74
February 1929
T h e . K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
probability seen neither milk nor honey. We will recall that the spies, upon returning, to Moses in the south of Pales tine, reported, among other things, that the land abounded in fruit. The report, however, was not favorably received by the people; and Moses, turning back, led the entire mul titude again into the wilderness for this lack of faith and the refusal to take the advice of'Joshua and Caleb, to die there. Their seed, born in the wilderness in this second period of sojourn, were to occupy the Promised Land. These peo ple had been brought up on manna and quail. 'JJie flocks which catne ’out of Egypt with their fathers^ had,- in all probability, perished for want of food and water, or had been used for food by the great throng in its first few months in the Sinaitic peninsula. The statement in itself was not figurative, but a simple statement of fact. A land of milk, a pastoral land; and a land of honey, a land full of flowers. There is no indication whatsoever that this state ment, in its textual simplicity, meant a land of great nat ural wealth. With the exception of the fact that a great many of the mountains and hills are uncultivated, there is practically no difference at all between the Palestine of to day and die Palestine of Bible times. The rainfall is iden tical, the seasons of the year are identical, and practically all the present-day customs are identical. Droughts, which occurred frequently in Biblical times, still occur. The statement that Palestine was used by the great caravans in traveling between Egypt and Babylon is sim ply incorrect. Occasionally caravans came through Pal estine, but Petra, Jeresh and Raboth are ample evidence that as late as the Roman Invasion, the large majority of caravans pressed far east of Palestine. These ruined cities, far out in the desert, where nomad tribes find it ex tremely difficult to eke out an existence today, have in them amphitheaters, with a seating capacity of almost fifty thousand persons each. Few went through Palestine, and even the great armies followed the seacoast rather than come up into the hills of Judaea. Only after the breaking up of the kingdom, when Jeroboam solicited the aid of Egypt» thus involving himself and his people in interna tional politics, was the Hebrew nation molested by either Babylon or Egypt. With these facts before us we find that we must search elsewhere for a logical answer as to why this small land of practically no wealth, should have been selected as the land for the chosen people in preference to rich Babylon and even richer Egypt. We shall commence our search ac cepting statements and facts, taking nothing for granted, and making no apologies. From a careful survey of the history and lives of the great leaders of Israel, we find that these men, in almost every instance, were men of meager means. They led simple lives. The message of each to the Hebrew nation was identical: Elaborate systems and complicated formu las were supplanting the simple direct worship. Simple men brought a simple straightforward message, one that by its very simplicity was the more profound. The king dom reached its climax in the early part of Solomon’s reign, and split, never to be drawn together again, in the later period of his reign when he attempted to compete with the rulers about him. Jezebel led Ahab into building ivory palaces and living like the kings of different nations. There was but one king whose ministry was consistently acceptable, and that king was David. The simple living, simple thinking, and simple worship of his shepherd days, he never deserted. Elijah and John, between the two of them, probably never had enough money to buy themselves even a simple meal; they lived more simply than any man
before them or after them. John was dressed in the clothes of a wanderer, in the cheapest clothes that he could find and also the ones that would last him the longest. These clothes of camel’s hair probably lasted him his entire lifetime, and -yet, when reviewing the statement of our Lord about him, we find that “the greatest man ever born of woman was John.” In reviewing this thought with the one preceding we find a radical difference, the reason for which is perfectly apparent. Man loves ease and comfort. He desires the sharp edges of life;!rubbed off for him, and delights in all manner of physical indulgences.'’ He wonders if this, from a Biblical standpoint, is justifiable. He searches the Scriptures and finds certain facts and he takes them and interprets them to himself in a way best befitting his own desires. Why, we ask ourselves, has this thought been hidden ? Again the reason is perfectly apparent, for in unearthing this there rises a long-buried being, with its gaunt finger pointing direct at us. I believe that Palestine was selected because it was a land in which it was necessary to put forth one hundred per cent energy for one hundred per cent results, and a land in which it would be impossible to live on less than one hundred per cent results. Man planted and he had to wait for rain to come and water his seed, and for rain to continue to come until his seed was ready unto the harvest. Thus the chosen people were kept in constant touch with their Divine Benefactor. Palestine was picked because it is a land of simplicity and a land of austerity. It is a land of great natural beauty. Beauty, in the spring, when the hills and valleys are carpeted with many-colored flowers. Beauty, all the year round, of simplicity. Out of this land have come lives of simplicity, lives of austerity, and lives of great beauty. Not the beauty of splendor and gorgeous array, but the beauty of simplicity, of devotion and of love. Our message today from this great land is identically the same as was the message of the Prophet Jeremiah when he sent out his great appeal to those who had, through the contacts they had made in Babylon, deserted the simple faith and simple living of their forefathers, for lives dedicated to material gain. Today, as then, it is an appeal to return to simplicity of thought, of life, and of prayer. “Except ye become as a little child ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” If we go to Palestine today looking for the splendor and glory of the East and for a land overflowing with natural wealth, we return disillusioned. But if we go to Palestine with hearts and minds intent upon a search for truth, we return with our lives filled with a beautiful spirit of calmness and of peace that passeth all understanding. Along those sharp time-worn paths we have met the Master, and back with us He comes, strong and real. Our lives are rich, our lives are strong, and fearlessly we face the task before us. From Olivet we have gone with these words ringing in our ears, “Go ye into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.” i l l m A Child’s Answer to a Big Question A little girl who was asked what she thought God was like, said: “I think He is more like Jesus Christ than any one I know.” And if you were asked to describe God, could you give a more beautiful answer than that ?
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