Levites did exactly as Jehoiada told them, and
stood on guard about the King, with their weapons in their hands.
Then Jehoiada brought forward the little son of King Ahaziah, and put
the crown on his head, and the roll of the Testimony in his hand, and
they made him King, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and those
about him clapped their hands with joy, and said, "God save the King!"
But when Athaliah, the wicked Queen, heard the shouting and rejoicing,
she hurried into the House of the Lord, and when she saw the King
standing by a pillar, and the Princes and the trumpeters around him,
and all the people rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets, she rent her
clothes and cried, "Treason! Treason!"
But Jehoiada quickly commanded the Captains to seize Athaliah, and
take her out of the Temple, and to kill her with the sword outside the
Courts; and there she was slain.
Then Jehoiada made a covenant with the King and all the people, that
they should be the Lord's people, and not idolaters any more; and they
went into the house of the idol Baal, and broke it down; and they broke
up the altars of Baal, and his images into small pieces, and killed the
priest of Baal.
So all the people rejoiced greatly, and they brought the King to the
King's house, and he sat on the Throne of Judah.
As long as the faithful High Priest lived, Joash was a good King.
Jehoiada was his counsellor and friend, and under his advice Joash did
much to repair the Temple of God.
But when Jehoiada died, Joash fell into evil company. The Princes of
Judah came and persuaded him to go to the Groves and Idols; and the end
was, that he brought misery on himself, and also on the Kingdom which
he ruled.
God sent Prophet after Prophet to implore the people to return to the
Lord, but Joash went on in his wrong-doing, even to killing the son of
Jehoiada, his old friend and protector.
Joash fell very sick at this time, whether from wounds or from illness,
the Bible does not say; but the servants who waited on him conspired
against him, and killed him in his bed.
Oh! What a sorrowful death! No love, no tender pity, but hatred for all
the evil he had done to the Kingdom, over which he might have reigned
so gloriously, had he only kept close to the Lord God, who would surely
have established his throne.
[Illustration]
XXI. GOD FEEDS ELIJAH
ELIJAH was a great Prophet of the Lord; and to him were given more
wonderful honours than were conferred on any other Prophet.
We talk much now-a-days about deeds of bravery, and about the honours
which are given to the men who have thus distinguished themselves;
and these honours are given them by our King, and the brave deeds are
spoken of from one end of the world to the other!
You will like to know what honours Elijah had?
He was allowed to go to Heaven without dying; and he was allowed long
afterwards to come back from the glory to talk with the Lord Jesus on
the Mount of Transfiguration.
These wonderful "distinctions" were not given him by any earthly king,
but by God Himself; and as we follow out the story of Elijah's life, we
shall ourselves, perhaps, have a peep into that glory which Jesus is
even now preparing for those who love and follow Him.
I have read that Elijah's name means "My God is Jehovah!" and it
seems to me that this is a brave motto for each one of us, "My God is
Jehovah!" "For in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength."
The first mention we have of the Prophet Elijah, who came from the land
of Gilead, was in the reign of King Ahab.
God chose Elijah, who was very brave, to rebuke the king for his many
acts of wickedness. We read that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God
than any of the other kings before him.
One day Elijah went to Ahab and told him: "As the Lord God of Israel
liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, but according to my word."
This loss of rain was doubtless sent as a great punishment for the
idolatry and sin into which the whole people of Israel had fallen.
Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Turn thee eastward,
and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan."
God did not forget His faithful servant in the famine that was coming;
and He told him He had commanded the ravens to feed him, and that he
would be able to drink of the brook.
Here, amidst the rocks and fastnesses, he was safe from the wrath of
Ahab and of Jezebel, Ahab's wife, who hated Elijah with all her heart.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread
and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.
But when the hot days came the brook began to grow less and less,
because there had been no rain, and at last the brook dried up;
and then the Word of the Lord came to him again: "Arise and go to
Zarephath, near Sidon: I have commanded a widow woman to feed thee
there."
So Elijah went the long journey to Zarephath, and just outside the
gate he saw a woman gathering sticks; and, too thirsty to wait till he
reached her side, he called to her: "Fetch me, I pray thee, a little
water to drink!"
And as she was going to fetch it, he called again: "And bring me a
morsel of bread in thine hand!"
But she quickly answered: "I have not any bread! I have nothing but a
little meal in the bottom of the barrel, and a little oil in a cruse;
and I was gathering a few sticks to bake a little loaf for me and my
son, that we may eat it and die!"
The famine was so bad in the land that this was the last bread that
poor widow would be able to get.
But God knew all about it, and He had arranged it all in His loving way.
So Elijah, hungry and thirsty as he was, gave her God's message.
"Fear not," he said; "go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof
a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel: The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day
that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."
And she went and did as the Prophet told her, and he, and her house,
had enough to eat all the while the famine lasted.
And since then there are many widows, and many distressed and anxious
families, who have found the God of Elijah the same loving, providing
God that this poor widow did.
But by and by there came a still harder trial to that widow's heart.
Her precious little boy, who had been kept alive all through the
famine, was very ill, and died.
Then the poor widow was utterly hopeless, and she blamed Elijah and
said it was his fault that this dreadful sorrow had come to her.
Doubtless Elijah had told her much about the Holy God who cannot bear
sin, and she began to look at her past life, and one particular sin
came up before her! She told him that he had come to bring this sin to
remembrance, and to slay her son!
But Elijah said, "Give me thy son." And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up to the loft where he lived, and laid the child upon
his own bed.
And Elijah cried to the Lord. (You see he was a man who lived in close
touch with God!) And he said: "O Lord my God, hast Thou brought evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?"
Then he stretched himself upon the child three times. And again he
cried to the Lord God, and said: "O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this
child's soul come into him again!"
"And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came
into him again, and he revived."
"And Elijah took the child, and brought him down . . . and delivered
him unto his mother, and said, 'See! Thy son liveth!'"
