p. 406 | NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 26.

NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.

Idolatry Established.

"THEN Jeroboam built Shechem." He enlarged and fortified the city, and made it his capital. Shechem is one of the most noted places mentioned in the Bible. It was the first place at which Abraham stopped, when he departed out of Haran and came into the land of Canaan; there the Lord appeared to him and made him the promise of the land; and there he built his first altar in the land of Canaan. Gen. 12: 6, 7. When Jacob came out of Mesopotamia, on his journey back to his own land, he pitched his tent before the city, and "bought a parcel of a field, where he spread his tent." Gen. 33: 18, 19. In this "parcel" of ground at Shechem, the children of Israel buried the bones of Joseph, which they had brought out of Egypt. Josh. 24: 32. On each side of it, on Mts. Gerizim and Ebal, stood all the people after crossing over Jordan, when the blessings upon the obedient, and the curses upon the disobedient, were pronounced. Josh. 8: 33. Here all Israel assembled to make Rehoboam king; here they rebelled and chose Jeroboam; and thus it came that he made it his capital. It was near the town that the Saviour, "being wearied with his journey, sat thus" on Jacob's well, when the woman of Samaria came to draw water. See John 4: 1-42. Shechem was thirty-four miles north of Jerusalem.