DA
THE OLD TESTAMENT
PARABLES
HY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE MODERN
CONFLICT
Light from the Epistle
of St. James
Cloth 3/6 net
JAMES CLARKE & Co.. LIMITED
9 ESSEX STREET, LONDON, W.C.2
THE OLD TESTAMENT
PARABLES
BY
JOHN MACDOUGALL, B.D.
Author of
"The Modern Conflict," "The Shepherd Song"
LONDON
JAMES CLARKE & COMPANY LIMITED
9, ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C.2
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
IN the following pages an attempt is made to
present a faithful exposition and interpretation
of what I regard as the Old Testament Parables.
The first chapter explains how the list of Parables
has been compiled. At no stage of the study are
their possibilities of Gospel interpretation or
evangelical application overlooked. Not enough
is it for us to know their meaning in their own
day ; we must ask what message, if any, they
had for Jesus in whose hands even the dross of
the Old Testament was, as Harnack says,
" changed into gold ; its hidden treasures were
brought forth " ; but most of all, we must learn
their possible value to ourselves in an age when
the Old Testament begins to live anew and with
an ever-increasing appeal.
Acknowledgment of quotations and references
has been rendered in the text, but upon a subject
whose literature is distinguished by its paucity
I have been a grateful gleaner in many fields
of whatever seemed apposite and illuminating.
The translations which preface each parable have
been construed from a careful reading and com-
parison of the Septuagint, the Massoretic Hebrew
Text and various English translations.
5
PREFACE
Rev. W. B. Stevenson, D.D., D.Litt., Professor
of Oriental Languages, Glasgow University, has
very kindly read the MSS. and to him I am
sincerely grateful for corrections, friendly
criticisms and valuable suggestions.
J. MACD.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE WORD ' PARABLE ' . . 9
PARABLES OF FACT.
II. THE EWE LAMB ... 23
III. THE VINEYARD .... 33
IV. THE WOMAN OF TEKOAH . . 45
V. THE POOR WISE MAN . . 56
VI. THE ESCAPED PRISONER . . 63
VII. THE SLUGGARD . . 74
PARABLE AS FABLE.
VIII. THE KING OF THE TREES . . 83
IX. THE THISTLE AND CEDAR . . 93
PARABLES OF FANCY.
X. THE SOILED WAIST-CLOTH . . 105
XI. THE POTTER . . . 113
XII. MICAIAH — a faithful Minister of
God . . . . .122
XIII. THE PLOUGHMAN . . .130
XIV. THE GREAT EAGLES . . .138
CONCLUSION .... 150
CHAPTER I
THE WORD 'PARABLE'
IN addition to their attraction as a subject of
absorbing interest the Old Testament Parables
make a strong historical, moral and spiritual
appeal as a background for much that we read
in the New Testament. More detailed study
than one can possibly reproduce here has given
the conviction that Jesus was not only familiar
with the Old Testament Parables and fond of
recounting some of them, but that in narrating
His own stories of the Kingdom He used forms
of expression and symbolism with which His
hearers were already familiar. " The Rabbis,
who made such large use of parables, were alive
to their value as a method of teaching and for
the purpose of vivid illustration " (C. G. Monte-
fiore, Rabbinic Literature and Gospel Teachings).
Jesus raised the parabolic method of teaching
to a standard previously unattained and gave to
it a value which the world has ever since
appreciated.
The Old Testament Parables merit at least a
small share of this universal approbation because
9
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
they had already provided the scheme, the
system, the power and genius of parabolic
teaching. " We have ground to conjecture that
such forms of composition must have been
long, diligently and abundantly cultivated "
(Kautzsch, Literature of the Old Testament).
Only a new spirit was required to impart a fresh
interest to the system, and that came with the
appeal of Jesus for a New Kingdom. Indeed,
some of our Lord's parables may be recognised
as familiar Old Testament stories with the new
idea of the Kingdom of God set in their heart.
This appears in reading the parables of the
Wicked Husbandmen and the Mustard Seed,
which remind us of the parables of the Vineyard
(Isaiah v. 1-7) and the Great Eagles (Ezek. xvii.).
Reared in the Old Testament atmosphere which
inspired Him to use such metaphorical language
as " The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me " or " The
stone which the builders rejected the same is
become the head of the corner," it is no surprise
to find Jesus adapting the simplest and most
obvious facts of life to the function of pro-
claiming the truth of the Kingdom of God.
Between the parables of the two Testaments
there is a wide difference. Whereas those of the
Old are mainly composed of narratives of action,
fable and imaginative fancy, those of the New
Testament are rich in common and well-known
experiences of life. It is true that Jesus uses
10
THE WORD 'PARABLE'
imagination in certain parables, but in all His
stories there is a ring of reality. They are free
of the crudity which marks the Old Testament
stories, and some of them are so intricately woven
that they required to be interpreted for their
hearers. The * time ' difference in the two types
of parable is also important. The New Testa-
ment Parables were spoken by Jesus Himself as
their originator, and the period of narration was
no more than three years. Those of the Old
Testament were spoken by various people over a
period of time embracing many generations and
several civilizations, each with its peculiar
language, mode of expression, morality and
religious interpretation.
The parables of the New Testament are uni-
versal in their appeal, whilst those of the Old
Testament, with few exceptions, are local and
personal ; the truths of the former may be
universalized, but the latter are mostly related
to particular events and to directly personal
duties, national and individual. The Old Testa-
ment Parables lack the prophetic note and high
spiritual value of their successors, yet they charm
us by their truth to life and their unerring
portrayal of the deeper regions of human
experience — sin, remorse, punishment and
reformation. In them we read of the moral and
social life of varied epochs in Israel's history and
are given a glimpse of the religious conditions
II
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
under different regimes. They are very matter-
of-fact because they shew us man as he was and
is rather than as he may be ideally. Their
humanity is their appeal.
THE WORD * PARABLE '
In his opening chapter of ' Notes on the
Parables ' Archbishop Trench refers to the
difficulty of finding a definition of the word
' parable ' which should " omit none of its
distinctive marks, and at the same time include
nothing superfluous and merely accidental."
What the distinguished scholar writes regarding
a definition for New Testament Parables applies
with even more force to the setting forth of an
adequate and acceptable definition of Old
Testament Parables. So familiar are we with
the charming stones told by Jesus Christ and
with their particular form and application that
we may bring to the word ' parable ' in the Old
Testament a misleading conception of its content.
A simple and concise definition is not possible,
but an explanation of what the word embraces
can be provided.
The Jews had many " apophthegms, parables,
pregnant witty sayings . . . and even apart
from the Book of Proverbs it is doubtful whether
any national literature is so rich in such utter-
ances as is the Bible " (McCurdy, History,
Prophecy and the Monuments). Oral and written
12
THE WORD 'PARABLE'
collections of sage and apt sayings, of fables and
parables were common in Israel just as were
ballads and proverbs in Britain many years ago.
THE OLD TESTAMENT ' MASHAL '
As a rule, the English word ' parable ' in the
Old Testament represents the Hebrew word
' Mashal ' (^9) though we may discover no
' parable ' such as that word usually implies in
the English language. The Hebrew word is
generally translated in our English versions as
' parable ' or ' proverb,' but it embraces a wide
range of illustrative and figurative language.
Mashal may mean parable (Ezek. xvii. 2),
proverb (i Sam. x. 12), allegory (Ezek. xxiv. 3),
taunting-speech (Is. xiv. 4), an argument (Job
xxvii. I and xxix. i) or an obscure utterance
such as a poetic oracle (Numbers xxiii. 7, 18,
and Hab. ii. 6). " Through the Mashal
a man can understand the words of the
Law " (C. G. Montefiore, Rabbinic Literature,
&c.). The purpose of the Mashal being primarily
its suggestion of comparison or similitude,
there is little difficulty in understanding how
the word became associated with ' parable,'
because in the ordinary acceptance of its meaning
the word ' parable ' necessitates a comparison
or similitude.
A parable is defined by Bishop Lowth as
" a continued narrative of a fictitious event,
13
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
applied by way of simile to the illustration of
some important truth." In the Old Testament
the terms ' parable ' and ' proverb ' are almost
interchangeable, and it is interesting to observe
that the Old Testament stories which conform
most closely to what is regarded as the customary
standard of what constitutes a parable are not
introduced by the term Mashal. These are
the narratives of the Ewe Lamb (2 Sam. xii.
1-4), the Tekoan Woman (2 Sam. xiv. 4 f.),
the Lost Prisoner (i Kings, xx. 38-42), the
Vineyard (Is. v. 1-7) and the Ploughman
(Is. xxviii. 23-29). They are, nevertheless,
Mashals, and they suggest that we must seek
our Old Testament Parables in the content
rather than in the name of the stories.
NEW TESTAMENT PARABLES
There is not the same difficulty among terms
in the New Testament, where all the accepted
parables are contained within the four Gospels,
being part of the teaching of Jesus Christ.
They are inseparable from their blessed Narrator,
and are all related in greater or less degree to
the Kingdom which He came to establish upon
earth. Matthew states that " all these things
spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes ;
and without a parable spake He nothing unto
them : that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken through the prophet saying, I will open
H
THE WORD 'PARABLE'
my mouth in parables ; I will utter things hidden
from the foundation of the world." It has been
pointed out that Matthew's quotation is rather
free, and that it does not agree with the Hebrew
or with the Septuagint of Psalm Ixxviii, v. 2
(Kirkpatrick, The Book of Psalms) ; but the
fact remains that Jesus " adopted the methods
of the teachers of the old dispensation, and
fulfilled them by carrying them to their highest
perfection."
Even in the New Testament, however, there is
need to distinguish between parable and proverb
and between parable and allegory. Some
scholars would exclude John's narratives from
the list of parables on the ground that they are
allegories ; others would restrict the list of
parables to about thirty rather than accept
about sixty, which are recognised by many
students of the Gospels. The interchange-
ability of ' parable ' and ( proverb ' is also
found in the New Testament. Jesus remarked
that His hearers would say to Him this * parable '
— " Physician, heal thyself " where the word
4 parable ' is inapplicable ; whilst He also said,
" I have spoken unto you in proverbs," where,
it would seem, the word * parables ' is implied.
In a wider sense it may be claimed that in so far
as most of the sentences of the Sermon on the
Mount are metaphorical or similitudinary, they
are also parabolical ; but by common consent
15
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
they are excluded from the list of parables
because they do not provide the elementary
foundation narratives by means of which a
comparison is set up and a moral is derived.
Bishop Lowth's definition of a parable falls
short when applied to the narratives of Jesus
Christ, since His Parables do not merely provide
* some important truth,' but they supply a
definitely spiritual truth related to the Gospel
message.
In dealing with the Old Testament Parables
we must confine our study to such stories as
were probably regarded at the time of their
narration as having an implied lesson of spiritual
or moral truth or of practical and possibly
personal allusion. We must avoid the tempta-
tion to read too much into them and to discover
detailed circumstances to coincide with each
minute part of the stories. Nor must they be
so Christianized as to deprive them of their
historical, local and individual importance,
although we endeavour to see their message,
if there be any, for our own period of history.
For our purpose there must lie behind a Parable
a particular truth, fact, act or picture which
is necessary to the moral or spiritual life, or
to a special expression of some characteristic
which ought to be exemplified in the life of
16
THE WORD 'PARABLE'
an individual, community or nation. The story
may be given as fact, fable or fancy, but there
lies within it, by comparison, another and higher
meaning. This higher meaning is, in most
instances, applicable to the listener's life.
PARABLES OF FACT
The narratives of fact may or may not deal
with historical truth, but the circumstances
depicted are such that they lend the possibility
of truth to the stories, and by the application of
that possible truth a contrast is set up which
leads to the other meaning which constitutes
a parable. Among such stones are the Ewe Lamb
(2 Sam. xii. 1-4), the Vineyard (Is. v. 1-7), and
the Poor Wise Man (Eccles. ix. 14, 15). In form
the parables of fact are nearest to those of our
Lord.
FABLE
It may be objected that the fable can never
rise beyond mere human morality, that Jesus
did not stoop to its use, and that it makes
inanimate and earthly substances as well as
beasts and birds appear as though in possession
of human speech. If the fable succeeds in its
purpose by bringing home an ethical or spiritual
truth which would otherwise remain unrecog-
nised or inadmissible, and if it does this by
setting the story in the fable over and against
17 B
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
the listener's own life, then such a fable is
parabolic. In this sense the fables of Jotham
(Judges ix. 8-15) and Jehoash (2 Kings, xiv. 9)
are admitted as Old Testament Parables. Arch-
bishop Trench holds that the fable " has no place
in the Scripture, and in the nature of things
could have none, for the purpose of Scripture
excludes it." He regards the fable as " essentially
of the earth, and never lifts itself above the
earth." He draws a very fine distinction between
' folly ' and ' sin,' and indicates that though
the fables teach men their folly they do not
teach them their sin. For the reasons already
specified the fables are included as parables in
this book and we might with some advantage urge
the claim for these fables to be admittedas parables
because of their narration in a much earlier civili-
zation than the New Testament Parables.
PARABLES OF FANCY
Within the category of parables of fancy
there come visionary and imaginary descriptions
which are directly capable of a higher inter-
pretation and which were first recounted for
the purpose of conveying such a message.
Stories which are obviously visionary in the
sense that they are merely illustrations or are
unrelated to the circumstances of the listener
or to a general law of human life which requires
to be brought home, must be discarded. There
18
THE WORD < PARABLE '
are many stories which prompt us to ask ' what
these things mean ' but which fall short of our
standard and definition of an Old Testament
Parable, e.g. the Good and Bad Figs (Jer. xxiv.),
the Two Harlots (Ez. xxiii.), the Boiling Pot
(Ez. xxiv. 3-5), the Vision of Dry Bones
(Ez. xxxvii.), and the visions in the books of
Amos and Zechariah. Narratives like those
of the Linen Waist-Cloth (Jer. xiii. i-u) and
the Potter (Jer. xviii. i-io) are included among
parables of fancy.
The foregoing classification of the narratives
into parables of fact, fable and fancy gets rid of
difficulties created and suggested by our English
varieties of figures of speech, and gives us the
privilege to concentrate our thoughts upon the
parables rather than upon the dialectical dis-
cussion as to what constitutes a parable. We
shall accept the principle that in the parables
" we lay one kind of action in one sphere along-
side another kind of action in another sphere
and illustrate the one by the other " (McCartney,
The Parables of the Old Testament}. This will
fulfil the simple meaning of the word ' Mashal,'
which meant primarily " the setting of one
thing beside another " for the purpose of com-
parison. By means of that comparison there
will appear the lessons and higher principles
or spiritual truths which prompted the narration
of the stories.
19
PARABLES OF FACT
CHAPTER II
(*) " THE EWE LAMB "
"THERE were two men in one city — one rich
and the other poor. The rich man had very
abundant small cattle and large cattle ; but the
poor man had totally nothing save one little ewe
lamb which he had bought. He nourished it
and it grew up together with him and his sons.
It used to eat of his own morsel of bread and
drink from his own cup. It lay in his bosom
and was as a daughter to him. To the rich man
there came a visitor and he was chary to take
from his own small cattle or his own large cattle
to prepare for the wayfarer that was come unto
him ; but he took the poor man's ewe lamb and
prepared it for the man that was come unto
him." — 2 Samuel xii. 1-4.
As an illustration of the narratives of fact the
simple words of the above story are very suitable.
They present what might well have had a basis
in some recent incident, and their reality so
impressed their original hearer that he accepted
them as fact. To read the story to-day in its
direct and terse sentences awakes in every heart
23
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
an intense feeling of anger against the rich man
and of deepest sympathy towards the poor man.
Quite apart from its parabolic interpretation the
story makes its appeal, but when linked to the
episode of which it is a parable it opens up an
approach to a part of Scripture history in which
is found a monstrous depth of iniquity over and
against which are set the wrath and mercy of
God. By its means the tragedy of David's
spiritual and moral life is not only clearly
portrayed and condemned but its consequences
are revealed and a moral lesson is taught.
The closing verse of Chapter xi is the key to
the incident — " But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord." From his lowly
shepherd life God had taken David and steadily
advanced him in wisdom, honour and power.
In the field of battle he had been victorious. As
a king he ruled a united and prosperous people.
As a man he was surrounded by every luxury and
opportunity for self-indulgence which any man
of that time could wish. By the law of suc-
cession he owned Saul's harem in addition to his
own wife and concubines, yet it was just in this
wealth of opportunity to satisfy his passions that
David revealed his selfishness, a selfishness that
culminated in a most despicable crime. We may
wonder why such a story is told in the Bible,
more so as it relates to a man who was renowned
for his love of God and his zeal for righteousness.
24
PARABLES OF FACT
We ought, however, to appreciate the truth
and sincerity of the Bible in being so faithful
in depicting human sin and weakness where
even a holy man may be so fallen in iniquity
that conscience and remorse are almost stifled.
After his throne was made secure and he had
almost completed the overthrow of all his foes,
David was ensnared by success and idleness.
Not far from his palace he beheld a brave
soldier's wife whose person his lust immediately
desired and acquired. Her husband, Uriah the
Hittite, was with the army, and verses 8-12 of
Chapter xi suggest that Uriah returned to
find his wife defiled and his home devastated.
Aware of his adultery's consequence, David now
coveted Uriah's wife, and to accomplish this
purpose he planned Uriah's death. A letter
was sent to the army commander, Joab, to put
Uriah where he would be slain in battle — a sad
defection in David's character from the David
who despised the wickedness and blood-thirsty
acts of Joab. After the death of Uriah, upon
whom he had treacherously lavished false hos-
pitality, David took the widow, Bathsheba, to
be his wife — " but the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord," and God sent the
prophet Nathan to speak unto the king.
The faith, courage, tact and sympathy of the
man of God are alike commendable. Though
his errand is unpleasant he does not seek to
25
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
evade it. By choice selection of his words he
leads the king to pronounce judgment upon a
man whom he has not suspected to be himself.
