The religion of Judah

Front matter

Class Book..

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C0FHHGHT DEPOSm

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Story op Judah From Rehoboam to Ahaz 7

II. The Early Prophecies op Isaiah 17

Chapter I The Story Of Judah From Rehoboam To

AHAZ

United Israel came to its fullness of national spirit and achievement in the reign of Solomon, during the middle of the tenth century B. C. The death of Solomon precipitated the revolt of the northern portion of the state. Israel, as the northern kingdom is known, pursued a tragic career until the nation perished in the destruction of Samaria in 722 B. C. The southern part of Solomon's kingdom, the inhabitants of the territory lying almost wholly south of Jerusalem, remained loyal to his son. For almost two centuries after the disruption of the kingdom that had been established by Saul, David, and Solomon, the southern state, known as Judah, moved on uneventfully until it too came into collision with Assyria. During this period religious conditions for the most part were the same in Judah as in Israel.

The Political History

Two Centuries of Kings: 937-735 B. C. — (a) Behoboam, 937-917. — In addition to the war with Israel (1 Kings 14. 30) the chief event of this king's reign is narrated in 1 Kings 14. 25-28. For the treasures of the Temple see 7. 51. To despoil the Temple to pay tribute or to purchase an alliance was not an infrequent resort of Judah's kings. See in 2 Chronicles 11. 5-12 the list of cities fortified by Rehoboam.

(b) Abijah, son of Rehoboam, 920-917. — War continued between him and Jeroboam. No details of his reign are given by the editor of Kings. A typical instance of the historical methods of the chronicler is 2 Chronicles 13.

(c) Asa, son of Abijah, 917-876. — Read 1 Kings 15. 16-22. Since Ramah was only a few miles from Jerusalem, the desperate strait of Asa is easily understood. Read

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2 Chronicles 16. 7-10 for the prophetic attitude toward Asa's policy. This is the second inroad upon the Temple's treasures. Note the first hint of the efforts of Judah's kings to reform the cultus (1 Kings 15. 12, 13).

(d) Jehoshaphat, son of Asa, 876-851, — Jehoshaphat ended the long feud between Judah and Israel by a marriage alliance with the house of Ahab (2 Kings 8. 18). One of the first issues of this alliance was a campaign against Damascus to recover Israelitish territory in Gilead. See 1 Kings 22. 1-37 for the disastrous results. The chronicler's parallel is found in 2 Chronicles 18. 1 to 19. 3. What other acts are ascribed to him in 1 Kings 22. 46-49 ?

(e) Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, 851-81+8. — Eead 2 Kings 8. 16-18 for his marriage and 8. 20-22 for his disastrous campaign against Edom. The passage 2 Chronicles 21. 2-4 is probably a bit of authentic history that the writer of Kings took no pains to record.

(/) Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, or Joram, 81+8-81+2. — He reigned a little less than a year. There is little to record about him. He went to Samaria to visit Jehoram, his brother-in-law, the king of Israel, who was ill (2 Kings 8. 29), and, being there at the time of Jehu's revolution, was slain (9.27,28).

(g) Athaliah, daughter of Ahab of Israel and mother of Ahaziah, 81+2-886.—Re&& 2 Kings 11. 1-3 for Athaliah's seizure of the throne. Athaliah had carried into Jerusalem the Tyrian Baalism which her mother Jezebel had imported into Israel (11. 18). What measures did she take to secure herself on the throne ? Jehu had already rooted out the foreign Baalism in Israel. How is Athaliah's prolonged success accounted for? Bead 2 Kings 11. 4-20 for the revolt under Jehoiada and the enthronement of Joash. 2 Chronicles 22. 11 states that Jehoiada was the priest of the Temple and the husband of Jehoshabeath, the aunt of Joash, whose life she saved.

(h) Joash, or Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, 886-796. — Eead 2 Kings 12. 4-16 for the king's repair of the Temple. Up to this time the expense of the upkeep of the Temple was

FROM REHOBOAM TO AHAZ 9

borne by the king. Now the expense is to be borne by the people. At first Joash decreed that two sources of priestly revenue should be expended by the priests for repairs — namely: Temple dues, or taxes, imposed by the priests for this purpose, and free-will offerings. For several years the priests collected this money but failed to expend it as directed. Then the chest was introduced, and the expenditure of the money placed in the hands of the royal secretary and the chief priest. The second plan worked successfully and continued in force probably until the destruction of the Temple. Read 2 Kings 12. 17, 18 for the Syrian aggression and the tribute of Joash. This is the third recorded despoliation of the Temple to pay tribute or to bribe an ally. It is stated in 2 Chronicles 24. 17-22 that the chief priest, Zechariah, was stoned by royal order, and that the king's assassination was in revenge for the priest's death.

