(Concluded.)
" The Lord hath cast off His altar, he hath abhorred His sanctuary."-Lam. 2:7.
There has been much speculation on Josiah's motives for advancing against the army of Pharaoh-N echo. Whatever these were, this step was as unwise as the result of it proved disastrous; for though Josiah disguised himself, he was mortally wounded at Megiddo by the Egyptian archers.
" And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah." The „prophet Zechariah, many years afterward, referred to " the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon" as a type of that day of deepest national affliction, in which the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son (Zech. 12:10-14). Nell might Judah and Jerusalem bewail the loss of their beloved king, for with Josiah perished all hope of the preservation of the kingdom. Humanly speaking, Josiah was the only remaining pillar that upheld the kingdom, and after his removal by death, it tottered, and finally fell.
Some might feel disposed to inquire, " Why was there no direct word from the Lord to prevent Josiah's rash advance, save the words of Necho, which Judah's king probably did not discern as proceeding from the mouth of God "? (2 Chron. 35:22).
This is one of several instances in the Word where we find that, after the mass of the people have failed, a godly leader has been suffered to fall. (Compare Num. 14:1-4, with xx. 10-12, and Psa. 106:32; Isa. 29:13 with 2 Chron. 32.3 T; 2 Cor. 12:20,2;1). Before Josiah advanced to meet Necho, Jeremiah had faithfully delivered a direct and most solemn word from the Lord to the people of Judah (Jer. 3:6 to vi. 30), from which we now quote. " Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord......Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.. Among my people are found wicked men The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so." The distressed prophet anxiously appealed to the common people, but in vain did he entreat these to turn unto the Lord. "They have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." Then he turned to the great men, and spake unto them who knew the way of the Lord, but he found that these had " altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds." (v. 3-5). There were those who returned, confessing their sins, but these were but a remnant (Jer. 3:22-25).
The remarkable prophecy just referred to, was indeed a direct word from the Lord to Judah, but her people repented not: Judah's relapse into idolatry almost immediately after the death, of Josiah, proves most conclusively that that reformation in his days which outwardly appeared so very fair and promising, was rather the fruit of the godly zeal of her pious king, than the abiding result of the genuine repentance of the people of Judah. And he was taken- over whom Jeremiah lamented thus,-" The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen." Lam. 4:20.
Jehoahaz (or Shallum, Jer. 22:11), who succeeded Josiah, had reigned only three months in Jerusalem when Necho carried him away into Egypt. And the prophet, who had so bitterly mourned for Josiah, now said, " Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan (or honor) him: weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more." Jer. 22:10-12.
Necho set Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, upon the throne of Judah, but changed his name to Jehoiakim. In the beginning of this vassal king's reign, Jeremiah took his stand in the court of the Lord's house, and once more exhorted Judah to repentance; but the priests, prophets, and people conspired together against the prophet of the Lord, and threatened to take his life. Jehoiakim had already stained his hands with the blood of the prophet Urijah, but now, certain princes and elders interposed, and prevented the priests and prophets from carrying out their threat concerning Jeremiah (Jer. 26). But in vain did certain attempt to make the prophet hold his peace; despite all their threatenings and cruelty, he ceased not to proclaim the Word of the Lord; displaying indefatigable zeal, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, he lifted up his voice, and faithfully reminded the people of the curses contained in that solemn covenant which Judah had so recently engaged to keep; at the same time he earnestly protested unto them that because they had not obeyed the voice of the Lord, but had conspired against and broken His covenant, He would certainly bring evil upon them from which their false gods could not deliver them (Jer. 11) The prophet also referred to the obedience of the Rechabites to the commands of Jonadab their father: thus he reproved an ungodly nation that refused to obey the commands of God (Chapter 35).
Jeremiah also sternly rebuked Jehoiakim for his injustice, and selfish indifference to the cause of the poor, as also for his covetousness, violence, and oppression, and predicted that his burial would present a most shameful contrast to that of his honored father (Chapter 22:13-19). Nevertheless Jehoiakim persisted in his evil ways, and in the third year of his reign, both he and his people were made to smart beneath Jehovah's chastening rod. For Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem, and took it. The conqueror at first bound Jehoiakim, with intent to carry him to Babylon, but he afterward reinstated him upon the throne as his vassal, and, taking with him certain vessels of the sanctuary, and several youthful princes of the blood royal (Dan. 1), so he departed from Jerusalem.
It was probably after this that Baruch the scribe (because Jeremiah was at the time " shut up") took the roll which he had written at the dictation of that prophet, and went and read it in the house of God to all the people. When this roll was read before the king he burnt it in the fire, and would have seized Baruch and Jeremiah, but the Lord hid them.
The king that despised the covenant of the Lord, after three years rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and a second time, did the Chaldees, (now assisted by the surrounding enemies of Israel) besiege the city.
From the language employed by the sacred historian, (2 Kings 24:1-16,) and the historical fact of his dead body being cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the might (Jer. 36:30), coupled with the statement that his son and successor had only reigned three months and ten days when the city capitulated, and the special mention of " the king's mother," as being amongst the captives, we are inclined to the thought that Jehoiakim died during this second siege of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah compared the brief reign, followed by the captivity of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah) to the plucking off, and casting away a signet ring, and foretold that none of his seed should succeed to the throne of Judah (22:24-30).