When the crisis is reached, the king condemned,
and confession of his wrong made in abjectest
desolation of soul, then Nathan speaks com-
fortingly of the mercy of God to the sinner
though the sin must bear its own fruit. In the
parable itself there is no direct reference to or
indication of the sin committed by David.
Impurity and adultery are not suggested and
there is no trace of murderous intent against
anyone. Nor is there even the slightest hint
of any responsibility to God. The facts are
such that no one can read them unmoved.
Low as he has sunk, David is aroused, his better
nature responds and the heart that was once
so pure, loving and compassionate pulsates with
such a horror of the deed that he exceeds the
usual punishment for theft by condemning the
guilty not only to restore fourfold (some readings
put it l sevenfold ') which was the customary
punishment, but to death also. This may be
due to a certain restlessness which had come
into his life following upon his evil deeds. Under
a long spell of uneasiness in conscience the
temper is easily ruffled and irritation may lead
to excess and rash judgment or action.
Nathan's words are carefully selected. It is
important that we read ' small cattle ' and
26
PARABLES OF FACT
' large cattle ' for ' flocks ' and ' herds ' because
the significance of the rich man's abundance is
thus made more evident. He might have taken
from his own small cattle if he needed only a
small beast, but if he wished to do special
honour to his visitor then there were the herds
of large cattle. David was under no necessity
to seek a woman outside his own house where
he had wives in abundance. The lamb's nature
is described minutely and we cannot overlook
the possibility that the animal may have been
bought for the purpose of supplying milk to the
house as sheep are so used in the East. The
care lavished upon it and the intimate bond
between it and the poor man are very delicately
and vividly described. The poverty of the
home is suggested in three ways : the lamb
ate of the poor man's morsel of bread ; it was
to him as a daughter, and the words indicate
that there was neither a mother nor a daughter
in the home. For the last suggestion it is best
to translate the phrase t with his children ' by
* with his sons ' which agrees with the Greek and
Hebrew versions. That the rich man coveted
and then took by theft the poor man's one
little ewe lamb exposes the enormity of his
heinous act. He robbed a home of its centre
of love, joy and peace ; of its contentment and
only wealth, for " he had totally nothing save
one little ewe lamb " — a phrase which agrees
27
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
with the interpretation that Uriah and Bathsheba
had not been long married.
Regarding this story of a home's desecration
as true, the king angrily and impulsively de-
clares the sentence of death only to recoil
crestfallen, ashamed and self-condemned when
the prophet declares " Thou art the man."
The decisive and brave words of the man of
God strike home to the very heart of the king.
His sins are now uncovered. He had sought
to hide them from men and to shut them out
of his own memory, but here they loom before
him in their true perspective. The parable
illumines his darkened vision. He sees his
own utter want of pity and love, and though
murder does not appear in the parable he now
regards his own hands as stained with blood
and wonders how he can be delivered from blood-
guiltiness (Ps. li. 14). He had sinned deeply
and had tried to silence his conscience. " When
I kept silence my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long " (Ps. xxxii. 3).
Having pronounced his own judgment he
must now hear God's. The parable is inter-
preted and applied. As Nathan tells the sen-
tence of God upon David and his house, the
king realises the truth and his soul is aroused
to confess and acknowledge his sin against God
— " I have sinned against the Lord." " Against
thee, thee only have I sinned and done this
28
PARABLES OF FACT
evil in thy sight." It is the exclamation of a
great but broken man, the cry of a heart that
once loved the Lord, the utter resignation of a
soul that is dejected and forlorn into the com-
passion and mercy of God. None can read
David's confession and not feel a wave of
sympathy towards him sweep over one's own
heart. Much as he has sinned and grievous
as must be the consequences in his own and
other lives, yet that wail of confession will ever
remain as a signpost to humanity, especially to
the proud, the righteous and the rich. The
sword which he introduced into the home of
Uriah will wreck the peace and security of his
own house ; and though God does not condemn
him to death for his sin, but most mercifully
forgives the sin, yet the child born of adultery
will die — prophecies which were soon fulfilled.
THE LAMB DESIRED.
It is no mere coincidence that when Jesus
would condemn selfishness and the want of pity
He too spoke of a rich man and a poor man —
Dives and Lazarus. To our own generation
this Old Testament Parable does not lack a
message. In recent times it has become more
applicable than formerly to social life because
two of the grossest iniquities known to-day are
depicted in the parable — the desecration of
home life through a lowered sense of morality
29
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
and religion, and the reckless want of genuine
pity towards those who have not the means
to protect themselves from the lust, aggression
and covetousness of those who have already an
exceeding abundance. It was not essential
that the rich man should take the poor man's
lamb when he had his own flocks, but he desired
the other man's lamb and he~ had no pity in
his heart.
In order to satisfy their sinful tendencies and
lust men covet in the life of others that which
they themselves do not require. Their desires
are insatiable, affecting as they do practically
every sphere of activity. This evil tendency is
apparent in political, business and social life,
where men are so restless and ambitious that
they think nothing of coveting honours and
positions which can be theirs only at a cost to
others. Most serious, however, is the case
where a man with sufficient of this world's goods
cannot be satisfied until he has secured for
himself that which means ' bread and butter '
to poorer brothers. It may be done in the
name of commercial or economic efficiency, but
there is a direct challenge to Christianity in the
desires of wealthy syndicates and combines to
possess for themselves the means of existence
of small concerns. When we recall that the
rich man lived near the poor man, we are
reminded that the lustful desires of men are
30
PARABLES OF FACT
often such that they affect adversely those who
are neighbours. David was a false friend to
Uriah. It was his duty to protect and not to
destroy the home of his neighbour, to develop
rather than to wreck its happiness.
THE LAMB ACQUIRED
The sin of the parable may have lain in the
desire to acquire, but it reached its depth of
enormity when the lamb was taken from the
poor man. The lamb was stolen. Though
the average adulterer does not desire his sin
to be described as theft, yet theft it is quite
apart from its concomitant evils. Was Jesus
thinking of this parable when He spoke the
memorable and difficult sentence, " Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his
heart " ? Jesus would have a man restrain
his desire before it urges him to acquire.
All the circumstances of the parable indicate
that a man can obtain what he unlawfully
seeks from another's possessions only by sinning
against God and by a want of pity and con-
sideration. The tenth commandment forbids
us to covet " anything that is thy neighbour's "
because " when lust hath conceived it bringeth
forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death" (Jas. i, 15).
Whether applied to the greed of rich nations
31
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
or rich commercial houses or rich individuals
the moral of the parable abides with us and
it tells us that the nemesis follows. Once they
have been sown the seeds of evil bear their
harvest of wrong and cruelty. Associated with
our parable is the death of Bathsheba's child,
an incident which provides one of the most
touching scenes in Scripture and which is now
reverently immortalized when the words are
read over a beloved child's body and comfort
to mourning parents is found in the words of
David — " Can I bring him back again ? I shall
go to him, but he shall not return to me."
They are the words of a chastened man : a man
whom God has really forgiven but who feels
that others require to pay the penalty of his
sin. We have known how national covetous-
ness has resulted in war, death, destruction
and misery. None of us can be blind to the
ravages of syndicalism and there are few
families which have escaped the blight of social
evils. If we could only see sufficiently far
into the future years to perceive what sacrifices
may be required of our children and children's
children because of our sin, our prayer would be
from that great psalm of confession which is said
to have been written by David after his con-
viction by the parable : —
" Create in me a clean heart, O God :
And renew a right spirit within me." — Ps. li, 10.
32
CHAPTER III
(b) " THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD "
" LET me sing for my beloved my love-song
concerning his vineyard :
" My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill-
top ; he tilled it well and cleared it of stones ;
and he planted it with red-grape vine. He built
a tower in its midst and he also hewed a wine-
vat in it. He kept expecting it to yield grapes
and it brought forth bad grapes.
" And now, 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem and
men of Judah, judge ye, I pray, between me
and my vineyard. What might be done to my
vineyard that I have not done in it f Why,
when I looked for it to bear grapes, did it bring
forth bad grapes ? And now, let me tell you, I
pray, what I shall do to my . vineyard. Its
hedge will be reduced and it will be laid open
to be consumed. Its wall will be breached and
trampled down ; and I will lay it waste. It
shall neither be pruned nor hoed but briar and
thorn will grow up and I will command the
clouds not to sprinkle rain upon it. For the
vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house
of Israel and the plant of his delight is the men
33 c
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
of Judah : and he looked for judgment, but
lo ! bloodshed ; and for righteousness, but lo !
a cry." — Isaiah v. 1-7.
As a narrative of fact the Parable of the Vine-
yard occupies a high level. The story rings
true ; it is well-conceived ; it holds its listeners
and its interpretation is applied directly and
minutely. Its rhythm lends support to its
appeal and its subject is one which was very
popular in Israel. Whether Isaiah was the
first to make use of the vineyard as representing
the people of God in their relationship to God
as the owner of the vineyard is a question which
cannot be answered. This story was certainly
narrated at a very early date by Isaiah, possibly
about 740 B.C., and it resembles very closely the
description of the vineyard in Psalm Ixxx
with this pronounced difference — that whereas
the latter describes a destruction which has
already fallen upon the vineyard, the former
is a prophecy of approaching calamity and
devastation. It is probable that the vineyard
had long been associated with the thought of
Israel and Judah as the planting of the Lord,
and that Isaiah was using a familiar symbol
which may have been borrowed from older
literature or oral traditions.
Regarding the words and interpretation of the
parable itself most critics are in agreement.
What differences may appear are easily recon-
34
PARABLES OF FACT
ciled and harmonised. The words of intro-
duction to the parable remain uncertain in their
meaning, and in so far as they do not seriously
affect the parable itself they may safely be left
as a field for exploration and research by
scholars. Confusion does certainly arise from
the Septuagint's use of the first personal pronoun
throughout the story and its interpretation, as
also from the doubtful meaning of the Hebrew
words translated ' a song of my beloved ' in
the Authorised Version. By a very slight
change in pointing the Hebrew ^"p*7 (my beloved)
may be read "'TPT (my love), but the latter
word is usually descriptive of sexual relationship
and for that reason may not be considered
as applicable in this case where the beloved is
revealed to be God. Opposed to this objection
there is the claim that a valid meaning can be
brought out when we picture the prophet
coming before his audience as a minstrel who
has a special love-song to sing, a song to which
he invites them very specially to give ear. It
is equally possible to read into the words ' a
song of my beloved,' the idea that if the owner
of the vineyard should sing this would be his
song.
In itself the story is very simple, and it uses
familiar features in good husbandry. The
owner proves himself a good prospector of land.
He selects a location which ought by nature to
35
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
give good returns to diligent labour — a fertile
hill-top, or, as the Hebrew text describes it,
a horn, the son of oil. Thus it possesses all the
advantages of a good lay-out which every
modern husbandman cherishes — a rich soil, a
good exposure to the sun, and ground that has
already proved its fatness. He works the soil
well by turning it over thoroughly, seeing that
it is cleared of stones and well-drained. (For
this stage of the preparation the Septuagint
version describes how he puts a fence around it
and fortifies it). When the ground has been
made ready he plants in it the choicest of vines
— sorek — which were distinguished for their
red grapes and a wine that was treasured for
its excellence. As a safeguard against marauders
a watch-tower is erected so that neither may
the plants be harmed by prowling animals nor
may the fruit be stolen by thieves. It is not
enough to have his winepress but he must see
that the lower part of the winepress (the wine vat)
is carefully constructed by being quarried out
of the slope. Into it he hopes one day to see the
red wine pour forth from the press above.
Having done all that a good vineyard-owner
might do he awaits the fruit of his labours and
care only to meet with bitterest disappointment.
His well-tended plants bear bad grapes. D^N^I
is from a word meaning * evil-smelling ' and the
term * wild grapes ' scarcely defines it sufficiently.
PARABLES OF FACT
1 Bad grapes ' seems best although the Septuagint
uses ' thorns ' which may give ' wildings ' or
1 weeds.'
Whilst his hearers search in their minds for
some explanation of this catastrophe and shew
their astonishment by their countenances the
singer breaks upon their reverie and wonder to
challenge them to tell how such a calamity had
followed upon all the industry and precaution
of the husbandman. Even as Nathan drew from
David his judgment upon the culprit, so here
does Isaiah call for an explanation, but ere they
can answer he breaks forth with the owner's
decision and at once they observe that his speech
and tone have changed. No longer is he the
minstrel singing his love-song to delight them at a
festive season but he is the man of God who
proclaims the judgment of God upon the people
who had so grievously requited all His love and
mercy towards them. They gradually sense his
meaning as the tornado of judgment upon the
unprofitable vineyard is uttered. The dis-
appointment has not been so much the economical
loss as the want of gratitude and a failure to
respond to love and kindness. " What more
might be done that I have not already done in
it ? " Therein lies the grief, and because all his
labour must be abortive of good results he resolves
upon the destruction of the vineyard. He will
make an end of it. The shrub fence will be
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
broken down ready for fuel and the vineyard
will become a place of desolation. Whilst this
judgment is being given it is probable that some
of the hearers do not understand its meaning for
themselves. Seeing their dullness and want of
full comprehension the prophet discards all
veiling from his words and proclaims that the
vineyard of God is Israel and that the choice
vine is Judah. He has finished his song in which
he has been mysteriously caught up into the
presence of and identified with the person of God.
Now he declares solemnly and regretfully what
the song has signified.
Upon Israel as a nation God had most tenderly
and thoughtfully exerted the greatest care and
manifested every possible provision for their
good. Canaan was chosen by Him as a land of
promise from which the enemies were driven out.
By every good spiritual and moral influence He
had striven to protect them and prosper them.
This was particularly the case with Judah, within
whose borders were Jerusalem and the seat of
the Davidic line. Being a prophet in Judah
Isaiah regards his country as the special planting
or choice vine of the Lord. Yet, just as the
parable indicates that no amount of expense and
labour can possibly overcome some inherent
defect in the soil of the vineyard so now it is
revealed that God's disappointment lies in the
failure of His people to shew justice and righteous-
38
PARABLES OF FACT
ness in their lives. Despite all the protection
and safeguards afforded them, likewise all the
encouragement and rich blessings extended them,
there have issued lawlessness and oppression
where peace and love should have prevailed.
The delightful play upon words which appears
in the Hebrew text of the closing sentence is lost
in our English translation. Even written in an
English form the assonance and charm are felt :
" He looked for mispat and lo ! mispah,
for zedhakah and lo ! zeakah."
The contrast is brought home realistically and
there can be no evasion of its thrust. The evils
which are described in the remaining portion of
the chapter (Isa. v.) shed light upon the extent
of sin and unrighteousness among the people.
All moral restraint had been loosened, religious
privileges had been abused, despised and
neglected, and from many souls a cry or shriek
of despair and suffering was heard. A suggestion
is therefore made that no remedy can be found
except to make an end of all since every other
effort had been futile.
God's messengers might relate a similar
parable in modern times. To do so might
necessitate courage even greater and stronger
than was Isaiah's. In so far as the influence of
Christianity has affected nations we have evi-
dences of the great vineyard of the Lord. It is
no ordinary coincidence that Jesus speaks in
39
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
parables of the vineyard and that in His narration
of the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen
(Mark xii. i-io) His words descriptive of the
creation and defence of the vineyard itself are,
in the Greek New Testament, almost strictly
identical with those of the Greek in the Septua-
gint version of this Old Testament parable.
Jesus has no need to interpret the parables of the
Wicked Husbandmen, the Barren Fig-Tree
(Luke xiii. 6-9), or the Vine and Its Branches
(John xv. 1-8). We read that after Jesus
concluded the parable of the Wicked Husband-
men saying : — " The stone which the builders
rejected is become the head of the corner " there
was fierce anger " for they knew that He had
spoken the parable against them."
YESTERDAY'S CONSTRUCTION
When we consider the Construction of God's
Vineyard of Yesterday in its effects upon our
world and our lives, we recall the many hopes
and dreams of humanity for a day of happiness
and mutual helpfulness. By various means
God has surrounded His people with the sunshine
of Christian graces, gifts and helps which have
tended and promised to enrich life in all its
aspects and to bear a rich harvest of good fruit.
The vineyard is representative in our day of
Christian civilization throughout the world,
40
and we must remember the labour which has
been expended upon giving that vineyard to
the nations. What more could God have done
for the vineyard than He has done ? Jesus gave
His life and laid the foundation of the Kingdom
of God. God has richly endowed nations and
individuals with power to extend that Kingdom,
and has given them blessings and privileges
which were expected to bear fruit. Isaiah's
description of God's goodness to his own nation
might with profit be applied to the history of
several nations such as our own. There have
been occasions when God's hand seemed to be
guiding the affairs of our people in no uncertain
way, and we have good reason to believe that we,
too, have been a chosen people, but we should
ask ourselves ' chosen for what ? '
Under the Christian dispensation a new people
has arisen representative of all nations who
have come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their
Lord. They are the choice plant from which
so much is expected. They are of the body of
Christ who said, " I am the Vine, ye are the
branches." From the Christian Church and
from those who are bound to Him either in
membership of that Church or by reason of their
Christian heritage through receiving boundless
mercies and opportunities, God has looked to
see good fruit in beautiful lives, in noble spirits,
in loving service and in sympathetic endeavour
41
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
to sweeten and hallow all life around by raising
the fallen and easing the burden of the oppressed.
The test of national and personal response to
God lies in the degree of our production of fruit
for God.
TO-DAY'S PRODUCTION
Whereas there are many proofs of the careful
construction and preparation of the vineyard,
there is also evidence of failure to produce fruit
commensurate with the labour expended. We
consider the production, and we behold how
some of the favoured nations have not borne the
fruit they ought to have produced. That the
standards for testing productivity vary accord-
ing to opportunity and circumstances must be
admitted : for example, whilst we recognise
how highly favoured Spain was in the Middle
Ages and how she pioneered across the seas
carrying her civilization to other nations, yet
we cannot view with approbation her decline
from her high estate. We are convinced that
she could have produced more and better fruit.
