Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Torah must move within the lines of Jehovah's original covenant with Israel. In a more awful and momentous form the antagonism ultimately meets us in the pages of the Gospel1.

But it is time to resume our main theme-the social and political conditions of the period in which the great prophets appeared upon the scene of Hebrew history, and for convenience' sake our survey will be confined to the northern kingdom. The political activity of such men as Isaiah or Jeremiah in the kingdom of Judah exercised so profound an influence on the fortunes of the Hebrew state and on the development of its religion, that it seems better to omit any detailed reference to the work of these great prophets than to deal with it summarily within the narrow limits of a lecture. The eighth century was indeed a critical epoch in Israel's career. Hitherto prophecy had frequently taken the form of an occasional rebuke sternly administered by individual prophets to unrighteous rulers. Thus Samuel had rebuked Saul, Nathan had denounced the crime of David, and Elijah had been the divinely-appointed scourge of Ahab and his house. But with Amos and Hosea the spirit of prophecy comes into collision with the temper and tendencies of the nation as a whole, and in so doing it passes into the wide sphere of social and political activity. The general conditions of the time were in fact rapidly obscuring Israel's sense of spiritual and moral vocation. In the eighth century a new conception was dawning upon thoughtful hearts-the idea of the world and the world-empire. It was an idea that was only to be deeply impressed on the minds of men by 'the pitiless hammer-strokes of fate 2.' And the prophets discerned

1 Consider Luke xxiv. 19, 20. Schultz, vol. i. p. 338, remarks: This antagonism naturally showed itself still more plainly where, as in the northern kingdom, the priesthood wished, in spite of the preaching of the prophets, to maintain an antiquated and impure form of religion (Amos vii). Cp. Riehm, ATl. Theologie, p. 208.

2 Kittel, Hist. of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 242; ii. p. 259. Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, pp. 224, 225.

that Israel's appearance in the world-theatre must necessarily seal her destiny as an independent state. It was manifest that she could never hold her own as one of the monarchies of the East. The huge and restless empire of Assyria darkened the distant horizon like a menacing thunder-cloud, but the storm did not immediately burst. Danger from a nearer quarter threatened Israel. In the reign of Jehu's son and successor Jehoahaz (circ. 815) the northern kingdom was harassed by the pertinacious hostility of Syria 1; and although Israel played a valiant part in the ensuing struggle, its deliverance was eventually due to the intervention of the Assyrian power, which had already begun to advance in a westward direction 2. The war between Syria (Aram) and Assyria ultimately broke the power of Damascus. Israel recovered its strength in proportion as that of Syria declined 3, until in the reign of Jeroboam II the northern kingdom appears to have reached the very zenith of material prosperity. But the social and economic effects of longcontinued warfare constituted a growing peril which prophecy was quick to discern. The cessation of hostilities had indeed led to a great increase in Israel's wealth and resources, but the simplicity of pastoral and agricultural life had vanished. The whole conditions of society had given way to the exigencies of military organization. The prolonged struggle with Damascus had impoverished the small landholders to such an extent that they were rapidly sinking into abject poverty and even slavery. Meanwhile the court and a corrupt aristocracy absorbed the land, and exhausted the wealth of the nation; and the gulf between class and class became every day wider and more menacing. On the other hand, the mercantile spirit had received a great impetus from the recent wars; the sins of a growing and insolent middle class began to make their appearance; there was a vast Cp. 2 Kings xiii. 5.

1

1 2 Kings xiii.

2

3 2 Kings xiv. 25; Amos vi. 14.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

amount of dishonest trading, and considerable harshness in the exaction of debt. Finally, the inveterate curse of oriental life was embittering the social miseries of the time, viz. venality and corruption in the judges, with its inevitable result that the oppressed classes were left without hope and without redress'.

The social influence of the prophets has sometimes been exaggerated. It is rather misleading to call them, as Darmesteter does, 'a series of religious and political tribunes 2'; or to speak of their programme of reform,' as if they were mainly social agitators, intent upon overthrowing the existing order of society. As Professor Robertson Smith pregnantly observes, their cry is not for better institutions but for better men. Beyond doubt, however, the prophets were most conspicuous as preachers of social righteousness. They were champions of the poor and oppressed. The spirit of the excellent priest described in a recent French romance was theirs. 'I am not,' says the Curé de Canton, 'a socialist; but I nevertheless admit that I conceive life otherwise than as a continual battle. And if there is such a battle, I shall range myself gladly on the side of the weak rather than on that of the strong. The prophets waged war not with wealth as such, but with that reckless and material temperament' in which they recognized 'the completest type of enmity to Jehovah and His religion. In one and the same spirit they denounced the heartless luxury of the wealthy and the material

1 On the social conditions of Israel and Judah in the eighth century see Kittel, vol. ii. p. 313; Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, lect. iii, and O. T. in J. C. pp. 349 foll.; Darmesteter, Les Prophètes d'Israël, pp. 36-40.