Having set Zedekiah, the brother of Jehoiakim, upon the vacant throne, Nebuchadnezzar a second time retired from Jerusalem, carrying away all the treasures of the temple and palace, and leading into captivity all the mighty men of Judah, and all the skilled artisans, so that none remained save the poorest of the people.
We will now leave Jerusalem awhile, and follow this mournful procession of Jewish captives to Babylon. When these reached the city which was the glory of the Chaldees' excellency, they sat down, and wept as they remembered Zion. It only added to their grief when they were required to sing one of the songs of Zion. Though these had not the heart to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, they would not, they could not forget Jerusalem (Psa. 137). And the Lord graciously acknowledged those that He had sent out of Judah for their good, that returned unto Him with their whole heart (Jer. 24), and comforted them with the assurance that, when seventy years were fulfilled, He would return the captivity of Zion.
In most sublime language Habakkuk had described the coming of Jehovah to take vengeance, Jeremiah had also declared that a whirlwind from the Lord was gone forth in fury, which should fall grievously upon the head of the wicked (23:19). The captive Ezekiel was by the river of Chebar when the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God. And, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire unfolding itself, &c. Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures, glorious in appearance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Yet the vision inspired Ezekiel with awe and dread, and the words " dreadful," and " terrible," occur in the prophet's description of the appearance of these Cherubim and their attendant wheels, which set forth the judicial greatness of God in His attributes of power. These symbolic figures display the glorious, irresistible, and overwhelming power of Him who was then about to " remove the diadem, and take off the crown" of the profane and wicked Zedekiah (Ezek. 21:25,26), and to send upon Jerusalem His four sore judgments, viz., the sword, the famine, the noisome beast; and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast, Ezek. 14:21. The visible agents employed by Jehovah to accomplish this work of destruction being Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans (Hab. 1:6-9; 2 Chron. 36:17).
While those captives whose names are mentioned in the Book of Daniel, by their faithfulness, and obedience to His commands glorified God in a strange land, the weak-minded and vacillating Zedekiah and his princes at Jerusalem were simply adding iniquity to iniquity. The Babylonish king exalted the prophet Daniel to great honor, but the last of Judah's kings suffered the prophet Jeremiah to be cruelly ill-treated (Jer. 38:4-6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego obeyed God rather than man, and Nebuchadnezzar blessed the God that delivered them that trusted in Him, (Dan. 3:28). Because Zedekiah broke that covenant which he had sworn by God to keep, Nebuchadnezzar resolved to destroy Jerusalem.
Exactly thirteen months after he had seen the visions by the river of Chebar, was Ezekiel brought in the visions of God to Jerusalem. One of the duties of priests was to "put difference between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean." In the light of the Divine presence this priest and prophet beheld the great abominations which the house of Israel were committing, even in the several courts of the sanctuary (Ezek. 8); for both priests and people had polluted the house which the Lord had hallowed in Jerusalem (2 Chron. 36:14). Within that sanctuary the prophet again beheld the living Cherubim, but those golden cherubim which overshadowed the mercy-seat, were no longer " cherubim of glory," for Ezekiel informs us "that the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house " (9:3), " and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory." (10:4). The prophet heard the dreadful sound of the Cherubim's wings, (10: 5.) and beheld the glory of the Lord depart from off the threshold of the house, and stand over the cherubim. " And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted from the earth in my sight" (10: 19); rising from the midst of the city, the glory lingered awhile upon the Mount of Olives, and finally disappeared (11: 22 -24).
This removal of the glory from the Temple and city signified the entire removal of the Divine presence from both. Neither were any longer shielded from destruction by the protecting arm of Jehovah. The Lord had lingered long, but Judah had not repented; the days of grace would therefore be succeeded by a day of wrath! This is also plainly shown by the word of the Lord,-" Smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary," (Ezek. 9:5,6.) While on the one hand, 2 Chron. 36:17-19 and Jer. 52 show how-thoroughly the conquering Chaldeans carried out the Divine commission to destroy both city and people of Jerusalem,, another scripture (Jer. 39:11-14,) testifies on the other hand of their careful protection of Jeremiah from violence. Though Israel had despised the word of the Lord, and misused His prophets, Nebuzar-Adan spake with becoming, reverence of the former, and treated Jeremiah with very great kindness. (Jer. 40:2-4). For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests and people, Jerusalem became a desolation, and her sanctuary a heap of ruins.
The conditional promises made to Solomon (2 Chron. 7:19-22) were fulfilled in the destruction and desolation of the Temple. With regard to that sanctuary, the sole confidence of the faithful in Israel was now reposed in the unconditional promises 'which Jehovah made at the same time (7:14-16). Though that city and sanctuary were at the moment a ruinous heap, the prophet Daniel ceased not to esteem Jerusalem, " thy holy mountain," and he further entreated the Lord to " cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake." (Dan. 9:16-17.) Though that " holy and beautiful house" was burnt up with fire, amid his tears, Jeremiah could, with the assurance of faith exclaim, " A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." And though at this moment the mosque of Omar stands where the Temple once stood, Moriah has not ceased to be the place of His earthly sanctuary. When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, in the Lord's own time, a Temple shall be builded Avon that mountain, and the prophet who beheld the departure of the " Former Glory of the Temple," has foretold that the glory of the Lord shall return, but another prophet has said that the glory of the latter house shall exceed the glory of the former (Hag. 2:9). In that day the city of Jerusalem shall be overshadowed with the glory of the Lord, Isa. 4:5,6.