The Story of the Chosen People (Yesterday's Classics) (10 page)

The two armies met, and once more the Israelites won a great victory. They owed this victory in part to a great storm, which injured the troops of Sisera only. Terrified by the fury of the elements leagued against them, Sisera's soldiers fled, but they were soon overtaken and killed by the Israelites.

Sisera, the captain, escaped alone and on foot, and finally took refuge in the tent of a woman named Jael. There he was given a drink of milk, and after telling the woman to keep his hiding place secret, he lay down and went to sleep.

While he thus thought himself safe, Jael armed herself with a tent pin and a hammer, crept up close to her sleeping guest, and with one terrible blow drove the pin right through his temples and deep into the ground. Then she ran to meet the pursuing host, and, leading Barak into her tent, showed him what she had done. The Israelites had again won the victory, and the history of this epoch closes with Deborah's song of triumph, in which she relates how Sisera was defeated and slain.

W
E
are told that not very long after the death of Sisera, an Israelite named Micah stole eleven hundred shekels of silver from his mother. She, little suspecting that the thief was her own son, cursed the robber, and solemnly vowed to make a molten and a graven image, should she ever recover her property.

Oppressed by remorse for his guilt, Micah finally confessed his theft. He gave back the silver, and helped his mother set up the images in his house, where one of his sons acted as priest.

Still, as the priesthood had been strictly confined to the family of Levi, Micah was not satisfied with this arrangement. He knew no rest until he had secured the services of a young Levite, who, for a certain hire, promised to serve as priest to the images, although he knew that it was against the law.

Five spies from the tribe of Dan paused at Micah's house, when on their way to Laish, and there consulted the Levite. As he predicted that they would be successful, the Danites rewarded him by taking him and the images with them to Laish. They soon became masters of that city, and changed its name to Dan; and then the Levite was established there as their priest.

Another episode belonging to this epoch, is the story of a Levite, who, deserted by his wife, followed her to her father's house, and prevailed upon her to return to him. They set out upon their homeward journey late in the day, and were forced to spend the night at Gibeah, where an old man entertained them hospitably in his own house.

Now the people of Gibeah belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, but they had grown as wicked as the Sodomites of old. They no sooner heard that there were helpless strangers in the city, than they attacked the house and forced the old man to give up the woman. Then they ill-treated her so shamefully that, when morning came, the Levite found her dead on the doorstep.

This crime roused her husband's wrath to such an extent that he cut her body into twelve pieces, and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel, with a full account of the wrongs he had suffered at the hands of the Benjamites.

The result was a general uprising of the people, who sallied forth four hundred thousand strong, and killed nearly all the Benjamites. Only a few among them managed to escape to the mountains, whence they returned, in time, to their old homes.

Here they married the maidens taken from a city which was destroyed; but as these were not enough to supply wives for them all, they got two hundred more by kidnaping the maids of Shiloh when they came out of their city to dance at one of the great national festivals.

The story of Ruth, which is told at length in the book bearing her name, is one of the most beautiful episodes of this age. It seems that a certain man of Bethlehem was driven by famine into the land of Moab, with his wife, Naomi, and his two young sons.

While in the land of the Moabites, these young men married two native women, Orpah and Ruth, and here father and sons died, leaving three widows to mourn their early death. Naomi was very poor, and in her grief she prepared to return to her own country and people.

When her daughters-in-law heard of this plan, they both offered to go with her, so that she need not make the journey alone. They all three started out on foot, but they had not gone very far when Naomi urged both young widows to go back to their father's house, where they would, in time, forget their sorrow, and even marry again.

Orpah listened to this advice, and after taking a tearful leave of Naomi, she slowly went home. But Ruth clung to her mother-in-law, crying: "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried."

As Ruth would not leave her, Naomi now took her to Bethlehem, her old home; and the two widows came there at the time of the barley harvest. They had no money wherewith to buy food, so Ruth, who was young and strong, went out into the country to glean; that is to say, to pick up the stray ears of grain which fell from the full sheaves.

RUTH

She soon came to the harvest fields of Boaz, a rich kinsman of her father-in-law; and when this man saw the poor young woman's efforts to secure some grain, he kindly bade the reapers drop a few handfuls, so that she might have something to eat.

R
UTH
gleaned all day in the harvest field, and when evening came she went joyfully home to show Naomi how much grain she had gathered, thanks to the kindness of that charitable man, Boaz.

When Naomi heard this name she started, and at once told her daughter-in-law of his relationship to them. Ruth worked at gleaning every day, and at the end of the harvest time she was greatly surprised when Naomi bade her go back to the field, enter the booth where Boaz and his workmen slept, and lie down at his feet. When he awoke, she was to remind him of the law which commanded that a widow was bound to marry her husband's nearest kinsman, whose duty it was to take care of her.

Although this custom seemed very strange to a Moabite woman, Ruth immediately obeyed. When Boaz awoke and asked her what she was doing there, she told him that she was the widow of his relative, and asked that he should give her her rights.

Boaz then sent Ruth away with a promise that he would do justice to her, although there was a man more nearly related than he. Early the next day, he found out that this man was willing to give up all claim to the young widow; and then he publicly took Ruth to wife.

