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CHAPTER XVIII.

FOREIGN MASTERS.-UNDER PERSIAN AND GREEK RULE.

"The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low."-DEUT. xxviii. 43.

"AN

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ND now, Mrs. Conway," said Martin, next evening, now you have got to begin your own special task, the part, I mean, in which we cannot put in our words at all. At least, I don't know what the others may do, but I do know that I am in utter ignorance of all that happened to the Jews between Nehemiah's time and the birth of our Saviour; and that's a space of about four hundred years; isn't it?"

"Yes; but I think you are going beyond the mark when you speak of utter ignorance, Martin. You must have heard of the Maccabees."

"Ah, well," he said, in his off-hand way, "perhaps I have just heard of them; they did something wonderful for the nation; didn't they?"

"Come, come," returned Mrs. Conway, smiling, "I don't see the use of professing to be more ignorant than you really are. But, however, we have not reached the Maccabees yet. Let us proceed in an orderly way. It is a scanty history now that I have to tell you; for we have only a few facts here and there; and, I think, a very melancholy one. I shall have to tell you of many times of trouble, and but few of peace. You must remember, first, that they were still, as they themselves com

plained, servants,' and that the kings set over them all tried to enrich themselves out of their land. Sometimes these kings favoured them, as we shall see; but at other times they were ready, at any one's word, to treat them as Ahasuerus would have done, had not God by His providence interfered. So here was one great difference between their state before and after the captivity. Strangers ruled over them. But there were a good many other differences which I want to shew you. Do you remember that when Solomon dedicated his temple, the glory of the Lord filled the house, and the cloud rested over the mercy-seat?"

"Yes."

"Well, that was what we call the Shekinah, it was the visible token of the Divine Presence. Now, we have not a word to indicate any such presence in the second temple."

"I never thought of that," said Janet. "Why, it must have seemed like an empty house to them."

"Yes, indeed," continued her mother, "no ark, and no Shekinah; and yet the glory of this latter house was to be greater than that of the former ! So Haggai had said to Zerubbabel; only they were to wait for that. This time was to be a kind of transition-time. The old glory was passed away. They had their land again and their temple, aye, and in Haggai's time, a prince of David's line. But Zerubbabel was the last of those. There is no proof that Nehemiah was of the royal house, though some do think he was; and certainly, when he had passed away, we find the high priests ruling the nation."

"And they were of the tribe of Levi, of course," said Martin; "but then, Mrs. Conway, there was that prophecy of Jacob's, about 'the sceptre not departing from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,' what did you say about that ?"

"That the sceptre never did. We are apt to suppose that it meant a king's sceptre; but in fact the word only indicates a sort of tribal staff. Judah did remain a regularly organized nation, though a tributary one. It had its own recognized governors quite up to the time of Christ. The other tribes were disorganized, and not to be discerned; but Judah remained a distinct nation until the Desire of all nations came.' Then, when He stood by the altar of burnt-offering, and in its courts, that house surely was filled with glory!"

"That passage is in the second chapter of Haggai, from the sixth to the ninth verses," said Stewart, as he found it. "I never knew what it meant before, though."

"Well, as I was saying, all the supernatural gifts were withdrawn at this period; that is, as soon as Malachi had finished his message. The Jews had all their peculiar institutions still, and they had their law and the promises; but for the rest they had to wait. And I think that perhaps all these miraculous and supernatural distinctions were taken away from them just in order to make them look forward, and fix their hopes the more on the coming King and Deliverer. Daniel had told them, you know, just when He would come."

"Just when? "Martin said. "Excuse my interrupting, Mrs. Conway, but I don't understand you."

"I was referring to one of the most wonderful and one of the most famous prophecies in the world," she said. "If you will turn to Dan. ix. 24-27, you will find it." All the Bibles were quickly opened; and before any one else could find the verse, Stewart read, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”

"Seventy weeks, mamma, but it was a great deal more than seventy weeks before Christ came ! he said.

"Seventy weeks from when and what?" added Martin; "let us see: ah, it says in the next verse, 'from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.' Well, but the date given in my Bible at the beginning of Ezra is в.c. 536. There is some difference between seventy weeks and all those years."

Don't you know that in prophecy a day is often put for a year, Martin? look at Ezekiel iv. 6, for example," said Mrs. Conway. "Daniel had been consulting the books or manuscripts, and had come to understand that seventy years had been determined for the desolation of Jerusalem. So he set himself to pray for the fulfilment of this promise, and that God would look favourably on His people. And then it was that the angel Gabriel touched him, and gave him all these wonderful revelations. We read it seventy weeks; but I believe the expression in Hebrew signifies merely seventy sevens."

"I see; but seventy times seven is four hundred and ninety; and that does not agree with five hundred and thirty-six either," Martin said again.

"Do you remember what we said about the seventy years' captivity-that probably the people would not know exactly which siege to reckon from? Now we may observe the same thing about this longer period, for there were four different decrees respecting the return; and I dare say, when it came near the end of the time, many people who had reckoned from the first-that of Cyrus-were disappointed and quite at a loss. But if will see look you that that decree had reference especially to the temple, while the words in Daniel speak of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. You can get plenty of books which will help you to go into the whole question, and to fix each date, if you like; for you see the period is divided-there are seven weeks

you

and threescore and two weeks, and then one week, in the middle of which he should cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. But all I want you to notice now is, that a period was given which would tell any thoughtful person very nearly about the time when Messiah was to appear. Till He did come, they could not know quite positively; but it was near enough to make them aware when He was near." "I see," said Martin; "and which decree do would suit best?"

you think

"Many persons fix on the last, that of Artaxerxes (B.C. 458), as the most probable," she answered, "and partly because they do not suppose Christ's birth to be meant by His coming, but rather His baptism, which was just before His public shewing to Israel. That was, we suppose, about three years and a half before His death, you know, when by one offering He perfected for ever them that are sanctified, and did away with the need of further typical offerings."

"Thank you, Mrs. Conway," said Martin, warmly. "I am very glad that you have shewn us this passage in the course of our history, and made us able to understand a little some of God's ways with them at that time. What a time it must have seemed!"

"Well, but we have got to Malachi, you must remember; so a part of that period has already passed for us," she said, smiling. "After the death of Nehemiah they do not seem to have had any other Tirshathas. The little country of Judea appears to have been joined to the province of Syria, of which of course there was always some prefect or governor. No doubt the poor Jews had to pay pretty heavy taxes, and were often much oppressed. Still they retained the actual government of their own country, which was nominally in the hands of the Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, which assembled in one of the chambers of the temple,