Similarly, in respect of our own nation we cannot
be proud of the results of our history when we
consider how rich have been our opportunities.
Alike in our international, national, social and
religious life, we are but a remnant of what
God expected us to be. " There are the
4*
PARABLES OF FACT
foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines."
A national departure from religious standards
and a wave of irreligion are features common to
the life of several nations in modern times.
Nations are losing the virtue and sanctity of
Christian home life. The ' New Morality ' is a
serious peril to Christian Morality as it tends to
extend licence and sin, its fruits being crippled
lives associated with sorrow and suffering.
The failure to find harmony among the nations
which profess to be Christian and to pursue the
way of peace and brotherhood is in itself a
rebuke of national pride and selfishness. We
have reason to be proud of what has been accom-
plished in God's name, but we have also to
confess that in many ways we are a disappoint-
ment to Him because we have not produced
for His glory the purest, sweetest and noblest
fruits. Everywhere are the oppressions of a
merciless and remorseless social organisation ;
the cry of the poor, the outcast and defeated is
heard amidst all the noises of modern machinery ;
and tariff conflicts between nations threaten them
with evils as grave as those from armaments.
Within these nations we look in vain for the
evidence that the Church reflects clearly the
glory and power of Christ. She is hesitant,
and her voice is indistinct. We wonder what
will be the issue of it all, and we turn to consider
the parable's warning.
43
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
TO-MORROW'S DESTRUCTION
In our parable ' to-morrow ' sees the destruc-
tion and devastation of the vineyard. It is left
derelict, and so it must ever be where God is
forsaken and His love and provision are despised.
Down the centuries we hear the prophet's cry
of doom to every such fruitless planting. Great
nations and empires have passed away, and in
some instances their glory is but a faded memory.
Such is the warning which is written large over
the pages of Israel's history as clearly as over
the history of Greece and Rome. Neglect of
opportunity to bear good fruit for mankind,
departure from the highest standards of virtue,
and the enthronement of false gods, lead in-
evitably to desolation and gloom. No nation
can afford to slight the privileges which God has
given. The Church dare not be disobedient to
her heavenly vision ; and the individual Christian
must never be unmindful of the words, " By their
fruits ye shall know them."
Sin's harvest cannot be evaded, but the Gospel
message proclaims the love of God which seeks
us, saves us, renews us, and restores to us the
locust-eaten years. It tells us that apart from
Jesus we cannot bear fruit — "He that abideth in
Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit."
44
CHAPTER IV
(c) " THE WOMAN OF TEKOAH "
" THE Woman of Tekoah came to the king and
fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance
and said, * Help, O King.' And the king said
to her, ' What is the matter ? ' And she said,
1 1 am a mourning woman, a widow, and my
husband is dead. I had two sons who strove
together in the field where there was no one
between them to separate them ; and the one
attacked the other and killed him. Behold, now,
the whole clan has risen up against thine hand-
maid and said, " Give up him that smote his
brother and we shall kill him for the life of his
brother whom he slew and thus shall we also
destroy the heir." So shall they quench my
coal which is left that there be preserved to my
husband neither a name nor a remainder upon
the face of the earth.'
" And the king said to the woman, ' Go to
thine house and I shall command concerning
thee.' But the Tekoan woman said to the king,
' O my lord, the king, the iniquity be upon me
and my father's house, and the king and his
throne be guiltless.'1 And the king said, ' Who-
1 The words probably mean " I and my father's house
shall suffer, not the king and his throne."
45
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
ever speaks to thee, bring him to me and he shall
not touch thee any more.' Then she said, ' Let
the king remember the Lord thy God so that the
avenger of blood may not further destroy lest
they extirpate my son.' And he said, ' As the
Lord liveth there shall not fall one hair of thy
son to the ground ! ' Then the woman said,
' Let thine handmaid speak a word, I pray, unto
my lord, the king ' ; and he said, ' Speak.' And
the woman said : — ' Wherefore hast thou devised
such a thing against the people of God ? And by
the king's speaking this word he is as one guilty
in that the king doth not bring home again his
banished one. For we must needs die, and are
as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be
gathered up again ; and God taketh not life away
but deviseth devices not to banish from him a
banished one.' " — 2 Sam. xiv. 4-14.
This amazing story which achieved its purpose
so dexterously and subtly introduces another
type of the narratives of fact. It is an acted
parable and is one of a group which made their
appeal along somewhat similar lines. In all
probability its plan was borrowed from one of
the ancient stories told around camp fires, as it
does not suggest the freshness and originality of
Nathan's parable. Though the aim of both
stories was the same — to procure a judgment
from David which might be turned to good
purpose against him — they approached their
PARABLES OF FACT
purpose along widely different channels. Tragedy
overhangs both. In each of them the king's
conscience must be awakened. His own guilt
is brought vividly before him in one instance by
direct accusation and in the other by the under-
lying insinuation that the king himself had
known what it was to be banished through sin.
Whereas Nathan can directly interpret and apply
his parable the Tekoahite finds it necessary to
pursue her dialogue and action in order to give
the interpretation.
Taken by itself the above story lacks the
natural appeal of Nathan's which, taken alone,
is a story that impresses itself upon the mind.
This acted parable requires its explanation in
order to be fully appreciated, and at each stage
of the unfolding of the meaning we seem to see
a man standing in the shadows controlling and
directing the whole stage-management of the
various scenes. That man is Joab, the brave
but astute and blood-thirsty leader of David's
army, the man who knew the secret of the king's
blackest sin and who would later give David
cause to lament the day that he had sent that
fatal letter to him concerning the murder of
Uriah. Again, though this parable lacks the
high spiritual tone of Nathan's, it possesses in
germ what has become a precious theological
conception of God which is particularly set forth
in the parable of the Prodigal Son and is fre-
47
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
quently emphasised in the teaching of Jesus,
e.g. — It is not the Father's will that one of His
children should perish (Matt, xviii. 14).
The parable's historical setting lies between
two of the saddest tragedies in Bible history.
Following upon a most dishonourable act by
Amnon, David's eldest son, when he ravished
Tamar, his half-sister, Absalom, the king's
beloved son, had awaited his opportunity for
revenge and two years later he murdered Amnon
under cruel and deceitful circumstances. Thus
the king was reminded of Nathan's words that
the sword would not depart from his house.
The second tragedy was that in which the young
man Absalom's vanity, disobedience and lust
for power reached their consummation and
caused to be wrung from a father's heart that
had already been broken amid sorrows, dis-
appointments and remorse these immortal words,
" Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom !
Would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my
son, my son ! " Absalom was banished from the
king's court after Amnon's death, but aided by
Joab he plotted to be recalled. When Joab saw
that the occasion was opportune he devised the
fictitious story which was narrated and acted so
skilfully by the woman of Tekoah.
There are individual opinions upon the opening
words of Chapter xiv all dependent upon the
meaning of the word translated in the Authorised
PARABLES OF FACT
Version as ' towards.' It may be derived from
^N (towards) or hj> (against), but great support is
given to the view that it should be * against ' by
the fact that in the only other instance in the
Old Testament where the word f?s is used with
that for ' heart ' (Daniel xi. 28) the meaning
cannot be other than ' against ' or * at enmity
with.' It was quite natural for the king's heart
to be against Absalom whilst the father's heart
yearned for his return. We are not justified in
reading into the word a forced meaning prompted
by the king's deep grief when Absalom was slain.
Rather should we be guided by the facts that a
strong appeal was necessary to cause the king
to relent and lift the ban ; also, that even when
he sanctioned a return from banishment he
would not permit his son to come into his pres-
ence. May it not be that Joab hoped for much
from the restoration of Absalom to favour ?
Absalom was heir to the throne and we can under-
stand how Joab was displeased when he observed
" that the king's heart was against Absalom."
Not far from Bethlehem was Tekoah, made
famous in Biblical history as the home of Amos.
There lived the shrewd and very wise woman
whom Joab secured to fulfil his plans. We
cannot but admire her clever acting and her bold,
courageous reasoning ; she manifests a deep
penetration and insight into human character,
is quick in repartee and exceptionally tactful,
49 »
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
painstaking and persevering to achieve her
object. Not until her story is completed and a
sacred pledge of security and fulfilment obtained
from the king, does she proceed to enlighten him as
to the purpose of her story. That she succeeds so
well in obscuring from him so long the deeper mean-
ing of her words, adds to the value of her narrative.
A charge may be laid against this parable and
others of a similar nature that it cannot be
regarded as a true parable because the woman
very obviously acted it, and made it up on a
fiction knowing it to be such. It is true that
when compared with certain parables it does
not bear the same stamp of possibility in truth
as does that of the Ewe Lamb or of the Vineyard,
but we might set it against such New Testament
parables as those of the ' Ten Virgins,' or
* The Judgment ' (' Inasmuch ') or ' The
Labourers in the Vineyard,' in all of which the
truth possibility is no greater than in the story
told by the Woman of Tekoah. The real want
of truth lies in her action because her own
character is interwoven with the tale she unfolds.
THE HEIR
The first part of the story deals with the heir
whose death will mean the extirpation of a
family and name. This was a calamity to be
averted if at all possible, and on this point the
woman pleads well. She professes real and
50
PARABLES OF FACT
deep mourning. The Hebrew text strengthens
an interpretation which may seem redundant
in its description, but is very necessary to the
woman's narrative. She mourns as a mother
who has just had one of her two sons killed,
and thus she emphasises the fact that she is a
mourning woman ; that is, her loss has been
quite recent. She is also a widow through the
death of her husband. Though sounding like
a pleonasm this description is also essential to
her story because otherwise she could not effect
so powerful an appeal to preserve the name
and remainder to the family.
By the code of laws then prevailing the
relatives of the family were justified in seeking
blood-vengeance, a life for a life, upon the son
who slew his brother. The widow makes no
complaint against the law, knowing that the
king must uphold the law. What she endeavours
to secure is mercy which will somehow operate
to prevent the clan from rooting out entirely
her husband's seed. To describe her son as her
coal and remainder is adroit since it awakens a
natural pity and sympathy. Let him be slain
and the embers cannot be rekindled.
THE KING
The second part is concerned with the king.
The tender chords of the king's heart are reached
by the woman's dejection and plea. When her
51
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
words play upon these chords the king cannot
withstand an impulse to defend the woman,
though he knows the danger to himself in so
setting aside the customs of his people. It has
been made clear to him that the clan seek blood
more in order to destroy the heir than to inflict
legal punishment. Rather than that the king
should be compromised by his compassionate
resolution, the woman disarms him of all sus-
picion and astutely encloses him within her net
by offering to bear all the responsibility herself.
The mother-love and spirit of sacrifice are thus
very forcibly presented to David, and his earlier
resolve is strengthened into firm determination.
He will risk punishment upon anyone who may
speak against her — a bold step even for the king
in face of the recognised laws. Under her strong
pleading that a sacred promise be given that
the avenger of blood will not be permitted to
destroy her son, he swears that her son will be
saved.
THE FATHER
The king has spoken. The parable is ended.
Its meaning is now unfolded, and it concerns
David not as a king but as a father. Having
satisfied herself that the king's determination
is fixed, the suppliant reveals to him by clever
suggestion and innuendo as also by logical
reasoning that a king who can thus abrogate
52
PARABLES OF FACT
the law for her son can surely take steps to
preserve his own heir and son. By his decree
in her favour he condemns his own action and
is guilty of wrong in not restoring his banished
son. Can the father-heart resist her argument
" we must needs die and are as water spilt on the
ground, which cannot be gathered up again " ?
Thus, using what was probably a familiar saying
she proceeds to compare David's attitude as
king and father with the love and compassion of
God who, whilst He does not seek to return a
soul after He has taken it away, yet lovingly
plans that a banished child be not kept in exile.
Amnon is dead. He cannot be brought back.
Absalom is yet alive and is both son and heir.
If the king should hesitate to bring him back
surely the father will have mercy. The reason-
ing is sound and very personal because it reminds
the king of God's mercy to him when he stood
condemned to death for his own sin.
It may be said that it was only David the
king who relented, and that David the father
did not forgive his son because he would not
allow the returned exile to see him and that by so
doing he encouraged him in his treachery to the
throne. Such an interpretation can scarcely
be accepted. The obverse may be the truer
explanation. Whilst the father's heart would
cry, " Come home ; come home ;" the king must
observe as far as possible the requirements of
the law.
53
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
There are aspects of this story which find a
sympathetic chord in every heart, and the most
important experience depicted is that which
suggests that there arise occasions when we are
called upon to decide between contending
principles such as faced David when law and
love, king and father were contending within his
breast. Occasions arise such as that when
Napoleon was faced by a mother whose son had
been sentenced to death ; when the great soldier
said that it was justice which must be observed
she replied that she asked for mercy and not
justice. Many parents have known the perplexity
of David's mind and heart when a child who had
done an irreparable wrong to the parent sought
to be restored to the love and fellowship of the
home. There are cases where husband and wife
have reached a serious impasse and the conflict
which has to be waged between right and wrong,
truth and love, almost rends the soul. Where
truth will pain love would soothe and where to
do the right may mean offence to another, to
do wrong will leave a lasting sense of shame.
Employers face the crisis when asked to reinstate
their former servants who have wronged them,
and employees also face the conflict when
honesty is asked to prevail over duty and
obedience to a dishonest master.
What is the Christian attitude in such cases ?
In the light of Gospel teaching the three words,
54
PARABLES OF FACT
' heir, king and father,' have a powerful appli-
cation, in which we may see the message which
Jesus came to teach and fulfil. Acting under
His guidance we are brought to make wise
decisions because just as the Tekoan woman
won the heart of David by reference to God's
mercy so are our hearts strengthened to do that
which is acceptable to God by reference to what
God has done for us and others. Sin banishes
us from God. When we sin we become aware
that we have somehow alienated ourselves from
Him. We become God's banished heirs. The
law may exact its full pound of flesh but the
King can pardon. Where the law decrees death
the King can give life. What the law could not
do God has done for His people through the gift
and sacrifice of Jesus. He has devised means
for bringing us home because Jesus came to
seek and to save the lost — the banished ones.
God does more than forgive. He restores us and
reinstates us. He makes us heirs and joint-
heirs. He awaits the homecoming of the
wanderer and His token of love is not the King's
pardon but the Father's kiss. Therefore —
" Being all fashioned of the selfsame dust,
Let us be merciful as well as j ust"
— LONGFELLOW, Tales of a Wayside Inn.
because
"... earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice."
— SHAKESPEARE, Merchant of Venue.
55
CHAPTER V
(d) " THE POOR WISE MAN "
" THERE was a small city and in it were few men.
And there came unto it a great king who encircled
it and built great siege-works against it ; but
there happened to be in it a poor wise man who
by his cunning caused the city to be saved ; yet
not a man1 remembered that poor man1." —
Eccles. ix. 14-15.
This simple but attractive parable has not
received the care and attention which it merits.
Hidden amidst numerous proverbs the story
suffers from being regarded only as a passing
illustration of how wisdom may be despised
though it be of great consequence in an hour of
crisis. Attempts have been made to identify
the story with an actual incident in history, but
they have all been mere conjectures. For a
satisfactory grasp of the narrative attention is
directed to an alternative translation of the
Hebrew word («?£) ' there was found ' and to a
series of contrasts contained in the narrative. The
verb Nyip necessitates an ambiguity to give the
1 In both the Hebrew and Greek texts there are two words
used for ' man ' and the texts emphasise the word ' that ' in
' that poor man.'
56
PARABLES OF FACT
meaning ' there was found J because the text reads
better that the great king besieging the city
'found ' its deliverer there. Another form is the
impersonal use of the verb, ' one found in it ; '
although such an interpretation makes a distinct
break upon the sequence of the verbs and con-
junctions used in the Hebrew text. Since the
verb possesses strongly the idea of a sudden
discovery such as might result from the arrival
of a visitor, or the occasion that one * happened
to be there ' though not usually resident, we are
able to set forth a series of contrasts — a small city
and a mighty king ; few men in it and great
siege-works encompassing it ; there had come a
poor wise man and also a great ruler of men ; the
poor man saves from the powerfully wealthy
man ; whilst someone might have remembered
a wise man yet no man remembered that poor
man. In verse 16 it is revealed clearly that
emphasis should be laid upon the city's neglect
of the man because of his poverty even though
his wisdom was accepted as valuable.
Unnecessary as they are to an adequate
appreciation of the parable a few sentences may
be devoted to the historic events which scholars
have associated with it. Were it possible to
decide upon one of them definitely the result
would be very valuable as an aid in fixing the
probable date of the writing of Ecclesiastes.
The occasions suggested are : —
57
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
(1) The siege of Dor in 218 B.C. by Antiochus III
(the Great). This siege was said to have
been raised because the city was ' hard to
be taken ' and on account of the approach
of Nicolaus.
(2) The siege of Dor about 139 B.C. by
Antiochus VII is described in I Mace. xv.
II, 13, 25 ; also by Josephus (Antiq. xiii,
vii and viii). There is no indication that
the city was taken. But Antiochus was then
greatly helped by Simon, high priest at
Jerusalem.
(3) The siege of Bethsura in 162 B.C. by
Antiochus V, when the city was taken mainly
as a result of starvation though after a battle
was fought (i Mace. vi. 31).
(4) Abel-Beth-Maacah is the city which was
delivered from siege by a wise woman who
reasoned with Joab that it was better for
the citizens that she should give him the
head of Sheba whom he pursued than that
the whole city should perish. Though this
seems the most favourable analogy it
suffers from two defects — the deliverer was
a wise woman and the besieger was not
a king.
(5) The deliverance of Athens by a stratagem of
Themistocles when Xerxes attacked that city,
yet the saviour of Athens was ostracized in
471 B.C. In this case, however, Themistocles
PARABLES OF FACT
had great honour immediately after the
withdrawal and defeat of the Persians.
(6) The assault upon Syracuse by the Romans
in 212 B.C. when Archimedes strove to deliver
the city without success — an event which
adds value to a translation which says the
poor wise man ' would save the city ' rather
than that he saved it. The siege of Syracuse
lasted nine years, Archimedes was not a
wealthy man nor was he of high rank.
