Having thus provided for the external security of the city, Nehemiah applied himself with equal zeal to the correction of internal abuses. One of these was the high rate of usury, which those who had any money at their command, exacted from their poorer brethren. To such an extent was this the case, that some mortgaged their fields, vineyards, and houses; others sold or pledged the freedom of their children; while many borrowed at the most exorbitant rates sufficient to pay the royal taxes (Neh. v. 1–14). The discovery of this nefarious system roused the governor’s indignation. Himself noble, generous, and highminded, he declined even the usual supplies for his own table which former governors had received; defrayed many expenses out of his own purse; and even entertained the poorer classes of his countrymen at his own table (Neh. v. 14–19). With righteous sternness, therefore, he rebuked the nobles who connived at this disgraceful traffic, and convoking an assembly demanded that his enslaved country men should be set free, their debts remitted, and theenormous interest foregone. His rebukes had their effect. The assembly unanimously announced their willingness to accede to his demands, and abstain from such conduct in future. Other measures for the internal welfare of the city were then proceeded with. The doors having been set up in the gates, the custody of the city was committed to Hanani, a relative of the governor; a register of the people was taken, the Law was solemnly read in their hearing by Ezra (Neh. viii. 1–16), and the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated with due solemnities, from the 15th to the 22nd of the month Tisri[470]. Two days afterwards a Fast was proclaimed, and the people made a formal confession of their national sins, and enumerated the gracious dealings of the Most High with them, from the Call of Abraham to the return from the Captivity (Neh. ix. 6–37). At the same time they ratified a solemn covenant to serve the Lord with all their heart, and keep the ordinances of the Lord; to avoid intermarriages with heathens; to observe the Sabbaths and other holy days, and neither buy nor sell goods thereon; to keep the seventh or Sabbatical year, and remit all debts during it; to contribute each man one-third of a shekel towards the support of the Temple-service, and to maintain the customary first-fruits and tithes (Neh. x. 29–39).
Having in co-operation with Ezra thus restored the national institutions, Nehemiah returned to the Persian court, B.C. 432. During his absence the old abuses again began to creep in; the people contracted alliances with foreigners, neglected the Sabbath, and forgot the covenant they had so lately sworn to observe. As soon as he was informed of this, Nehemiah sought and obtained permission to revisit once more the scene of his former labours, and as Tirshatha was invested with renewed powers. Returning after an absence of about nine years,he found that Eliashib the high-priest had permitted Tobiah the Ammonite to occupy a large chamber in the Temple, which had before been used as a store for the frankincense, the holy vessels, and the tithes of corn, wine, and oil. Thereupon he insisted on the expulsion of the intruder, and the restoration of the ejected vessels and stores, over which he appointed a Levitical guard (Neh. xiii. 1–15). He next introduced measures for the prevention of traffic on the Day of Rest, and the celebration of mixed marriages, alike amongst the lower and the higher orders of the people, even deposing from his sacred functions the high-priest Eliashib for permitting his son Joiada to ally himself with a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite (Neh. xiii. 15–28). Having thus completed his second administration, this truly patriotic and upright governor in all probability returned to Persia about B.C. 413, and there died.
With this date closes the History contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. While the mass of the Hebrew people was scattered among the nations, carrying with them, wherever they went, their Law and their Institutions, we have seen a remnant, as had indeed been foretold, restored to their own land, their holy Temple rebuilt, their glorious City raised from its ruins. Very different, indeed, was their position now from that which the nation had occupied during the palmy days of Solomon, when their kingdom stretched from “the river of Egypt” to the Euphrates, from the mountains of Lebanon to the Red Sea. Different, too, and far less costly was their Temple in comparison with that which the artisans of Hiram had built for the Son of David, but in its moral and spiritual condition the remnant of the nation far excelled the contemporaries of its greatest king. In the furnace of affliction it had been thoroughly purified from all tendencies to idolatry. The dreary years, when their harps hung upon thewillows by the waters of Babylon, had not been without their salutary effect upon the people.
There was no division now in the objects of their worship. No high places were to be seen crowned with temples dedicated to Baal or Chemosh; no groves screened with their leafy covert the impure orgies of Ashtaroth; no drums and cymbals drowned with their horrid clang the wail of infants in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, as they were passed through the fire to appease the cruel Moloch. These “oracles” were “dumb.” The Jew was no longer an idolater. The Divine Unity was now the central truth of his creed. The Law once neglected was now read, copied, studied. While Nehemiah had earnestly applied himself to the civil administration, Ezra[471], and others after him, with no less zeal devoted their energies to collecting, transcribing, arranging the Sacred Books. These were ultimately classed under three divisions; (i) The Law, containing the five Books of Moses; (ii) The Prophets, which included the historical and prophetical writings; (iii) The Psalms, or Hagiographa (sacred writings), comprising the poetical works.
Meanwhile varied as had been the fortunes of the Chosen People, the Assurance of a Saviour, of God’s purpose of love in the promised Seed, had never been forgotten. As first made known to man in Paradise, it did perhaps, as we have seen[472], little more than assure him of a future interposition in his behalf, without informing him whether his Redeemer should be one or many, the collective race, or a single deliverer. But once given, the realization of the Promise becomes the goal of Sacred History.
Through one of the sons of Noah[473], it is limited to aparticular race; through the call of Abraham[474] to a particular nation; through Judah to a particular tribe. When the people flee away from the terrors of Sinai, Moses predicts the coming of a greater Prophet[475], and a mightier Mediator. When the Sceptre rises from Judah[476]. and David sits upon his throne, he himself speaks of a Greater King[477], of One he calls his Lord, who shall sit upon his throne, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end. When the mournful close of Solomon’s reign proves that he could not be the destined king, when his kingdom is rent in twain, and his subjects become a prey to their enemies, and are carried off into far distant lands, even then the very sadness of the Captivity only serves to correct the idea of the Messiah, and the “Son of David” gives place in the writings of Daniel to the “Son of Man[478].” Thus each crisis of the nation’s history serves to bring the Promise within narrower limits, and to illustrate it with fresh details.
Meanwhile, as time rolls on, and one prophet after another brings out some new particular, foreshadowing the birth-place[479], or the offices[480], or the works of the Messiah, another Voice begins to be heard in the Temple of Prophecy. It is not jubilant and glad, telling of triumph and of glory, of the subjugation of nations, or the setting up of a kingdom. It is subdued and mournful. It whispers of suffering and rejection, of a triumph indeed, but not the triumph of an earthly conqueror. It speaks of the coming[481] of a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; of His being wounded for transgressionsand bruised for iniquities; of His being cut off, but not for Himself[482].
The earliest prophecy had declared that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent’s head, but had whispered that the Serpent would bruise his heel. The latest declared that the Messiah should triumph, but also that He should die. Thus gradually, but harmoniously, was the person and work of man’s Redeemer unfolded.
And at length in the fulness of time[483] a Babe was born in Bethlehem, and laid in a manger. Seed of the Woman, of the race of Shem, of the descendants of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the lineage of David, He lived, He died, He rose again. Prophet like unto, but infinitely greater than Moses, He gave us a law which shall never pass away[484]; Priest like unto, but not as Aaron compassed about with infirmity, He offered up on the Altar of His Cross a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, atonement, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; King like unto, but infinitely higher than David, He sitteth at the right hand of God, clad in the glorified nature of the race He came to save, the predicted Redeemer of the Old, the revealed Deliverer of the New Testament, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, neither bond nor free[485].