The Story of the Chosen People (Yesterday's Classics) (16 page)

To extend the kingdom which had been left him by his father, Solomon made alliances with the Kings of Syria and Phœnicia, and greatly increased his riches by trading. In his reign large caravans set out in all directions, and came back from distant climes laden with precious things.

A large fleet of trading vessels also sailed out of Joppa, to bring gold from Ophir, ebony, ivory, spices, precious stones, silken and fine woolen materials, and almost every other thing you can think of. Many of these wares were sold, but the choicest among them were kept for the building or adornment of the great temple, which Solomon wished to erect on Mount Moriah, on the very spot where the angel of pestilence had stood when David was given the choice between a seven years' famine, a three months' flight, or a three days' plague.

S
OLOMON,
as we have seen, was very anxious to secure the most precious materials for the building of the temple. He therefore made an agreement with Hiram, King of Tyre, who promised to furnish him huge timbers from the big cedar trees which grew on Mount Lebanon.

These logs were cut and made ready for their future purpose on the spot where they grew, and were then carried to Jerusalem. The stonecutters, in the mean while, had got huge blocks of stone ready for the walls and foundations; and workers in iron, brass, silver, and gold were busy day after day, preparing all that was necessary for the adornment of the costliest edifice that has ever been seen.

We are told that no less than one hundred and eighty thousand men were employed in this work, and the preparation of the material was so complete that no sound of ax or hammer was heard about the building, during the whole seven and a half years needed to finish it.

Solomon, with Hiram his architect, watched this great edifice slowly rise. It was completed one thousand and five years before Christ, and probably cost more than five billion dollars.

The temple which Solomon thus built had a porch supported by Hiram's masterpieces,—two great brazen pillars. Then came the Holy Place, where stood the altars for incense, the table for the shewbread, and the seven branched golden candlestick; and in the courts were the altar of burnt offering, and a great brazen laver which was called the Sea of Brass. A third inclosure, the Holy of Holies, glittered with gold and precious stones, and within it stood the Ark of the Covenant.

The grandest religious ceremony described in the Old Testament is the dedication of this new temple, which took place at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the greatest Jewish festivals. People came to Jerusalem from all directions to see it, and although the Promised Land was a small country, no less than five million persons were present at this great ceremony, where God sent down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

Not content with the building of this temple, Solomon also constructed a palace large enough to shelter him, his court, and his seven hundred wives and attendants. The architect Hiram finished it in thirteen years, and hung it around with golden shields which were used for the king's bodyguard.

Within this palace was the great cedar-wood Judgment Hall, where Solomon sat on a marvelous throne of gold and ivory. It was here that he received the Queen of She'ba, who came from afar to visit him, and to find out whether all the tales she had heard of his wealth, power, and wisdom were quite true.

The Queen of Sheba brought Solomon princely gifts, and soon made sure that none of the stories about his wealth and power were exaggerations. Then she satisfied herself about his wisdom by asking him some problems and riddles, which he solved with the greatest ease.

To please his Egyptian wife, Solomon built a second palace, in the mountains, where he and his court spent the warm summer months. But even his royal income of thirty million dollars was not enough to keep up all this magnificence, and to obtain more money Solomon soon had recourse to taxes, which caused the people much suffering, and which in time made them hate him.

As the Israelites could not raise money enough to supply their needs and pay these heavy taxes, they little by little neglected their farming and cattle raising, and began to engage in trade to get larger profits.

Thus they soon came into close contact with many men of different nations, and they learned from them to worship idols, such as were seen in the Syrian and Phœnician temples. Little by little, they thus forgot the Lord their God, who had released them from slavery in Egypt, had given them the Promised Land, and had blessed them with all the prosperity which they now enjoyed.

W
HEN
Solomon had finished all his great works, God renewed to him the promises which had been made to David. He also warned the king that while obedience would be rewarded with great blessings, disobedience would bring about the ruin of both king and people.

Hiram, who had finished the buildings which the king had planned with such magnificence, now went home, after receiving his promised reward of twenty cities, which were all situated in the land of Galilee.

After Hiram had gone, Solomon finished the walls of Jerusalem. Then, to please his foreign wives, he did what he knew was wrong, and set up heathen altars to Ashtoreth and Moloch on the Mount of Olives, directly opposite Mount Moriah, where stood the new temple. Here he not only allowed his wives to offer up sacrifices to the idols, but even helped them to do so.

God had warned him that such disobedience would surely be punished, and as Solomon had worshiped idols he was no longer allowed to enjoy the great prosperity of his early reign. A prophet was therefore sent to Jeroboam, one of Solomon's rivals, to tell him that part of the kingdom would soon be given into his hands.

The prophet met Jeroboam, snatched the new mantle off his shoulders, and tore it into twelve pieces. Then thrusting ten of these into the astonished Jeroboam's hand, he said that God would thus rend the kingdom to pieces, and would give ten tribes into his keeping. This soon came true; ten tribes joined Jeroboam, and the tribe of Judah was the only important one which remained faithful to the royal family. It was left to the king only for the sake of David, and so that the Lord's worship might go on in his temple at Jerusalem.

When Solomon heard this prediction, he tried to bring it to naught by killing Jeroboam; but the intended victim, hearing that his life was in danger, fled into Egypt.

Solomon was haunted all the time by the feeling that his sins had robbed his children of their inheritance. He was also worried by wars with two rivals,—Hadad, Prince of Edom, and Rezon, founder of the kingdom of Damascus; and thus he was very unhappy toward the end of his life.