(i) Amaziah, son of Joash, 796-782. — Read 2 Kings

14. 1-7. After an introduction in the usual Deuteronomic style note the two incidents taken from the older historical records — namely, the execution of the murderers of Joash and Amaziah's victory over the Edomites. The first of these is noteworthy. Observe the statement "the children of the murderers he put not to death." What was the older practice? See Joshua 7. 24; 2 Kings 9. 26. This is a distinct advance in jurisprudence. Later the practice of limiting guilt to the actual transgressor was embodied in the Deuteronomic Code (see Deuteronomy 24. 16). Emboldened by his success over Edom, Amaziah dared Israel to battle. The challenge and the disastrous results are told in 2 Kings 14. 8-14. Again the Temple was despoiled. Undoubtedly Amaziah's folly with regard to Israel occasioned the insurrection that ended in his death (14. 19, 20) .

(/) Azariah (Uzziah), son of Amaziah, 782-740. — His son Jotham was regent from 751 until his father's death, when he assumed the throne. The editor of Kings gives only two events of Uzziah's long reign: 2 Kings 14. 22;

15. 5. The longer account in 2 Chronicles 26. 6-15 throws additional light upon the military activities and commercial prosperity of Judah under the rule of Uzziah. It is quite probable that Isaiah 2. 6-21, with its suggestions of trade and wealth, describes conditions in the closing years of Uzziah's reign. Putting all these references together, what may be inferred concerning the political and social conditions in Judah in the days of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah ?

(k) Jotham, son of Azariah, regent 751-7 J/-0; king 71*0- 785. — The occasion for the regency is explained in 2 Kings 15. 5. A rare prophetic summary of his reign, 15. 32-38, states that "he built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah." As the Temple came more and more to be the sanctuary of Judah, the need of the new approaches became pressing. According to 2 Kings 15. 37 the Syrian invasion was threatening at the time of his death. A few other details are added in 2 Chronicles 27. 3-6.

Summary of Political History. — The two centuries of Judah's history from the death of Solomon to the Assyrian period were less eventful than Israel's stormy career. For the first one hundred years there was constant friction between the two kingdoms. This open antagonism was ended by the marriage alliance arranged by Jehoshaphat and Ahab. During the second century Israel's position between Judah and Damascus imposed upon her the brunt of Syria's aggressions. Protected by the northern kingdom's successes and misfortunes, Judah was free to acquire that prosperity and sense of security which characterized the southern state under Uzziah and Ahaz. Judah differs from Israel in its loyalty to the Davidic dynasty. With the exception of the half dozen years of Athaliah's usurpation the throne descended regularly from father to son during nearly the whole of Judah's history. Undoubtedly this loyalty to David's house was augmented by the attraction of the Temple; and the stability of the throne tended to transform gradually the royal sanctuary into the nation's one legitimate place of worship.

The Keligious Life The Religious Influence of Solomon.— The reigns of

FROM EEHOBOAM TO AHAZ 11

David and Solomon established in the thought of the Hebrew people Jehovah as the national Deity. In his name successful wars of conquest had been waged. All the chief sanctuaries were his. In remote districts some local Canaanitish Baal might still be honored. But in general Jehovah reigned supreme in the religious thought and practice of the Hebrew people. Other nations had their deities, and the reality of these gods was conceded by the prevalent thought of Israel in this period. The primitive worship of Jehovah, the worship of the wilderness, is largely a matter of conjecture. It involved animal sacrifice, perhaps at stated periods but certainly at times of confusion and crisis. The sacred places, where sacrifices might be offered, were few and unadorned. This primitive worship was very similar to the religious beliefs and practices of the Bedouin of to-day.