Cicero found his tomb forgotten by the
Syracusans. " Not a man remembered that
poor man." If the suggested emendation be
accepted whereby it is not claimed that the
city was saved but that the poor, wise man
would save it then the siege of Syracuse may
have been the occasion referred to.
Though it may be of service to know the actual
historical occasion to which the parable refers, the
story is, nevertheless, precious as a parable if we
retain only its substance. The story of the Good
Samaritan loses nothing through our inability
to identify ' a certain man ' or the ' Samaritan.'
If it be borne in mind that the emphasis must
rest upon the poverty of the wise man there need
be no difficulty in the interpretation. Many wise
men who were poor have, through use of their
wisdom, rightly or wrongly, become rich. Not
so in this parable ; and its significance lies in the
indication that but for his poverty the wise man
59
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
would have been remembered. There is a
common remark that public service is seldom
appreciated as it deserves to be. A man who is
lauded and idolised to-day has his name and
honour foully besmirched to-morrow. So long
as danger threatens and the enemy's ramparts
are being strengthened the poor man's wisdom is
recognised, his word obeyed and his position
exalted. When deliverance is achieved and the
foe has withdrawn the city relapses into the old
routine, the poor wise man returns to his humble
abode and lowly task, there to be forgotten by
those whom he has served so well. It may not
be inappropriate to recall the changed fortunes
of men in high office during the recent Great War.
Some of them are already experiencing that
forgetfulness of a people in our own and other
lands who remember them not.
Is there not room for a readjustment of the
valuations of human service ? A rich man
makes a trifling remark and it is boomed abroad.
In his humble circle the poor man makes a speech
of which every sentence is a gem and no more is
heard of it. We need sound, balanced judgment.
Every wise man is not a poor man and every rich
man is not a wise man. Had a rich man's
wisdom delivered that small city his social
eminence would have helped to perpetuate the
memory of his deed. Many of our greatest
inventors, discoverers, artists and literati were
60
PARABLES OF FACT
poor men and had to undergo ignominy and
abuse before doors were gratefully opened to
their wisdom and skill. Appreciation came in
several instances when it was too late. It is
necessary to mention only a few like Dr. Wm.
Harvey, Galileo, Columbus, Turner, Goldsmith,
Chatterton, Francis Thompson, and Carlyle.
To-day we know scarcely anything of the mighty
ones who derided them.
" Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,
Through which the living Homer begged his bread."
Truly the deeds live on though the actors are
forgotten. This is a view which raises the
despondent spirit. It is also true that under
modern conditions there is a better opportunity
afforded the poor man to give evidence of his
abilities. This we owe very greatly to the
teaching of Jesus, which has given to the indi-
vidual a value and which assures us that no deed
rendered even unto the least is lost or forgotten.
Jesus has immortalized deeds by poor people
such as the anointing of feet, the gifts out of
poverty by a widow, the mere offer of a cup of
water and the menial service of washing men's
feet rendered by One who had not where to lay
His head. Thanks to the Gospel-Spirit, but
especially to the influence of Christ's own
personality and life, the modern world regards
the wisdom and work of the very poorest man
61
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
with an increasing sense of gratitude. His deeds
are enshrined in golden memories and grateful
hearts. Robert Burns sensed this when he
wrote —
" For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure and a' that ;
The rank is but the guinea stamp,
The man's the gowd ( gold ) for a' that"
Even the poor man should not serve merely to be
remembered for his works, but the deeds of the
poorest of benefactors merit the gratitude and
remembrance of all who have benefited thereby.
62
CHAPTER VI
(e) "THE ESCAPED PRISONER"
" THE prophet went out and waited by the way
for the king, and he was disguised with a cover
upon his eyes. As the king passed by he called
out to the king and said, ' Thy servant went
out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a
man turned aside and brought a man to me
and said, " Guard this man : if by any means
he be missing then shall thy life be in place of
his life or thou shalt weigh a talent of silver."
Now it happened that as thy servant was busy
here and there, he vanished.'
" Then the king of Israel said unto him, ' So
is the judgment. Thyself hast decided.'
" And he (the prophet) hastened and removed
the cover from off his eyes, and the king of
Israel recognised him that he was of the
prophets. And he said, * Thus saith the Lord :
Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the
man of my curse, thy life shall be in place of his
life and thy people for his people.' " — I Kings xx.
38-42.
In this, another acted parable seeking judg-
ment from a king, we are presented with an
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
introduction and a narrative which indicate some
of the crude moral standards of an early civiliza-
tion. They must not be valued by our modern
conceptions of social or international relation-
ships, but be related to their contingent purpose,
which is that of demanding fullest obedience
to the command of God and the identification
of our own will with God's will. Judged by
twentieth century standards we should con-
gratulate and honour any victor who embraces
his fallen enemy as a brother in the spirit in
which Ahab received Benhadad. But this is
to miss the point of the story, because the
historian's aim is to drive home the lesson that
victory resulted from God's intervention and
God's support. The victory had been promised
and its fruit assured conditionally — upon the
ground that Ahab, king of Israel, should not let
Benhadad, king of Syria, escape from his hands.
The incidents merit a brief reference. Ahab
was a great soldier, fearless, indomitable and
not altogether ruthlessly unkind. Possessor of
many excellent kingly qualities and abilities
he might have been a great and potent king.
What special gifts he had been endowed with
he prostituted to base ends. His failure to
honour God and to encourage religion in the
national life was presageful of disasters and
wreck. No good, but rather much evil, followed
upon his marriage to a heathen foreigner under
PARABLES OF FACT
whose baneful influence he was brought to
despise the premonitions given him by God's
messengers. At least one dastardly crime
darkened his reign, so that his wife's name
and his own name have become significant of
covetousness and cold-blooded murder far
exceeding the enormity of Macbeth's cruel deed.
Twice he was given victory over Benhadad of
Damascus, and on the second occasion the
Syrian King was actually delivered into his
hands, but he set him free after getting from
him some specious promises. This liberation of
Benhadad cost Ahab his life on a subsequent oc-
casion, and brought much distress upon his people.
THE MASKED PROPHET
The parable gathers around the foregoing
incidents. A nameless prophet — whom Josephus
identifies as Micaiah, the son of Imlah, because
Ahab appears to have cast him into prison on
account of a prophecy which threatened him —
waits by the roadside to intercept the king as he
passes along flushed with victory and exulting
in his magnanimity. The introduction to this
scene is somewhat difficult to understand. The
prophet invites one of his brethren in the school
of the prophets to wound him, and he declares
that he asks this in the name of the Lord.
Because he refuses, the brother prophet is
condemned to death, not for disappointing his
65 E
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
fellow, but for disobeying God's command.
Having succeeded in obtaining another man
who would and who did strike and wound him,
the prophet covers the wound with a linen cloth
(not ' ashes ') which serves not only as a bandage,
but also as a disguise over his eyes. Why all
this preparation was necessary is not easy to
explain. Possibly it was to encourage him in
his purpose, and to reassure him that he was on
one of God's errands. Thus disguised, he meets
the king and submits for royal judgment his story.
He had been engaged in the recent campaign,
when suddenly there was brought to him a
prisoner whom he was charged to hold under
guard on penalty of life or the forfeiture of a
large sum of silver.
There is uncertainty about the translation
of the Hebrew word (sar) which may be part of
the verb T)D to turn aside, or may be a gloss for
(sar) "ifr , which means a captain or prince. The
latter reading is the more attractive because it
embraces the thought of obedience due to a
commander's order, but it does not conform with
the Septuagint translation which indicates that
' a man carried out unto me a man ' and thus
supports our translation that * a man turned
aside.' The Septuagint rendering is somewhat
more explicit throughout, stating as it does that
if by any means the prisoner ' shall leap forth '
his guard's life will be forfeit, or a talent of silver
66
PARABLES OF FACT
must be weighed in the balance. Then comes
the fatal denouement — a confession that he
has let the prisoner escape, or, as the Hebrew
text has it, l he was not.' He had gone while
the guard's attention was set upon other duties.
What can the king say ? Ignorant of the applica-
tion of the story to his own action, he decrees
the sentence and so condemns himself. It is a
repetition of the method used to elicit self-
condemnation from David regarding both Uriah
and the banishment of Absalom.
THE KING UNMASKED
When the prophet's mask is removed and the
king recognises him as one of the prophets, his
own words come home to him, ' Thyself hast
decided.' He knows instinctively what is pur-
posed, and he can read into the parable its
application. One may picture him suddenly
humiliated and crestfallen ; all his laughter and
joy subdued, and his hopes from the alliance
with Benhadad absolutely shattered. He hears
the sentence of God fall from the prophet's lips
in words which speak of death and destruction.
He is doomed. What he has sought to evade,
he must now face — his responsibility to God
for the care and preservation of God's people.
The mask of deception falls from him, and he is
aware that his disloyalty and disobedience are
discovered. Rather than confess his sin as did
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
David, he goes to his house sullen and angry.
He is unrepentant, but he cannot escape from
the prophet's words. They follow him every-
where until he allies himself with Jehoshaphat
of Judah to fight against the Syrians at Ramoth-
gilead. There he remembers the fatal sentence,
and he fears to enter upon the battle in his royal
array. Regal dress is worn by the king of Judah,
who is unaware that this may make him a target
for the Syrian sharp-shooters, whereas Ahab
disguises himself for the fray. All his caution
avails nothing. He falls and his people suffer a
fearful slaughter at the hand of that very nation
to whose king he had shown the mercy for-
bidden by God — " thy life shall be for his life
and thy people for his people."
For many years thereafter Israel came under
the ravaging scourge of the Syrians, a punish-
ment which could have been avoided had Ahab
obeyed God. His will had been impaired as a
consequence of neglect and religious indifference.
The sufferings of his people had been hidden to a
vision blinded by sin and selfishness. Self-
aggrandisement being his ambition, his nation's
highest interests were sacrificed to his motives,
and opportunities to develop the national life
were neglected and spurned.
From what we know of Ahab's character, we
are justified in concluding that his motive in
preserving the life of his foe was other than a
68
PARABLES OF FACT
merciful one. There must have been something
which he hoped to derive by way of a return
to his kindness. His action opens up for us
the question which had to be faced by the
leaders of our own allied forces in the recent
Great War. There are in our midst those who
assert that the greatest mistake in the whole
campaign was the decision of the victorious
armies not to proceed right into Berlin. Such
people attribute much of the world's present
trouble to a premature peace. Would the
Allies have been justified in pursuing what
would have been a policy of mere retaliation
and vengeance ? Surely the decision reached,
no matter its consequences, was more in har-
mony with modern thought and Christian prac-
tice than would have been a continuation of
the needless waste of life.
History indicates that nations have come
to this considerate attitude towards enemies
very slowly. We cannot judge the times of
Ahab by our standards of political wisdom.
In accordance with the practice of his time, and
quite apart from any consideration of his duty
to God, Ahab made a mistake for which it was
anticipated that he should require to pay
heavily later in his career. To-day, people
are thinking more of the preservation than of the
destruction of life, and a king's duty, as it is
also a nation's duty, is to protect even an
69
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
enemy's life rather than to destroy it. Nations
have come to recognise their mutual dependence
upon each other and that they are all members
of one great family. By means of conference
and arbitration, questions of difficulty and
differences can now be dealt with in a friendly
manner which gives more satisfaction to all
parties and permits the development of national
interests to proceed without the fear of inter-
ruption which must always exist where arma-
ments are used to settle disputes.
For this advance upon the conditions of
former days, the world is undoubtedly indebted
to the penetration of Christian truth into the
conscience of humanity. Though all men may
not recognise Christ as their Lord, they are
yet prepared to reverence His teachings and
the value of His truth when applied to modern
perplexities. Our Lord's parables of the
Talents, the Ten Virgins, the Rich Fool and
the Sheep and Goats point to the importance of
trusteeship. The parable of the Escaped
Prisoner is also a story of trusteeship, and it
may be profitable to us to consider, in the
light of this interesting Old Testament story,
our Christian Trusteeship.
TRUSTEESHIP.
God has reposed in each of us a trust. He
has put into our charge particular responsi-
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PARABLES OF FACT
bilities in which we must not fail if we would
escape vexation later on. We must protect
and save our honour, our good name, our home
and its sanctity, our own and our neighbours'
characters. We are to use every power we can
to restrain, control and suppress every foe
which may threaten that which we must guard.
The principle of ' Laissez-faire ' is dangerous
in the sphere of moral responsibility. If we do
not concentrate upon our tasks we shall find
some day that the enemy whom we have
neglected will return to injure us.
Opportunity is given us to carry out a truly
good work for God and our brethren, but we
are so much preoccupied with trivial matters
of our personal affairs that we miss the tide of
opportunity. Saul suffered for permitting Agag
to live, and in modern times there are homes and
lives in ruins, health which is undermined, ideals
which have vanished, youth lost and souls
wrecked because a trust reposed in us has been
neglected or an opportunity has been let slip
from our power. Prisoners have been put into
our charge. We have known that we had
power to prevent evils, temptations and vices
from continuing to afflict men ; yet owing to
our neglect and disobedience these foes have
succeeded in eluding their guards. The lost
opportunities of life return to mock us and
often to defeat us.
71
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
" But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me."
— TENNYSON, Break, Break, Break.
To many of us who pass along life's highway
self-satisfied and possibly somewhat elated,
there cry out the messengers or monitors of God
whose words turn our joy to sorrow, our sweet-
ness to gall and our pride to shame. They may
be nameless prophets, yet we recognise their
words to be true. They may come to us in the
silences of life when we are alone with God
or with the spirits of those whom memory
recalls ; in the vision of a face, in a cherished
lock of hair, in the dim ink and browned pages
of an old letter or in the eyes which penetrate
to our soul from a picture or photograph.
There they await us and confound us.
" If I had known !
Ah, love, if I had known."
Not the good of which we boast and are proud,
but the wrong we did not right, the evil we did
not vanquish, the venom we did not eradicate —
these are the sources of our condemnation.
Their harvest of sorrow follows us. We are
reminded of the love we could have given, the
work we meant to do, the good which won our
approval but not our support, the painful
thorns we could have extracted and the blessings
to others which we could have secured. Now
they are gone ! gone ! ! and for ever ! ! !
72
PARABLES OF FACT
Ahab returned to his house angry and sullen.
So do many of us when we are reminded of our
disobedience and neglect. If we return to God
however, we shall possess abundant hope and
joy. He tells us in Jesus of the victories which
may yet be won when we receive Jesus into
our hearts and enthrone Him as king of our
lives. Our attitude towards God when our whole
life is unmasked may be that of displeasure
or despair or penitence. Soul-death follows
upon the first two, but hope, life, joy and salva-
tion follow upon the last. We cannot bring
back that which * is not,' but we can rebuild
and seek to atone in such ways as will provide
us with peace and happiness and our fellow-
men with comfort and blessing.
CHAPTER VII
(/) " THE SLUGGARD "
" I PASSED by a slothful man's field and by a
garden of the type of man who lacks under-
standing. Lo ! the whole of it grew thorns,
nettles covered its surface and its stone walls
were broken down. Then I beheld and
pondered in my mind. I saw and was taught a
lesson : — A little sleep ; a little slumber ; a little
folding of hands to lie down, and thy poverty
shall come ravaging and thy wants as an armed
man." — Proverbs xxiv. 30-34.
The book of Proverbs is peculiar in its use of
the word ' sluggard ' or * slothful man.' Closely
related to this parable is the lesson of the ant to
the man of sloth in Proverbs vi. 6-n, where the
same closing verses appear, thus suggesting that
in one of the sections these verses were a later
insertion by a scribe. It is interesting to observe
that the Septuagint version in both chapters
varies considerably from the Hebrew. In
Chapter vi, in addition to the ant the bee is
given as an example of industry and husbandry ;
and in Chapter xxiv the language is more
figurative than parabolical (e.g. " Even as a field
74
PARABLES OF FACT
is a witless man "). Its description is more
exhaustive and less ambiguous. It tells how
neglect of a garden renders the soil inoperative
through exhaustion of its fertility and the closing
verses suggest more than do those of the Hebrew
text the process of repose — a dozing, a nap, then
a deep sleep. Instead of poverty and want
' coming upon ' the sluggard they are revealed
as f going out running ' before him like a good
herald. The application is practically the same
in both texts and the one helps to elucidate the
other since each leaves upon the reader's mind
a vivid picture of idleness, neglect, ruin, deso-
lation and subsequent poverty coming rapidly
and irresistibly. Though the story may never
have been recounted, but be merely a soliloquy
by the writer, it ranks among Old Testament
Parables by reason of its simple description of
one of the seven deadly sins. It is more fre-
quently used in art and literature than the others
and it has a direct message to every age, nation
and individual.
Its scene is in the sphere of agriculture where,
possibly more consistently than in any other
occupation, a man must work faithfully, ener-
getically and laboriously. Agriculture was,
anciently, the common occupation in the East
and even in modern times, when mechanical
implements may lessen the burden of labour,
there is always need for the farmer and gardener
75
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
to be early afield if he will seek a harvest. In
countries where the noon-day heat prohibits
outdoor toil and where the darkness comes on
suddenly it is imperative that the agriculturist
should be early at his task. Our narrative
passes from a consequence to a cause, from weeds
and sterility to neglect and idleness. It attri-
butes the sluggard's folly to a lack of under-
standing as well as to inherent laziness. Whilst
the passer-by is aware immediately that the
owner is indolent he concludes that he is also
of that class of men who are ignorant of what is
best in their occupation. There are two Hebrew
words used for man in verse 30, the first for an
individual and the other for a general type.
Very obviously the owner is foolish because he
does not seem to know that his lack of under-
standing will bring speedily upon him utter want
and poverty. Perhaps there is a play upon
words in the use of the Hebrew words for
' lacking ' (chasar) in verse 30 and * thy wants J
(machsoreka) in verse 34, each of which is
derived from the same root ("ion chaser).
