directly and gives a vivid picture of its condition before the appearance of Nehemiah: Rouse thee! Rouse thee! stand up, O Jerusalem, Who hast drunk at Jehovah's hand the cup of his wrath! The bowl of reeling thou hast drunken, hast drained! There is none to guide thee of all the sons whom thou hast borne, And none to take thee by the hand of all the sons whom thou hast reared. These two things have befallen thee-who can condole with thee? Desolation and destruction, famine and the sword-who can comfort thee? IV. The Task and Training of Jehovah's Servant. The term servant means literally slave, not in the Western sense, but in that of the ancient East, where a slave was often a privileged member of society. In many a Hebrew household the slaves, next to the children, enjoyed the protection and consideration of the master of the household. He was under obligation to guard their welfare and interests. On the other hand, slaves, like Eleazar in the story of Abraham (Gen. 26) faithfully cared for the interests of their master and spared no effort to carry out his commands. Semitic usage had also given the term slave a significant meaning. The faithful officials of all Oriental kings called themselves his servants or slaves. It was the common term expressing, on the one hand, confidence and protection, and on the other, devotion, loyalty, and service. Most of Israel's patriarchs, kings, and prophets are spoken of as the servants or slaves of Jehovah. Haggai, in his address to Zerubbabel, called him Jehovah's servant. In Deuteronomy 3230, 43 the people of Israel are called the servants of Jehovah, and, as has been noted, in the prophecies of the II Isaiah they are frequently referred to as the servant of Jehovah. The term, therefore, was well chosen to express that complete devotion and loyalty to Jehovah which the prophet aimed to evoke from his fellow-countrymen. It was also free from the kingly associations and material interpretation that were connected with the word Messiah. The prophet's aim was to present so vividly the task and methods of the true servant of Jehovah that all would recognize a personal call to duty. He emphasizes three distinct yet related elements in the mission of the servant. They were: (1) To free the prisoners from their cap tivity, whether imprisoned by walls of stone or brick or under the tyranny of fears and false ideas. (2) To restore the scattered tribes of Israel and thus to lay the foundations for a renewed national life that would furnish concrete evidence to all the world of Jehovah's power to deliver. ! (3) To go beyond the narrow bounds of their race and to bring to the nations that were groping in the darkness of heathenism the knowledge and truth that had been imparted to Israel. Thus the unknown prophet laid the foundations for that Kingdom of God, that dominion of God in nature and in the minds of men that was the guide and inspiration of all later prophets and the goal for whose realization the Great Teacher and Prophet of Nazareth labored and died. The prophet places great emphasis upon the training of Jehovah's servant. He declares that from birth Jehovah formed him to be his servant. In 504-7 he is spoken of as a trained disciple attentively listening to the words of his divine teacher, never rebelling at the bitterness of the needful discipline, but ever seeking to prepare himself to give to the fainting a word of help. The steadfastness with which he endures shame and bitter wrongs is the evidence of his ability as a disciple and an essential part in his preparation for his exalted mission. V. Methods of Jehovah's Servant. In accomplishing his task the servant is to use definite instruction, but his teaching is to be illustrated by his own character and attitude. By the voluntary, uncomplaining endurance of ignominy and suffering he is to do Jehovah's work and win the grateful recognition, not only of his divine Master, but of all succeeding generations. Through a keen analysis of life the prophet had attained to a clear appreciation of the inestimable value of voluntary self-sacrifice. He saw that it was the most effective means of uplifting the race and leading mankind to accept God's mastery over their minds and lives. The truth here presented is illustrated in human experience as clearly to-day as in the past. The self-denying service of parents is absolutely essential if their children are to attain to the noblest manhood and womanhood. Only through the self-sacrificing labors of those who love their fellow-men can social evils be removed and society attain its highest development. The low standards in the business and professional world can be raised only as certain men, with the spirit and courage of the ancient prophets, make their own personal interests and popularity subservient to the rigorous demands of justice. It is the law of life that he who would elevate the standards of his associates and thus lead men to the fullest realization of the divine ideals must ordinarily do it in the face of opposition, ignominy, and seeming failure. It is this quiet, heroic self-sacrifice—the heroism of the commonplace—that the great prophet proclaims is the absolutely essential characteristic of Jehovah's servant. Despised by his contemporaries, the victim of persecution and calamity, he must do his task, leaving the reward and the appreciation to Jehovah and to the enlightened sense of later generations. VI. Realization of the Ideal of Service. The portrait is so concrete that the question naturally arises, Who was the servant of whom the prophet was speaking? Undoubtedly the tragic experiences of such prophets as Jeremiah