THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GFOGKA['HY OF PALESTINE. 185 



of discontented slaves into an organized army of warriors. 

 This was done under the enormous pressure of dire necessity, 

 but on the other hand it was carried out in spite of the 

 inclinations of a large section of the people, especially the older 

 ones, whose enervated habits led them to hunger after the flesh- 

 pots of Egypt. The enfeebled Israelites, after generations of 

 abject slavery under the iron rule of the Pharaohs, had been 

 reduced to the lowest depths of serfdom and submission to 

 their human rulers, but to God they only turned at rare 

 intervals. 



Even the destruction of all their male children by Pharaoh 

 was not enough to stir them up to active resistance, and it was 

 necessary that a leader from amongst themselves should be 

 trained up as a free man in the royal household of Pharaoh of 

 Egypt. 



This leader was Moses, the younger of the children of Amram, 

 a highly gifted family ; Miriam and Aaron possessing the 

 prophetic gifts, and Moses being potentially gifted with the 

 ability to become versed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 

 and to take his place as a personage of influence in the royal 

 household. These three were chosen to act as ambassadors of 

 the Almighty, to release their brethren from the thraldom of 

 the Egyptians, and to train them to hght against and 

 exterminate the possessors of Canaan. Their task was to 

 control and educate a nation, now physically and mentally unfit 

 — to do more than murmur and groan under the lash of the task- 

 masters — and whose thoughts could not rise above the contem- 

 plation of the flesh-pots of Egypt ; and, further, to change them 

 into an army of conquerors. 



At the present crisis in our history the lesson as to how this 

 change was brought about cannot fail to be of interest to us all. 



The method of procedure adopted in educating the Israelites 

 to carry out their task of conquest was all planned out before- 

 hand by the Almighty, as we are permitted to know, from the 

 instructions given to Moses at Horeb, where he was watching 

 the flocks of Jethro the Midianite (Ex. iii, 12) : " When thou 

 hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God 

 upon this mountain." And again (Ex. xiii, 17) : " God led them 

 not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that 

 was near ; for God said. Lest perad venture the people repent when 

 they see war, and they return to Egypt : but God led the people 

 about, through the way of the wilderness of the Eed Sea." 



There were in ancient times two roads leading from Egypt 

 into Southern Palestine : (1) The way of the land of the 



