Shechem

The High Valley which separates the twin mounts of Gerizim and Ebal reaches 1800 feet Above sea sea level; a mere 500 yards separates the bases of the two peaks. Gerizim on the south rises a further 800 feet, and from the flanks of Ebal on the north the distant waters of the Mediterranean may be glimpsed, or the mountains of Moab across the Jordan valley, if one turns eastwards. The site of ancient Shechem, the Sychar of the New Testament, lies between the mounts near the summit of the watershed between the coastal plain and the Jordan valley; nearby is the modern Nablus in this hill country of mount Ephraim, now the centre of the disputed West Bank territory.

Travellers of the last century waxed lyrical over the beauty and fer­tility of this part of the land. Smith’s Bible Dictionary quotes a Dr. Clark:

“There is nothing finer in all Palestine than a view of Nablus from the hills around it. As the traveller descends from the heights, it appears luxuriantly embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bowers, half concealed by rich gardens and by stately trees collected into groves all around the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands.”

Or again, quoting a Dr. Robinson:

“The whole valley was filled with gardens of vegetables, and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by fountains which burst forth in various parts and flow westwards in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine.”

To this high valley came Abram from Haran to receive the first of the promises and establish his first recorded encampment in the land.

“And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh (LXX: the high oak). And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him” (Gen.12:6&7 RV).

Here, too, Jacob encamped when he fled from Laban:

“Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem; which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Pad­dan-aram; and encamped before the city. And he bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for an hundred pieces of money ^,(LXX: a hundred lambs). And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel (God, the God of Israel)” (Gen. 33:18 RV).

Perhaps it was at this time, and in the “parcel of ground” that his servants digged the deep well where Jesus rested (John 4) which was still reported last century as being 9ft wide with round smooth walls,. and 75 ft deep.

Subsequent chapters in Genesis would seem to suggest that from this encampment and after the rape of Dinah (although see letter “Bible Arithmetic” in July/Aug issue), Simeon and Levi destroyed all the male Hivites with Shechem and his father Hamor, after which Jacob received the call to go to Bethel. But before leaving Shechem Jacob made that significant appeal to his household:

“Put away the strange gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Bethel. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem” (Did Rachel, we wonder, produce her father’s teraphim?) (Gen.35:2 RV).

Significantly, and 400 years later, Joshua repeats Jacob’s appeal to the patriarchs’ descendants from the same place: “Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem” (Josh.24:1 RV). “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (v.15); “Now therefore put away… the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD, the God of Israel… And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us” (v.23,26&27).

It had been at the end of the wilderness journey that Moses, before he died, instructed the people to

“put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal…on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains (RV oaks) of Moreh” (Deut.11:29).

And so with great solemnity Joshua had written upon the stones of the altar a copy of the law of Moses (Deut.27:2-4; Joah.8:30-32).

Shechem itself was a Levitical city, as well as a city of refuge, allocated from the inheritance of Ephraim, of whom Joshua himself was prince. It had been given to the sons of Kohath who had the charge of the sanctuary, so there would seem to be a sound case for assuming that it was at Shechem that the Tabernacle rested during the conquest of the land, perhaps on the very place where God first made promise to Abram, where Jacob spread his tent, and in the “parcel of ground” which was the burying place for the bones of Joseph carried by the children of Israel from Egypt, and, if our surmise is correct, the burying place also of both Laban’s “household gods” and those which the children of Israel and the mixed multitude had carried up from Egypt.

Shechem was destroyed and sown with salt after the disgraceful episode of Abimelech and the men of Shechem, who made him king by the “plain of the pillar” (LXX; the oak of sedition); but it must have been rebuilt, for Rehoboam went there to be made king, presumably because it was more likely to unite the northern tribes to David’s house than if he had chosen Jerusalem. However, he soon fled back to Jerusalem when they rejected him, and Jeroboam took the crown of the ten tribes, making Shechem his first capital. Subsequently Omri built Samaria for the capital a few miles to the west. Doubtless the Shechem­ites suffered captivity with the rest of Israel, and Nebuchadnezzar seems to have colonised the area with Cuthites (probable ancestors of the Samaritans of the New Testament) who erected a temple on mount Gerizim which John Hyrcanus destroyed in BC 128.

What thoughts, then, would pass through the Lord’s mind as he came to Sychar as recorded in John 4, “near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph”, where Jacob’s well was, and, being wearied with his journey, asked water of the woman of Samaria? Did he reflect on his own inheritance as the seed of Abraham, of the calls by Jacob and Joshua for the people to put away their idols? Of the time when Joshua would once again possess his inheri­tance? Was that why he permitted the Samaritans to persuade him to stop for two days on his way to Galilee, to preach the gospel unto them (the fruit which Philip was to reap later – Acts 8:5)? With all the patriarchal associ­ations, we can see how it came about that the Lord convinced a people who only accepted the Pentateuch as being inspired, that he was the Son of God, and the seed of Abraham. Could there also have been a connection between the five husbands of the Samaritan woman and the chequered history of Sychar?

Whatever the reasons, the gospel which the Lord preached to Samaria contained the same demand that was implied in the promises to Abraham, that Jacob made to his household, and that Joshua commanded the whole nation from that same place of the sanctuary – Put away your idols and serve the true and living God, and He will abundantly bless you. The message and history of the high valley between Gerizim and Ebal still speaks from the Word of God to those who seek the blessing first preached to Abraham, the friend of God.