"And the woman said to Elijah, 'Now by this I know that thou art a man
of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.'"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXII. RUTH
A LONG time ago we read of something most interesting about Bethlehem.
In the time of the Judges of Israel, before Saul or David had been made
kings, there was a man living at Bethlehem whose name was Elimelech. He
had a wife called Naomi, and two sons called Mahlon and Chilion.
But there came a famine in Bethlehem, and Elimelech and his wife and
two sons went out of Canaan and journeyed into the land of Moab.
Here the family of Elimelech settled down for ten years.
But Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. These sons
married wives in Moab, but both of them died, and Naomi was then left a
desolate widow.
By and by she heard that the famine was over in the land of Canaan, and
she started with her two daughters-in-law to return to Bethlehem.
But after they had set out on their journey, Naomi advised Orpah and
Ruth to go back to their mothers, and prayed that, as they had been so
loving and kind to her sons who had died, God would take care of them,
and bless them in Moab.
Then she kissed them, and they all wept together. And they said,
"Surely we will go back with thee to thy people!"
But Naomi did everything she could think of to dissuade them, and at
last, with many tears, Orpah wished her good-bye; but Ruth clung to her.
Then Naomi used another argument: "Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone
back to her people and to her gods—return thou after her."
But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from
following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go; thy people
shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God!"
So Ruth chose the God of Israel to be her God. And that God Whom she
had chosen, watched over her all her life long, and gave her great
happiness and honour, as I shall tell you by and by.
When Naomi found that Ruth was determined that "naught but death"
should part them she left off persuading her, and they two journeyed on
till they came to Bethlehem.
[Illustration: So Boaz spoke kindly to Ruth.]
The arrival of strangers at a little town in those days was a great
event, and all the people flocked out of their houses to see who it
could be.
And they said, "Is this Naomi?"
But Naomi's heart failed her. She had gone out with husband and sons,
and she had returned desolate; and in her grief she said, "Do not call
me 'Naomi'" (that meant pleasant), "but call me 'Mara'" (which means
bitter), "for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me!"
Poor Naomi! She forgot her sweet daughter Ruth; she forgot the God of
Israel whom they both trusted. For a little while her grief swept over
her.
There lived in Bethlehem a rich man, whose name was Boaz, and he was a
relation of Naomi's husband, Elimelech.
When they found that the barley harvest had just begun, Ruth said to
her mother-in-law, "Let me go into the fields to glean corn!"
And when she reached the fields she happened on a field belonging to
Boaz; but Ruth did not know that he was her relative.
When Boaz saw Ruth among the women who had come out to glean, he asked
his servant who was set over the reapers whose damsel she was? And the
servant told him that she had come from Moab with Naomi, and he had let
her glean among the reapers.
So Boaz spoke kindly to Ruth, and bade her keep near his maidens; and
if she were thirsty she was welcome to take some of the water which his
young men had drawn.
Then Ruth bowed herself to the ground, and thanked Boaz for his
kindness to a stranger.
But Boaz told her that he had heard all about her love to her
mother-in-law, and how she had left father and mother to come to a
strange land. And then he asked the Lord God of Israel, under Whose
wings she had come to trust, to bless her, and to give her a full
reward for all she had done.
So Boaz told her to come at meal-times and share the food they had;
and he gave her parched corn, some of which she saved to carry to her
mother-in-law; and when she had had sufficient, she went back to her
gleaning. And Boaz told his young men to let fall handfuls on purpose
for her, so that by evening she had gathered quite a good quantity.
When Naomi heard all the kindness of Boaz, she told Ruth that he was
a near relation, and she realized that, after all, the Lord had not
forsaken her, though in her grief she had almost thought He had!
She told Ruth to keep fast by the maidens of Boaz. So day after day,
till the harvest was over, Ruth did as Naomi bade her; and as Boaz went
to and fro among the reapers, he saw the modest and sweet behaviour of
the young stranger girl, and he determined to ask her to be his wife.
So they were married; and by and by a dear little son was given to them.
And the women said to Naomi: "Bless be the Lord, which hath not left
thee without a kinsman, that his name should be famous in Israel."
So Naomi was comforted, and became a nurse to the babe who was so
precious to her.
And his name was famous! For the child was called Obed, and he was in
due time the father of Jesse; and Jesse was the father of David, and
through David, years afterwards, came our Blessed Lord!
Do you not remember how the blind man cried out?—"Jesus, Thou son of
David, have mercy upon me."
[Illustration]
XXIII. ON MOUNT GILBOA
As David left Saul, and went back to his stronghold at Engedi, he said
to himself: "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul! There is
nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the
Philistines, and Saul will cease to look for me."
So he went with the six hundred men who followed him, and dwelt with
Achish, the king of Gath, for a year and four months.
But, after a time, the Philistines determined to go to battle against
the Israelites, and as David and his men were very friendly with
Achish, they marched in the rear of the army which was gathered
together against Saul.
But when the princes of the Philistines found David and his men among
the warriors, they very much objected, telling Achish that when the
battle was joined, David would go over to the other side and fight
against the Philistines.
Achish tried to persuade them that David and his men were their
friends, but the lords of the Philistines would not consent; and David
had to go back to Ziklag. It would take too long to tell you here how
he found that other enemies had invaded his home, or how he and his men
went after them, and how the Lord helped them to recover their wives
and children and all the spoil that those enemies had taken.
But it seems very wonderful that, in the great battle of the
Philistines in which Saul was killed, the Lord had sent David far away
in another direction!
So the Philistines gathered themselves to the battle, and Saul and his
sons and all the men of Israel came out against them.
But the night before the battle Saul had gone to a witch at Endor,
and asked her to bring up Samuel to speak to him. Both he and the
witch were very frightened when Samuel came up—an old man wrapped in a
mantle—and Samuel told Saul that God had given the kingdom to David,
and that he and his sons would be killed on the morrow.