2 Les Prophètes, &c., p. 122; cp. p. 141. Cp. Mill, Representative Government, pp. 40 foll. (p. 17 in popular edition).

3 O. T. in J. C. p. 348.

Lettres d'un Curé de Canton, publiées par Yves de Querdec (Paris, 1895).

Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 153. Cp. Meinhold, Jesus und das A. T. p. 90: 'Der Glaube an Gott, den Gott Israels, ist ihnen so stark, dass das Benutzen weltlicher Mittel zur Rettung des Volks als Glaubenslosigkeit erscheint.'

istic aims and self-seeking worldliness of statesmen 1. Further, what intensified their moral indignation at the prevailing iniquities of the social state was the outwardly flourishing condition of the national religion. Religious worship was an institution at once pleasant and fashionable. There were stated sacrifices connected with the cultus of Jehovah, and religious festivals in abundance; the sanctuaries were thronged on these occasions by crowds of enthusiastic and riotous worshippers, who regarded the sacred feasts as a legitimate opportunity for self-satisfied enjoyment and tumultuous revelry 2. The growth of national prosperity which followed the close of the Syrian wars was popularly accepted as a comfortable token of divine favour. There was a widely-diffused notion that under no circumstances would Jehovah fail to befriend the people of His special choice. Israel was the favourite of God, and His interests-it was confidently assumed-were bound up with those of His people. Enough and more than enough was being done to secure the divine regard by a richly-appointed and well-maintained cultus. Thus any prediction, like that of Amos, which threatened Israel with overthrow was regarded as blasphemy against Jehovah. Jehovah must necessarily side with Israel against its foes. To question this was to question the very existence of the covenant relationship established by Mosaism. Accordingly a favourite watchword of the time seems to have been the day of Jehovah3, a phrase which embodied the general expectation of some overwhelming and triumphant display of Jehovah's favour, manifested for instance in the overthrow of Israel's enemies. Failing utterly as they did to recognize the true character and requirement of Jehovah, the people persistently claimed to be special objects of His favour

1 See e.g. Amos vi, and Isa. xxx, xxxi.

2

Cp. Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, pp. 38 foll.; Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, no. 2.

3 Amos v. 18 foll.

and protection. Jehovah God of hosts is with us, they declared: us only does Jehovah know of all the families of the earth. But while from this confidently assumed premiss Israel drew the conclusion, 'Therefore Jehovah will take our part and defend us from invasion,' the earliest of the great prophets, Amos of Tekoa, deduced a precisely opposite inference: Therefore will He punish you for your iniquities1.

For indeed the primary work of the prophets was to proclaim not salvation but judgment. They were confident that the great social iniquities of the timethe luxury, greed, profligacy, oppression, and practical atheism of the upper and middle classes-were certain to bring upon the sinful nation a crushing retribution. Naturally enough they ranged themselves on the side of the down-trodden and oppressed, but their zeal was inflamed not so much by sympathy for the poor and suffering classes, as by a passionate belief in the supremacy of the law of righteousness. In an age of glittering prosperity and of ostentatious care for the externals of religion, the prophets were not blind to the symptoms of a profound moral corruption, which they knew to be the one fatal obstacle to the maintenance of the covenant relationship between the Holy God and His people. They proclaimed that because Jehovah is what He is, the theocracy in its existing condition must be inevitably doomed. The foundation on which it rested was rotten 2. Thus in their insistence on the moral requirement of Jehovah for Israel, the prophets were not merely acting as defenders of outraged rights and liberties, or as champions of the poor against their oppressors; they were preach

Amos iii. 2; v. 14. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 124, makes the striking remark, 'This terrible "Therefore" must have been as a bolt from the blue to the popular religious consciousness in the days of King Jeroboam.'

2 Darmesteter, p. 48, mentions the 'four axioms' of prophecy: 'What is not founded on righteousness must perish-Jehovah has revealed His righteousness to Israel-Israel is bound to realize and embody this righteousness-It will be realized in the future.'

« AnteriorContinuar »