The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-10-26
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 1896. FOURTH QUARTER.
STUDIES IN JEWISH HISTORY.

hearts for mighty endeavor against
their nations foes. They had been
taught by their disastrous experience
where to find their Refuge and Strength.
The children of Israel said to Samuel,
Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God
for as, that he aciH sdUe as ont of the
hand of the Philistines.
2. Samuel Offers Sacrifice
for PeOple,-vs. 9-12.
To the people who we're accustomed to
having their. religious attitudes express.
ed by symbols and sacrifices the offering
of whole lamb on the altar by Samuel
must have been exceedingly impressive.
Whether Samuel himself offered the
sacrifce,-as he may have done legally,
being a Levite,- or whether the lamb was
offered by Samuel through the priests,
we are not told. The significance of the
lamb being offered whole should not be
missed. 1t was the custom for the
priests to take for their own use por
ton of the animal offered for sacrifice,
and also for the one who offered the ami
NAL to receive back portion. But this
lamb was offered whole. 1t symbolized
that Israel now offered entire devotion
to God
Even while these solemnities we're be-
ing fulfilled at Mizpeh, in the presence
of the representatives of Israel, the Phil
istines approached in battle array. 1t
was critical moment for the undisci-
plined Ieraelites. They we're scarcely
prepared to meet the war-like invaders
in open battle; yet they went out to
meet their powerful foe. A remarkable
deliverance was by nature wrought for
them,-a deliverance which may we'll
have seemed to the Israelites a Divine
interposition. A sudden thunder shower,
wherein it is said the Lord Numbered
Nth a great thunder, sent dismay into
the ranks of the Philistines.
The book of Judges employs phrasing
to describe the Philistine terror which
the translators render by the word dis
comfitted. but which, we are told, sug-
gests a reference to the heather god Pan,
whose unfriendliness was called a panic.
The Philistines we're demoralized, and
rendered helpless by a sudden panic.
Such storm, in the land where storms
are rare, with accompanied hail beating
in the face of the invaders, would natur-
ally terrify them and cause them to flee.
The Israelites needed no urging to go
in pursuit of the enemy from whom they
had endured oppression so long. They
slew a great number of the panic
stricken Philistines, and pursued them
to a place,-not now to be distinctly
located, then called Bethcar. 1t was
situated somewhere between Jerusalem
and the Philistine countries at the
southwark.
And Samuel marked the place of this
important victory by monument. Be-
tween Mispeh, 1.-The Watchtower," and a
place near by called SheH, 1.-The Tooth"
probably because it was an eminence in
shape like tooth,-he set up a stone,
called an Ebenezer, "a Stone of Help"
The legend of this monument for Israel
was, Hitherto hath the Lord helped as.
3. Samuel Becomes the Re
nOwned Judge of the PeOple,-vs.
1915.
The account OF this remarkable vic
tory for Israel is apparently an early
summary of only the apparent and strik-
ing events. The Phiiistines acre sab.
dued; that is, they were beaten in battle
and crippled for a season; but their
power was not yet finally broken. We
shall hear of them again in the subse-
qdent history of Israel. They appeared
to have held Samuel in such awe that
they were not disposed to attack his
people again while he lived. The hand
of the Lord acas against the Philistines
all the days of Samuel.
The restoration of the cities which the
Philistines had taken from Israel, Ekron
and Gath being among them, was but
temporary.
We are told that there acas peace be-
taCeen Israel and the Amorites; which
may signify that this tribe made com
mon cause with Israel against their com
mon oppressor, the Philistines.
$50 Samuel wrought, under the
Divine leading, great deliverance for
Israel, and as judge achieved fame
that makes him conspicuous among the
judges of Israel.
TEACHTNG POINTS