Krummacher has related that among the
disciples of Hillel was one Saboth whose weakness
was idleness. Hillel sought to cure him of his
fault. When he took Saboth to the Valley of
Hinnom where was a standing pool full of vermin
and covered with muddy weeds he said, " Here
let us rest." Because of poisonous vapours the
PARABLES OF FACT
disciple would not rest there. " Thou are right,
my son : this bog is like the soul of a slothful
man," replied the teacher. A little later he
shewed Saboth a field well described in our
parable and pointing to its condition said, " A
little while ago, thou didst see the soul : now
behold the life of an idle man." The lesson
bore fruit in the pupil's life. " To pass such
fields," said St. Gregory, " is to look into
the life of a careless liver and to take a view
of his deeds." An old Arab proverb says that
" sloth and much sleep remove from God and
bring on poverty," whilst we have many familiar
sayings in which the same meaning is inherent,
such as — No sweat, no sweet ; no pains, no gains ;
early to bed, early to rise. Sloth was the
youthful defect in Thomson, the author of The
Castle of Indolence. On one occasion when he
had overslept and was roused he is reported to
have said — " Troth, man, I see nae motive for
rising." In his description of indolence he speaks
of an enchanter who enticed thoughtless way-
farers and destroyed their strength by a round of
pleasures which sapped all vigour and lulled men
into false security and happiness.
No scene is so distressing as that of a neglected
garden. Apart from its infertility and want of
beauty such a garden is a constant menace. Its
weeds spread seeds all around which injure other
gardens and cause extra labour to their owners.
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THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
Soon the walls fall down and the place is laid
waste. Ruin, desolation and poverty are written
large over the scene and we wonder why any
owner could ever have failed to preserve the place
in its fertility, tidiness and utility. Too fre-
quently we must conclude as did the writer of the
parable that the cause has been indolence and
ignorance. The former consists in the love of
ease, the latter in failure to apprehend with what
rapidity destruction will come. Alike in the
cultivation of land and in the cultivation of
social, moral and spiritual qualities the parable
bears its message. Indolence and sloth are fatal.
Bunyan depicts Sloth as having a better head
than Simple but not making use of it. Whereas
history points to the work of men and women
whose diligence and early-rising brought to their
labours abundant fruits, it also reveals lives
which might have been most helpful to mankind
rendered derelict, abortive and bankrupt through
lack of application.
Not only in the ranks of business men but also
among spiritual and moral leaders vision, inspira-
tion and courage have resulted from faithful and
diligent cultivation. The soul must be tended
most carefully and all weeds eradicated. Habits
require active watchfulness lest they propagate
evil influences. Thoughts must conform with
high ideals and actions should be consistently
good, kind and loving. Power has come to men
PARABLES OF FACT
of God most frequently as it did to the
Wesleys, Archbishop Leighton, Samuel Ruther-
ford, Murray McCheyne and others — by the
consecrated hours spent with God each morning
before entering upon other daily duties. The
garden of family life must also be carefully tended
if the best results are to be procured. The sons
of Eli were weeds in their own home but they
were also a poisonous influence upon the social
and religious life of Israel. Eli's indolence
brought shame upon his people.
The love of ease is very aptly described — first
a little sleep, just that turning-over in one's bed
for a few minutes ; then a little slumber in which
drowsiness creeps on and one forgets the flight
of time ; and finally, when habit has hardened
into principle one calmly folds hands upon the
breast and sinks into a sound sleep oblivious of
the calls of duty, of the world and of humanity.
" 'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I heard him complain,
You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again."
— WATTS.
Whether verse 33 is a description of the sluggard's
laziness or an expression of his own desires does
not seriously matter, as in either case the issue
is the same — poverty and want.
The rapidity with which the sequence develops
is very characteristically depicted. Poverty will
come in * ravaging.' Some understand the
79
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
Hebrew word for ravaging to mean ' like a high-
wayman ' because it is derived from the verb
' to walk ' and is a term which " belongs to a time
when men who frequented the public roads were
likely to be robbers." Seeing that the con-
cluding clause speaks of an armed man who
probably carries off one's goods the translation
* poverty will come in ravaging ' appears to be
both satisfactory and accurate. If men would
only realise that whilst they are slothful, poverty
and affliction are already on their way they would
be up and doing. The one talent man loses
altogether the talent he has buried and he is
punished in addition for his neglect and failure
as a steward. The point of several parables
taught by Jesus lay in His references to the
certain reward of folly and indolence. He urges
us to watch and pray continually and in His own
life He set the example of diligence, perseverance
and hardship. Of the Master it is said : — " A
great while before day, he went out, and
departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."
" Work while it is day ; the night cometh
when no man can work."
80
PARABLE AS FABLE
F
CHAPTER VIII
(a) " THE KING OF THE TREES "
" THE trees went out set upon anointing a king
over themselves and they said to the olive-
tree : ' Be king over us ' ; but the olive said
to them : ' Shall I forsake my fatness by which
gods and men are honoured to go to lord it over
the trees ? ' Then the trees said to the fig-
tree : ' Come thou, be king over us ' ; but
the fig-tree answered them : ' Shall I leave my
sweetness and my good fruit to go to lord it
over the trees ? ' So the trees said to the vine :
* Come thou, be king over us ' ; but the vine
replied to them : ' Shall I leave my wine which
cheereth gods and men to go to lord it over
the trees ? ' All the trees then said to the
thorn-bush : ' Come thou, be king over us ' ;
and the thorn-bush said to the trees : * If indeed
you anoint me to be king over you, come,
trust in my shadow ; but if not, let fire go forth
from the thorn and let it burn up the cedars of
Lebanon.'" — Judges ix, 8-15.
The ' Parable as Fable ' brings us to the second
of the categories outlined in Chapter I. The
83
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
fable is associated with a very early stage of
literature and " draws its characters from the
lower brute creation and even from the in-
animate world. Thus foxes and wolves, eagles
and tortoises, trees and flowers, pots and pans
converse with one another like human beings "
(A. C. Zenos). There are two fables in the Old
Testament — Jotham's (given here) and Jehoash's
(in next chapter) — in both of which trees are
made to speak and to teach. Neither of the
fables can be interpreted without reference to the
particular historical occasions to which it is
related, but they become parables for two
reasons : first, even without the historical
information they are stories which have obviously
some lesson, however obscure, to teach ; and
second, they suggest (at least locally) a moral.
They embodied such a moral originally and
were spoken for that purpose. Under modern
circumstances they cannot be altogether lacking
in appeal, message and warning, for they com-
pel us to ask their meaning.
The fable of the election of a king over the
trees is common to many countries, languages
and literatures. Sir James G. Fraser gives
a very interesting chapter to Jotham's Fable
in his P 'oik-Lore of the Old Testament, reveal-
ing how popular this type of story was in an-
tiquity. In various forms it is found in the
fables of JEsop, in a poem by Callimachus the
PARABLE AS FABLE
Alexandrian poet, in Armenian stones and in
writings by Phaedrus which became very popular
during the Middle Ages. As described by
Josephus the fable of Jotham entrances a
reader, and in that form it should certainly be
read because of its delightful narrative and
its naive summing-up where we learn that
Jotham told his listeners " that what he had
said was no laughing matter."
WHAT WERE THE CIRCUMSTANCES ?
After Gideon's death there was a family feud
— no uncommon experience in olden times —
which was aggravated by the fact that he left
seventy sons by recognised wives and one son
by a concubine. So well had Gideon acquitted
himself as leader and liberator, that he had
been asked to become king. The desire for a
monarchy had already possessed the Israelites
and it grew stronger daily. Though he had
been highly admired and appraised, yet Gideon
declined all preferred honours and set before
the people the true viewpoint : "I will not
rule over you, neither will my son rule over you :
the Lord will rule over you." Gideon's seventy
sons were willing to abide by his decision, but
the remaining son, Abimelech, had great and
mischievous ambitions. He planned well and
trusted much to a reactionary movement
against the house of Gideon by Baal-worshippers.
85
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
His mother, reputed to be very wealthy, was a
native of Shechem, and the Shechemites had
been enraged when Gideon overthrew the altajrs
erected to Baal. With an open and generous
purse, and by a strong religious appeal to the
men of Shechem to avenge themselves, Abime-
lech proceeded to slay the seventy sons of
Gideon near the very spot where the altars of
Baal had been cast down by Gideon. His net
failed to enclose the youngest son, Jotham, who
escaped, only to make a dramatic appearance
on Mount Gerizim, where he shouted out his
story. Truth and righteousness cannot be
altogether exterminated. There is always ' some
youngest son ' who escapes and later perplexes ;
who keeps alive the spirit of truth and goodness
and proves that judgment is the Lord's.
The warriors of Shechem assembled near a
station or post which is described as ' an oak
of a garrison ' and there they proclaimed
Abimelech king. Their celebrations were rudely
disturbed and seriously clouded when a voice was
heard ringing out from a projecting ledge on
Mount Gerizim where Jotham stood, shouting
so that all could hear. Shechem (now Nablus)
lay in a valley between two hills — Mt. Ebal on
the north and Mt. Gerizim on the south — and
it is said that at certain times the human voice
can be heard clearly over the width of the
valley. There are sound reasons for regarding
86
PARABLE AS FABLE
the occasion on which the parable was narrated
to have been a later assembly of the people,
so that time had elapsed during which Jotham
learned of Abimelech's proposals ; but this is
unnecessary. As a lonely fugitive, Jotham
garners all the information he can about
Abimelech's movements, and his sudden appear-
ance makes the irony and bitter sarcasm of his
words the more annoying. His best opportunity
was on that day when they gathered around the
* oak of the garrison ' — the mercat-cross of
Shechem.
Recent excavations have located the tower
of Shechem. The modern name for a suburb of
the city (* Balata ') may be derived from the
Aramaic ' Ballut ' (oak) and so perpetuate the
memory of the venerable tree which formed a
sacred and central feature of an ancient sanc-
tuary of the plain. Under the oak of Shechem
Jacob concealed the idols and amulets of his
household. Under the ( oak of Shechem ' Joshua
set up the witness-stone and gave his farewell
messages to the people. It is possible that
the tower of Shechem may be identified with
the * oak of the garrison,' which term has also
been translated ' the massebah-tree ' (i.e. the
tree under which the massebah or sacred stone
was set up). Having delivered his scathing
and threatening prophecy, Jotham fled, but
the sting of his words remained.
8?
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
THE FABLE
The parable is simple. In the light of histori-
cal knowledge it is pungent. Having decided
to have a king the trees proceed to elect one.
We experience some difficulty in reconciling
this decision to appoint a king with the refusals
to accept office, but that circumstance may be
passed over because the story emphasises the
acceptance of kingship and not the decision
that there should be a king. Among the
Israelites the desire to have a monarch had
steadily grown. Gideon and his sons had
declined the honour when it was proposed to
them. Every true Israelite would regard God
as king and would refuse the crown. Abimelech's
eagerness to rule was a mark of his baseness.
For this reason Jotham tells how the great,
useful and valuable trees decline the offer of
lordship over the trees, because they realise
that in their own sphere they are of more use to
gods and men than they could possibly be by
waving to and fro over other trees.
Regarding the phrase i gods and men ' we
observe that trees are not supposed to be in a
position to speak of * God,' but they do speak of
gods in the same way as of men. Olive and
vine were used by the heathen and Israelites
in worship and in religious ritual. In some
instances the gods were supposed to receive
88
PARABLE AS FABLE
the juice of the vine. As for men, they had many
services to which they could apply the fruits
of olive, fig and vine. It would not be advisable
for the trees to forsake their natural sphere of
greatest utility. The thorn-bush or bramble has
not the same high ideals of office and respon-
sibility. It is a low, creeping and grovelling
plant which seldom reaches higher than six feet.
It is prickly, bears small leaves and insignificant
flowers, and is suitable only for fuel.
If there is any tree which ought not to be king
of the trees that tree is the thorn-bush ; yet
this is the tree which is keen to agree condition-
ally to become ruler of the trees. It lusts for
supremacy, not because the others have refused
the office, but because it desires pre-eminence
and power. What a subtle proposal lies in the
condition set forth — let the others humble
themselves by taking shelter under the shadow
of the thorn-bush. They must then be wholly
under the control of the thorn-bush and their
fruitfulness and growth restricted to whatever
limits their king may permit. This is an un-
acceptable as well as a preposterous condition.
Unwillingness to accept it means destruction,
for fire will issue to burn up all the good trees.
The thorn-bush may wear a crown, but it is still
fit only to be fuel.
p£ Abimelech expects the faithful followers of
Gideon's house and the worshippers of Israel's
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
God to submit to him — a usurping, murderous
and unscrupulous Canaanite. He may be made
king but his heart remains treacherous, his
hands blood-stained, and his reign a period of
destruction and death. The men of Shechem
will one day be destroyed by him whom now
they seek foolishly to honour. Almost in a
literal sense fire went out from Abimelech to
destroy the men of Shechem. Later, they
rebelled against his yoke, and he laid waste their
city, burning their tower. In the end he perished,
crushed by a mill-stone aimed at him by a woman.
MODERN ABIMELECHS
The fable has its valuable suggestions to our
own times. There are always Abimelechs in
society — covetous, crafty and contemptible.
There are grasping usurpers who are never
content to fill a humble role, but are eager to
occupy positions for which they are unqualified.
Theirs is " vaulting ambition which o'erleaps
itself." Self-aggrandisement is often the motive
of public service, and the Abimelechs leave no
stone unturned until they achieve their selfish
purposes. They elbow others aside and decry
the labour of good men. Where honourable
and well-qualified men decline honours, the
Abimelechs claim them with avidity. They even
snatch them though unfit to use them with profit
to their fellowmen. All civic, ecclesiastical and
90
PARABLE AS FABLE
commercial circles suffer from this type of
strategist. Possibly on account of the hesitation
of big-hearted, broad-minded and high-souled
men to accept posts of responsibility, the adven-
turer gets his opportunity.
There is urgent demand that wherever men
are endowed with gifts they should dedicate them
to God through service to humanity. Our
people need to be educated to discern the true
type of public man for leadership. The populace
is too easily deceived. When Jesus was on trial
the people at Jerusalem cried out that they knew
no king but Caesar. Not many years thereafter
the Roman legions came and burned up
Jerusalem. The Nemesis is inevitable. The
supplanter does not escape. The very trickery
by which young Jacob deceives Isaac is later
practised by his own sons upon Jacob grown
old. Unscrupulous dealing in business or religion,
in friendship or society brings its own retribution.
If men who are fit to direct the affairs of state,
city, church or business persist in electing the
upstart and demagogue to offices of responsibility
and control, then they must experience that it
will be on the same condition as laid down by the
thorn-bush — bow down or be ruined. No
tyranny is so oppressive as that exercised by the
democrat become autocrat or dictator. Beneath
his iron heel there is neither liberty nor prosperity.
We are conscious of the crises which arise
91
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
in our individual inward lives. Selfish, proud,
covetous, boastful and conceited elements in our
life are continually seeking the mastery. They
may be enthroned only at the cost of our peace
of mind, our purity and honour. Each of us
has a king to appoint over his soul. The thorn-
bush and destroyer is self ; the noble and fruit-
bearing tree is Jesus, the True Vine.
92
CHAPTER IX
(b) "THE THISTLE AND CEDAR"
" THEN Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash,
the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel,
saying, ' Come, let us look one another in the
face.' And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to
Amaziah, king of Judah, saying : —
" ' The thistle that was in Lebanon sent unto
the cedar that was in Lebanon saying, " Give
thy daughter to my son to wife : " and there
went by a wild beast of the plain which was in
Lebanon and trampled down the thistle.' '
— 2 Kings, xiv, 8-9.
There is much similarity in the two fables of
the Old Testament which are here classified
among the parables of that book. Apart from
the power of speech, attributed in each of them
to vegetable life, there is an element of parallel-
ism in the types of plant life introduced and in
the method of effecting an issue to the stories.
In each case the thistle or bramble which grows
in the shade of its big brothers, represents the
spirit of arrogance, swollen pride and provocative
ambition. Whereas, in Jotham's fable, the
thorn symbolises fuel which will destroy the
93
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
cedars of Lebanon, in Jehoash's fable a beast
of the plain is regarded as part of the scheme for
the destruction of the thistle. There is no
indication that any knowledge of events is
ascribed to the wild animal in question or that
it was aware of the important part it was playing
in frustrating the over-reaching ambition of the
thistle. Further, strict parallelism between all
details of the story and actual events in history
cannot be insisted upon, since whereas in the
fable the cedar and the beast cannot be identical
yet in historical fact Jehoash, king of Israel,
as symbolised by the cedar, was in reality the one
who, as symbolised by the wild beast, crushed
the thistle which symbolised Amaziah of Judah.
To possess a full array of the circumstances of
this story, the narratives in 2 Chron. xxv. and
2 Kings xiv. should be read together. They are
inter-related and, conjointly, apart from textual
criticisms, they aid us in understanding the
salient historical references. From them we
learn how success crowned the campaigning of
both Jehoash of Israel and Amaziah of Judah.
The former reigned at a time when Israel had
reached a great height of military power and
national splendour. He had delivered his
country from bondage to Syria, and although
religion was at a low ebb because of national
godlessness, yet he is portrayed as one who would
have preferred to leave Amaziah undisturbed,
94
PARABLE AS FABLE
and Judah in the peaceful position of a vassal
state to Israel. Amaziah had also cast off a
yoke by defeating the Edomites. He had
engaged mercenary troops from among the
Ephraimites, but on the advice of a prophet he
dismissed them and was victorious without their
aid. His success opened the door to idol-
worship and to irreverence towards God ; and
the dismissal of the mercenaries led to destructive
raids both in Judah and in Israel by those bands
of men who were thus deprived of their antici-
pated spoils and rewards. Thus with an offended
God and an aggrieved king of Israel, the outlook
for Amaziah was not propitious. He himself
aggravated the position by the tactlessness and
folly which too often accompany success and
precede ignominious failure and defeat. He
rejected the warnings of God's messenger who
reminded him that the idols which failed to save
Edom from his (Amaziah' s) own hands could not
now defend Judah. In response to his threat
to punish the prophet, he was given the warning
of God's vengeance upon himself, and what
resulted later is described thus : — " It came of
God."
