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An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to a place afterwards called Bochim, and which was not improbably Shiloh itself; as it seems that the Israelites were all assembled there, at the time, on some solemn religious festival. There are those who think, and not without reason from the manner of his speaking, that it was the angel of the covenant, the Son of God himself and the glorious manifestation of Jehovah,—the same "Captain of the Lord's host" who appeared to Joshua at Gilgal, and now again came to the Israelites to inquire why the commands which he had then given were not obeyed.

"I made you," exclaimed this heavenly messenger in the hearing of the people, "I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars:-but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you." Fearful denunciation, and now to be carried into effect! How deplorable the condition of the disobedient Israelites, and also of all sinners when God thus withdraws his protection, and abandons them to the

power of the ensnaring temptations which surround them.

Tremble, my young friend, lest at any time you may thus be left to reap the fruits of your disobedience to the divine commands, and become the prey of the world, the flesh, and the adversary of your soul. Make no compromise with sin. Its entire extermination from your breast is your only safety. God will be satisfied with nothing less. Shrink not from the struggle. Do not give over the conflict till, through strength derived from the great Captain of your salvation, you shall have gained a comple victory.

CHAPTER II.

Micah and his images. His priest, the young Levite.

They seem to have felt
Loud lamentations were

The message of the Angel filled the Israelites with the deepest grief. their guilt and danger. heard on all sides. They humbled themselves before God, many of them probably in the sincerity of their souls, and all of them in public acts of religious worship. Propitiatory sacrifices were offered up; and to perpetuate the memory of

their sorrow, they called the place Bochim, a word denoting weepings, or lamentations.

For a season, the fear of incurring the chastisements of the Almighty appears to have restrained the Israelites from being led astray by the enticements of the heathen around them. During the lifetime of the elders who survived Joshua, and who had witnessed "the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel," the people continued constant in their obedience to the divine commands. But the succeeding generation were of a different character. They forgot the power and goodness of Jehovah, which had so often been displayed in behalf of their nation. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger." His anger, we are told, was hot against them," and he suffered them and their possessions to fall a prey to their enemies, so that in whatever they undertook, "the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed."

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While thus suffering under the displeasure of the Almighty, their cries for deliverance met his ear, and his mercy was extended towards them

He raised up the judges for their rescue, men of valor and wisdom, under whose command they successfully resisted their oppressors, and were once more restored to prosperity. But their reformation was often of short continuance. They again fell into the most grievous sins, and were again oppressed by their enemies. These alternations of bondage and deliverance continued for a succession of years, till the time when the kings began to reign in Israel. They afford a striking exhibition of the miseries which attend a nation's transgression of the divine commands. They prove the truth of what Moses and Joshua had so often told their countrymen, that the blessings or the chastisements of the Almighty would be their portion, as they should prove faithful in their allegiance, or false to their covenant of obedience to his authority.

Some events which occurred before the time of the judges, and while Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, was high-priest, deserve here to be noticed. For they will enable us the better to understand the strong tendency of the Israelites to fall into idolatrous practices, and in this way subject themselves to the fearful judgments that were inflicted upon them.

A woman of the tribe of Ephraim, and residing in the mountainous parts of its territory, had been robbed of eleven hundred shekels of silver.

Her son, whose name was Micah, hearing his mother imprecate the curse of the Almighty upon the thief if he did not make restitution; and alarmed by the denunciation, confessed his guilt. On receiving the silver, she implored the divine blessing on Micah, and told him that she had dedicated it unto the Lord for his benefit, to make a graven image and a molten image, which she intended to leave at his disposal. Taking two hundred shekels of the money, she had this done; and her son placed the images in what he regarded his house of God, or private sanctuary of worship. The remaining nine hundred shekels were probably expended in the fitting it up with its appropriate articles, among which were an ephod, or sacred vestment, and a teraphim, or superstitious figure of some kind. Micah, also, consecrated one of his own sons to be his priest, to officiate in this sanctuary.

It is probable, that in all this the worship of the true God was intended, and that this little temple was designed to be like the tabernacle at Shiloh, and the images and other articles to represent the ark, the mercy-seat, the cherubim, the dresses of the priests, and the sacred things of a similar kind.

But the doing of this by Micah and his mother was in direct violation of the divine commands. It was a grievous sin, and exposed them to the penalty of death. It showed, that if they had not

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