[Illustration: Both he and the witch were very frightened when Samuel
came up.]
So the battle took place the next day on Mount Gilboa; and the
Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons, and Saul was sore
wounded by the archers.
Then Saul besought his armour-bearer to kill him with his sword lest
his enemies should come and mock him. But his armour-bearer would not,
for he was sore afraid.
Then King Saul took his own sword and fell upon it and died. And when
his armour-bearer saw that he was dead, he fell upon his sword too, and
died with him.
So Saul died, and his three sons and all his men, that day together.
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.
[Illustration]
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!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: A Prophet of the Lord was sent to him with a message
from God.]
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.
[Illustration: THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET.]
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."
[Illustration]
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."
[Illustration: Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt
sacrifice.]
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!"
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: CHOOSE YE THIS DAY.]
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!
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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.
And when history shows us that all has been fulfilled except the Feet
of iron and clay, we know that we must be very near to the coming of
the Wonderful Stone, which by and by is to fill the whole earth.
You will some of you understand what I mean when I say that this is
Symbolical language. That means, that it is a picture of Heavenly
Things which is to teach us about earthly things.
That Stone is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back from
Heaven to reign over the whole earth. We read in the seventh chapter
of Daniel these words: "I saw in the night Visions, and behold one
like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven . . . and there was
given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations
and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion
which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed."
King Nebuchadnezzar remembered the part of his dream of the Great Image
that applied to himself—he knew he was the head of gold.
This probably made him think of making a real image, and setting it up
in the plain of Dura for every one to worship.
So the heralds went forth and told the people that at the sound of any
musical instrument they were instantly to fall down and worship the
Golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
And in order to force compliance, this mighty king made a terrible
threat, that whoever refused to worship it, should be cast into a
burning fiery furnace.
[Illustration: The most mighty men in his army were to bind Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego.]
But the Chaldeans, who were very jealous that Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego had been set up over the affairs of the kingdom, came near and
told Nebuchadnezzar that the Jews refused to bow down and worship the
Golden Image which he had set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego before him.
So he asked them: "Is it true that you will not worship the Golden
Image which I have set up? If you are ready to worship, well; but
if not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the fiery
furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?"
But the three young men were strong in the might of their God, and they
answered—
"We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known
unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
Golden Image which thou hast set up."
Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and he ordered that they should
heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual, and that the most
mighty men in his army were to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and to cast them into the fiery furnace.
And because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceeding
hot, the flames killed the men who had to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego into the fire.
And the three young men fell down, bound, into the midst of the furnace.
The king was watching the dreadful scene; but suddenly a great fear
shook him, and he turned to his counsellors with the question, "Did not
we cast three men, bound, into the fire?"
And his counsellors said that it was true, they had.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar said: "Lo! I see four men, loose, walking
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the
fourth is like the Son of God."
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the furnace, and he said:
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come
forth and come hither!"
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the
fire.
And the Princes, Governors, and Captains, and the King's Counsellors,
who were gathered together watching, saw these men upon whom the fire
had no power; nor was a hair of their heads singed, neither were their
coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, Who hath sent His angel and delivered His
servants who trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and
yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god
except their own God."
So Nebuchadnezzar made another decree, that if any one said anything
against the God of these three young men, he should be cut in pieces
and his house destroyed—"because there is no other god that can deliver
after this sort."
And the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province
of Babylon.
This is a glorious chapter of one of the greatest deliverances of the
Bible; and there are plenty more!
[Illustration]
XXIX. QUEEN ESTHER'S REQUEST
ESTHER 8.3-6
ESTHER was a very beautiful girl, and Ahasuerus the great King of the
Medes and Persians chose her to be his Queen, and he loved her very
much.
Esther was not only beautiful in face, but she had a very beautiful
character.
She belonged to the people of God, called the Jews, who had been
carried away captives from Palestine, and were now living in Persia.
Among these Jews was a man called Mordecai, who was much respected for
his goodness, and he sat in the King's Gate.
When Esther's father and mother died, Mordecai took the little girl and
brought her up as his own daughter. He taught her about God, and Esther
was very obedient, and loved Mordecai very dearly.
[Illustration: Mordecai took the little girl and brought her up.]
Then Esther was made Queen, and things went on peacefully; until
one day Mordecai heard that there was a plot forming to kill King
Ahasuerus. He at once secretly told Esther, and she told the King; and
the two conspirators were both hanged. But the King forgot to thank
Mordecai, though it was written down in the Chronicles of the Kingdom.
About that time the King took a great fancy to a man called Haman, who
hated the Jews, and especially Mordecai, because he did not bow down to
him when he passed.
So Haman obtained leave from the King to fix a day when all the Jews
should be killed in the whole Kingdom.
But the City Shushan was much perplexed; for they knew, though the King
did not, that his beloved Queen was a Jewess!
When Mordecai found out all that was happening, he was bitterly
grieved, and sent an urgent message to Esther, and implored her to go
in and tell the King, and beg him to spare her people.
But Queen Esther sent back a message to Mordecai, to remind him that if
anyone ventured to go in to the King's inner Court, that person would
certainly be put to death unless the King should hold out his Golden
Sceptre.
So Mordecai sent another urgent message to tell Esther that perhaps she
had come to be Queen, to do this very thing. But if she did nothing,
then she and all the Jews would perish!
Then Queen Esther begged Mordecai to gather all the Jews together who
were in Shushan, and to bid them fast and pray for three days; and she
and her maidens would fast too; and at the end of that time, she said,
"I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law, and if I
perish, I perish."
Esther was brave because she knew that she had God on her side; and she
believed that He would answer the prayers they were all offering up.
[Illustration: QUEEN ESTHER BEFORE AHASUERUS.]
So on the third day Queen Esther put on her Royal robes, and went into
the Inner Court and stood before the King.