Having surveyed the historical relationships
and purveyed the setting incidental to our story,
we may now consider a sentence upon the inter-
pretation of which there is no agreement among
scholars and which has a very direct bearing,
95
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
not so much upon the meaning of the story as
upon our appreciation and application of it.
Amaziah's words : — " Let us look one another
in the face " have been variously interpreted
as signifying any one of the following : —
(1) A challenge to fight Israel either to avenge
the raids of the Ephraimites, or to assert
independence ; or simply a provocative step
following upon his recent successes.
(2) A request for a conference to adjust the
difficulties which had resulted from the raids
upon Judean and Israelitish towns.
(3) An approach for consideration of a marriage
alliance between the two kingdoms.
If it is permissible to deduce from the fable,
there seems to be no escape from the third
suggestion, but its consequences appear to be
altogether out of proportion as well as out of
relationship to such a claim or approach. The
fable reveals a certain detachment of interest
in its second part which meets this objection.
The destruction of the thistle is not carried out
by the cedar but by a third party who has not
entered into the question of the council. This
is a simple and natural possibility. A marriage
alliance would be rendered impossible in con-
sequence of the beast's intervention ; but such
a condition would invalidate the development
whereby the intervention was actually effected
by the king, who is represented by the cedar.
96
PARABLE AS FABLE
There may be a confusion of metaphors, and
it is always possible that, as ' it is of God,'
so God can choose Jehoash as His instrument
to accomplish His purpose.
May not the explanation of the parable lie
in the thought that Amaziah sought a conference
to deal with the raids upon his towns, and that
as a condition of agreement he insisted upon
a marriage alliance ? By this means we can
comprehend the force, irony, disdain and haughti-
ness of the words used by Jehoash. He stands
like one of the mighty cedars of Lebanon such
as that ' Grand Old Man ' of Lebanon, who has
been described in modern times as keeping his
lonely vigil outside the enclosure of cedars,
6,000 feet above the Mediterranean where " he
not only guards the wood, but also surveys the
land " and still, " under their shade grow
barberry, wild rose and bramble — giant monarch
and impudent impostor." To such a tree the
beast of the plain is harmless, but alike to the
sapling cedars and all small shrubs he is a
serious menace. Even to-day, wild goats break
through the breaches in the enclosure walls
and trample down the growing bushes. This
point is made explicit in the fable. Not the
cedar, but an animal of the field crushes the
thistle and the cedar continues to reign un-
disturbed.
Objection may be taken to the moral and
97 G
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
spiritual application of this parable on the
ground that it was spoken ostensibly for a
specific occasion and to an interested individual.
In reply it may be argued that the parable
of the Good Samaritan was also spoken under
such circumstances and was even applied by
Jesus to an individual case — " Go and do thou
likewise " — but that the value of the story has
been universally recognised and appreciated
and so the story has become part of the universal
library of the codes of good conduct. In a
similar sense, we may regard this Old Testament
Parable because it has for us in our day a message
as clear and definite as it had for Amaziah in his.
" Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty
spirit before a fall," Prov. xvi. 18. There are
conditions of life in which success is more
dangerous than failure. Wherever success
engenders presumption, vaulting ambition, or
conceit, the danger signal is present. Success
may beget arrogance, boasting and indiscretion
which prompt men to enter the lists with those
who are their superiors alike in strength, char-
acter and position. Only a superior could make
the demand, " Give thy daughter to my son to
wife " yet, as in the parable, there are those who,
dazzled by the glare of their own successes,
claim either for themselves or others such
positions or rewards as they are quite unsuited
to hold. They intermeddle to their discom-
PARABLE AS FABLE
fiture and hurt. Cedars have no need to worry
about the ambitions of thistles : they may
grow close together, but their sphere and purpose
are quite distinct. It is as absurd for the
thistle to think of an alliance with the cedar
as for the cedar to form an alliance with the
thistle. We must resist every temptation to
imagine ourselves superior to what we are.
Without any discussion of what is termed
* class ' distinction or * social difference ' we
have to recognise that when God created a
thistle He had no intention of making it into a
lordly cedar, either in height or in utility. Jesus
Christ sought to stress the need for each man to
fill his own niche which no other can fill so well.
He indicated also that just in proportion as we
may thus fulfil our allotted duty and bear its
responsibility, shall we be promoted or given
increased responsibilities. We must suppress
and extinguish within ourselves that fire which
" Preys upon high adventure . . .
... a fever at the core,
Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore."
— BYRON.
An important point in the parable of the
Pharisee and the Publican is that the latter knew
and faithfully observed his position before God,
whereas the former was blind to the truth of the
situation. He knew neither humility nor rever-
ence towards God. A little success or a little
99
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
righteousness may deceive us into thinking
ourselves stronger or better than we are. To
flaunt our self-righteousness before God or man
is sure to incur for us a well-merited punishment.
In Amaziah's case, his kingdom was taken from
him and Jerusalem was devastated.
No matter where men go they find here a cedar,
and there a thistle : in the crowded city life and
in the seclusion of rural life ; in the market and
in the shop ; in the church, the school and the
home ; and in the many forms of social life
and human endeavour — it is always the same —
here a cedar, and there a thistle — men and
women with various thoughts, tastes, pursuits
and gifts. Some are intoxicated with success
whilst others are humbled. The former acquire
foolish pride and assume superior, unbecoming
airs ; they scorn advice and kindly warnings ;
they are thistle characters, incapable of develop-
ment and growth. They differ from the cedars
in height, depth and girth. They cannot soar
so high ; their roots are not so deeply entrenched
and established, and their influence is not so far-
reaching.
Just as Amaziah's heart was not right with
God, so there are those whose religion is not
deeply rooted but very near the surface, often
hypocritical. The crux of this matter lies in
the hidden depth. The roots are not seen.
Selfishness and harsh, cruel, intemperate and
IOO
PARABLE AS FABLE
evil desires or motives may not be obvious to
the public or to the congregation. Yet, " by
their fruits ye shall know them." The girth
of a tree depends upon its roots. Travellers
have reported upon cedars which are 41 feet in
girth with large, spreading branches. Our girth
is our measure of influence. History is full of
lordly* cedars, the great, noble minds and hearts
who have brought rich blessings to mankind
and who have laboured steadfastly independent
of all the envyings, criticisms, and petty
ambitions of the conceited and puffed-up thistles.
Especially true is this in the case of Christian
lives by means of which the branches of Christ's
Kingdom are stretching out so that all nations
may rest in their shade.
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PARABLES OF FANCY
CHAPTER X
(a) "THE SOILED WAIST-CLOTH"
" THUS said the Lord unto me — ' Go and acquire
for thyself a linen waist-cloth and put it upon
thy loins, but thou shalt not cause it to come
through water '. So I acquired the waist-cloth
according to the word of the Lord, and I set it
upon my loins, and the word of the Lord
came unto me a second time saying — ' Take the
waist-cloth which thou hast acquired, which is
upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates and
bury it there in a hole of the rock '. And I
went and buried it in Euphrates according as
the Lord commanded me. Then it came to pass
after many days that the Lord said unto me —
* Arise, go to Euphrates and take thence the
waist-cloth which I commanded thee to bury
there '. So I went to Euphrates and I digged
and took the waist-cloth from the place wherein
I had buried it, and behold, the waist-cloth
was marred ; it was not profitable for anything
at all.
"And the word of the Lord came unto me
saying — ' Thus saith the Lord ; After this man-
ner shall I mar the pride of Judah and the great
105
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
pride of Jerusalem. This evil people who
refuse to hear my words, who walk in the
stubbornness of their heart and have gone
after other gods to serve them and worship
them shall be as this waist-cloth which is not
profitable for anything at all. For as the
waist-cloth cleaveth unto the loins of a man,
so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole
house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,'
saith the Lord, l that they might be unto me for
a people and for a name, and for a praise and
for a glory ; but they did not give ear.' '
— Jeremiah xiii, i-n.
As the first among ' Parables of Fancy,' this
interesting narrative about the waist-cloth that
was marred challenges us to prove that it is
such a parable rather than one of fact. Did
Jeremiah really go through the action of the
story, or was it given him in vision, or is it a
story narrated as though it had been experienced
for the purpose of teaching the nation a neces-
sary and very urgent lesson ? The answers to
such questions require reference to a perplexing
interpretation. The Hebrew word Perath, trans-
lated Euphrates in our text, is regarded by many
modern scholars as a reference to the Wady
Farah which is only a few miles distant from
Anathoth, the home of Jeremiah. There are
found a fountain and stream " which soak into
the sand and fissured rock of the surrounding
1 06
PARABLES OF FANCY
desert." On the other hand, Euphrates is
about 250 miles distant and is not enclosed by
rock as the story requires.
It is not easy to believe that the prophet
walked such a great distance on two occasions
in order to learn an obvious lesson and a lesson
which could have been so easily demonstrated
nearer home. If Euphrates is the correct
rendering, then the story is a parable of fancy
rather than of fact, and if the Wady Farah is
intended, we have either a parable of fancy
(given as vision) or a parable of fact in which
the prophet acted the story under divine guid-
ance. We are constrained to accept the con-
clusion of Principal G. A. Smith — " That the
Wady Farah was the scene of the parable is
possible, though not certain. But the ambiguity
of these details does not interfere with the
moral of the whole." Remembering that the
whole narrative is recorded as being under the
constraint of God's direction, and that the story
has reference to the burial of Israel in a place
where the nation becomes quite unprofitable,
we retain in our text the word Euphrates as
symbolising the land of captivity and we incline
towards regarding the whole story as visionary
in its inception though narrated as having
been experienced.
Another word whose interpretation makes a
radical difference in the meaning and application
107
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
of the story is that which is given as l waist-
cloth.' Cheyne holds the view that no word
is so appropriate and dignified as * waist-
wrapper ' and he quotes the Arabic proverb—
' He is unto me as a waist-wrapper.' The
waist-cloth was bound very close to the body
under other clothing, and it must be distinguished
from the girdle, which was a waist-belt wrapped
around and over other garments. The girdle
was often adorned and ornamented, a circum-
stance which might justify the description of
Judah and Israel as a praise and a glory for
God, but this is to read into the word * waist-
cloth ' the idea of such ornamentation as neces-
sitates the meaning waist-belt or girdle. So
very clear is the command to put it upon the
loins that there can scarcely be any doubt that
it is the ' waist-cloth ' which is bound close
to the skin ; for it was caused ' to cleave unto
me ' which can scarcely be said of the ordinary
waist-belt or girdle.
Emphasis is laid upon the material of which
the waist-cloth consists. It is linen. All the
priestly garments were linen and because of
that linen symbolised holiness. Possibly this
does not wholly explain why linen is mentioned
in the parable. Israel was indeed expected
to be holy unto the Lord, but two of the useful
qualities of linen are that it wears well and
can be long preserved. It was used in the
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PARABLES OF FANCY
burial of mummies, and there have been in-
stances in which new linen has withstood the
ravages of time over many centuries. When
washed it is again practically new, but if it is
left soiled and contaminated in any way with
damp, it will rot. Jeremiah makes good use of
the recognised qualities of linen. The waist-
cloth which he acquires or buys must not be
put in water after he has worn it. He buries
it soiled in a hole or chink of rock. May not
Euphrates mean simply, in the land with which
the river is identified rather than mean a refer-
ence to the near presence of water ? He buries
it where it should be dry and long-preserved,
but after many days he digs it up only to find
that it is altogether useless. Is not the
suggestion here that the uselessness of the linen
has resulted from its earlier corruption rather
than from its contact with water or damp ? It
was buried in an unclean and soiled condition,
the consequences of which were decay and
rottenness.
The parable has thus a vivid application
to the condition of Judah since it indicates
that the corruption of the nation will not result
from its exile in a distant land where it will be
buried, but from the sin which has already
wrought uncleanness among the people before
they are removed. Their only chance of life
and preservation lies in an immediate cleansing.
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THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
Once the national life is defiled, no hiding or
burial even in a distant land will arrest the
process of decay and death. The canker will
work its deadliest havoc unless it is treated in
the earliest stages when the nation is still
closely bound to righteousness and purity. Thus
the Lord is described as emphasising primarily
that the nation is an evil people, disobedient,
haughty and stubborn, idolatrous and imperti-
nent. God had chosen them to be a peculiar
people unto Himself and had bound them
closely to Himself by His love and tokens of
mercy. He sought them as a great praise and
glory, but sin had already so corrupted their
life that He foresees the final issue — never
again can the nation be a praise and glory for
God upon the earth. We are given a glimpse
of God dealing patiently and lovingly with
His people, delivering to them through teachers
and prophets His messages of reconciliation
and restoration ; pleading with them to repent
and be converted, but all His appeals fall upon
deaf ears and cold, stubborn hearts. They
did not hear — it is God's deep grief for His
people. We feel that the final words are drawn
most reluctantly from Him, and they are
echoed in the words of Jesus in His lament over
Jerusalem — " But ye would not."
A nation which had been separated as a holy
people through whom God's name was to be
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PARABLES OF FANCY
praised and honoured will now be completely
unprofitable in consequence of their refusal to
obey and honour Him. Does the parable fail
when we observe that it is God who will mar
the pride of Judah ? No : because the humilia-
tion is put upon Judah and Jerusalem not by
God but by their own neglect of God. He
states the issue. It was their duty to seek the
cleansing, not His to purify them when their
hearts were turned away from Him.
In a sense peculiar to the New Testament
and its message of grace, God has again caused
a people to cleave unto Him for the purpose
" that they might be for a people, and for a name
and for a praise and for a glory " because in
Jesus He has taken His Church to be " a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people : that ye should shew forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of
darkness into his marvellous light." Individual
members of the Church can cleave unto God
by faith in Jesus Christ. A Church which
neglects the call and service of God, which
boasts in its own strength, which compromises
with sin and which corrupts the faith once
delivered through the Lord is a Church like
Jeremiah's waist-cloth. Amid the godless and
irreligious where it lies in its corrupt state, it
will become completely unprofitable to God and
humanity. The same words apply to every
in
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
professing believer in Jesus Christ whose pro-
fession means that he is knit to the Lord and
that God's Holy Name can be honoured and
glorified in and through him. In modern times
we seldom hear the confesison that we are
unprofitable servants. Among the lessons to be
derived from this parable of the Soiled Waist-
Cloth may well be a new conception of the
honour and majesty of God, a fresh sense of our
responsibility to maintain the glory of God's
name, and a wish, by pure life and consecrated
service, to keep ourselves closely bound to Him
in that love which has manifested a desire never
to let us go.
112
CHAPTER XI
(b) "THE POTTER"
" THE word which came unto Jeremiah from the
Lord, saying, ' Arise, and go down to the potter's
house and there shall I cause thee to hear my
words.'
" So I went down to the potter's house, and
behold, he was executing a work upon the wheels ;
and the vessel which he was making of clay was
marred in the hand of the potter : so he (began)
again and he made it another vessel as it seemed
good in the eyes of the potter to make.
" And the word of the Lord came unto me
saying, ' Am I not able to do to you, 0 house of
Israel, even as this potter ? ' saith the Lord.
* Behold, as the clay in the hand of the potter
so are ye in my hand, 0 house of Israel. Immedi-
ately I shall speak concerning a nation and
concerning a kingdom either to root up, or to
break down, or to destroy, and that nation shall
return from its evil concerning which I have
spoken, then shall I repent of the evil which
I promised to do to it. Again, immediately,
I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning
a kingdom to build or to plant, and it do evil
113 H
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
in my sight so that it do not hearken to my voice
then shall I repent the good with which I have
said I would do it good.' " — Jer. xviii. i-io.
The relation of the potter to the clay with all
its inherent possibilities and suggestiveness, is
one which has been rendered most strikingly in
such writings as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
and Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra. It was very
commonly used by the Hebrews, and in the
Bible there are several references to the potter
and the clay. Had Jeremiah merely narrated
the potter's action, we should have possessed
another parable of fact, but he states that he was
directed by the Lord to go down to the potter's
house and that the lesson would be borne in upon
his own mind as he looked on and meditated.
It was not necessary for him actually to go
down since it is almost certain that he knew
the potter's practice ; but whether he went down
to the potter's house in fact or in fancy, leaves
the story as a parable of fancy given under
suggestion from the word of the Lord. He
projects the thoughts which came to him upon
the relationship existing between God and Israel,
and indicates very clearly and effectively the
providence, patience and mercy of God towards
a people who had placed much strain upon His
love and compassion.
It is unnecessary to enter upon critical
analysis of the parable, discussing whether
114
PARABLES OF FANCY
Jeremiah was responsible only for the first
four or six verses. To exclude the remaining
verses leaves the story suspended in the air.
The whole narrative is part of a complete
section embraced by chapters xviii.-xx. and in
chapter xix. there is presented a symbolical act
in which the smashing of a potter's earthen
bottle proclaims emphatically to the priests and
ancients of the people that when their nation's
heart is hardened and God's word is not obeyed,
destruction must inevitably ensue. Our parable
is preparatory to that awful day and is delivered
in the hope that the people will repent and turn
to God that His will may be wrought through
them. To assign the parable to any particular
period in Jeremiah's life is not easy, though it is
probably to be associated with the early years
of Jehoiakim. It indicates that the nation was
passing through a critical period when a new
vision, high ideal and consecration of national
life might lead to a glorious revival with recovery
of honour and prestige.
The house of the potter was probably situated
in the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem.
There is the traditional site of the potter's field
mentioned in Matt, xxvii. 7, where many
evidences of the existence of potteries have been
unearthed, and above them there is what is
believed to have been the gate of the potsherd.
The potter did his work upon wheels. These
"5
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
were two discs of which the larger and lower
was usually made of stone (though later of wood).
