Abraham and Shechem

[BlessedWheat]

In Canaan Abraham went through three tests and he built three altars. As we have seen, the first altar was in Shechem (Genesis 12.7) and the second at Bethel (12.8; 13.4). Then he went south to Egypt, fell into sin, and at length returned again to Bethel. The third altar he built was at Hebron (13. 18). These are the three special points of Canaan in God's eyes. Each was sanctified by an altar. What they are, Canaan is. God has no use for a place where there is no altar. `I will give you this land Shechem, Bethel, Hebron.' They are Canaan. Let us look at them now more closely. The name Shechem, means a shoulder. It is the place of greatest strength, for that is the meaning of `shoulder' in Hebrew. Canaan is not only a land of plenty and of milk-and-honey sweetness; it is the place of God's own strength, the place of victory, where enemies are cast out and and kept out. Its strength is a living strength. The well of Sychar is in Shechem, the type of the power of the living Christ in His people. The Lord's own life is manifest there, and none go away empty. `Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life' (John 4. 14). Those who are always empty, always thirsty, always seeking for this or that, never satisfied, are weak, and of little use to God. It is the satisfied who are strong, and God has made provision that we should all be satisfied. He offers us such satisfaction in His Son that we are able to say, `I want nothing, I need nothing for myself.' That is strength. Is it not true that our greatest weakness as Christians arises from within, because we are unsatisfied, or dissatisfied? Shechem and the land of Canaan imply satisfaction, full and complete, and that means strength. Neither the world nor the powers of darkness can find an entry there. Moreh, means knowledge. Knowledge is the fruit of strength. For Moreh was the name of an oak tree or terebinth in Shechem, and a tree grows out of the earth upon which it stands. Knowledge comes from, and is the fruit of, strength and satisfaction, not of doctrine. The weakness of today's knowledge is that it is mere information. Without the strength of the Lord satisfying us and producing knowledge, we have no knowledge at all. The vessel God wants for His work is not prepared by hearing a lot of things, but by seeing and receiving and being satisfied. Its understanding is based on the life of Christ within, not on information about Him. We must beware of just passing on to others what we hear. No matter how precious or profound the teaching may be, we are not to be disseminators of information. In this respect people with good memories can be most dangerous. To prattle on about divine things will achieve nothing, and may take us far from the will of God. God's power on earth cannot be maintained by what we hear but only by our knowledge of Him. What must characterize the Christian Church is what we know within us. God deliver us from a merely intellectual Gospel!