Hebrew Heroes: A Tale Founded on Jewish History
CHAPTER XI.
DEEP THINGS.
When Abishai re-entered the dwelling of Hadassah, he found her drawingforth, from a secret receptacle in the wall, a long roll of parchment,covered with writing in Hebrew characters within and without. The ladypressed it reverentially to her lips, and then resumed her seat, withthe sacred roll laid across her knees. Abishai regarded with respect,almost amounting to awe, a woman to whom had been given the talent,wisdom, and courage to transcribe so large a portion of the oracles ofGod. He felt as Barak may have done towards Deborah, and stood leaningagainst the wall, listening with respectful attention to the words ofthis "Mother in Israel."
"These Scriptures, my son," said Hadassah, "have been my study by day,and my meditation by night; and most earnestly have I sought, withfasting and prayer, to penetrate some of their deep meaning in regardto Him that shall come. I am yet as a child in knowledge, but theAll-wise may be pleased to reveal something even to a child. It hasseemed to me of late that I have been permitted to trace one word,written as in gigantic shadows--now fainter--now deeper--on Nature, inHistory, on the Law, in the Prophets. That single word is SACRIFICE.Wherever I turn I see it; it seems to me as a law of being; yea, as thevery essence of religion itself."
"I do not understand you," said Abishai; "how is the word Sacrificewritten on Nature?"
"See we it not on all things around us?" replied Hadassah. "Does notthe seed die that the corn may spring up; doth not the decaying leafnourish the living plant; doth not one creature maintain its existenceby the destruction of others? There is a mystery of suffering in thisfair world, some stern necessity for what we call evil, though from ita merciful God is ever evolving good. These things distressed andperplexed me, till I could dimly trace that word Sacrifice as writtenby God's finger upon His works; death the parent of life, pain andsorrow--of joy!"
"The primeval curse is on Nature," observed the Hebrew.
"Linked with the primeval blessing," said Hadassah. "And now when Iturn from natural objects to the history of our race, sacrifice andsuffering are still ever before me. Isaac is devoted as aburnt-offering before he becomes the father of the chosen race; Josephis sold for pieces of silver ere he can redeem his family fromdestruction; the storm is only stilled by Jonah's being cast out intothe deep; Samson triumphs over the enemy by the sacrifice of his ownlife! All these historical facts seem to me as types, dim and shadowyindeed, yet legible to the eye of faith, and Sacrifice is the wordwhich they form."
"Dim and shadowy," repeated Abishai, to whom Hadassah's views on thesubject appeared somewhat fanciful and vague.
"If so in Nature and history," said the Hebrew lady, "the lines areclear and distinct enough in our holy law. Why have countless victimsbeen offered, even from the time of the Fall? Why was the dying lambof Abel more acceptable than the bloodless offering of Cain? Why havethousands of guiltless creatures been slain on the altar of God; nay,not upon His alone, even on altars of the heathen who have never heardof His name, as if there were a deep instinct implanted in the soul ofman, to testify that without shedding of blood there is no remission ofsin? Think we that the All-merciful can take pleasure in the death ofbulls or of goats? Yet hath He Himself ordained it. Sacrifice,suffering, substitution, one life accepted as ransom for another, thisidea pervades the law given by inspiration to Moses; yea, long beforethe birth of Moses, to Abraham, to Noah, to Abel!"
"I grant it," Abishai replied. "As man is guilty in the sight of hisMaker, there must be sacrifice for sin as long as the world shall last."
The light of inspiration seemed to glow in the uplifted eyes ofHadassah, and her lips to breathe words not her own as she spoke again."What if all these sacrifices but point to one great Sacrifice; what ifthe deep mystery of suffering be resolved into some deeper mystery oflove; what if God Himself should provide the substitute, and if on somealtar blood be shed which shall suffice to atone for transgressionspast, present, and to come, even to the end of all time? May it notbe--must it not so be--if we read the Scriptures aright?"
"I cannot divine your meaning," said Abishai.
"What is written here of the coming Messiah?" asked Hadassah, layingher hand on the roll of prophecy, as she turned her earnest, searchinggaze upon her companion.
"That He shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, and break them inpieces like a potter's vessel!" exclaimed Abishai with exultation; "isHe not named Messiah the Prince?"
"Who shall be _cut off, but not for Himself_" (Dan. ix. 26), saidHadassah, in low thrilling tones that made Abishai start, and look ather with surprise. "You," she continued, "see the PRINCE in prophecy,written as in characters of light; I see the SACRIFICE, ever in lettersof deepening shadow. Behold here,"--and as the widow spoke, she openedthe roll till her finger could point to the Twenty-second Psalm,--"whatmeans this cry of mysterious sorrow, _My God, my God, why hast Thouforsaken Me?_"
"It is David's cry of anguish," said Abishai.
"Look farther on, my son, ponder the subject more deeply," criedHadassah, and she proceeded to read aloud part of the inspired Word."_The assembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My handsand My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me.They part My garments among them, and cast lots on My vesture_ (Ps.xxii. 16-18). These things never happened to David; the Psalmistspeaks not here of himself."
