Welsh Journals

February 26, 1892. THE WELSH WEEKLY. 11 SABBATH SCHOOL LESSONS. SPECIAL COURSE, REVISION, Hebrews viii. (Feb. 28, 1892). Ver. 1. Sum is incorrect; " chief point " would be a more appropriate rendering. The writer is not "summing up " his previous argument, but pointing out, and calling his readers' attention to the main point of the subject which is being discussed. The idea of the word is that of the keystone which crowns and secures the arch. Such looks forward to, not backward; it embraces all that is contained in vers. 1 and 2„ Is set. " Who sat down." The Levitical high priest could not remain in the sanctuary. This session also suggests royal dignity. In the word Majesty there is probably a reference to the Glory on the Mercy Seat. The Heavens, i.e., the place of God's full manifesta¬ tions to His holy creatures. Ver. 2. Sanctuary. The sanctuary was the Holy of Holies. Here it means the reality of which the former sanctuary was a type. True, that is, "real," "genuine," not opposed to " false," but to " earthly." Tabernacle. This was the whole sacred building. With regard to Heaven no distinction can be made between the sanctuary and the tabernacle. Ver. 3. Ordained, i.e., appointed. Gifts and Sacri¬ fices. Gifts=the " free will offerings " and the " meat offerings." Sacrifices=slain animals. This man ; better, " this high-priest." Somewhat. He must have an offering, and that offering was Himself. Ver. 4. There cannot be two earthly priesthoods existing at the same time. Instead of simply " gifts," read " the gifts," i.e., all the offerings demanded by the Law. Ver. 5. Read ''A copy and a shadow of the heavenly things." The "heavenly things " are the realities of the spiritual world—the divine presence and com¬ munion, the actual intercourse between God and the soul, of which the Tabernacle and its service were imperfect figures and symbols. For the command mentioned here, read Exodus xxv. 40, and xxvi. 30. Pattern, literally, " type." Moses did not, could not, see the "heavenly things" as they are; these must, in his mind, have taken some shape which could be reproduced again on earth. All questions as to how the pattern was presented to Moses are profitless. Ver. 6. But now: i.e., "As it is," "As the case is." Mediator. A covenant requires a mediator to stand between the parties and to bring them to fellowship. Established: i.e., " enacted." As a law is given. Better promises. For these, read the following verses. Ver. 7. Faultless. The " fault" of the first cove¬ nant was* its inability to fulfil the purpose to which it pointed, viz., to make men perfect. Place . . . sought: " there would not have been a demand"; "no need would have been felt." The prophecy (v. 3) expresses the need of a better cove¬ nant. Ver. 8. Finding fault with them. "With them" should be omitted. Fault is found with the covenant, when another covenant is given in its stead. Behold, &c. The quotation is from Jeremiah xxxi. 31-34. New. Not merely in order or in time, but also in character ; new and different. Those days. Compare Hebrew i. 1. Israel and Judah. The new covenant will be universal in its scope or range. Ver. 9. Not according: i.e., not after the same "type" or " pattern " : a different covenant. There is a connection between the idea of the formation of a chosen nation by the first covenant, and the formation of a universal church by the new. Ver. 10. Mind.=The seat of the intellectual powers. Heart.—The seat of the affections and the will. To put the law in the mind is to confer a power to perceive the will, of God; to write the law upon the heart is to inspire a love for it, and a disposition to obey it. They shall. . . people : i.e., not outwardly, as the Israelites, but truly, genuinely. Ver. 11. The knowledge of God will not be con¬ fined to, and dispensed by, a privileged class, as the priests in Israel, but will be enjoyed by all alike. Ver. 12. The conjunction " for " indicates that the following is the reason for the foregoing characteristics. The New Covenant rests on God's forgiveness, not on man's works. Forgiveness restores man to God's fellowship ; knowledge and love naturally follow. Ver. 13. He hath made the first old, that is by bringing in a New Covenant. Summary of the New Covenant promises (I.) its range or scope : all the Old Covenant people: Israel and Judah, v. 8 ; (II.) its character (a) negatively: not according to the old, v. 9; (b) positively (1) internal v. 10; (2) Universally and uniformly effective, v. 11; (3) resting on forgiveness, v. 12. Ver. 18 is the conclusion, wherein, however, the author goes beyond the scope of the prophecy. INTERNATIONAL LESSON. THE DOWNFALL OF JUDAH. Jee. xxxix 1-10 (March 6). Golden Text.—Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.—Matt, xxiii. 38. Time.—Jerusalem was destroyed in |the summer of b.c. 580. The city fell on the ninth day of the fourth month at midnight, about the first of July (ver. 3). Place.—(1) Jerusalem, then a city of about 20,000 in¬ habitants.—Thenius. (2) Eiblah, a city about 75 miles north of Damascus, the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar's army. (3.) Babylon, the capital of Nebuchadnezzar, on the Euphrates. Rulers.—Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, was the twenty- first and last king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon in 604 (Saycc), and reigned 43 years, till 561. Pharaoh Hophra was king of Egypt. Three kings of Judah were now in captivity,—Jehoahaz in JEgypt, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah in Babylon. Prophets.—(1) Jeremiah in Judah, b.c. 627-582. (2) Ezekiel on the banks of the river Chebar, 35 miles north of Babylon, but prophesying to the Jews both in Judah and Babylonia, b.c. 598-573. (3) Daniel in Babylon; carried captive there B.C. 604 ; prophesied till b.c. 534. (4) Obadiah, b.c. 585, in the captivity. Parallel Accounts.—The story of this lesson is re¬ peated in Jer. : lxii 4-10 ; and almost the same accounts is'given in 2 Kings xxv.: 1-12. Another account with moral reflections is given in 2 Chron. xxxvi. : 11-21.—Peloubet. Ver. 1. In the ninth year ... in the tenth month, of the Jewish year, the month Thebet, corresponding to parts of our December and January, varying with the new moon. The author of Kings says the siege began in the tenth clay of this month. The time may b8 judged from the fact that, in 1890, this date corresponds to December 21. In the year before it was January 2. Nebuchadnezzar King ofBabylon. The son of Nabo- bolassar, who destroyed Nineveh, b.c. 606, and built up the empire of Babylonia on the ruins of Assyria. Nebuchad¬ nezzar, his son, was also his great general, and became sole emperor b.c 604. He made Babylon glorious during his reign of 43 years. And all his army. A great host (Kings). This con¬ sisted of the fierce and cruel Chaldeans (ver. 10), with warriors from the surrounding nations, enemies of the Jews, and tributaries of Babylon, the Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites (2 Kings xxiv. 2). Compare xxxiv. 1, where the vastness of the host is very strongly marked— "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem."—Cook. Besieged it. Surrounded it with their armies to prevent all provisions from entering, and to starve it to submission, if they could not break down its walls. They built around the city movable wooden towers, sometimes provided with battering- rams, which the besiegers advanced against the walls, thu3 bringing their fighting men on a level with their antagonists. Such towers are seen in the Assyrian sculptures (Layard's Monuments of Nineveh, First Series, pi. 19).—Cook. The thud of the battering-rams shook the walls day and night; archers made the defence iocreasingly hard, by constant showers of arrows from the high wooden forts ; catapults of all sizes hurled stones into the town with a force as deadly as that of modern bullets, and darts tipped with fire kindled the roofs of houses; mines were dug under the walls, and attempts at escalade by ladders were renewed at every favourable opportunity.—Geikie. Ver. 2. In the eleventh year . . . the fourth month. The middle of June to the middle of July. The ninth day. Therefore about July 1. The siege therefore lasted almost exactly a year and a half. The city was broken up. Broken into—i.e., a breach was made in the walls, and the city was entered at mid¬ night (Josephus; see also Ezek. xii. 2-12). The entrance was effected by the northern gate (Ezek. ix. 2). This part of the wall could most easily be reached by their battering- rams. In Kings it is said that there was no bread. The defenders yielded only when starved into weakness. Ver. 3. And. This is to be connected with "Jerusalem was taken," at the close of the last chapter. The Bev. Ver. puts all between parentheses. All the princes. Probably the generals who captured the city, and the highest officials. Only four are named, not six, as appears at first sight. The third is Sarse-chim the Rab-saris, a high Assyrian title, by some translated " the chief of the eunuchs." The last is Nergal-sharezer the Bab-mag; i.e., "The high priest," or " chief of the sorcerers."—Cheyne. Ver. 4. Zedekiah the king . . . and all the men of war . . . fled. As the invaders were en¬ tering from the north, the king naturally fled toward the south; and the path which he chose was that which wound down the Tyropceon valley, betwixt the two walls of Moriah on his left, and Zion on his right. This path came out in the king's garden, which was laid out near Siloam in the broad space formed by the junction of the Hin- nom and Kidron valleys, at the south-east corner of the city. And he went out the way of the plain. That led to the plain. Literally, the Arabah, the depression bounding Palestine on the east along the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and extending down to the Bed Sea. "The way of the plaia " is the road leading eastward over Olivet to Be'hany and Jericho.—Cook. As the king came out of the city at the iouth-east corner, his most natural and safest direction of flight was in this direction. Ver. 5. The Chaldeans'army. Who surrounded the city soon discovered the flight of the king, and pursued, and overtook him. They brought him up to Nebuchad¬ nezzar, King of Babylon, to Riblah. Biblah was an ancient city, situated upon the Orontes, between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, 30 miles north-east of Baalbek, and about 200 miles east of north from Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was at this time conducting military operations against Tyre as well as against Jerusalem, so that Biblah was a favourable centre of operations for him.