CHAPTER XVI.
G.o.d"s Remembrance.
How fond people are of collecting old books, and what a large price old books will fetch! Those who are so fortunate as to obtain possession of a book which is four or five hundred years old may put their own price upon it, for some antiquarian will be sure to purchase it.
But how modern, how very far from being ancient, the oldest of our English books, printed in the most primitive black letter, appears, when it is laid side by side with that curious old book which travellers, visiting the little village of Nablus, are shown this very day. Well may the old white-headed man who has charge of that book bring it out with pride, for it is one of the oldest books in the world.
The book is in the form of a roll of parchment. It is made of goat skins, twenty-five inches broad, and about fifteen feet long. The skins are neatly joined together, but in many places they have been torn and rather clumsily mended. The roll is kept in a grand silver-gilt case in the form of a cylinder, embossed and engraved. On this case are carved representations of the Tabernacle, of the ark, of the two altars, of the trumpets, and of the various instruments used in sacrifice. A crimson satin cover, on which inscriptions are worked in gold thread, is thrown over this precious book.
This old ma.n.u.script is written in Hebrew, and is said by the Jews to be the work of a man whose name has already come before us in Nehemiah"s story. We saw that Eliashib, the high priest, had a grandson named Mana.s.seh, that Mana.s.seh married the daughter of Sanballat, the Samaritan governor, and that Nehemiah felt very strongly that the temple would never be cleansed, nor G.o.d"s blessing rest upon them as a nation, so long as one of their own priests had a heathen wife, and was in constant communication with Sanballat. Accordingly he chased Mana.s.seh from him, he made him at once leave the temple and his high position there; and Mana.s.seh, in disgust and indignation, went off to Samaria to his father-in-law, Sanballat, taking his heathen wife and family with him.
Now it is that very Mana.s.seh who was, according to the Jews, the writer of the Samaritan Pentateuch, that old copy of the Books of Moses. The Samaritans themselves declare that it is far more ancient; that it was written soon after the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, by the great-grandson of Aaron; whilst some scholars think it is far more modern than some other copies of the Pentateuch which have been discovered; but the Jews p.r.o.nounce it to have been the work of Mana.s.seh, the grandson of Eliashib, the high priest of Nehemiah"s day.
Mana.s.seh arrived in Samaria, indignant with Nehemiah, and determined to have his revenge. He and his father-in-law were resolved not to be outdone by the Jews. They in Samaria would build a grand temple, just as the Jews had done in Jerusalem. One hill was as good as another, so they thought; their own Gerizim, with its lovely trees and its sunny slopes, was as fair or fairer than Mount Moriah.
So they set to work with all their energy, to build the rival temple on the very hill where 1000 years before, in the time of Joshua, the blessings of the law had been read, whilst the curses were p.r.o.nounced from the hill on the opposite side of the valley, Mount Ebal.
Here then, on Gerizim, the mount of blessing, rose the new temple, which was built with one object in view, that it might outvie in splendour the one in Jerusalem. When it was finished, Mana.s.seh was made the rival high priest, and was able to do what he liked, and to exercise his authority in any way he pleased in his father-in-law"s province.
Nor was Mana.s.seh the only priest in the Gerizim temple; many other runaway priests joined him, all who were angry with Nehemiah, all who were offended or touchy, all who thought themselves injured in any way, all who had been found fault with for Sabbath-breaking or for any other sin, left Jerusalem for Samaria--chose the temple of Mount Gerizim instead of the holy temple on Mount Moriah.
Yet of the Samaritans it is said:
"They feared the Lord, and served their own G.o.ds."
It was a half-and-half religion, Judaism and heathenism mixed up together, the worship of G.o.d and the worship of idols side by side.
Satan, now-a-days, has his modern temple of Gerizim. He does not try to lead nominal Christians to throw up religion altogether, for he sees that it would be of no use to do so. He knows we have a conscience, he knows that conscience is often busy, he knows that we fully believe that some day we must die, and that after death will come the judgment, and he sees therefore that we shall not be satisfied without some kind of religion. So Satan tries to tempt us to the Gerizim temple. Serve G.o.d by all means, he cries, but serve the world too. Go to church, say your prayers, have a fair polish of Sunday religion; it is decent, it is respectable, it is what is expected of you. But yet, at the very same time, serve the world, please yourself. Take part in any pleasure that attracts you, live as you please, enjoy yourself to the full. Let the l.u.s.t of the flesh, the l.u.s.t of the eyes, and the pride of life have their share in your allegiance. Be half for G.o.d, and half for the world.