Upon entrance into Canaan this primitive worship was greatly modified by the religious life of the Canaanites. The religion of the nomad gave place to the religion of the settled agriculturist. The common worship became largely a borrowing from the Canaanites. The three great annual festivals (Exodus 23. 14-17) entered into the worship of Jehovah from the customs of the Canaanites. The sanctuaries of the Hebrews in Palestine had been sacred places long before their settlement in the land. The mazzebah, or stone column, and the asherah, or wooden pillar — essentials at a Canaanitish altar — became familiar elements in the sacrificial feasts of the Hebrews.

In addition to the unchallenged, unspiritual forms of worship Solomon introduced the altars and the priests of foreign deities. As a result of his treaties with surrounding nations women of the royal families of these nations were admitted to his harem. With these wives, in the manner of our modern ambassadorial privileges, came the religious rites of their respective peoples. Upon the Mount of Olives, Solomon set up a sanctuary of Astarte, the widely worshiped Semitic goddess of fertility and love ; Milcom, the national god of the Ammonites ; and Chemosh, the chief Moabite deity (1 Kings 11. 6-8). The editor of the book of Kings does not give the names of other foreign deities worshiped at Jerusalem but states (11. 8) that Solomon's many marriages were the occasion of many diverse forms of worship.

These women of foreign birth, representing trade relations with their homeland, naturally would not be the only worshipers at these shrines on the Mount of Olives. Nor would these sanctuaries, at which women of royal blood worshiped, be inconspicuous and meanly adorned. The worship conducted at these altars not only would tend to make the Hebrew tolerant of foreign rites but also would attract the natives of Jerusalem to participate in the foreign rites. The worship of Astarte in particular would be demoralizing. Some of these sanctuaries were in existence until the reforms inaugurated by Josiah swept them away. That they should have continued for a period of more than three hundred years indicates that Hebrews were drawn into the worship carried on at these shrines, and that Judah was not as alert as Israel to invasions of the rights of Jehovah.

Tyrian Baalism. — The policy inaugurated by Solomon was followed by other princes. Jehoram married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, sovereigns of Israel. As her mother had done in Samaria, she introduced Tyrian Baalism into Jerusalem. A temple was erected for the worship of the Phoenician national deity, probably on the Mount of Olives; a priest was installed; and numerous altars and images were erected (2 Kings 11. 18). This worship continued uninterruptedly for several years. In Jerusalem this worship supplanted for the court, at least during the six years of Athaliah's reign, the worship of Jehovah as the official religion of the state. That Athaliah, a princess of Israel, should bring Tyrian Baalism into Jerusalem as the official religion of Israel — her marriage with the king of Judah would warrant her in introducing only the religion of her native state — indicates both the resoluteness of her Phoenician spirit bequeathed to her by her mother, Jezebel, and also the tolerance of foreign religions Solomon's example had introduced into Judah.

FROM REHOBOAM TO AHAZ 13

Efforts at Reform. — There are two accounts of reform during this period which should be noted. Read 1 Kings 15. 12, 13. The sodomites, or sanctuary prostitutes, were no doubt attached to the shrine built by Solomon to Astarte. The abominable image made by the queen mother was probably a phallic emblem. The zeal of Asa indicates a beginning of moral revolt against the Canaanitish-Jehovah worship which was to eventuate later in an ethical upheaval of the ancient cultus. That Asa did not wholly succeed is stated by 1 Kings 22. 46, and Jehoshaphat, who stood for Tyrian Baalism, has something to his credit.

The Temple Built by Solomon. — The political history offers glimpses of the growing importance of the Temple. Built by Solomon as a royal sanctuary, in the course of time it tended toward a sanctuary for the people. The reference 2 Kings 11. 14 indicates that by the time of Athaliah the Temple had become much more than the king's private chapel. The repairs to the Temple were paid for by popular tax and the free-will offerings of the people. The splendor of the Temple overshadowed the ancient shrines of Judah and prepared the people for the Deuteronomic reform in which worship was centralized at Jerusalem.

