Damascus and Israel.
The present oracle bids us turn to a different scene—to the famed city and territory of Damascus. It lies in the vast rich plain east of Mount Antilibanus, on the border of the desert. Through the plain flows the river Barada, probably the Abaca in which Naaman delighted. "In the midst of the plain lies at your feet the vast lake or island of deep verdure—walnuts and apricots waving above, corn and grass below; and in the midst of the mass of foliage rises, striking its white arms of streets hither and thither, and its white minarets above the trees which embosom them, the city of Damascus. On the right towers the snowy height of Hermon, overlooking the whole scene. Close behind are the sterile limestone mountains, so that you stand literally between the living and the dead" (Stanley). The river turns what would otherwise be a desert into a rich garden, full of walnuts, pomegranates, figs, plums, apricots, citrons, pears, and apples.
I. HISTORY OF DAMASCUS. There were traditions of Abraham lingering from early times about the city. Eliezer of Damascus was his steward (Genesis 15:2). But the history is a blank till the time of David. He, being at war with Hadadezer, King of Zobah, encountered Syrians of Damascus, who came to succor his foe, and slew of them twenty-two thousand men. He then garrisoned the whole land with Israelites (2 Samuel 8:5, 2 Samuel 8:6; 1 Chronicles 18:5). From Solomon's time we have hints of enmity between Damascus, whose king appears to have been titularly designated "Hadad," and Israel; also of Rezin, from Zobah (1 Kings 11:23; 1 Kings 15:19; 2 Chronicles 16:3). The fourth Hadad, with thirty-two subject kings, marched against Ahab, and laid siege to Samaria (1 Kings 20:1). In the end, the invader became-subject to Ahab (1 Kings 20:13-34). Three years later, Ahab was defeated and slain in his attempt on Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 22:1-4, 1 Kings 22:15-37). The Syrians of Damascus were encouraged to a second invasion of Israel, and a second siege of Samaria, which was raised in a panic (2 Kings 7:6, 2 Kings 7:7). A new page of history opens with the succession of Hazael to the rule of Damascus, and the struggle against the Assyrians. Probably the dread of the latter led to an alliance between Israel and Damascus a century later. The march of Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel against Jerusalem brings us within the scope of Israel's view (Isaiah 7:1-6; 2 Kings 16:5). Ahaz placed himself under the protection of Assyria; Rezin was slain, his kingdom brought to an end, and Damascus destroyed, its people being carried captive to Assyria (2 Kings 16:9; cf. Isaiah 7:8; Amos 1:5).
II. THE PROPHET'S DESCRIPTION OF ITS FATE. The fair city will be effaced from the number of those that exist, and will become a heap of fallen ruins. And Israel, which has hung her fortunes on those of Damascus, will share her fate. The very sound of the word Aroer, reminding of the nature of bareness, nakedness, had an ill omen. The strong places of Ephraim, i.e. of Israel, are laid low, and Damascus ceases to exist as a kingdom. And the Aramaeans who do not fall in battle are carried away captive. The fate of Damascus is as pathetic as that of a distressed woman. Cities were in ancient thought generally seen under the ideal of the woman, their beauty as her beauty, their sorrows as hers. Damascus waxes feeble and turns to flee, and fear seizes on her; anguish and sorrow have taken her, as a woman in travail. "The city of praise is gone, the city of my joy!" exclaims Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:24, Jeremiah 49:25). "Cities have been as lamps of life along the pathway of humanity and religion. Within them science has given birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind their walls freedom has fought its noblest battles. They have stood on the surface of the earth like breakwaters, rolling back or turning aside the swelling tide of oppression. Cities indeed have been the cradle of human liberty. I bless God for cities" (Guthrie).
III. AFFLICTION OF ISRAEL AND HER REPENTANCE. (Verses 4-8.)
1. Images of national decay. The glory of Jacob wastes, the fat of his flesh grows thin. Necessary and constant in thought is the connection between the flourishing of a land and the blessing of God, the withdrawal of his blessing and the withering of its fruits, the failure of the supply of food. We must believe in this connection without hastily presuming, as superstition does, to detect the exact sin which has called down the displeasure of God. Our poet Tennyson, in some dark pictures of superstition in his 'Queen Mary,' represents the queen as saying that" God is hard upon the people" because the nobles would not give the Church lands back. And when she exclaims on the "harvestless autumn, horrible agues, plague," the king replies—
"The blood and sweat of heretics at the stake
Is God's best dew upon the barren field."
Such are the reasonings of bigotry and fanaticism. Then only do we make the proper application of the lessons of suffering, when we visit our own errors with self-chastisement, and stir up the neglected gift, the forgotten talent, in ourselves. Another image is that of the field of corn falling before the mower. Israel is ripe for judgment, as the field of corn for the reaper. On the broad vale of Rephaim, sloping down to Bethlehem, only an ear or two will be seen scattered here and there. That vale may be viewed as symbolic of the great world, and that reaping as prophetic of the day of judgment, when on the white cloud sits one like the Son of man, having a golden crown on his bead, and in his hand a sharp sickle; and another angel comes out of the temple, and cries with a loud voice to him that sits on the cloud, "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe" (Revelation 14:1-20.). Few will escape the judgment, and yet a few there will be. At the olive-beating, when it seems, at a superficial glance, that the tree is quite stripped, there nevertheless remain "two or three berries high up at the top; four, five on each of its branches."
2. Redemption of the remnant. This word, "The remnant shall return," is the standing word of promise and of hope for Israel. It contains the "law of Israel's history." The ring is gone, but the finger remains; the tree is felled, but the root-stump may yet send out suckers; kern the bared harvest-field some gleanings may yet be gathered. And so Israel stands as the type of human life. All is not lost while conscience remains, while will may still exert its energy against evil, and in the reformation of the habits. But there must be this reformation, which begins with a looking up to God. The state of the soul depends on the direction of its gaze. We look where we love, and our looking may produce love. Much has Scripture to say on the moral effect of vision. Sometimes it is equivalent to enjoying: "What man is he that will see good?" And as we do not willingly bend our eyes and keep them fixed upon sights which strike pain to the feelings, the prayer, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding iniquity," is equivalent to the prayer that we may have no relish in evil ways. In the days of repentance men will took up to their Creator. It is when we turn our eyes from our Maker and fix them exclusively on the creature that we forget our dependence. "It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;" this is the thought which expresses the foundation of all reverence, the duty of all worship and obedience. As all idolatry means loss of self-respect, so regard to the great and glorious Creator reflects itself in veneration for the nature he has given us, the image of his own. And he is the Holy One of Israel. In every family, every congregation, every state, there must be an existing ideal of righteousness, of truth, of purity. Such ideals are the shadows of the personality of the holy God. If they pass away from the faith and religious imagination of a people, they fall into sensuality and materialism. The first step, then, towards a better life is to look away from self, and from the evil associations which have grown into one's habits, or into which one has grown, to God as the Supreme and the Holy. Looking up to God will mean looking away from idols. "He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and what his fingers have made he will not regard, neither the groves nor the images." True religion alone can drive out superstition. Science has not and cannot do it. Men must either be superstitious or religious; for the imaginative faculty demands, and will have, nourishment. The great prophets of Israel, training men's minds to look up to the great spiritual Source of man and of nature, have taught us lessons that can never become obsolete. But the heathen idolatry referred to should be more closely considered.—J.