When King Ahasuerus saw his beautiful young Queen standing there so
meekly, he held out the Golden Sceptre which was in his hand. And she
drew near and touched the top of the sceptre.
And when he asked her what request she had to make, the King must
have been astonished at her reply, for she only asked that the King
and Haman should come to a banquet which she had prepared for them.
So when they came to the Banquet, the King asked the Queen again what
her petition was? And she said if the King and Haman would come to a
Banquet with her, again to-morrow, she would then tell the King what
her request was.
So Haman went out from Queen Esther's Banquet very proud; and he told
his wife and his friends of his second invitation, but he said that
nothing was any pleasure to him, so long as Mordecai, the Jew, sat in
the King's Gate.
Then his wife and his friends advised him to make a gallows fifty feet
high, and to get the King to let him hang Mordecai on it.
But that night the King could not sleep, and one of his servants
fetched a roll of the Chronicles of the Kingdom, and he read to him how
Mordecai had once saved the King's life.
And in the morning the King asked Haman what would be suitable to do to
"the man that the King delighted to honour?"
But Haman little thought that when he proposed to set the man on the
King's own horse, dressed in the King's Royal clothes, that it would be
Mordecai who was to be honoured, and not himself!
But the King told Haman to lead Mordecai round the town, and to
proclaim: "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to
honour."
After this Haman went to the Banquet that Esther had prepared. He
little knew what the Queen's request was going to be! For Esther told
the King that a great plot had been made to destroy her and all her
people, and that this wicked Haman was the one who had planned it all!
Then Haman was afraid before the King and Queen.
You can picture the anger of the King, and when he was told of the
gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, he ordered that Haman
should be hanged there at once.
Then the Queen begged that letters might be sent to stop all the Jews
being killed, and Ahasuerus sent urgent posts on mules and horses and
swift dromedaries to tell the Jews that they might stand up for their
lives, and destroy any enemies who rose up against them.
Thus God answered the prayers of that young Queen and her maidens, and
of the Jews who joined with her in fasting and praying, and sent them a
great deliverance, the remembrance of which has been handed down from
generation to generation ever since.
[Illustration]
XXX. A GREAT RAIN, AND A TIRED PROPHET
So Ahab ate and drank—but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and cast
himself upon the earth with his face between his knees, and he said to
his servant: "Go up now and look towards the sea."
And the servant returned, saying he could not see anything.
Then Elijah said: "Go—" seven times. And when he came back the seventh
time, he said he could see a little cloud in the sky, no bigger than a
man's hand.
So Elijah hurriedly sent a message to the king, to prepare his chariot,
and get to his home quickly, or the rain which was coming would stop
him!
And as he spoke, the heavens became black with clouds, and there was a
great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he ran before Ahab's
chariot, right to the entrance of Jezreel.
But when Ahab told his wife, the wicked queen, Jezebel, that all her
prophets were dead, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she would
kill him, as he had done the prophets of Baal, by that time the next
day!
And now, Elijah, who had been so wonderfully strong and full of faith
for this great scene, fled for his life when he heard the threat of
Queen Jezebel!
Hungry, thirsty, tired-out, he fled till he had passed Beersheba, and
had gone a whole day's journey into the desert, before he felt he might
be safe from Jezebel! Here he cast himself under a juniper tree, and
asked the Lord to let him die!
Poor Elijah! For one brief moment his faith failed him! If God had
answered his prayer, Elijah would have missed the great honour of going
up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire without death at all!
And let us pause here, just to think for a moment about our own prayers.
It seems to me that we are encouraged to tell God everything; and then
we are wise to leave the choice with Him: asking Him to do that which,
in His wisdom and love, He knows to be best for us.
So the poor wearied Prophet prayed that he might die; and then
overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. And meanwhile God was
preparing for him, while he slept—as He does so often for His faithful,
and sometimes faithless, children—and behold! An angel touched him, and
said to him: "Arise and eat!"
And when he looked up, there was a little cake of bread, freshly baked,
and a cruse of water standing ready by his pillow!
And he ate and drank; and then, still so weary that he could hardly
hold up his head, he slept again!
Then the angel of the Lord came the second time and touched him, and
said: "Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee!"
Oh, the compassion of God, Who knows just how we feel! So Elijah
obeyed; and he went in the strength of that food, for forty days and
forty nights, till he reached Horeb, the Mount of God, where he found a
cave and lodged there.
By and by he heard a Voice from the Lord speaking to him, and it said:
"What doest thou here, Elijah?"
Then Elijah said: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, but now the
Children of Israel have forsaken my God, and I, even I, am the only one
left, and they are going to kill me!"
And the Lord said: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord."
Then the Lord passed by, and a great wind tore the rocks and the
mountains, and there was a great earthquake; but the Lord was not in
the earthquake nor in the fire that came afterwards; and then there was
a still, low voice. And when Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his
face in his mantle and went out and stood by the mouth of the cave.
Then the voice spoke to him again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" And
again Elijah said that he was the only Prophet left!
But the Lord told him that He had seven thousand Israelites who had
served Him faithfully, and had never bowed down to Baal!
Then the Lord told him to go and anoint two kings; and also to anoint
Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a Prophet instead of himself.
So Elijah went to Abelmeholah, and found Elisha ploughing in the
fields; and as he passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him.
Then Elisha left his oxen and ran after him, and said: "Let me go and
kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee!"
Elijah said: "What have I done to thee?"
But I think Elisha knew what the Prophet had meant by casting his
mantle upon him!
So Elisha took a yoke of oxen, and with the ploughing instruments for
his fire, he boiled their flesh, and gave to the famine-stricken people
to eat, and then he went after Elijah and became his devoted servant.
Then many years passed on, and there were great wars between Ahab and
the King of Syria.
But Ahab did not leave off his wicked ways, and at length God sent
Elijah to Samaria to warn him that God's judgment would come upon him
in the very spot in which he and Jezebel had sinned against Him.