suggested many elements in the picture. For half a century that faithful servant of Jehovah suffered, often shrinkingly, yet voluntarily, a constant martyrdom. Upon him fell the persecutions of his countrymen. Yet in the life of later Judaism those principles for which he lived and died gained acceptance and application. Of him it may be truly said: He was numbered with trangressors, The unknown author of these immortal poems spoke out of the depth of his own painful experience and doubtless in a large degree realized the ideals of service which he thus effectively set forth. Those of his contemporaries who, amidst persecution and insults, in their lives embodied the ideals of the earlier prophets were crushed like Jeremiah because of the iniquities of others; but by thus pouring out their lifeblood they brought healing to their race. Nehemiah, in responding to the call of service and in turning his back upon the allurements of the Persian court in order to rebuild the city of his fathers, proved himself a faithful servant of Jehovah. With true insight the Christian Church has always recognized that in the character and life of Jesus is found the only complete realization of this ancient ideal of service. With the immortal chapters of the II Isaiah he was clearly familiar, and from them he doubtless received many suggestions regarding his divine mission and the methods by which it was to be accomplished. Their author was clearly speaking to his contemporaries; but in portraying the way in which Jehovah's purpose in human history could alone be realized he presented an ideal which has a permanent significance in the thought of the human race. Paul rightly recognized that the same 1. Re port of responsibility to make this ideal a reality rested upon him, and all who would serve God, when he quoted the words of 49° (cf. Acts 1347): "I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles & C. That thou shouldst be for salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth." NEHEMIAH'S WORK IN REBUILDING THE WALLS OF Now in the month of Chislev [November-December, 446 B.C.], I was in Shushan the royal palace, when Hanani, deputa- one of my kinsmen came, together with certain men from the tion from Jerusalem (Neh. 11-3) 2. Nehemiah's prayer for his race and for God's 'help (4-lib) Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who were left from the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity there in the provinces are in great misfortune and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Now when I heard these statements I sat down and wept and mourned certain days; and I fasted and made supplication before the God of heaven, and I said, 'I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, who keepeth the covenant and showeth kindness to them who love and keep his commands; let thine ears now be attentive and thine eyes open, to hear the supplication of thy servant, which I am now making before thee, day and night, for the Israelites thy servants, while I confess the sins of the Israelites, which we have sinned against thee, as I also and my father's house have sinned. We have dealt very wickedly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which thou didst command thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, "If ye trespass I will scatter you abroad among the peoples; but if ye return to me, and keep my commands and do them, then, though your outcasts were at the ends of the earth, yet will I gather them thence and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, there to cause my name to dwell.' Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let thine ear be attentive to the supplication of thy servant, and to the supplications of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name; and give success to thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. request re sponse Ille Now I was cupbearer to the king. And it came to pass 3. His in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes and the the king, when I had charge of the wine, that I took up the king's wine and gave it to the king, and I had not beforetime been sad. And the king said to me, 'Why is your countenance 2) sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.' Then I was greatly afraid, and I said to the king, 'Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' And then the king said to me, 'For what do you make request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, 'If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it.' And the king said to me (and the queen was also sitting by him), 'For how long will your journey be? And when will you return?' Then it pleased the king to send me; for I set him a time. Moreover I said to the king, 'If it please the king, let official letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's park, that he may give me the timber to make beams for the gates of the castle, which belongs to the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter. And the king granted me this, according to the hand of my God which kindly cared for me. in Jeru salem and in Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the 4. His River, and gave them the king's official letters. Now the arrival king had sent with me military officers and horsemen. And when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammon- specite slave, heard of it, it troubled them exceedingly, that tion of one had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites. So I tions (9-16) came to Jerusalem and was there three days. And I arose in the night, together with a few of my followers, and I told condi |