Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The Mountain of Jehovah

'In the latter days it shall come to pass,

That the mountain of Jehovah's house2

Shall be established on the top of the mountains
And it shall be exalted above the hills.3

5 All peoples shall flow unto it,

And many nations4 shall go and say,

Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah
And to the house of the God of Jacob;
That he may teach us of his ways,
10 That we may walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem;

And he will arbitrate between many peoples,

And will render decisions for strong nations afar off:

15 And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning-hooks;5

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war any more.

But each man shall sit under his vine and under his fig-tree

20 And none shall make them afraid:

For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it.

In that day, saith Jehovah,

I will assemble that which is lame,

And I will gather that which is driven away,

25 And that which I have afflicted;

And I will make that which was lame a remnant;
And that which was cast far off a strong nation;
And Jehovah will reign over them

In mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.

I Mic. 4:1-4, 6, 7.

2 The mountain of Jehovah's house: another phrase to indicate Jerusalem, conveying in itself the thought of exaltation.

3 This does not mean that Jerusalem will be elevated physically above the surrounding hills, but rather that as the place honored by the presence of Jehovah's temple it will be renowned above all other spots. The language is boldly figurative.

4 Many nations: "Jerusalem is to be the center of the world, where all peoples shall gather for instruction in religion and life."

5 Swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks: because of no more war.

The New Creation1

2For, behold, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth:

And the former things shall not be remembered, nor come to mind.

But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. For, behold, I create Jerusalem exulting, and her people a joy.

5 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and in my people.

No more shall be heard in her the voice of weeping, nor
the sound of crying.

There shall no more go out from thence a young infant,
Nor an old man that hath not lived out his days:
For the child shall die an hundred years old.

IO And they shall build houses, and dwell in them;

And they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit;

They shall not plant, and another eat:

For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, 15 And my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labour in vain,

Nor bear children for calamity;

For they are the blessed of the Lord,

And their children with them.

20 And, before they call, I will answer;

And while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox:
And dust shall be the serpent's meat.

25 They shall not hurt nor destroy

In all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

1 A grand summing-up of the glories of the future. To appreciate fully the comforting nature of these wonderful songs of the prophets of these times, we must recall frequently the meager background of the struggling community in Jerusalem, the sordid questions of daily life, and the hopeless outlook for the future, so far as any political relationships of importance were concerned. Without these songs, and the faithful lives of those who penned them, we could hardly expect that the Jews would have succeeded in maintaining a separate existence. They must soon have been swallowed up by the surrounding nations, and their religion dissipated.

2 Isa. 65:17-25.

CHAPTER XVI

JEHOVAH, THE GOD OF ALL MANKIND

. Yet one other great message had the prophets and with this our studies will come to an end.1 Was the old dream of Jerusalem as the one city of Jehovah a practical one? Was it not inevitable that the time should come when the prophets could see that if Jehovah had created all men he must be interested in all men, of whatever race, wherever they might be? The name of the prophet who added this last note to the wonderful conception of God, built up step by step by his predecessors, we do not know. It comes to us clothed in a series of stories, each a distinct parable, but clustered around the name of Jonah, one of the prophets of early Israel. Jonah is represented as a prophet entrusted by Jehovah with a message of warning to a wicked city, Nineveh. Jonah, with his narrow thought of Jehovah, thinks that by fleeing from Palestine he can escape him and his disagreeable task at the same time.

But we will let the prophet tell us his own story, and as we read let us think of Jonah as representing disobedient Israel of old, entrusted with a message from Jehovah to all the world, yet unfaithful to her mission, as Isaiah of Babylon had so graphically set forth. "Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah3 the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh,4 that great city, and

To make a complete survey of the materials of prophecy, we should need to include in our study the books of Joel and Daniel, and Zech., chaps. 9-14. But these all belong to a later form of prophecy, which is separated from the earlier prophecy by such clearly marked characteristics as to constitute it a new kind of literature. To it the term "apocalyptic" is applied. Joel and Zech., chaps. 9-14, belong somewhere in the early part of the Greek period of Jewish history, which began with Alexander's conquest of the Orient in 333 B.C. Daniel was called forth by the lifeand-death struggle waged on the part of the Jews at the time of the Maccabaean revolt, about 165 B.C.

2 Jonah, chap. 1:1-17.

3 Jonah: We do not know whether there is any special significance to be attached to the selection of the name of the prophet of Jeroboam's time as a type of the disobedient nation, since the only data which we have concerning his life are found in II Kings 14:25. If we recall the state of religion and politics in Jeroboam's reign we may well surmise that Jonah may have been associated in the mind of the prophets of a later day with worldly-mindedness and inability to understand Jehovah.

4 Nineveh: Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, had long since been destroyed. It was a typical heathen city and was chosen by this prophet to represent the whole Gentile world.

cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of 5 Jehovah; and he went down to Joppa,' and found a ship going to Tarshish:2 so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah.

6

But Jehovah sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was likely io to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god; and they cast forth the wares3 that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it unto them. But Jonah was gone down into the hold of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto 15 him, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy god, if so be that that god will think upon us, that we perish not." And they said every one to his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 20 Then said they unto him, "Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?" And he said unto them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who hath made the 25 sea and the dry land." Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, "What is this that thou hast done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Jehovah, because he had told them.

Then said they unto him, "What shall we do unto thee, 30 that the sea may be calm unto us?" for the sea grew more

I

and more tempestuous. And he said unto them, "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that on my account this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them

[ocr errors]

Joppa: a well-known port of Palestine, on the Mediterranean, directly west of ancient Shiloh. See map, opposite p. 31, unnamed seaport north of Philistia.

2 Tarshish: an ancient mercantile city of the Phoenicians in the south of Spain. 3 Wares: merchandise. It was a galley ship, a merchant vessel.

4 Call upon thy god: Jonah was the only man upon the ship who was not praying to his god for help in this peril.

5 The shipmaster thinks that here may be the opportunity to call upon another god than those who seem deaf to their appeals.

"Cast lots: a common custom practiced in order to ascertain who was the cause of some special misfortune. See story of Jonathan (I Sam. 14:36–46).

35 back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto Jehovah, and said, "We beseech thee, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for thou, O Jehovah, hast done as it pleased 40 thee." So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah and made vows.1

And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; 45 and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights.

Thus the heathen sailors who had possibly never before heard of Jehovah put Jonah to shame by worshiping the God whom he sought to escape, and more significant still Jehovah the God of the Hebrews heard the cry of the sailors and delivered them from their danger, heathen though they were.

Will Jehovah our God hear the prayers of the heathen? This was the question of the thoughtful Hebrews in this period.

Meanwhile the life of Jonah, who had been cast into the sea, was saved. A great fish (was it typical of the nation of Babylonia ?) swallowed him. Was this a picture of the captivity? The psalm through which Jonah voices the darkness of his prison is full of phrases which were common in the psalms written in the exile, or which recalled the nation's experience during that period.

'I called by reason of mine affliction unto Jehovah,

And he answered me;

Out of the depths of Sheol cried I,

And thou heardest my voice.

5 For thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the

seas,

And the flood was round about me;

All thy waves and thy billows passed over me.
And I said, I am cast out from before thine eyes;
Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

See vows of Jephthah,

1 Made vows: a religious ceremony. Vows were frequently made to cover a limited period of time, and might represent a great variety of acts. Judg., chap. 11; of Jacob, Gen. 28:20, 21, etc.

2 Jonah 2:1-9.

« AnteriorContinuar »