Live partly for the world to come, and partly for this present world. By no means throw overboard religion altogether, but let it have its proper place, let it stand side by side with self-pleasing and worldliness.
But what says the Master?
"No man can serve two masters. Ye cannot serve G.o.d and mammon."
Let us then choose this day whom we will serve. Shall it be Christ or Satan, Jerusalem or Gerizim, G.o.d or the world?
For centuries after the time of Nehemiah, these Samaritans continued a source of annoyance to the Jews, tempting all who were disaffected and lawless to come to Gerizim, and vexing and troubling the Jews in every possible way. No one who was travelling up to the rival temple was ever made welcome in Samaria, or treated as he pa.s.sed through with the slightest show of hospitality. As our Lord and His disciples journeyed up to the feast, we read that they came to a village of the Samaritans, and our Lord sent messengers before Him to engage a lodging, where they might find refreshment and shelter on their way. But we read,
"They did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem."
Sometimes they carried this antagonism to such a degree that they would even waylay and murder the temple pilgrims who were on their way through their country, and the poor travellers were compelled to take a much longer route to Jerusalem, crossing the Jordan, and journeying on the eastern side until they came opposite Jericho, and then ascending by the long, winding, difficult road from Jericho to Jerusalem.
Once, in order to mortify the Jews, the Samaritans were guilty of a very dreadful insult. The Pa.s.sover was being kept in Jerusalem, and it was customary in Pa.s.sover week for the priest to open the temple gates just after midnight. Through these opened gates, in the darkness of the night, stole in some Samaritans, carrying under their robes dead men"s bones and bits of dead men"s bodies, and these they strewed up and down the cloisters of the temple, to make them defiled and unclean.
But perhaps the most trying thing which the Samaritans did was to put a stop to a very old and very favourite custom of the Jews. For a long time those Jews who lived in Jerusalem had been accustomed to let their brethren in Babylon know the very time that the Pa.s.sover moon rose in Jerusalem, so that they and their absent friends might keep the feast together at the very same time. They did this in a very curious and interesting way. As soon as the watchers on the Mount of Olives saw the moon rising, they lighted a beacon fire, other fires were already prepared on a succession of hilltops, reaching all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon. As soon as the light was seen on Olivet the next fire was lighted, and then the next, and the next, till in a very short time those Jews who sat by the waters of Babylon saw the signal, and joined in the Pa.s.sover rejoicing with their friends hundreds of miles away in Jerusalem. It showed them that they were not forgotten, and it helped them to join in the prayer and the praise of those who were in their father-land.
But the Samaritans annoyed the Jews and spoilt this beautiful old custom, by lighting false fires on other mountains, on wrong days, and at wrong hours, and thus confusing those who were watching by the beacon-fires. After a time, so many mistakes were made by means of these false signals, that the Jews were compelled to give up the system of beacon-fires altogether, and to depend on the slower course of sending messengers.
We have now come to the end of Nehemiah"s story, and we have, at the very same time, come to the end of the history of the Old Testament. For if all the historical books were arranged chronologically, Nehemiah"s book would come the very last in the series. Nothing more is told us in the Book of G.o.d of this world"s history, until St. Matthew takes up the pen and writes an account of the birth of the expected Messiah. Yet between the Book of Nehemiah and the Gospel of St. Matthew there is an interval of 400 years, years which were full of interest in Jewish history, but of which we are told nothing in the Bible story.
There was one prophet who lived in the time of Nehemiah, and whose book is a commentary on the book of Nehemiah. The prophet Malachi was living in Jerusalem at this very time, and if we look at his book we shall see that mention is made of many things of which we are told in the Book of Nehemiah. For instance, if we turn to Mai. iii. 8, 9, 10, we shall find the very words which the prophet spoke to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, at the time when the temple store-house was empty, and when the people had ceased to bring their t.i.thes and offerings, and to give G.o.d the due proportion of their possessions.
"Will a man rob G.o.d? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In t.i.thes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the t.i.thes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house."