I have not space to tell you here about Ahab coveting Naboth's
vineyard, nor how Jezebel had Naboth killed in order that Ahab might
possess it.
But God's judgments always come true, and though Ahab was killed by
a chance bow-shot in a great battle, yet, as God had said by Elijah,
"dogs licked up his blood" in Naboth's vineyard, which was close by the
king's palace in Samaria, where the men were washing out his chariot
after the battle!
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXI. SOLOMON'S WISDOM
AND SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
SOLOMON, the son of David, was anointed King, as the Lord had promised
David.
Solomon loved the Lord; and when he was made king, the Lord appeared to
him in a dream, and told him he might ask for anything he wanted.
And the Lord was very pleased with Solomon's choice; for he asked that
God would give him an understanding heart, that he might have wisdom to
rule the people over whom he reigned.
So God abundantly answered his prayer, as he was the wisest king who
had ever reigned; but God gave him besides, riches and honour and
everything that could make him happy. At the same time the Lord warned
him to walk in His ways, and keep His commandments that it might be
well with him all his days.
Then Solomon awoke from his dream; and he hastened to Jerusalem and
stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings to the Lord, Whom he loved and worshipped.
Very soon the young king had to use the wisdom which God had so freely
given him.
As he sat with his servants and soldiers round him, ready to judge
anything that was brought to him, there came two women before him to
plead their cause.
"And the one woman said, 'O my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one
house, and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the
house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the
night because she overlaid it.'"
"'And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while I
slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
And when I arose in the morning to feed my child, behold it was dead;
but when I had considered it in the morning, behold it was not my son!'"
"And the other woman said, 'Nay; but the living is my son, and the
dead is thy son.' And this said, 'No; but the dead is thy son, and the
living is my son!' Thus they spoke before the king."
[Illustration: He was the author of three thousand proverbs.]
"Then said the king: 'The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and
thy son is dead; and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and
my son is the living.'"
"And the king said, 'Bring me a sword.' And they brought a sword before
the king."
"And the king said, 'Divide the living child in two, and give half to
the one, and half to the other.'"
Then the woman, who was really the mother of the living baby, said to
the king, for she was heart-broken to think that her child should be
killed, "O my Lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it!"
"'But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.'"
Then the king turned to the first woman, and gave his verdict: "Give
her the living child," he said, "and in nowise slay it: she is the
mother thereof!"
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and
they saw that the wisdom of God was with him to do justice among them.
And it was not only in the affairs of the State that Solomon was so
wise.
His fame spread to all the nations round about; and his wisdom exceeded
all the wisdom of the East. He was the author of three thousand
proverbs and many songs. He was learned in trees—from the great cedars
of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall.
He understood all about beasts and birds and insects and fishes. He
knew what those words in the hundred and eleventh Psalm meant: "The
works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure
therein."
By and by Hiram, King of Tyre, who had always loved David, on hearing
that David's son was king, sent his servants to convey his greetings to
Solomon.
Then Solomon sent back a message to Hiram, asking him to allow his
servants to help him in hewing cedar trees from Lebanon, as he was
purposing to build a beautiful Temple for the Lord.
He explained to Hiram that it had been in David's heart to build
the Lord's House; but he had been a man of war; and though the Lord
accepted the desire of David's heart, He told him that his son Solomon
should be a man of peace, and should build Him a House.
But the Lord had allowed David before his death to collect a vast
number of materials of all sorts, as we read in the 22nd chapter of the
First Book of Chronicles.
David had employed clever masons to hew wrought and polished stones;
he had prepared iron in abundance for the gates and hinges, and brass
without weight.
Then Hiram sent abundance of cedar and fir trees, for as David had
said, "The House that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding
magnifical."
That is a long and a strange word, and it is only used that once in all
the Bible! But it conveys this one lesson to us—that if we want God to
dwell in our hearts, we must spare no pains to make them ready for His
abode!
Jesus says: "If any man love Me, My Father will love him, and We will
come unto him, and make Our abode with him!"
So Solomon began to build with all his heart, and such a Temple as he
raised to the Lord was a glory and a joy to all beholders.
[Illustration]
XXXII. JEHU—THE ELEVENTH KING OF ISRAEL
WE read of Jehu first in the time of Elijah, when God commissioned the
Prophet to anoint Jehu as a future King of Israel, and announced that
he would be used to punish Ahab and the Children of Israel for their
idolatry and departure from the Lord.
For some reason which is not told us in the Bible, it was not Elijah,
but Elisha, who was in the end sent to anoint Jehu. We read the story
of this in the 9th chapter of the Second Book of Kings.
Elisha was now the Lord's Prophet in Israel.
One day he said to one of the younger prophets with whom he lived:
"Prepare yourself for a journey, and take this box of oil in your hand,
and go to Ramothgilead."
"When you get there, find Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and ask him to come
with you into an inner chamber away from the rest of the company, and
when you are there, take the box of oil and pour it on his head, and
say: 'Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.' Then
open the door and flee, and do not wait a moment."
So the young man went to Ramothgilead, and when he got there he found
all the captains of the host sitting round Jehu.
So he said: "I have an errand to thee, O Captain!"
And when Jehu understood that the secret message was to him, he went
into a private room.
So the young prophet did as Elisha bade him, and anointed Jehu king of
Israel, telling him that God had appointed him to execute His judgments
against the house of Ahab, and that the dogs should eat Jezebel in
Jezreel, as the Prophet Elijah had told Ahab years before.
Then the young man opened the door and fled.
So Jehu came back amongst the other captains, and they inquired: "Why
did this mad fellow come to you?"
So Jehu said he expected that they knew the errand. But they assured
him they did not, and asked what the news was.
Then Jehu told them the young man's solemn message, and that he ended
by saying: "Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel."
Then the soldiers and those around him spread their garments for him
to step on, in token that they accepted him as king, and they blew a
special blast of the trumpets, saying "Jehu is King!"
