The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-04

| EDITORS NoTE-The Age-Herald
has arranged with Mr.. Bales Of the
Birmingham bar and teacher Of v, the
Baptist church ct the Strand theatrs.
| to prepare short Bible talk eaoh
the passages Of Scripture selected by
! the international Sunday school les
| son committee for the current series
Of lessons.
The Bible was not intended to teach
history. 1t was given to teach men
how to live. ii. was written to teach
men how to be saved from sin and its
penalties and punishments. As men
love life, it was written to teach them
how to escape death.
In accomplishing its great mission
the Bible furnishes, incidentally, the
greatest history source-boOk of all liter
ature
The captivity of Israel must be
viewed with the history Of the Jewish
race furnishing the background
! The Starting Point
On tO-wit the fourth day of May,
1924. B. c., at any rate, at a time
about as far beyond the birth of Christ
as our generation is on this side, an
angelic messenger appeared before
Abraham as he sat meath the shade of
his tent in the cool of the evening,
there in the valley of the Euphrates,
and entered into sacred contract with
him The messenger from Jehovah left
with the proud old chieftain commits
sion. IS.
1t was Jeh0vah's purpose, beginning
with Abraham. to establish nation
and to give that nation the highest mis-
sion and noblest destiny with which any
nation in the history of the world was
ever blest. Israel was to be established
in the midst of the nations. Israel
would give them the conception of the
one and only true God. Israel would
give them the divine law from the fam
ing summit of Sinai. Israel would
give them the Bible. Israel would give
them the Christ.
The Process
| After Abraham, came his son Isaac.
Not much is recorded of him or his
administration as the head Of Jewish
affairs. He had two sons, Esau and
Jacob. 1t was Jacob with whom Je-
hovah renewed the covenant. There
after his name was Israel and by his
name the tribe, the nation In embryo,
should be known,
During Jacobs life the great famine
|
minister of Egypt and brought about
the four hundred years of Egyptian
slavery for his people.
Moses, the hberator, organized the
two millions of saves into a great mill.
tary force. And ON the night Of the
Passover that force was born into
nation and started on the hazardous ex-
petition known in history as the Exo-
duS. s.
Forty years later Joshua succeeded to
the office left vacant by Moses death
He led the new nation into Canaan, the
land promised in the covenant of Abra-
ham. Joshua conducted five brilliant
military campaigns, conquered the coun-
try, surveyed it, divided it, and set the
divisions apart, one to each of the
twelve tribes.
The King Invisible
Came the period of the twelve Judges.
This epoch began about 400 B. G, 1t
lasted about two hundred years. These
were not judges in the present-day
meaning of the term. But these leaders
did hold the scales of justice for their
fellow countrymen in time of peace, and
welded the sword against their public
foes in time of war.
About 1850 B. c. Samuel, the king
maker, came upon the stage of action.
His day marked the great transition
period in Jewish history
1t had been the divine plan for the
Hebrews to remain a Theocracy, ac-
knowledging Jehovah as their only king.
But the people were impressed by the
show and display of the kings and
queens of the little nations all around
them. They addressed one petition
after another to Samuel, praying that
Israel should have royalty like the
other nations.
Kings Visible
Then about 100 B. G. Saul, the great
big, six-feet-seven, handsome country
boy was made Israefs first king.
Forty years later, David, one of the
transcendent characters in the history
Of the human race, succeeded to the
throne,
After forty years Solomon, son OF
David and Bathsheba, Davids shame,
came to the throne.
The downfall of the Hebrew nation
dates from the reign of Solomon. The
decline and fall of the empire presents
tragic picture. Outwardly Solomon S
reign of forty years was brilliant. Ply
sically his was the most magnificent
kingdom in the history of monarchy
The queen of Sheba rode a thousand
miles on horseback just to see its splen-
doris
Upon the death of Solomon came the
division of the. kingdom. From then
to the end there was the northern king.
dom of ten tribes and known as Israel
And there was the southern kingdom
OF two tribes, and called the kingdom
of Judah.
The two nations or kingdoms, for the
first fifty years of their separate ex.
istence, were often at war with each
other. 'Jereboafn, first king OF the
northern tribes after the division. en-.
tered into an alliance, with Egypt for
the subjusation of Judah. In turn Ju,