With his feet he turned this wheel, and as it was
connected by a central support to the upper disc
(which was often made of wood) this upper wheel
was set in motion. Upon the latter he shaped,
moulded and dressed the clay, having both
hands free for his work. In Thomson's Land
and the Book, p. 521, there is a description of
the potter as seen at his task, and the writer
tells that after waiting for a long time the
incident described in our parable happened at
last — " From some defect in the clay, or because
he had taken too little, the potter suddenly
changed his mind, crushed his growing jar
instantly into a shapeless mass of mud, and
beginning anew, fashioned it into a totally
different vessel."
Jeremiah had doubtless looked upon such a
scene before, but he had not then received from
it its message as given by God. On this special
occasion he is caused to hear God's voice. The
potter proceeds with his labour altogether
unconscious of its influence upon an observer's
mind. By simple everyday facts of common
experience we may learn God's ways. Michael
Fairless's Roadmender preaches silently while
he sits breaking stones near the white gate.
There are always spectators who, unknown to
the workman, are being impressed and taught.
116
If we visit the potter's workshop in the company
of Jeremiah, we see how the artist uses and works
upon the clay with deft hands. He has a plan
for the clay in his mind, and he seeks to reveal
it and give it substance in an earthen vessel.
Alas, for some reason not given to us he finds
that it is marred. There is a flaw :
" What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! "
No longer can it fulfil its destined purpose in
accordance with the craftsman's plan ; but he
is not finished with it. He does not discard it.
On the contrary, he conceives for it immediately
another purpose. This may not mean a vessel
so beautiful in its workmanship or so delicate
in its lines as would have been the other, but
it may be as useful to men. The clay is fashioned
into another vessel. Looking on admiring, we
hear suddenly the words which flash through
Jeremiah's mind as he, too, beholds — " Am I
not able to do to you, 0 house of Israel, even
as this potter ? Behold, as the clay in the hand
of the potter so are ye in my hand." Not
spoken, yet quite audible, are the words which
we are constrained by God to hear. For that
very purpose God has caused Jeremiah to go
down to the potter's house. He is permitted a
glimpse of God's way in dealing with men and
nations.
When applied to the house of Israel there is
117
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
no difficulty in recognising the parable's meaning,
challenge and supplication. The nation was
chosen by God for a very high and important
function — to be a separate people through whose
might, beauty and holiness their God would be
reverenced throughout the world. Clay has
no freedom of will whereby it can resist the
potter's efforts. It may be refractory and
difficult to work according as it is good or poor
clay for the purpose. If it be the proper clay
for what is planned, then it will in all probability
be used again for the same purpose, but the
parable indicates that the potter has met with
a disappointment. He cannot make what was
expected ; he will therefore form what is within
the compass of the class of material in his hand.
This defect appears only when the clay has
been put to the test.
A nation's condition differs from that of clay.
A nation has a will and can refuse permission
to God to mould it. It is easier also for
God to exercise sovereignty over an individual's
life than over a nation's because the latter
embraces so many complexities and vagaries of
mind and will that to get a whole nation's will
harnessed to God's will, is very difficult. It
demands infinite patience, and it premises the
right of God to claim that His will be done.
The parable deals with both of these features.
Over against a national departure from obedience
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PARABLES OF FANCY
to God's law and teaching, we hear God asserting
His authority and sovereignty. His people
cannot evade or disregard Him. What He must
do will be done immediately. Should they
persist in resistance to His purpose, He will
act speedily. He will repent of the high ideal
and make of them another vessel. If, however,
an unsatisfactory nation, such as the house of
Israel was, repents and turns to God He will
in this case also immediately set to work to bless
that people and to annul whatever evil their
own wickedness had been bringing upon them.
We may so interpret verse 10 as to read into
it a meaning suggesting destruction, death and
a closed door against hope and restoration ;
nevertheless it must be observed that the
parable's most powerful meaning lies in its
supplication to a nation to appreciate the mercy
and loving-kindness of God as He assures them
that though He has been frustrated in His first
design for their life, they may, by His grace,
be re-made and restored as an honour to Him.
It is the gospel of a second chance proclaiming
God's everlasting mercy, patience and love.
He may be forced to repent of His goodness,
but He prefers to relent from His judgments.
Since individual citizens constitute a nation
the parable speaks also to each man and woman.
We are so unstable and refractory that we deny
to God the best we can give Him. Our lives
119
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
break or are marred upon the wheels. By
adversity, failure or deliberate evil we soil our
lives. We lose contact with the great forces
which might mould us aright. Broken hearts,
soiled souls, marred lives, shattered visions,
low ideals and fading hopes result from flaws
which were unseen or unknown. We are subject
to many influences which rob us of our beauty
and strength. Of ourselves we may be proud,
self-centred and stubborn, declining to allow
God's spirit free course in our lives. We are
conscious of what He wishes to make us, for in
Jesus Christ we possess the Divine Pattern.
We lie in His hand — marred, soiled, broken.
Such is our estimate of ourselves. What is His ?
He, the Divine Potter, sees new possibilities
even in the broken, inert clay. There is no
waste in that workshop. The potter's house
is a place of hope, revival and restoration. In
His loving and tender hand the blemishes are
used to remake us. Out of ruin, despair, wreck
and calamity of soul and out of maimed lives
He can produce new souls and strong lives.
We cannot define or limit the bounds of His
judgment if we refuse Him the opportunity to
recreate us. This is a truth revealed in several
of the parables of Jesus. To those who repent
of sin and disobedience, yielding their lives to
God in Jesus, who is the revelation of His love
and patience, there is the assured promise of a
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PARABLES OF FANCY
new life and fresh discovery of the value of one's
own soul. Readers of modern writings such
as Broken Earthenware (H. Begbie), The Ever-
lasting Mercy (J. Masefield), God in the Slums
(H. Redwood) and One Thing I Know (A. J.
Russell) cannot fail to appreciate the moral and
influence of this Old Testament Parable which
is perennially fresh and ever new. It throbs
with the optimism of Browning's Rabbi Ben
Ezra and the radiant hope of Jesus Christ
rather than with the gloom and pessimism of
Omar Khayyam
" So take and use Thy work :
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim !
My times be in Thy hand !
Perfect the cup as planned."
— Ben Ezra.
' If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.'
2 Cor. v. 17.
121
CHAPTER XII
(c) " MICAIAH— A FAITHFUL MINISTER
OF GOD
" I SAW all Israel scattered upon the mountains
as a flock which had no shepherd ; and the
Lord said : — " These have no master ; let them
return each to his house in peace." — I Kings
xxii. 17.
" I saw the Lord seated upon His throne
and all the heavenly host stood by Him on the
right hand and on the left. And the Lord
said : — " Who will entice Ahab that he will
go up and fall in Ramoth-gilead ? " And one
spoke in this manner and another in that man-
ner ; then the spirit came forth and stood
before the Lord and said : — " I shall entice
him." But the Lord said unto him : — " In
what way ? " And he said : "I shall go out
and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all
his prophets." And He said : " Thou shalt
entice and also prevail. Go forth and do
accordingly." — i Kings, xxii. 19-22.
Divided as it is into two sections, this narrative
is one of the most alluring and illuminating of
all the stories regarding God's messengers. The
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PARABLES OF FANCY
first part is the real parable and the second part,
which is also parabolic, explains the first by
shewing under what misleading and dangerous
counsel the conditions described in the first
part were set up. The charm of the narrative
so holds readers that the prophetic and visionary
elements sink into obscurity. A few explana-
tory words about the history of the period
enable us to follow the stories with under-
standing and appreciation. When first spoken
they would require no specific reference to
contemporary events because they would be
self-revealing and explanatory. When originally
narrated their appeal to men's minds would be
much richer than it can possibly be at this
distance from the events referred to.
THE BACKGROUND.
The background of the canvas is easily
portrayed. It reveals more clearly all that
occurred at the momentous meeting of
Jehoshaphat of Judah with Ahab of Israel,
which forms the foreground. Jehoshaphat had
prospered and established his kingdom. He
was a pious king and he consolidated the strength
of Judah alike in defence, in war, in religion,
in law and in wealth. Though Judah and
Israel had been previously hostile, they were
now friendly and at peace. Indeed, the royal
houses were united by a marriage alliance be-
123
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
tween children of the kings. Ahab, King of
Israel, had treated his conquered enemy,
Benhadad of Syria, too leniently, and allowed
the Syrians to continue comfortably in Ramoth-
gilead upon a promise that they would restore
the city. Now he sought to reclaim the city
and desired the aid of Jehoshaphat in his cam-
paign. Ignorant of his ally's fears and sus-
picions, Ahab was not fully prepared for the
question of Jehoshaphat which asked whether
the venture was acceptable to God.
THE FOREGROUND.
We regard now the scene in the foreground
— the meeting of the kings. Ahab knows
that he cannot anticipate God's blessing
upon his latest adventure, and he resorts
to the device of summoning 400 mercenary
prophets whose views will coincide with his
own. They tell him to go up and conquer,
but their plausibility and servility are all too
apparent to Jehoshaphat, who suspects mischief
and asks most slightingly if there is not besides
a " prophet of the Lord." The 400 were
doubtless prophets of the Lord, but with their
first loyalty to the King. Is there not an
approved prophet of the Lord known for his
devotion to God ? One can visualise that scene
where the strong, religious king asks the arro-
gant, idol-worshipping king for a true messenger
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PARABLES OF FANCY
from the Lord. The question gets under
Ahab's armour and guise, unveiling a fear in his
heart. He admits that he has not summoned
one man whom he knows to be true to God and
whom he hates just because of his courageous
stand for God and righteousness. His words
are an admission of previous wrong-doing when
conviction came home to him through that
man of God — Micaiah, who was possibly the
unknown prophet who narrated to Ahab the
parable of the escaped prisoner. Secretly urged
to side with the 400 prophets, Micaiah proves
himself a valiant hero for his Lord ; one of that
noble line of courageous servants who, like
Elijah at Carmel, Stephen at Jerusalem, Luther
at Worms and Knox at Edinburgh, fear not
majorities or rulers so long as they are them-
selves true to God — he proclaims in parable the
fatal issue to Ahab's adventure, and Ahab
recognises instinctively what the parable means
for himself. That Ahab sensed the danger is
proved by his disguise for the battle and his
attempt to contrive Jehoshaphat's death in
place of his own.
The short parable has its paradoxical diffi-
culties. Sheep are not expected to come into
the pens of their own accord from the outlying
grazings far scattered upon the hillsides. Again,
there is small comfort in appending the words
"^in peace " to a return home from destruction.
125
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
As a probable interpretation, the parable should
be regarded more as a warning than as a sequel
to the king's folly. It is symbolical of the
condition of God's people when they are under
the leadership of a king who has already ceased
to perform the duties of God's anointed to his
nation. Ere it is too late, the army should be
disbanded and each man go home in peace.
Opposed to the king's policy, which means the
complete dismemberment of the nation, Micaiah
advises peace and preservation.
In view of the warning thus given, it is truly
astonishing that Jehoshaphat united with Ahab
to attack Ramoth-gilead. Much more astound-
ing is that action when the prophet's words
are considered. They confirm the suspicions
of Jehoshaphat regarding the 400 prophets into
whom the lying spirit had entered. This idea
of a lying spirit is most repugnant to us, but
it was common, acceptable and even agreeable
to the Hebrew mind. To understand this as the
work of the Lord whereby He allows prophets
to be deceived in order that His purpose may
ultimately be achieved does not deprive the
text of its meaning. But this interpreta-
tion would react very harshly upon the true
prophet's declarations and would condemn rather
than justify his allegiance to God. Apart from
textual uncertainties, it may be concluded
that behind the parable " lies a great truth
126
PARABLES OF FANCY
to which religious experience of all ages bears
witness. The man who sells himself to work
evil, loses his power of discerning between
good and evil ; the flattering tongue of a number
of worldly prophets prevails with such a man
over the utterance of the one spiritually minded
seer " (Barnes). New Testament writers made
use of the doctrine of a false spirit entering
into the Church and into the hearts of Church
leaders to deceive them and to seek to bring
about the overthrow of God's citadel upon
earth by giving a wrong conception of God's
purpose.
GOD'S FAITHFUL SERVANT.
Micaiah can be dissociated from his parable
only with the greatest difficulty. His life and
power are closely linked to the incidents to
which his words are related ; and he impresses
us by reason of his courage, steadfastness to
God's cause, indomitable perseverance in face
of overwhelming odds and cheerful submission
to affliction. In him we possess a noble type
of servant in God's Kingdom. He will not pander
to any class or section. Gold cannot buy his
loyalty, nor can flattery divert him from his
duty. Unafraid of the foe's big battalions and
their treachery and wiles, he fears only God.
Invited to side with the majority, he prefers
to be on God's side. He fears neither king
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
nor prophets because it is his joy to serve God
whom he beheld in vision and whose voice he
obeyed. His defence lies in the words — " I
saw the Lord." Such visions have been the
inspiration and security of all faithful servants
of God. Though alone in witnessing for God,
they have the vision of the Lord beside them,
and this makes all the difference. Seeing the
Lord did more for Moses and Paul in a few
minutes than did years of religious education
and care.
To the Christian Church of modern times the
parable bears its precious moral. Material and
worldly forces have become so established
within the citadel that there are many and
serious temptations to God's messengers to
compromise. In the guise of true servants
there are treacherous deceivers who urge the
faithful servant to bow to their opinion by
denying obedience to God's voice. We recall
that the essence of all the temptations of Jesus
Christ lay in the offers to Him of power and
worship if He would but surrender. He warned
His disciples against the leaven (the spirit of
false teaching) of the Pharisees. He told them
not to fear those who would cast them into
prison or lay hands upon them, but to fear Him
who had power over their souls. No wrong
merits so great condemnation as an evil sugges-
tion which is sugar-coated with a religious
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PARABLES OF FANCY
profession. Such a deceiving spirit passed
through a crowd one day in Jerusalem, and
the crowd were enticed and tricked into ex-
claiming— " Crucify him ! " and " We have no
king but Caesar ! "
If ever in history God's people needed careful
shepherding, now is the time. We read that
" when He saw the multitudes, He was moved
with compassion on them, because they fainted
and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no
shepherd." Matt. ix. 36. As truly as there
was need for fidelity and enthusiasm in Christ's
time, so also to-day the compassion and love
of Christ's ambassadors are needed in the
world.
129
CHAPTER XIII
(d) "THE PLOUGHMAN"
" GIVE ear and hear my voice ; hearken and
hear my word.
" Does the ploughman plough all the day to
sow ? Does he lay open and break up his soil ?
When he has levelled its surface does he not
scatter black cummin and sprinkle cummin,
set the wheat in rows, the barley in marked-out
order and rye in its borders ? And his God
trains him aright ; He teaches him ; for black
cummin is not threshed with a sharp stone
nor is a wagon-wheel turned about upon cummin.
But black cummin is beaten out with a staff
and cummin with a rod. Bread corn is beaten
out because he will not ever be treading it out,
and though he urge forward the wheel of his
wagon and his horses, he does not crush it.
" This also came forth from the Lord of Hosts.
He makes wisdom distinguished ; He exalts
understanding." — Isaiah xxviii. 23-29.
In justification of the inclusion of this homely
agricultural song among the Parables of the
Old Testament, reference need only be made
to the Gospel of Mark, iv. 26-33, where Jesus
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PARABLES OF FANCY
is reported to have spoken in parables when He
used forms of speech not dissimilar to that
form which appears in the closing verses of
Isaiah xxviii. Mark does not describe the
parables as having been delivered in the form of
narratives of fact, but rather as an appeal to the
minds of Christ's listeners. ' So is the Kingdom
of God, as if a man should cast seed into the
ground . . .' As Jesus applied the routine
of agricultural labour to express a truth, even
so in our parable did Isaiah also utilise it to
show that each class of seed requires its own
soil, treatment, harvest and threshing, and to
direct the thought of his audience to God, whose
wisdom is manifested in all the care and pre-
vision which inspire the ploughman in his tasks.
With a thrust which is straight and unerring
he points the nation to God's unfailing mercy
and protection of those who trust in Him.
Commentators are almost unanimous in their
appreciation of this parable alike for its song,
its comfort and its lesson. There are divers
opinions regarding its historical setting and
textual associations, but in respect of its spiritual
value and message there is agreement. Orelli
regards the chapter as a gloomy discourse which
closes with a sunbeam in the form of " a calmly-
conceived and instructive parable," while
Delitzsch says that Isaiah here proves himself
a master of the mashal by giving a mashal-song,
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THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
which is left for interpretation by his hearers.
God in its heart is the inspiration, key and
director of all. The song's theme revolves
around revelations of God and of His wonderful
goodness. The ploughman's art is shown to be
God-inspired, not self-created or self-suggested.
" His God trains him aright." God's purposes
are declared to be consistent with rational laws,
and what is regarded as thus divinely provided
in the simple functions of husbandry, is set
forth as applicable in the life of nations and of
individuals. Where men see chaos, upheaval,
disaster, disappointment and decay, God works
consistently towards a definite achievement.
His methods are not stereotyped but varied, just
as the agriculturist must study seasons, seeds
and soils as well as the different modes of treat-
ment and development to get the best results.
Harvesting and threshing processes are also
varied — delicate grains will not be threshed with
a sharp stone and the wagon-wheel will not be
turned about upon them. In like manner God's
dealings with the many types of men are shown
to be exercised in accordance with human
capacity and divine requirement. In order to
receive from a nation or an individual that
response to His love and care which God antici-
pates He deals with His people in accordance
with natural and acquired endowments, oppor-
tunities and character.
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PARABLES OF FANCY
Whatever may have been its historical back-
ground, the parable appears to have been written
in defence of God's control and direction of
national affairs. It is no merely modern com-
plaint against God that He measures out His
mercies unequally and unjustly. Some people
are called upon to endure more suffering and
loss than others, and there are many seemingly
inconsistent circumstances. By means of the
parable Isaiah indicates that in all God's dealings
there is consistency of aim if not of method,
and that God's works must be contemplated
not by their divergent operations but by their
ultimate purpose. Thus might men be encour-
aged to put their trust in God.