So Jehu charged the soldiers that no news should be carried to Jezreel,
where King Joram was lying to be healed of his wounds received in
battle against Hazael, King of Syria.
[Illustration: Then the soldiers spread their garments for him to step
on.]
Then Jehu rode in a chariot, and hastened to Jezreel, and there he
found Ahaziah, King of Judah, who had come to visit the wounded king.
Now on the Tower of Jezreel there stood a watchman who told Joram: and
as Jehu came fast in his chariot, Joram sent a messenger to meet him
with these words: "Is it peace?"
But the watchman said: "The messenger has not returned; he came to them
but has not come again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the
son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously."
Then Joram got into his chariot, and Ahaziah got into his, and they
started to meet Jehu. But they only got as far as the vineyard of
Naboth when they met Jehu face to face.
And Joram said: "Is it peace, Jehu?"
And Jehu answered: "What peace can there be so long as thy mother
Jezebel and her wickedness remain?"
Then Joram turned and fled, crying out: "There is treachery, O Ahaziah!"
And Jehu took an arrow and drew the bow to its full strength, and aimed
it at Joram's heart. So Joram sank down in his chariot.
Then Jehu told Bidkar his captain to throw the king's body into the
field of Naboth, "for remember that when I and thou rode with Ahab his
father, the Lord laid this burden upon him."
Then Jehu followed after Ahaziah and smote him, and he was carried in
his chariot to Jerusalem and died there, and was buried in his own
sepulchre.
So Jehu came into Jezreel, where Jezebel lived; and when she heard all
that had happened, she painted her face and put ornaments on her head,
and came and looked out of a window.
And as Jehu entered in at a gate she tauntingly said: "Had Zimri peace,
who slew his master?"
Then Jehu looked up to the window and said: "Who is on my side? Who?"
And two or three of the queen's chamberlains looked out at him.
So he said: "Throw her down!"
And they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the
wall, and on the horses, and he trode her underfoot.
Then Jehu came in, and he ate and drank; and when he rose up from table
he said: "Go, and see now this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a
king's daughter."
And they went to bury her, but found nothing left of her body but the
skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
So they returned to Jehu and told him.
And he answered in these solemn words—
"This is the Word of the Lord, which He spake by His servant Elijah the
Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of
Jezebel: and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of
the field in the portion of Jezreel: so that they shall not say, This
is Jezebel."
[Illustration]
XXXIII. A STORY OF VICTORY
KING SAUL had disobeyed God, and the Lord had rejected him from being
king.
The Prophet Samuel had set his heart on this first King of Israel, and
he grieved terribly that the Lord had reject him. So he went down to
his house and mourned over all that had happened.
But at length the Lord spoke to Samuel and He said words like these:
"How long will you mourn for Saul? Take your horn of oil and go to
Bethlehem, for I have provided me a king among the sons of Jesse the
Bethlehemite."
So Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and took with him a heifer for
a sacrifice to the Lord, and called Jesse and his sons to share in the
sacrifice.
Samuel did not know which of Jesse's sons was to be the king, and as
one and another passed before him, the Lord told him that He had not
chosen that one.
At length Samuel said to Jesse: "Are these seven all thy sons?"
And Jesse answered: "There is still the youngest, and he is with the
sheep."
So David was sent for, and the Lord said to Samuel: "Arise, anoint him:
for this is he."
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that time forward.
By and by the Philistines, who were enemies of Israel, gathered their
armies together to battle, and Saul and the men of Israel went out to
meet them; and the two armies stood on two mountain sides, opposite to
each other with a valley between them, ready to begin to fight.
Then the Philistines sent out a great giant as a champion, and he
defied the armies of Israel, telling them to choose one of their men to
fight with him; and promising if their champion was able to kill him,
then the Philistines would be their servants: but if he killed their
champion, the Israelites would have to serve the Philistines.
When Saul and his soldiers heard these words, they were dismayed and
greatly afraid.
And day after day for forty days, the giant came out and defied the
Children of Israel.
David's father, Jesse, had three sons at the war, and one day Jesse
told David to go and see how his brothers were, and to carry a present
of food to the captain of their thousand.
When David got near to the trench, he found that the armies were
preparing for a battle.
Then his brothers told him about the giant and his threats, and how
Saul had made great promises to any one who should be brave enough to
kill him.
And David said indignantly to every one he met: "Who is this
Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
At length Saul heard of the words that David had said in the camp, and
he had him brought before him; but when he saw how young he was, he
told him it would be impossible for him to fight the giant.
But David said: "When I was keeping my father's sheep, there came
a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. I went after
him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he
arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew
him . . . The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and
out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine!"
So Saul offered him some armour, but when David had tried it, he took
it all off, and chose instead five smooth stones out of the brook, and
with his sling in his hand, he went to meet the giant.
You can imagine that great, tall man with his heavy armour, looking
down on the young and beautiful youth before him, and disdaining him!
So the giant came on and drew near to David, and he said to him: "Am
I a dog, that you come to me with stones? Come to me, and I will give
your flesh to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field!"
But David's courage was not of earth, as his brave words show—
"Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield:
but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand! And I will smite thee, and take thine head from
thee: and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this
day unto the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, that all
the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly
shall know, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the
battle is the Lord's!"
Then he ran swiftly towards the giant, and put his hand in his bag and
took out a stone and slung it, and it struck the Philistine in his
forehead, so that he sank down on the ground with his face to the earth.
So David ran and stood upon the giant, and took the giant's sword from
its sheath and slew the Philistine, and cut off his head.
Then the men of Israel arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines
till they reached the gates of Ekron. Then they returned and took all
the spoil from the tents of their enemies.
And David was brought before Saul, carrying the head of the giant in
his hand.