Priest and Prophet. — During these two centuries there is a marked difference in the character of the religious leadership of Israel and Judah. In Israel's records there appear the schools of the prophets, who in many instances influenced the political history of the kingdom. Shemaiah, Micaiah, Elijah, and Elisha are notable persons in their state. Kings were compelled to reckon with them ; the people turned to them in their extremity. The situation in Judah during the same period is quite contrary. In Jerusalem the priest is the leading religious person of the state. He is the custodian and the jealous enthusiast for the dignity of Jehovah. He feels the affront and the danger of Tyrian Baalism and he organizes the revolution that sweeps Athaliah from the throne and her foreign worship from Jerusalem. This difference of religious

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leadership corresponds with a difference in the political situation of the two kingdoms. A large factor in the revolt of the northern tribes had been the antagonism of the democratic Hebrews to the autocratic economic methods of Solomon. The prophets arose out of the common life. They voiced the democracy of the people. Consequently, their prominence and influence were assured by the establishment of the northern kingdom. The prophets were also, from the days of Saul, jealous enthusiasts for Jehovah. Consequently, Ahab's alliance with Phoenicia quickened the prophetic activity in Israel. The political isolation of Judah partly accounts for the late appearance of prophetic activity in Jerusalem. Then, too, the Temple was the outstanding religious institution in Judah. It was the royal sanctuary. Its priest was an important personage. The worship was conducted in elaborate manner. The Temple priests naturally became the guardians of the national worship. They united within themselves the spirit of Israel's prophets and the routine of Israel's priests at the royal sanctuaries. It was not until Judah was compelled to face the great empires of the Nile and Euphrates that great prophets arose in Jerusalem.

Observations

The Choice of Historical Material. — Judah's annals for two centuries are brief. As long as history is a record of wars, the narratives of a peaceful people must be concise. These two hundred years were not a brilliant period of Hebrew life ; they were a period of spiritual inertia. The richness of a civilization is measured by the expansion of its spiritual vision. Yet during these centuries there was some trailing toward the dawn of ethical religion. The earliest Hebrew laws were codified by Judah's priests within this period. The state's faithfulness to David's dynasty manifests a sense of moral order. Amos, who began the great prophetic experience of religion, was a citizen of Judah. If the historians of Judah had been trained to observe and appreciate the common facts of daily life, they might have wonderfully illumined for U8

FROM REHOBOAM TO AHAZ 15

the ethical growth of Hebrew life, for Amos and Isaiah did not spring up in Judah with no relatedness to moral ideas. There must have arisen in many minds doubts and questionings concerning the ritual of worship. History is not a record of the growth alone. True history investigates and relates the life of the people. It is imperative that all who seek to record the life of our times must see and understand the life of the humble as well as the achievements of the great.

Keligion and the State. — Note the concern of the Hebrew states for religion. State religion is usually unspiritual religion. State religion has commonly been autocratic and intolerant. To preserve freedom of conscience there has seemed an increasing necessity in modern centuries to divorce church and state. This separation has tended to create the impression that the state need not concern itself with religion. It is said that it is not a matter of public concern what attitude toward religion is assumed by state officials. It is forgotten that the state is a social institution, that it is a community of human beings. It is disastrous for the individual and the community to consider that any function of mankind may be carried through with the neglect of religion. It is an irreparable social loss for the state to maintain an educational system that makes no provision for formal religious discipline. Is it not possible for the state in some manner to concern itself with religion, that the citizens may be constantly assured that public and individual welfare is grounded in loyalty to the will of God?

Themes fob Class Discussion

1. Why did the Temple at Jerusalem have so little significance for the prophets of Israel?

2. Where did Elijah in his extremity go to commune with Jehovah? (1 Kings 19. 8.)

3. Why is there no reference to the ark during these two centuries? Where was this ancient sanctity during this period? (1 Kings 6. 19.)

4. How is the priestly leadership of religion in Judah to be explained?

5. What change took place in the use of the Temple? What was the cause of the arrangements?

6. Why was the political life of Judah so uneventful during these two centuries?

7. Why was Judah so tolerant of Tyrian Baalism?

8. What forms of worship were observed during the period under review?

9. To what extent does the quiet political life of Judah suggest a fair amount of social justice within the state?

10. In what ways to-day could the state assume the responsibility of inculcating the religious life among its citizens?

References fob Additional Reading

Old-Testament History, Smith, pages 184-6, 197, 203-6. Jerusalem, Smith, Volume II, pages 83-131. History, Prophecy, and the Monuments, McCurdy, paragraphs 269-78, 295-300.

Biblical Geography and History, Kent, pages 182-4.

