Part 8 (2/2)

There was needed something more than a mere revival of the ”old time religion” of Moses. There had to be purer and n.o.bler ideas of Jehovah, a better knowledge of the real nature of Jehovah and of what Jehovah demanded of men, and of the kind of wors.h.i.+p which would please him.

Till then there was little hope of happiness for men and women and little children.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Read 2 Kings 6. 24-30 for a vivid picture of the sufferings of the common people of Israel, as a result of constant wars.

2. Read 1 Kings 20. 1-34 for some light on Ahab as an able king. What qualities are displayed by him, in the narrative of this chapter?

3. Look up Rechabites in the Bible dictionary for a more complete narrative about them.

4. Is war more of a curse to the common people to-day than in ancient times, or less? Why? What cla.s.ses still suffer most from war, the rich and powerful or the common people?

CHAPTER XV

A NEW KIND OF RELIGION

Among all ancient peoples, including the Hebrews, a large part of religion was the burning of animal sacrifices on altars. Whenever a sheep or lamb or kid was slaughtered for food the blood was poured out on the sacred rock, or altar, in which the G.o.d was supposed to dwell.

Afterward the fat was burned on the same rock. It was believed that the G.o.d in the rock drank the blood and smelled the fragrant odor of the burning fat.

=Whole burnt offerings.=--On special occasions, such as a wedding, the birth of a child, the beginning of a war, or the celebration of a victory, the entire animal was burned on the altar. The first-born calves, or lambs, or kids of any animal mother were also regarded by the Hebrews as sacred and were burned as whole burnt-offerings to Jehovah.

SACRIFICES IN CANAAN

After the Hebrews settled in Canaan they adopted other kinds of sacrifices. Grains and fruits were offered as well as animals. Wine and oil were poured on the altars. Baked cakes were burned. One sheaf from every harvest field of wheat or barley was supposed to be waved back and forth before an altar of Jehovah. This was a sort of religious drama by which Jehovah was thought to receive a share of the grain.

=Religious feasts.=--In Canaan also the Hebrews observed certain religious festivals, which corresponded to the early, middle, and late harvest seasons; they were called respectively, the ”Feast of Unleavened Bread,” the ”Feast of Weeks” (or Pentecost), and the ”Feast of Tabernacles.” All of these were joyous occasions somewhat like our Thanksgiving Day, and at all of them each family offered to Jehovah some part of the products of their fields.

PRIESTS AND THEIR DUTIES

The altars where these sacrifices were offered were in charge of a special cla.s.s of men, the priests. In the early days, in Canaan, there was a little temple, or shrine, outside each town and village with one or more priests in charge of it. Sometimes wealthy men had private shrines and hired their own special priests. It was the business of these men to know just how a sacrifice must be offered in order that it might be pleasing to Jehovah. There were certain rules and regulations handed down from generation to generation. There were certain kinds of animals which could not be offered. It was important to know just what parts of each victim were to be burned. The various meal offerings had to be prepared in a certain way. Yeast could not be used, nor honey.

=The increasing number of priestly rules.=--As the centuries pa.s.sed more and more rules were worked out by the priests. This was their whole business in life, and, of course, they made much of it. More and more different kinds of offerings were invented; for example, incense, which was the burning of herbs which made a sweet-smelling smoke. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, especially Leviticus, are largely composed of these rules for sacrifices. The animals had to be washed, killed, and skinned, according to certain directions. The blood had to be disposed of according to strict rule--some placed in the horns of the altar, some on the priests, some on the wors.h.i.+per bringing the offering, and so on. And the more there were of these rules, the more priests there had to be to remember and enforce them.

Thus it came about that all too frequently sacrifices came to be the chief thing in religion. Religion meant sacrifices and not much else.

THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM II

Jeroboam II, who reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel for some forty years, beginning about B.C. 790, was in some ways like Ahab, who lived a century earlier. He was victorious in war and brought peace and prosperity to his nation. These years of peace brought little happiness, however, to the common people of Israel. They had already become so poverty-stricken during the long years of petty but cruel wars, under the earlier kings since Solomon, that they were practically at the mercy of a small cla.s.s of n.o.bles and wealthy merchants who grew richer all the time while the people grew poorer.

=Evil days.=--These rich men used false weights and measures. In buying wheat from the farmer they would use heavy weights, and get more than was right; in selling to the poor of the cities they used light weights, and so gave out little for much. They corrupted courts and judges, so that no poor man could get his rights. They charged enormous rates of interest for the money which the poor were obliged to borrow. All over the land the ma.s.s of the people were living in hovels and selling their sons and their daughters into slavery to keep from starving, while the rich men and their families lived in luxury and in wasteful, extravagant display.

None of this shameful injustice seemed to weigh heavily on any man's conscience, for they were careful to keep up all the sacrifices to Jehovah. And was not Jehovah showing his pleasure by granting them these long years of peace and prosperity? They forgot the old lessons of Jehovah's justice which the nation had learned from Moses. Even Moses, according to their traditions, had given laws about sacrifices and offerings. These seemed to be the essential thing. So they kept on offering up costly sacrifices at their great temples and shrines, with stately and gorgeous ceremonials, and thought to themselves, ”How pleased Jehovah must be!”

AMOS

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