No wonder that King David in after years wrote in the 18th Psalm:
"I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my
fortress, and deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my
buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call
upon the Lord . . . so shall I be saved from mine enemies!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXIV. THE GREAT FEAST
DANIEL 5.1-31
BELSHAZZAR was the last King of the Chaldeans, and though he little
suspected that this was the last Feast he would ever make, the time had
suddenly come when his proud reign was ended, and his enemies would be
victorious.
But all this was among the hidden things of the very next day. It is
only God who knows the end from the beginning, unless He makes it known
to His own servants, who serve and love Him.
So it came to pass that Belshazzar made a great Feast to a thousand of
his lords, and he drank wine before his lords.
While he was drinking the wine, he thought that he would show off some
of the Holy Vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from God's Temple
at Jerusalem.
And Belshazzar knew very well that these Vessels had been made entirely
for the Service of the Great God, the King of the whole earth.
But knowing this, he went on in his profane determination to have the
Vessels brought into the feast; and he and his princes, and his wives
and concubines, drank wine in them, and praised their gods of gold, and
of silver, and of brass, and iron, of wood and of stone.
But there fell a sudden hush on the great assembly, for without the
slightest warning, there appeared the fingers of a man's hand which
were writing on the plaster of the Wall, just above the candlestick of
the King's Palace; and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote.
[Illustration: THE WRITING ON THE WALL.]
Then his face grew white with fear, and his knees trembled and smote
one against another, for he could not control his terror.
So he called aloud to fetch the soothsayers, and promised, that if any
one could tell him the meaning, he should be clothed in purple, and
have a chain of gold, and be made the third ruler in the Kingdom.
Then all the wise men hurried in, but they could not read the writing,
nor give the interpretation.
[Illustration: Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in
scarlet.]
Belshazzar was very frightened. Then the Queen hastened into the
Banqueting Hall, and told him not to be frightened, as there was one
man in his Kingdom who could tell dark sayings, and in whom there was
the spirit which, she supposed, could only come from the gods.
She little knew that this man of whom she spoke, loved and served the
only True and Great God, who lives in Heaven.
So Daniel was brought in before the King, and Belshazzar asked him
if he were one of the Captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had brought from
Jerusalem? And the King hurried on to tell him of all the gifts which
he should receive, if he could tell him the meaning of the writing.
Then Daniel answered before the King: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and
give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the King,
and make known the interpretation."
Then Daniel went on to explain to the King that the God who lived in
heaven had given Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom and majesty: but when his
heart was lifted up with pride, he was deposed from his throne, and he
had to live with the wild beasts, till he knew that the most high God
ruled in the Kingdom of men, and gave it to whomsoever He willed.
And then Daniel went on to say that Belshazzar had not humbled his
heart, but had lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, and had
even taken His holy vessels to be used at the feast, and had praised
the gods of silver and gold "which see not, nor hear, nor know." And
Daniel added these solemn words: "And the God in whose hand thy breath
is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified."
Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was
written.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN—
"This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE—God hath numbered
thy kingdom and finished it."
"TEKEL—thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."
"PERES—Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
Then Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in scarlet, and
to put a chain round his neck, and make a proclamation that he should
be the third ruler in the kingdom.
But in that very night, Belshazzar, the King of the Chaldeans, was
slain, and Darius, the Mede, entered into the City and took the kingdom.
That writing on the wall, written more than two thousand years ago,
contains a living lesson to all of us to-day.
It was God who sent that message to Belshazzar: "Thou art weighed in
the balances and art found wanting." For God judges every one's life.
We read in the Revelation, "There shall in no wise enter into His
presence, anything that defileth."
But there is another Writing, not like the one on Belshazzar's Wall—and
that is in a Book in heaven, which is called "The Lamb's Book of Life."
Do you wonder what is written there?
It is the name of each one who has come to "The Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world."
Let each one of us ask God to wash away all our sins, and to write down
our name in that Book of Life.
That is the writing which will mean endless happiness and joy.
[Illustration]
XXXV. DANIEL IS A CAPTIVE
THE people of Israel—the Jews—had so departed from serving and obeying
God, that at length, in the reign of Jehoiakim, God allowed the King
of Babylon to come up against Jerusalem with a great army and to
besiege it, and eventually to take the city. He carried away not only
Jehoiakim, the king, but afterwards Zedekiah (whom Nebuchadnezzar
had set up in Jerusalem instead of Jehoiakim), and with him, he took
all the nobles who were not killed in the siege, and every smith or
craftsman who might be useful in Babylon.
He carried away also the whole of the sacred and precious vessels from
the Temple of God, and put them into the house of his own idol in
Babylon.
Thus the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were completely destroyed;
and none were left in the land but the very poorest of the people.
So now you must picture to yourselves how Nebuchadnezzar instructed his
lords and officers to choose, out of the ten thousand captives whom
they had brought to Babylon, all the best of the young men: all that
were skilful in wisdom or clever in science, who should be brought into
the king's palace and should be taught the learning and language of the
Chaldeans.
These young men were given into the charge of Ashpenaz, one of the
king's trusted chamberlains, and Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be
fed from the king's table, and nourished, so that at the end of three
years, they should be able to stand before the king.
Now among these high-born young men were four, whose names in Judah had
been Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; but Ashpenaz named them
afresh, and called them Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So you will now understand why these young men were sometimes called by
one name and sometimes by another in the Book of Daniel.
When the orders came, and Daniel was told that he and his companions
were to be fed with the king's food, Daniel purposed in his heart that
he would not defile himself with it, nor with the wine which the king
drank.
The reason of this was, that the food was not prepared as the Jews'
food was; for God had given them strict rules as to how their meat
was to be killed; and also, the wine of these heathen kings was often
offered to their idols before they tasted it themselves, and thus, in
the Jews' sight, was defiled.
So Daniel spoke to Ashpenaz, and begged him earnestly to excuse him and
his companions from eating the king's food.
[Illustration: Their wisdom and understanding was far beyond that of
any of the others.]
Now God Himself, Who was watching over His servants, these captives in
Babylon, had great purposes which they were to carry out, not only for
the Jews, but by and by for the whole world.