Chapter II The Early Prophecies Of Isaiah

The previous chapter traced the political history of Judah from the death of Solomon, 937 B. C, to the reign of Ahaz, which began in 735 B. C. This was a period unmarked by unique events. Judah was sheltered from the world by the political sturdiness of the northern kingdom. With the Syro-Ephraimitic War, however, Judah entered into world politics. The early prophecies of Isaiah, considered in this chapter, belong to the reign of Jotham, 740-735 B. C, and indicate the internal conditions of the state that led Ahaz on to his fateful policy of alliance with Assyria.

The Call of Isaiah

The Realization of a Divine Purpose. — Great religious careers frequently are precipitated by a crisis. In every case they are begotten and sustained by the individual man or woman becoming aware of some purpose of God. It is the recognition that God has something for him to do which enables a man to adventure in his name.

Study Isaiah 6. 1-12. This narrative was composed a few years after the beginning of Isaiah's ministry. His call to the prophetic office was in 740 B. C, and this account of that experience which changed the world for him was circulated among his associates probably in 735. The publication served to inform his disciples concerning the influences that shaped his life, his fundamental convictions, and the inevitable obstacles that beset the messenger of lofty spiritual conceptions in a crass age.

Isaiah's career exhibits two disunited features of earlier prophecy. Like Elijah and Elisha he exercises considerable political influence; and like Amos and Hosea he demands an ethical religion. He is the first of the

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world's statesmen whose political horizon is profoundly both ethical and religious. He is the forerunner of Savonarola, Luther, Calvin, and Knox. He is also the first Hebrew thinker to formulate a Messianic hope and to deliver a Messianic message. Later chapters will expand this statement. Isaiah therefore becomes a figure of surpassing interest not only in Jewish life but also in the history of the world.

The Convictions Embodied in His Call. — An analysis of this experience of Isaiah indicates that four distinct but related ideas were coming to harvest in his mind — namely : (1) Jewish life is moving in the wrong direction; it has in it the seeds of social dissolution ; it is cursed by ambition, greed, sensuality, and disloyalty to Jehovah. (2) The nation's God is nothing less than a righteous God, who ever seeks righteousness among his people. (3) Jehovah needs messengers — men who will face the careless nation and preach righteousness. (4) Eighteousness is better than national existence.

With these ideas running in his mind Isaiah made his way into the Temple at Jerusalem. While he worshiped, the Temple before him faded, and a heavenly one took its place. In glorious and awful surroundings the ideas that were forming in his mind were congealed into convictions. Jehovah, manifesting himself to Isaiah in this striking vision, confirmed his meditations. Henceforth Isaiah became the active messenger of the Holy One to sinful Israel.

At the beginning of his ministry Isaiah evidently expected the destruction of Judah. The prophets preceding Amos taught the inviolability of the Hebrew states. Amos and Hosea, in the interest of ethical religion, preached their destruction or, at least, only faintly imaged a restored people. Isaiah, likewise, in his earliest years saw no spirit of repentance in Judah and believed that Jehovah's judgment would end in desolate cities and a wasted countryside. But later his faith became stronger. He became the first to unite a stern denunciation of the sins of Israel and Judah with the clear expectation that the

THE EARLY PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 19

Judaean state at least should outride the storms of chastisement and be transformed into a kingdom in which Jehovah's will, expressed in righteousness, would be fully done.

The Essential Message of Isaiah

Conventional Holiness. — In few particulars does the history of religion show more striking instances of development than that found in the change of meaning in the idea of holiness. Previous to the eighth-century prophets the conception of holiness held by the Hebrew people was the idea of sanctity which was common throughout the Semitic world and which resembled that which is still to be found among all primitive peoples. The eighth-century prophets repudiated these primitive ideas but they were not able to eradicate entirely the earlier views which will be found reappearing in the legislation that sprang up to enforce Jewish religion after the Exile.

Examine 1 Samuel 21. 4, 5; 2 Samuel 11. 11; Deuteronomy 12. 26; Isaiah 13. 3. It will be observed that holiness is ascribed to things used in connection with a sanctuary; that soldiers were sacred persons because war was initiated by sacrifice and was conducted under the immediate direction of the Deity; that prophets were holy men of God not because of saintliness of character but because they were in the service of God. In Leviticus 6. 18-23, Isaiah 65. 5, and Ezekiel 44. 19 appear some of the most primitive ideas concerning holiness. Here it appears (1) that a person or thing is holy which is set apart for divine use, (2) that holiness is something that may be passed on to others through contact, and (3) that such holiness rendered its possessors unfit to participate in ordinary life. This holiness, gotten by contagion, needed to be purged away by purificatory rites before its possessors could resume their secular vocations.