"Of whom then could he be speaking," said Abishai, looking perplexed."Not surely of the Messiah, not of the seed of the woman who shallbruise the serpent's head" (Gen. iii. 15).
"Wherefore not?" asked Hadassah, "seeing that He Himself must bebruised in the conflict? If it be written, _My Servant shall dealprudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high_, theshadow lies close under the brightness, it is also written, _His visagewas so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons ofmen, and why? because so shall He sprinkle many nations_ (Isa. lii.13-15), it may be--with His own blood!"
"Yours are strange thoughts," muttered the son of Nathan.
"They are not my thoughts," replied Hadassah. "Behold, farther on inthe roll, what was revealed to the prophet Isaiah? Is the note oftriumph sounded here? _He is despised and rejected of men; a Man ofsorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our facesfrom Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hathborne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Himstricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for ourtransgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement ofour peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All welike sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was cut offout of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people wasHe stricken_ (Isa. liii. 3-6, 8). Have we not here the Victim, theSubstitute, the Sacrifice bound on the altar, bleeding, wounded, dying,and that for sins not His own?"
"It cannot be. It is impossible--quite impossible--that when theMessiah comes He should be despised and rejected," exclaimed Abishai,to whom this interpretation of prophecy was as unwelcome as it was new."When He comes, all Israel shall triumph and rejoice, and welcome theirKing, the Ruler of the world."
Hadassah silently unrolled her parchment until she came to thethirteenth chapter[1] of the prophet Zechariah.
"Listen to this, son of Nathan," said she. "_Awake, O sword, againstMy Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord ofhosts_" (Zech. xiii. 7).
"Who is My Fellow?" repeated Abishai, in amazement, for that portion ofScripture had never been brought to his attention before. "Can youhave read the sentence correctly? Were that not written in the Word ofGod, methinks it were rank blasphemy even to think that the Lord ofhosts could have an equal."
"There is mystery in that word which man cannot fathom," criedHadassah, "The Divine Essence is One: the foundation of our faith isthe most solemn declaration, _Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God_[2] _isOne Lord_ (Deut. vi. 4); and yet in that very declaration is
conveyedthe idea of unity combined with distinction of persons."
"Hadassah, Hadassah, into what wilderness of heresy are you wandering?"Abishai exclaimed.
The Hebrew lady appeared not to hear him, but went on, as if thinkingaloud:
"No man hath seen God at any time, He Himself hath declared--_No manshall see Me, and live_" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). "But who, then, visiblyappeared unto Abraham? Who was it who wrestled with Jacob? Who spakeunto Gideon? On whose glory was Isaiah permitted to gaze? Who wassoon to walk in the fiery furnace? Who was He, _like the Son of Man,who came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days?_"(Dan. vii. 18.)
"At one moment you would view Messiah as a Victim; at the next, as aGod!" cried the Hebrew.
"If God should deign to take the form of Man, to bear Man's penalty, tosuffer Man's death, might He not be _both_?" asked Hadassah.
Seeing that Abishai started at the question, she turned to the portionof the roll which contained the prophecy of Isaiah, and read aloud:--
"_Unto us a Child is born_. Here is clearly an announcement of humanbirth; yet is this Child revealed to us as _the mighty God, theeverlasting Father, the Prince of Peace_" (Isa. ix. 6).
"Such thoughts as these are too high, too difficult, for the human mindto grasp," exclaimed Abishai, pressing his brow. "The frail vesselmust burst that has such hot molten gold poured within it. All that Ican answer to what you have said is this. I believe not--and neverwill believe--that when Messiah, the Hope of Israel, shall come, Hewill be rejected by our nation. Were it so, such a fearful curse wouldfall upon our race that the memory of the Egyptian bondage, theBabylonish captivity, the Syrian persecution, would be forgotten in thegreater horrors of what God's just vengeance would bring upon thispeople. We should become a by-word, a reproach, a hissing. We shouldbe scattered far and wide amongst the nations, as chaff is scattered bythe winds, until--"
Abishai paused, and clenched his hand and set his teeth, as if languagefailed him to describe the utter desolation and misery which such acrime as the rejection of the Messiah must bring upon the descendantsof Abraham. As Abishai did not finish his sentence, Hadassah completedit for him.
"Until," she said, with a brightening countenance--"until Judah repentof her sin, and turn to Him whom she once denied. Hear, son of Nathan,but one more prophecy from the Scriptures. Thus saith the Lord:--_Iwill pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants ofJerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shalllook upon ME whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, asone mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, asone that is in bitterness for his first-born_ (Zech. xii. 10). _Andthe Lord shall be King over all the earth_" (Zech. xiv. 9).
Abishai left the dwelling of Hadassah with a perturbed spirit,unwilling to own to himself that views so widely differing from his owncould have any foundation in truth. The idea of a rejected, suffering,dying Messiah was beyond measure repugnant to the soul of the Hebrew.
"See what comes of concentrating all the powers of the mind on abstrusestudy!" Abishai muttered to himself as he descended the hill."Hadassah is going mad; her judgment is giving way under the strain."
[1] Of course, the Hebrew roll was not divided into chapters; they arebut given for facility of reference.
[2] "God," in the original, is "Elohim," a _plural_ word.