THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GEOGliAPHY OF PALESTINE. 189 



no faith in themselves or in the Lord's arm, and then when told 

 to go back they rebellious! y went forward and were punished 

 by the Amalekites. The whole position seems clear. Their 

 training was complete. Physically they were fit; mentally 

 they were untrained ; and they were sentenced to remain for 

 forty years in the wilderness until all the generation that had 

 done evil was consumed. 



This decision gives us much cause for reflection ; one year for 

 training of the body, forty years for training of the mind, when 

 the heart is not in the matter. ISTow the question must present 

 itself to us, " Was it possible for the Israelites to be stirred up 

 to this war of conquest so as to have their hearts in the matter ? " 

 It seems to me that you can only fight with enthusiasm if you 

 feel a strong consciousness and indignation at the perpetration 

 of wrong and injustice on the part of your enemies, or else if 

 you form part of a great army established for conquest. As 

 neither of these applied to the Israelites, they had to fall back 

 until their children were educated up to the mark. The reason 

 why Israel did not respond to the call of the Almighty is well 

 explained in Eobertson Smith's account of the religion of the 

 Semites. Israel was only in a degree better prepared than the 

 surrounding heathen to accept a God of righteousness, and the 

 bulk of the people saw very little difference between their 

 religion and that of their heathen neighbours. The bulk of 

 them did not look upon the God of Israel as the God of the 

 whole earth, and did not recognize that all other gods were as 

 nothing. 



Israel in Canaan^ 



Forty years had now passed away, and Israel was on the way 

 to the conquest of Canaan. But not the same Israel that jibbed 

 on facing the defenders of Southern Palestine. The memory of 

 the flesh-pots of Egypt was now merely a survival ; every fight- 

 ing man was now a trained soldier from his youth, and the habit 

 of obedience outwardly to God's commands, received through 

 their leader, liad been inculcated. The Israelites were embarked 

 on the first Jihad, or Holy War, waged in the name of the 

 Almighty. We have some knowledge of such wars in recent 

 times waged by Mahomet and his successors, and we know how 

 they stirred and animated the Semitic races, and indeed all races 

 who attached themselves to the Moslem religion. There was, 

 however, a vast gulf between the two classes of Jihad. In the 

 case of Israel, it was a Jihad of extermination of all living 

 creatures in the land, men, women, children, and animals: 