Holiness for Isaiah. — Until the eighth-century prophets spoke, holiness, in the thought of mankind, had nothing to do with morality and purity of life. Applied to deity it meant irresistible power and unapproachable majesty. In its earliest use "the holy God" meant no more than God. But with Amos a new conception of God arises. In the thought of the prophets and their disciples God is to be characterized by moral qualities. Isaiah's vision of the holy Jehovah proclaims that holiness has expanded into righteousness.

The whole mission of Isaiah centers in this new conception of deity. Jehovah's holiness is not ritual but ethical, and the holiness that Jehovah demands is moral living. Jehovah is exalted above men neither by his power nor by his capriciousness. If there is a chasm between him and his creatures, this alienation is caused by the want of morality in Judah. That Jehovah is holy and lives apart from men was not a new conception. The Hebrew ever had been aware of a distinction between sacred and common, but this distinction had not been ethicized. Disease, an issue of blood, contact with the dead, a journey into a foreign land, the eating of tabooed animals, made men and women unclean and unfitted them for drawing near an altar and mingling in the sacred festivals. To the people in Isaiah's day holiness meant that the shrines, the priests, the sacrifices, and the worshipers participating in the religious feasts must be free from those physical conditions which rendered them ritually unclean. This ritual uncleanness made them objectionable to Jehovah, they knew not why, and aroused his wrath. Holiness in Jehovah they understood as majesty, the exalted dignity of a being elevated above the chances and changes of the world.

Isaiah felt that such a Deity could not save Judah in its desperate need. There must be in him some loftier nature than was commonly believed, and there must be some deeper ground of acceptability to him than the old distinction of clean and unclean. This aspiration of Isaiah was the open door for the inspiration of Jehovah. It was revealed to the prophet that the one cleanness that Jehovah desired was in life, and the uncleanness that he abhorred was greed, lust, and injustice. He saw that the essence of deity is not power but the splendid radiance

THE EAKLY PEOPHECIES OF ISAIAH 21

of ethical life. Jehovah is to be feared not because he is all-powerful but because he is opposed to all that is impure and unjust.

The Earliest Prophecies op Isaiah

It is generally agreed that Isaiah 2. 6-21 is to be placed among the earliest of Isaiah's utterances and illustrates his thought shortly after the death of Uzziah. Judah was then enjoying the peace and prosperity that had been increasing through this king's long reign and that continued through the reign of his son and successor, Jotham, and produced that sense of security so fatal to Ahaz in the days of the Syro-Ephraimitic War. The date 739 B. C. fairly represents the time.

Eead carefully this section and make a list of the faults for which Jehovah has renounced the nation. Verse 6 should be translated:

"He hath renounced his people, the house of Judah, For they are full of divination from the East And are full of soothsayers, like the Philistines, They make compacts with foreigners/'

Observe that Isaiah, like Amos, traces the sins of the people to their greed for wealth. In what way has commerce contributed to defection from Jehovah? Does Isaiah feel that financial prosperity weakens in men the feeling of dependence on God ? * What does Isaiah mean by the "haughtiness of men" (2. 17) ? Note especially the assurance that "there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts" (2. 12). What does Isaiah understand by this? What judgments does Isaiah pronounce upon Judah ?

Examine Isaiah 3. 1 to 4. 1. This section also is among the early oracles of Isaiah. Note the additional disorders that are leading on the destruction of the state. Who are the "stay and staff" of Judah — that is, the leaders and the supporters of the state? Observe especially the religious leaders. These are the judge — that is, the priest who de-

: l See The Religion of Israel, Ascham, page 203.

livers oracles at the sanctuary — the prophet, the diviner, the cunning artificer — that is, the expert magician and the skillful enchanter. It was a capricious universe in which people anciently lived. Men neither understood that nature is guided by law nor believed that God's dealings with them were determined by moral purposes. Therefore, men and women lived in a constant anxiety to discover the will of their deity or deities and to placate their whims. It is a sad world that turns to the soothsayer and diviner. Isaiah knew a different world and he was doing his utmost to lead his countrymen to believe in a Deity whose will was discoverable in moral thinking and action, and whose willingness to bless never withdrew from those who faithfully served him by righteous living.