Thus, if we read the Book of Malachi carefully, we shall find much that throws light on Nehemiah"s history; and we can easily imagine how much the prophet"s sympathy and help must have cheered and strengthened the great reformer in his trying and difficult work.
What became of Nehemiah, the great cup-bearer, the faithful governor of Jerusalem, we do not know. Whether he returned to Persia and took up his old work in the palace, standing behind the king"s chair in his office of Rab-shakeh, or whether he remained in Jerusalem, guarding his beloved city from enemies without and from false friends within, we are not told. Whether he died in the prime of life, or whether he lived to a good old age, neither the Bible nor profane history informs us.
But although we know nothing of Nehemiah"s death, we know much of his life. We have watched him carefully and closely, and there is one thing which we cannot fail to have noticed, and that is that Nehemiah was emphatically a man of prayer. In every trouble, in each anxiety, in all times of danger, he turned to G.o.d. Standing behind the king"s chair, Nehemiah prayed; in his private room in the Shushan palace, he pleaded for Jerusalem; and all through his rough anxious life as a reformer and a governor, we find him constantly lifting up his heart to G.o.d in short earnest prayers. When Tobiah mocked his work, when the Samaritans threatened to attack the city, when the people were inclined to be angry with him for his reforms, when he discovered that there were traitors and hired agents of Sanballat inside the very walls of Jerusalem, when he brought upon himself enmity and hatred because of his faithful dealing in the matter of the temple store-house, when he had to encounter difficulty and opposition in his determination with regard to the observance of the Sabbath, and when he still further incensed the half-hearted Jews by his prompt punishment of those who had taken heathen wives, and by his summary dismissal of Mana.s.seh; in all these times of danger, difficulty, and trial, we find Nehemiah turning to the Lord in prayer.
There was one prayer of which he seems to have been especially fond, three times over does Nehemiah ask G.o.d to remember him.
"Think upon me, my G.o.d, for good," v. 19.
"Remember me, O my G.o.d," xiii. 14.
"Remember me, O my G.o.d, for good," xiii. 31.
Can it be that this prayer was suggested to him by the words of his friend, the prophet Malachi? Can it be, that as he and Nehemiah took sweet counsel together, and spoke together of the Lord they loved, Malachi may have spoken those beautiful words which we find in chap. in.
16, 17, of his prophecy, in order to cheer and encourage his disheartened and unappreciated friend:--
"They that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
Can we wonder that Nehemiah longed to know that his name was in that book of remembrance of which his friend Malachi spoke, and that he often turned the desire into a prayer, pleading with G.o.d, "Remember _me_, O my G.o.d?"
It is a very touching prayer. Nehemiah evidently felt that others did not value his work, nay, that Borne even condemned him for it. The people, instead of being grateful to him for his reforms, found fault with him, misunderstood him, and reproached him.
But G.o.d knew, the Master did not blame him. He saw that all Nehemiah did had been done for His glory and for the good of his nation. And to the Master whom he served Nehemiah appealed. Away from the fault-finding people, he turned to the merciful G.o.d.
Remember Thou me, O G.o.d, for good; others blame me, but it is Thy praise alone that I crave, wipe not _Thou_ out my good deeds, spare _Thou_ me in the greatness of Thy mercy.
There is no pride or boasting in this prayer. Is it not the very prayer of the penitent thief, "Lord, remember me?" Look carefully at the wording of it, and you will notice, as Bishop Wordsworth so beautifully points out, that it is humble in its every detail. Nehemiah does not say, publish to the world my good deeds, but wipe them not out. He does not say, reward me, but remember me. He does not say, remember me for my merit, but according to the greatest of Thy mercies.
So Nehemiah pa.s.ses away from our sight with that prayer on his lips, "Remember me, O my G.o.d, for good."
And was the prayer heard? Was Nehemiah remembered? Did G.o.d, has G.o.d forgotten His faithful servant? Surely not, for "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."
Remembered by G.o.d, and remembered for ever, entered in the great book of G.o.d"s remembrance, of which he had so often thought, and of which Malachi had written.
The day is coming when we shall see Nehemiah the cup-bearer. In G.o.d"s great day of reward, when one after another of His faithful servants shall appear before Him, we shall hear the response to Nehemiah"s prayer.
"Remember me, O my G.o.d," said Nehemiah, long years ago, as he toiled on, unthanked and unblessed by man.
And we shall hear the Lord answer, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."