—S. S. Times. Gaye judgment upon him; i.e., brought him to trial as a common criminal, not as a king, because he had repudi¬ ated his most solemn oath of allegiance, and been a secret traitor to the king who had placed him on the throne (2 Kings xxiv. 20 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13). There is a frequent reference to this as a heinous crime in Ezekiel (xvii. 15-19).—-Peloubet. Vers. 6, 7. Slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes ... he put out Zedekiah's eyes. The punish¬ ment of Zedekiah was doubly cruel; first, his being made to witness the execution of his own sons, and then his being deprived of sight, so that the last scenes impressed upon him would be the death agonies of his children. Blinding has long been a common Oriental punishment. Compare the blinding of Samson, and the attempt of King John, of England, to blind Prince Arthur. Slew all the nobles of Judah. His friends' deaths, too, would remain a picture never to be forgotten in his blindness and chains. Bound him with chains. Margin. " with two brazen chains or fetters," as in 2 Kings xxv. 7, To carry him to Babylon. Which was done, and he was kept in prison there till the day of his death (chap. lii. 11). " The Assyrians' captives are usually represented as bound hand and foot—the two hands secured by one chain, the two feet by another (Layard's " Nineveh and Babylon," vol. ii., p. 376).—Cook. There is in the British Museum a pair of bronze fetters brought from Nineveh which weigh eight pounds eleven ounces, and measure sixteen and a half inches in length. These probably resemble the fetters put on Zedekiah. The rings which enclose the ankles are thinner than the other part, so that they could be ham¬ mered smaller after the feet had passed through them.— Freeman. According to Jewish tradition, Zedekiah was, like other slaves, forced to work in a mill at Babylon. Ver. 8. Burned the king's house. The palace, as prophesied by Jeremiah (xxi. 10; xxxiv. 2 ; xxxviii. 18, 23), and the temple (2 Kings xxv. 9). And the houses of the people, i.e., as in 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 19, all the palaces, not the poorer houses, as is shown by 2 Kings xxv. 9. Brake down the walls. Making the city a mass of ruins (Neh. ii. 3, 13, 17). On the fearful slaughter which took place at the capture of the city, in the courts of the temple itself, see Ezek. ix. 6, 7; and compare Lam. ii. 7, 20.—Cook. Ver. 9. Carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people. Who had survived the horrors of the siege. And those that fell away. Who had deserted to him during the siege, for whom Jeremiah had promised safety. The rest. . . that remained. After the several deportations in captives in previous attacks upon the city, 12 and 18 years before (see 2 Kings xxiv. 14-16 ; Jer. lxii. 28-30). In 2 Kings xxv. 13-17, and Jer. lxii. 17-24, is a record of the temple treasures carried to Babylon. Ver. 10. Left of the poor of the people. Who were sup¬ posed to be unable to revolt. These had now some com¬ pensation for their poverty. They had been oppressed by the rich and great, as Jeremiah tells us ; and now their oppressors are ruined captives, and the poor have full opportunity in the country. Among those who remained was the prophet Jeremiah, whose experience follows after the record in the lesson.—Peloubet. Suggestions to Teachers. In this lesson there is an opportunity to do four things, all intertwined together, and yet worthy of separate notice. First. We can show the relation of scripture to scrip¬ ture, and make the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel ever after clearer, more vivid, more interesting, by showing the circumstances in which they were written. Second. We have a perfect illustration of God's hand in history. Men were carrying out their own plans, and yet God's plan of justice and of a redeemed nation was being carried out all the time. Thikd. We can point out the clear fulfilment of prophecy. Fourth. We can show the confirmations of scripture rom the monuments long hidden, but lately brought to ght.—Peloubet. I. B. R. A. (International Bible Reading Association.) Daily portions for week ending March 6, 1892. February 29. M. Jer. xxxix. 1-10. " The Downfall of Judah." March 1. Tu. 2 Kings xxv. 1-7. Another narrative. ,, 2. W. 2 Kings xxv. 8-15. "Jerusalem des¬ troyed." „ 3. Th. Ezek. xii. 8-16. "EzekiePs Prophecy." ,., 4. F. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 11-21. " Transgression punished." „ 5. S. Jer. v. 10-18. "Warning." ,, 6. Sun. Isa. i. 1-9. "Arebellious people." What we want in Christ we always find in Him. When we want nothing, we find nothing. When we want little, we find little. But when we want everything, and get re¬ duced to complete nakedness and beggary, We find in Him God's complete treasure-house, out of which come gold and jewels and garments to clolhe us, wavy in the richness and glory of the Lord.—Sears.