For its practical information upon agricultural
work, the parable has a special value quite
apart from its parabolical meaning. It sheds
light upon a domestic and social aspect of
Hebrew life, which is nowhere else in the Bible
so well portrayed. The opening clause arrests a
modern reader by its question, " Does the
ploughman plough all the day to sow ? " This
is doubtless a reference to the practice of sowing
the seeds first and thereafter ploughing so as to
cover the seeds as a protection against the
ravages of insects and birds and as a means of
conserving moisture for the seeds. The plough-
share did not go deep, and sometimes it became
necessary to have more than one ploughing to
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THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
secure a safe sowing. It is very doubtful if
there was any harrowing in the modern sense of
that word. The soil having been levelled in a
simple and rather rough manner, the seed was
sown according to its kind and covered in the
process of subsequent ploughing. To conclude
the first clause with the word ' day ' and carry
forward the words * to sow ' into the next clause
renders a more intelligible meaning which
coincides with the Septuagint translation, " Does
the ploughman plough all the day (i.e. continu-
ously) ? Does he make ready the sowing before
the working of the soil ? " Here we learn that
God's plough must follow the sowing of the
seeds in human hearts, and that what men may
think will destroy will be for their protection
and prosperity.
Each class of seed requires its own particular
form of sowing in order that it may bear fruit.
Some seeds must be broadly scattered whereas
others need only be slightly sprinkled — black
cummin is scattered and cummin is sprinkled.
The former seed is supposed to have been a type
of fennel-flower which was used for seasoning
purposes by bakers, although some commen-
tators have regarded it as black poppy seed.
Cummin is grown for use as a condiment. Other
seeds such as barley, wheat and rye, which were
more valuable and were sown in the winter, had
to be laid in furrows by hand. This explains
'34
PARABLES OF FANCY
the term ' marked out ' because each seed had
its own place in the row. Just as a heavier
and rougher type of oats is frequently sown
around fields of good grain in this country, so
rye was set in the borders as a protection from
birds, rodents and wild animals. The plough-
man followed the sower and his plough turned
over the soil upon the seeds. Unless given
their particular forms of treatment the seeds
would not germinate properly, and from this fact
the parable goes on to answer the natural
questions, " How does the agriculturist know
all this ? Who has taught him ? " The answer
is that God has trained him, that the farmer
depends upon God, and that his faith in God
encourages him to sow the seeds.
As with the sowing so it was with the harvest-
ing and threshing. There cannot be similarity
and identity of harvest processes, since what
might suffice for one crop may be injurious to
another. The harvest-period was usually free
from rain, and threshing took place in the open
air. Spread out upon the threshing-floor the
finer crops were threshed by means of a flail or
rod or by treading under foot ; the coarser and
heavier crops required either the threshing-
sledge or the threshing- wagon. The former
consisted of wooden planks joined together,
which had stones or knives set in the under-side,
and it could be drawn by man or beast, usually
135
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
beast. The latter was the ' wagon-wheel,' and
to-day it consists of several parallel rollers
each of which has three or four iron discs so
arranged that the discs of one roller extend into
the spaces left by the others. This explains
the introduction of the words ' wheel of the
wagon ' and ' his horses,' although some authori-
ties omit reference to the horses and suggest a
change of text. But the point of this threshing
reference is quite clear. Under a process which
might be expected to destroy it, the bread-corn
(as distinguished from the spice-corn) is safe
from injury. From an experience so simple
and so common in a land of husbandry, there is
no difficulty in deducing a spiritual lesson.
Since the husbandman knows this to be an
instinct-experience given him by God, surely
the God who has taught him and so planned to
provide harvest fruits by means which would
threaten to destroy them, is a God of such
wisdom and understanding that man may say,
" Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him."
Not only is God's wisdom unsearchable but His
counsel to men is most wonderful and through
them He exalts understanding.
In his poem " The Everlasting Mercy " our
Poet Laureate, Mr. John Masefield, describes a
lesson derived from the ploughman's task. He
refers to Jesus as the " ploughman of the
sinner's soul " and indicates how necessary it
136
PARABLES OF FANCY
becomes that the plough's colter should be
driven deep in certain lives before they can
provide satisfactory fruit. When Saul Kane
beheld an old ploughman at his task he
meditated upon the parable of that task to his
own soul. If our study of Isaiah's parable
has spoken a message to our souls regarding
God's wonderful and merciful works in our
lives we shall henceforth " welcome each rebuff "
believing that " all things work together for
good to them that love God."
137
CHAPTER XIV
(e) " THE GREAT EAGLES "
" THE word of the Lord came unto me saying —
' Son of man, put forth a riddle and speak a
parable unto the house of Israel ; and thus
shalt thou say — Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. —
1 The great eagle of the great wings and long
pinion full of plumage of variegated hues came
unto Lebanon and took the boughs of the
cedar. He plucked off the head of its young
shoots and carried it unto a land of merchandise.
He set it in a city of merchants and he took
from the seed of the land and planted it in a
field of seed. It took hold by many waters.
He set it a water-side plant and it sprouted
and became a creeping vine of low stature,
its branches turning towards him and its roots
were under him. And it became a vine and
brought forth branches and shot forth green
boughs.
" * There was also another great eagle of great
wings and much plumage, and lo, this vine
bent its roots towards him and set forth its
branches to him that he might water it (from
the bed of its planting). This was planted
138
PARABLES OF FANCY
in a good field beside many waters in order
that it should bear shoots and produce fruit
and become an honourable vine. Say thou, —
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah ; Shall it thrive ?
Shall he not dig up its roots and cut off its
fruit so that it shall wither ? All its fresh-
springing leaves shall wither and that without
great force or many people to pluck it up from
its roots. Yea, behold, planted, shall it prosper ?
Shall it not utterly wither as the east wind
touches it ? It shall wither upon the bed of
its sprouting'." — Ezekiel xvii. i-io.
This story appears in one of the most arresting
chapters of the book of Ezekiel, containing as
it does many unique Hebrew words which are
found nowhere else in the Old Testament and
some words which are peculiar to Ezekiel.
There is also in the story's sequel a striking
resemblance to the conclusion of Christ's
parable of the Mustard Seed wherein He speaks
of the fowls of the air finding shelter in the
shadow of the tree's branches. Again, the
true prophetic note rings throughout the story
while we are provided with a vividly historical
parabolical narrative which the prophet's
simple interpretation elucidates. There are tex-
tual and metaphorical difficulties, but the
message is not obscured by them and we are
left with a parable which was spoken for a
momentous occasion of national responsibility
139
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
and national decision. It indicates an attempt
on the part of Ezekiel to save Jerusalem from
destruction and to preserve the glory of Israel
as the people of God. It affords a valuable
glimpse of the true prophet of God as a man
who is so concerned about the honour of his
God that he comes as a fearless messenger
to exhort, rebuke, warn and appeal. Another
unusual feature of this chapter is its parabolical
appendix (vs. 22-24) in which God announces
what will be the ultimate conclusion to the
story, a conclusion which finds its fullest con-
summation only in and through the gift of
Jesus Christ and in the extension of His King-
dom throughout the world. We cannot trace
any other historical application for the closing
sentences of the chapter than that which is
found in Him who is the Hope of the Ages.
THE DATE
Most scholars suggest as the probable date
of the parable a time within a few years before
the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar in the year 587 B.C. Whether Ezekiel
narrated his story in Babylon, where he shared
captivity with some of his people, or spoke
it in Jerusalem and Judah is a point which
must be left undecided. In the former case
he may have heard of the perfidy and disloyalty
of King Zedekiah, and he may have had inner
140
PARABLES OF FANCY
knowledge of the intentions of Nebuchadnezzar ;
in the latter he would speak with more immediate
realisation of the impending doom ; but the
question of the prophet's domicile does not
affect the value of the narrative because the
interpretation of the parable leaves no doubt
regarding the historical reference, and we are
not justified in asserting that the parable was
spoken after the destruction of the Holy City.
Attempts have been made to give a later date
to the whole chapter on the ground that it is
not a homogeneous work and that the closing
verses, 22-24, must have been a later addition.
There appears to be no valid reason for thinking -
that the chapter was the work of more than
one writer. It is definite that the thoughts
if not the actual words of the closing verses
were familiar in the time of Jesus and as words of
prophecy they could be recorded five centuries,
as easily as one century, before Christ.
THE OCCASION
When Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
overran Judah, he removed into captivity in
Babylon the king, Jehoiachin, and all the chief
men of Judah including the expert artisans
and technicians. He set the king's uncle over
Judah and gave him a new name, Zedekiah
for Mattaniah. But he was to rule as a vassal
under covenant to serve the king of Babylon
141
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
faithfully so long as he was in possession of
that territory. The country was sorely stricken,
yet there were great hopes for the future,
dependent upon diligence and fidelity. Indica-
tions given in the parable are to the effect that
Zedekiah could and did prosper through his
attachment to Babylon, although he was re-
stricted in suzerainty and in scope for
development.
Instead of being true to the covenant, he
schemed an alliance with Hophra, the Pharaoh
of Egypt, who failed in the end to render that
aid which Zedekiah anticipated, and so the
latter was left to incur punishment for his
treachery and brought upon Jerusalem its
destruction. Ezekiel is constrained to shew
that this breach of covenant with Nebuchad-
nezzar was also a sin against God in whose
name the covenant was drawn up and accepted.
God is revealed as the guiding power behind
the national experience. Thus infidelity to
Babylon's king is faithlessness towards God
for which Judah must suffer. Breach of a
covenant's sanctity merits judgment because
a covenant is sacred not only before men but
also before God. Had Zedekiah given heed
to this parable, Jerusalem would probably
have been saved, although it is obvious that
the king had already turned his heart towards
Egypt and begun his insurrection against
142
PARABLES OF FANCY
Nebuchadnezzar. The parable assumes the
natural consequences to such mistrust and
perfidy, and it proclaims the doom of the city
whilst it also promises a redemptive work of
restoration and healing through which God's
people will become a blessing to all nations.
THE EAGLE
The symbolism of the eagle need not be
regarded either as an influence of Babylonish
thought upon the prophet or as definitely
Babylonish in its conception, because Assyria
had its eagle-headed god, Nisroch, and in the
Old Testament the eagle was a symbol of God's
power and watchfulness. He bears His people
on eagle's wings (Exodus xix. 4). He watcheth
over His people even as an eagle stirreth up her
nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them
on her wings (Deut. xxxii. n, 12). As a
royal bird the eagle was a suitable symbol
for the King of Kings and for the rulers of great
dominions. In such a sense the two eagles
are introduced in the parable. One is great,
long-winged, rich in plumage and handsomely
coloured, whereas the other is also great, long-
winged and rich in plumage, but lacks the
many colours of the former. One is * the great
eagle ' and the other is simply ' a great eagle/
The great eagle symbolises Nebuchadnezzar
H3
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
and the might of Babylon whose dominion held
sway over many nations with their varied
languages and customs. Egypt is the second
eagle. Its power had been reduced and its
territory seriously diminished after the
battle of Charchemish in 605 B.C. when
Nebuchadnezzar inflicted upon Egypt a great
defeat and extended his own rule through
Assyria right to the Egyptian boundary at the
Wady of Arish. In the year 597 B.C.,
Nebuchadnezzar, the great eagle, carried into
captivity King Jehoiachin of Judah with all
his best men and the leaders in various spheres
of life, leaving " the poorest sort of the people
of the land." The captives are the boughs or
" the picked parts " of the cedar of Lebanon
and the King is " the head of its young shoots "
as described in the parable. Jehoiachin had
reigned only three months and he was eighteen
years old, truly the head of Judah's young
shoots.
LEBANON AND ITS CEDARS
Reference has been made to the Cedars of
Lebanon in the story of the Thistle and Cedar.
Here it need merely be stated that the wood-
work of the royal palace at Jerusalem was of
cedarwood, and that * Lebanon ' was a term
used to denote Jerusalem by reason of the
presence in that city of so much work in cedar-
144
PARABLES OF FANCY
wood. One of the greatest of Solomon's palaces
was known as ' the house of the forest of
Lebanon.' Because of its height and stately
appearance the Cedar of Lebanon symbolised
the royal house and supplied the metaphor
which identified it with the king as the highest
in social rank. A special feature of its life and
growth is that it must have dry soil, and will
not thrive beside water. There was, therefore,
very sound reason in the action of the great
eagle who took of the seed of the land and planted
it as a ' water-side plant,' not as a cedar.
THE VINE
Without any attempt to explain the absurdity
of an eagle having conscious knowledge of
arboriculture, or of a vine possessing the wit
to turn towards a particular class of eagle —
although it has been demonstrated scientifically
that plants have nerves and that bees and birds
play an important part in the development of
plants — we learn that this ' seed of the land '
was set where it had a chance of prosperous
growth. It would not become a great vine,
but as a low, creeping vine it might yet bear
a fullness of fruit, becoming an honourable vine.
Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, a native
of the land, to rule over Judah within the
restricted limits that whilst he was a humble
and feudatory dependent monarch, he might
145 K
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
still enjoy happiness and flourish. At first the
result was very promising because * the vine
brought forth branches and shot forth green
boughs ; " but that success engendered conceit
in Zedekiah and he began to be restless under
his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. He chafed
and squirmed, then looked for a new superior
by directing his thoughts towards an alliance
with Egypt. A relationship with that great
country was entered upon — "lo, this vine bent
its roots towards him " — and emphasis may be
laid upon that word ' bent,' which signifies a
yearning attitude. It pined for the other eagle
like a thirsty plant, when close beside it were
many waters in the " bed of its plantation."
SHALL IT THRIVE ?
This question explains the use of the word
' riddle ' in verse 2, and the purpose of the parable
is to answer the question by showing that just as
Nebuchadnezzar will not tolerate such treachery
and perfidy, so, too, God will not fail to visit
His wrath upon the covenant-breaking king.
Zedekiah had pledged himself to fidelity in God's
name, and the God whom he had wronged would
be avenged. The description of that issue is
very graphic. The vine must be uprooted and
its fruit stripped off ; a withering east wind
will devastate its fresh, sprouting leaves, which
will crumble into dust. Even in that place
146
PARABLES OF FANCY
where it was flourishing " upon the bed of its
sprouting " it must wither. Zedekiah's pros-
perity was brief. Egypt failed to support him,
and his base ingratitude and unfaithfulness
received their merit. He had apparently not
known what had already been revealed to the
prophets — that Egypt's power was waning, and
that help from that direction was not possible.
His sons were slain before his eyes. He himself
was blinded, bound in brass fetters and borne
away captive to Babylon. Jeremiah asserts that
Zedekiah was weak-willed, vacillating and unable
to withstand his princes. Because of his selfish
nature he had no serious concern for the nation's
welfare and he acted falsely and deceitfully
with those who trusted him.
COVENANT SANCTITIES
Zedekiah's disloyalty affected more than him-
self. It brought a nation and its proud city
to the dust. National covenants are often made
to depend upon the will of one man or a small
coterie of men. Failure to implement the
conditions of the covenant may plunge thousands
into misery. History is replete with instances
of such broken covenants, and rarely has the
destroyer of a sacred pledge been known to escape
the evil consequences of such an act of insincer-
ity. Nations have wallowed in warfare, social
conditions have been upheaved, domestic
H7
THE OLD TESTAMENT PARABLES
relationships have been devastated in con-
sequence of disloyalty to solemn agreements.
In very recent years the outbreak of a world-
wide war costing ten million lives, with the
additional losses and sorrows which follow in-
evitably upon war, resulted from breach of a
sacred covenant. Movements such as the League
of Nations may accomplish much good for man-
kind if the sanctity of covenants — international,
personal and social — can be brought home to
everyone. But no league can substitute God
or usurp His supreme command. Wherever His
Holy Name is invoked in sealing a covenant He
becomes the Supreme King and Judge of men's
acts. He can cause the very wrath of men to
praise Him, and He can bring to naught the evil
works of darkness. Inspiration and courage are
born when men feel that loyalty to God's
covenant must — simply must, because of God's
own being and nature — work out for good to
mankind.
THE PLANTING OF THE LORD
In contrast to the failure of the seed which
Nebuchadnezzar set, Ezekiel was moved to tell
of the plant which God set. The chapter which
opens with judgment concludes with mercy,
tenderness, promise and growing beauty. There
is a touch of the Eternal Love of God in the
closing verses which must not be missed. There
148
PARABLES OF FANCY
is a reversion to the thought of a cedar and its
topmost young twigs. From the latter God
selects a tender shoot which is planted, not by
water, but upon a prominent hill where it will
thrive and grow, true to its species as a good
cedar. Its branches will shelter all sorts of
birds, and this work of the Lord will be known
to all the trees. Thus did God promise to the
house of Judah a Saviour under the spreading
branches of whose Church all nations of the
earth will come to rest and all nations will behold
the amazing works of God. " The kingdom of
heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which
a man took, and sowed in his field : which indeed
is the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown,
it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a
tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge
in the branches thereof." (Matt. xiii. 31, 32).
149
CONCLUSION
THIS study of the Old Testament Parables could
not conclude with a better promise and brighter
hope than are contained in the closing verses of
Ezekiel xvii. We have reached the stage where
we anticipate a new revelation which will fulfil
God's promises. This new revelation will be
more precious to us on account of what the old
one has meant to our souls. Doubtless, in the
course of reading this book we have traced a
historical process of divine revelation and of
human development which constrains us to
await patiently and wistfully the coming of Him
of whom it was written — " Without a parable
spake He not unto them."
We have journeyed along a road upon which
we have met with men not altogether unlike
ourselves in their desires and practices. We
have been privileged to behold moral and spiritual
conflicts in the souls of men. We have discerned
the wondrous works of God in His dealings with
individuals and nations, and we have seen the
gradual unfolding of the unfailing love of God.
Looking back over the pages of this book we
may conclude that its parables of fact deal with
moral issues, and its parables of fancy with the
150
CONCLUSION
spiritual relationship between God and man.
If our study has deepened our interest in the
Old Testament, and given us cause for a fuller
appreciation of the parables spoken by Jesus,
we shall not have read in vain.
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