Much instruction may be derived from a consideration of the meaning of this name, when taken in relation to the passages where it is found.

The word means "beheld," from a root signifying "to look," "to behold " in a rather ominous sense, such as would be involved in the expression "father is looking," when the child is not suspecting that he is "beheld."

In Psa. 92:ii the word is in the plural and rendered "mine enemies," no doubt in the sense of "my [adverse] beholders."

Four times the word is translated "wall," viz., Gen. 49:22; 2 Sam. 22:30; Job 24:ii; Psa. 18:29, where in each case "wall" is no doubt a "rampart" whence the adverse party may be observed.

It occurs six times as a proper name, the first time being in Gen. 16:7, where Hagar is found by the angel in her flight from her mistress. "And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water
in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur."

Hagar is interpreted for us in Gal. 4:as the legal covenant "which gendereth to bondage." Sarai standing for the principle of grace.

The legal covenant has its fruit, though it be to be cast out, and no sooner does Hagar realize that she is to be fruitful, than she is lifted up with pride and despises her mistress. Then the righteous requirements of grace (Sarai) become irksome and Hagar flees. Those who are under law never really hear the law (Gal. 4:21). Hagar is found by the angel near a fountain in the wilderness.

It is a wilderness, but there is a fountain in it. The law, in order to be fully tested, or more properly, in order that man may be fully tested by the law, there must be grace shown to enable him to apply it and learn its lesson.

This fountain is "in the way to Shur." She is on the road to "beheld," if she will but listen to her schoolmaster; but as we have said, those under law have not listened to it. She could realize that she had "looked after" the living One who had "beheld" her (ver. 13), but that holy eye was irksome to her, she did not dwell at Lahairoi:Isaac did. (Comp. chap 25:ii and see Ex. 33:23.)

The Lord had a purpose in giving the law; it was a "schoolmaster " and had lessons to teach:so Hagar must return to her mistress. Grace must ever be mistress, even in teaching the lessons the law was designed to teach. On the ground of pure law man could not stand a moment.

The next time we meet the word "Shur" is in Gen. 20:1:

Abraham, the man of faith, is leaving the sanctuary we see him in (chap. 19:27) and "journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur." An equivocal position this "between Kadesh (1:e. 'sanctuary') and Shur" (1:e. "beheld"). His journeying toward the south would seem to indicate that he is seeking sunshine, comfort, and how often that is the case after some victory, after some special enjoyment of the Lord's presence; the armor is laid aside and the victory rested in, rather than the One who gave it! And he "dwelt" there. Gerar suggests "restlessness;" there he sojourned; could not, of course, be at rest there, but dwelt between the sanctuary and the place which spoke of the holy eye "beholding" all. How sad indeed when a child of God needs the warning that "Father is looking," instead of finding His presence his one necessity.

But not only is Abraham "beheld." Sarah is also, and so is Abimelech. He who has promised that grace shall reign, is "beholding" all, and sees to it that every attempt of the enemy to frustrate His purpose, or to mix with it some effort of nature, is turned rather to its furtherance.

In chap. 25:18 we have the next occurrence of the word-the third.

It was said of Ishmael, ere he was born, that he should "dwell in the presence of all his brethren" (chap. 16:12). And so here, the son of the bondwoman is passing away ("in the presence of all his brethren"); and "they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur." "Havilah" means "circular" and seems to suggest that dreary round of ritualism which effects nothing more than "a remembrance again of sins
every year" (Heb. 10:1-3); the other extremity being that ominous "beheld" they never quite reach, and cannot be at home in the presence of, though pride may blind them to enquire "Are we blind also"? or to cavil at grace which "receiveth sinners and eateth with them "-their outlook is ever and only Egypt which enslaved God's people, and Assyria (Babylon) which corrupted them. .

The fourth occurrence of the word Shur is in Ex. XV. 22.

" So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur." A warning and an encouragement is in being "beheld" here. They are being tested. Will they remember that Hagar was "beheld" here? That even a bondwoman found a well and an angel's voice here ? Can they trust the One whose eye is upon them, and who has just brought them across the Red Sea, to supply their need ? Alas, the flesh cannot trust God for eternal life. The murmuring spirit is there ready to break out.

We next meet with Shur in connection with king Saul.

Israel have chosen their king, and the Lord is putting him through his schooling-will he obey His word ?

He is told to destroy Amalek utterly, and not to spare. "And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt."

Saul was "beheld." Well would it have been for him if he had heeded the warning thus held out to him, but he "took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive." "Spared Agag, and the best of the, sheep,
and of the oxen, and of the failings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them" (i Sam. 15:7-9); so the Lord set him aside as unfit to rule His people (ver. 23).

The sixth occurrence of the word is in i Sam. 27:8, in connection with David, the Lord's chosen king.
David is here in an equivocal position. He had " said in his heart I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul;" so he flees into the land of the Philistines, and identifies himself with these inveterate enemies of God's people; accepts a position under Achish, king of Gath, and receives from him Ziklag, where he and his men settled down with their wives and families.

David invades "the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites," and was unsparing in his slaughter of them, but not because they were the enemies of God's people, but rather "lest they should tell on him, saying, So did David, and so will his manner be all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines." David was "beheld." He had pursued the enemy "as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt," going in the same direction, but going no farther than Saul had gone in chap. xv, but going towards that ominous "eye," that warning "beheld," which, had he been warned by, might have spared him the humiliation of chap. 29:and the burning of Ziklag in chap. 30:where even his own men spake of stoning him.

We may, then, gather up the lesson from all this, that if we will not, as Isaac, dwell at Lahairoi ("the living One, who sees us ") finding Him our one necessity, then He must force us to Shur to prove to us that we are beheld still by One who will turn our very failures to account, as with Peter, of whom it is said, "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny Me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61, 62). J. B. J.

Findochty, March, 1904