But as God takes care of the little things as well as the great things,
He had softened the heart of Ashpenaz, so that he tenderly loved Daniel.
And when he heard Daniel's request, he did not speak roughly to him, as
those great princes generally did in those days, but explained to him
how difficult it would be for him to comply with what he asked.
He told Daniel that if he did not give them the king's food, they would
not look as well fed or handsome as the other captives, nor as the king
would expect them to look; and if he yielded to Daniel's request, he
might endanger his own head to the king! For in those days, life was
of no value in the eyes of the great sovereigns. They did exactly as
pleased them at the moment.
Then Daniel explained it all to Melzar, who was the man whom Ashpenaz
had set over them to control these smaller matters, and asked him to
"prove" them by allowing them to have only "pulse to eat, and water to
drink"; and if, after ten days, they looked less well than the others
who were having the rich food from the king's table, then Daniel and
his friends would do what Melzar wished.
I think Daniel knew that his God would make it all right for them!
And so it proved; for at the end of ten days their countenances
appeared fairer and fatter than the others did, who ate the king's
meat. And Melzar took away the wine and the good food, and gave them
pulse and water, as they had asked.
As for these four young men, God gave them skill to learn; and He gave
Daniel the power to understand visions and dreams.
So at the end of the three years the prince of the eunuchs
brought them, and a number of the other captives, in before King
Nebuchadnezzar; and the king communed with them; and among them all, he
found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they remained
near the king, and when anything was wanted of them, they were there to
do it.
The king found, when he talked with them, that their wisdom and
understanding was far beyond that of any of the others, and ten times
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his kingdom.
These four young men, captives in a strange land, eating and drinking
nothing but bread and water, were brave, faithful and obedient.
"They had set the Lord always before them." Their one aim was to please
Him; and as we go on with their story, we shall see that God was with
them, and enabled them to be "more than conquerors through Him Who had
loved them."
[Illustration]
XXXVI. THE SECRET IS REVEALED TO DANIEL
IN those days, dreams and their meanings were much thought of, and
great kings had their soothsayers and sorcerers, their magicians and
astrologers, who were always at hand to explain doubtful or hard
questions, and to pretend to look into the future.
Many of them were extremely clever, and from long practice and
observation, many of their answers and explanations seemed very
plausible.
So when Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, had a perplexing dream, which
worried him very much, he sent for these soothsayers and magicians; and
they at once, of course, asked what the dream had been, so that they
might furnish the interpretation.
But Nebuchadnezzar had to confess, that though the dream troubled him,
he could not recall what it was!
So the magicians were greatly alarmed; as they said, no king would ask
his magicians to tell the dream, as well as the interpretation!
But the king was angry and furious; and at length sent out an order
that all the magicians and soothsayers in Babylon were to be destroyed.
So the decree went out that all the "wise" men, meaning astrologers and
soothsayers, were to be slain: and with them, Daniel and his companions
would perish!
Then Daniel with gentle wisdom, which God gave him, said to Arioch, the
captain of the king's guard, who was sent out to kill the wise men:
"Why is the king's decree so urgent?"
So Arioch explained to Daniel that the king wanted not only the
explanation of his dream, but the dream itself! And that the magicians
could not tell it.
But Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, and he would
show the king the interpretation.
Then he went to his house, and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and
asked them to pray to God to show them this secret, so that they and
all the wise men in Babylon should not perish.
We must pause here for one moment to remember that God gives wonderful
answers to "united prayer"! We see it over and over again throughout
the Bible; and we see it over and over again in our own experience,
when we trust Him!
So Daniel and his companions prayed, and the answer came.
Then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a vision in the night.
And what did Daniel do the first thing after he knew the secret?
He blessed the God of Heaven! He thanked Him for giving him wisdom to
understand, and that He had made known what they had desired of Him.
Then Daniel went to Arioch, and told him the good news, and he brought
him to the king in haste, saying: "I have found a man among the
captives of Judah, who will tell you the interpretation!"
So the king said to Daniel: "Can you make known the dream, and the
interpretation?"
And Daniel answered: "The secret which the king requires, the
astrologers and magicians cannot answer. But there is a God in Heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to King Nebuchadnezzar what
shall happen in the latter days."
And then he added: "This secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom
that I have . . . but for their sakes who make this interpretation
known to the king, and that the king may know the thoughts of his
heart."
We see here an evidence of Daniel's humility; no wonder that God could
trust him with Vision after Vision about the future, which we read in
the later chapters of this wonderful Book of Daniel.
This was the dream, and Daniel told it to the king in words like these—
"The king saw a great Image whose brightness was excellent and his form
terrible."
"The head of the Image was of Gold:"
"The breast and arms of Silver:"
"The belly and thighs of Brass:"
"The legs of Iron; and the feet part of Iron and part of Clay."
"The king looked at this Image till a Stone, cut without hands, smote
the Image upon his feet, and brake them to pieces. Then the whole Image
fell to pieces, and was scattered like chaff before the wind, and the
pieces were carried away, so that they could not be found."
"And the Stone which smote the Image became a Great Mountain, and
filled the whole earth."
Then Daniel went on to say: "This is the dream—and we will tell the
interpretation of it."
"Thou, O King, art this head of gold! And after thee shall arise
another kingdom inferior to thee; and another third kingdom of brass.
And a fourth kingdom which shall be strong as iron; and the toes of the
feet shall be part of iron and part of clay."
"And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a
kingdom which shall never be destroyed . . . and it shall stand for
ever."
"The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure."
Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face before Daniel and said: "Your
God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a Revealer of secrets!"
Then the king gave Daniel great gifts and made him ruler over the whole
province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men
of Babylon.
And Daniel asked the king to remember his three companions, and
Nebuchadnezzar set Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of
the province of Babylon.
But Daniel sat in the gate of the king—which was evidently a place of
great honour.
[Illustration]
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