Solomon was not only one of the greatest kings of the world, but he is also known as a writer. He left three books, which form part of the Old Testament. It is supposed that the first, which is called the Song of Solomon, was written when he was very young; that the second, Proverbs, was the work of his manhood; and that the third and last, Ecclesiastes, was composed in his old age, when he had ceased to take pleasure in anything, and could only say: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

Having found that wealth and wisdom are of no avail to a man who has departed from the ways of the Lord, Solomon died, after a reign of forty years. He had spent all the treasure which his father had left him, and had laid such heavy taxes upon the people that they were poor and oppressed. When he died, he left his son Rehoboam to reap the harvest of dislike which he had sown.

Rehoboam, called to the throne by Solomon's death, went up to Shechem to be proclaimed king. There he was met by Jeroboam, who had now come back from Egypt, and who came to ask him to redress the wrongs under which the oppressed people had suffered so long.

Instead of granting this petition, as all the older men in his council advised him, Rehoboam haughtily refused to reduce the taxes, and said to the people: "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke; my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."

The people, hearing these cruel words, understood that they could expect neither mercy nor justice from the new king, and in their anger they rose up against him. His tax collector was stoned to death, and Rehoboam himself escaped a like fate only by fleeing in his chariot to Jerusalem.

The rebels, left masters of Shechem, now went on to elect Jeroboam king of Israel, and ten of the tribes promised to obey him. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were still faithful to the grandson of David.

To compel the other ten tribes to obey him once more, Rehoboam collected an army of one hundred and eighty thousand men. He was about to march against Jeroboam, when a man of God brought him a divine message, which forbade his going forth to war.

Rehoboam did not dare disobey this order openly, and for many years there was only a pretense of warfare. The two kings, however, were all the time busy in making their armies larger, winning allies, and building strong walls around their towns, so that when the right moment came they could wage war with better chances of success.

T
HE
Chosen People were divided forever. While ten tribes formed the kingdom of Israel, and called Jeroboam their king, the other two formed the kingdom of Judah, and were faithful to Rehoboam.

The adherents of Rehoboam of course went on worshiping in the beautiful new temple which Solomon had built; but those of Jeroboam were not allowed to do so. It seems that this king feared that his subjects, in going up there to sacrifice, might again promise to obey their royal race; so he forbade their worshiping in Jerusalem at all.

To make up to them for this, Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan, although God had forbidden it. He bade the people adore them, and he himself offered up sacrifices and burnt offerings to them. This disobedience was soon and severely punished, as you will see a little farther on.

Although Rehoboam had lost ten tribes at the very outset, the first years of his reign were quite happy, because he tried to be good. But later on he ceased to lead a good life, and allowed his people to fall back into idolatry; and then he was punished sorely. The King of Egypt, an ally of Israel, came into the kingdom of Rehoboam with a large army, took all the strongholds of Judah, and even entered Jerusalem.

The enemy robbed the temple and the palace, and carried off the golden shields which Hiram had made for Solomon's bodyguard, and which were hung all around the king's dwelling. Only a prompt and thorough repentance saved Rehoboam and the people from being carried off into captivity in Egypt at this time.

Besides that, the King of Judah was forced to pay a heavy tribute to the conquerors, but he soon began to repair his losses. The golden shields, among other things, were replaced by like pieces of armor in brass, which, although far less costly, shone quite as brightly as if they had been made of the more precious metal.

Unfortunately, however, neither Rehoboam nor his subjects were faithful for any length of time, and after a reign of seventeen years, this king died and was succeeded by his son Abijah. The new monarch went on waging a petty warfare against the King of Israel. He relied upon the Lord, put down idolatry, and tried to be good, and, therefore, he was rewarded by a victory, and was allowed to become master of three of Jeroboam's towns.

But the virtue of Abijah was not to last long either. He too soon fell into evil ways, and followed the bad example which his father Rehoboam had given him; so his reign was cut short, and Asa, his son, ruled in his stead. At this time the land was in a very promising state, and Asa soon became so strong that the King of Israel feared to attack him, and left him in peace for ten long years.

While Judah had been governed by three kings, Rehoboam, Abijah, and Asa, Israel had been under the sway of the same monarch, Jeroboam. This ruler had established his capital at Shechem, and had been promised that his kingdom would endure if he obeyed the law of God. But this he did not do, for he led his people into idolatry by setting up golden calves at Dan and Bethel.

A prophet came to reprove Jeroboam, and when the king bade his guards seize and put the insolent man to death, none of them dared obey him. As the guards would not lay hands upon the prophet, Jeroboam himself tried to do so; but the arm which he stretched out fell helpless and withered to his side, and an earthquake overthrew the heathen altar which he had just built.

These wonders so frightened the king that he now begged the prophet to pray that his hand might be cured. Then, when this request had been granted, and the arm was well again, Jeroboam humbly asked the Lord's messenger to come into his house and take food.

The prophet had been forbidden to eat or drink there, so he refused the invitation, and started for home. On the way thither, however, he was met by a false prophet, who told him that an angel had come to bid him take food. The true prophet, who was very hungry, now went to the false prophet's house; but even while he was eating and drinking there he heard the Lord's voice rebuking him for his disobedience.

He was soon punished for listening to the false prophet's lies, for on his homeward journey he was attacked by a lion, which sprang out of a thicket and killed him.