Thus freed from want, Ruth soon grew happy in her new home; and she became the mother of a son named Obed, the grandfather of David, a great king of whom you will hear much. But Ruth, the Moabite woman, was not the only one of David's ancestors that was not an Israelite; for Boaz, as you will remember, was the son of Rahab, who was spared from the general massacre when the Chosen People took Jericho.

The Israelites, in the mean while, had again misused the peace they had won, and soon after the death of Deborah and Barak, they again began to worship idols. In punishment for this sin, they were now allowed to fall into the hands of the Midianites and the Amalekites, who came in great numbers, being "as grasshoppers for multitude."

The enemy took possession of the land, and drove the Israelites to the caves and dens in the mountain side. Whenever the people of God came down into the valley, they were illtreated and oppressed; and only at the end of seven years did the Lord consider that they had been punished enough, and prepare to deliver them.

The judge sent to save them this time was Gideon, a "mighty man of valor." He was secretly threshing wheat near his father's barn, to save it from the Midianite thieves, when an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared before him, and bade him rescue Israel from the hands of the enemy.

Gideon at first tried to excuse himself, saying that he was neither worthy of such an honor, nor capable of winning it; but the angel repeated the command, and the man, seeing that he was talking to an angel, now wished to offer up a sacrifice to him.

The angel, however, refused this act of worship, which was due to God only, and bade Gideon lay the victim on a rock. When all was ready, the angel touched the rude altar with his staff, miraculously setting fire to the victim, and then disappeared.

Gideon knew that the spot had been made holy by the presence of a divine messenger, so he set up an altar there. That selfsame night, the Lord visited Gideon in a dream, and bade him overthrow the altar of the heathen god Baal, where the people had worshiped, cut down the sacred grove, and offer up his father's bullock in sacrifice to the true God.

When he awoke, Gideon did as the Lord had commanded, and called all the people together. While waiting for their coming, the young leader prayed God to show by a sign that he would save Israel. For this purpose, Gideon spread out a fleece upon the threshing floor, and asked that it should be wet with dew, while the ground all around it staid dry.

When Gideon came on the morrow, he found the fleece so wet that he could wring a great deal of water out of it, while the ground all around it was perfectly dry. But he was not quite satisfied with this one miracle, so he now prayed that the fleece might remain dry and the ground be wet.

This second sign was granted also, and when Gideon saw the dry fleece and wet ground, he believed all that the Lord had told him, and with a force of Israelites, numbering thirty-two thousand men, he marched off to meet and overwhelm the enemy.

G
IDEON,
as we have seen, had a very large army. But all his men were not needed on this occasion; for it seems that the Lord wished to prove to his Chosen People that they needed only to rely upon him and all would be well.

God therefore spoke to Gideon, and in obedience to his command the general made a proclamation, saying, "Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return." Twenty-two thousand men gladly seized the opportunity thus given to leave the army, and hastened away to a place of safety.

Then, seeing that the army was still too large, God bade Gideon lead his men down to the river to drink, and select from among them all those who lapped the water. When counted, these were found to number three hundred men. They were to be Gideon's only army, and with this handful of men he was to drive away all the Midianites.

That same night God bade Gideon go alone with his servant and reconnoiter the enemy's camp. Under cover of the darkness, Gideon and his attendant drew near the camp unseen. There, crouching out of sight, they overheard a soldier relating a dream that he had just had. This man said that he had dreamed that a barley cake had come rolling into their camp, with such force that it had overthrown a Midianite tent.

One of the soldier's companions then began to interpret this dream, and said that the barley cake stood for the sword of Gideon, and that it was plain that the Midianites would be conquered. Gideon, seeing that these soldiers were already a prey to superstitious fears, now hastened back to his own camp, and roused his men. He divided them into three companies, armed them with trumpets and empty pitchers containing lighted lamps, and bade them noiselessly follow him and imitate his every movement.

Silently he now went back to the Midianite camp, followed by all his men, and a little before midnight he gave the signal for attack. At the same moment he and all his men blew their trumpets and broke their pitchers.

The sudden din, the crash, and the blinding light so terrified the Midianites that they all "cried and fled," and in their panic they even fell upon each other with drawn swords.

The Israelites, urged by Gideon, now pursued the fugitives, and slew many of them; but when they came to the towns of Succoth and Penuel, they vainly tried to obtain food. As this was refused to them because the people feared to incur the anger of the Midianites, Gideon cursed the inhabitants of both cities.

He could not pause, however, and rushed on after the fugitives. But when all pursuit was ended, and the Israelite army returned in triumph, Gideon ordered that the men of Succoth should be beaten and the tower of Penuel pulled down. Next, he killed the princes who had refused to help him by giving him food.

In their joy over the successes they had won, the Israelites now came to Gideon and asked him to be their king; but he refused the honor, saying, "The Lord shall rule over you." He did this because he knew that the government of the Chosen People was to be what is called a Theocracy; that is to say, a government in which God is the ruler.

The only reward which Gideon would accept for his services was the golden earrings worn by the slain Midianites. These were collected for him, and amounted to the value of seventeen hundred shekels of gold.

With this precious metal, and the ornaments taken from the king's camels, Gideon made an Ephod, a rich garment for the priest; and it was not long before the ignorant people began to worship this, forgetting the commandment which they had first heard from Mount Sinai in the days of Moses.