in Canaan has a larger meaning and value.  It simply and vividly illustrates the eternal truths that (1) God guides those who will be guided. (2) He reveals himself alone to those who seek a revelation. (3) His revelations come along the path of duty and are confined to no place or land. (4) For those who will be led by him God has in store a noble destiny. (5) Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. (6) Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.  Thus this marvelous story presents certain of the noblest fruits of Israel’s spiritual experiences.  Incidentally it also deals with the relationship between the Hebrews and their neighbors, the Moabites, across the Jordan and the Dead Sea, for Lot in these earlier stories stands as the traditional ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites.  It is evident that, like the opening narratives of Genesis, this story aimed to explain existing conditions, as well as to illustrate the deeper truths of life.

Similarly the story of the expulsion of Hagar, it is thought, aims primarily to explain the origin of Israel’s foes, the nomadic Ishmaelites, who lived south of Canaan.  In the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Hargaranu is the name of an Aramean tribe.  A tribe bearing a similar name is also mentioned in the south Arabian inscriptions.  The Hagar of the story is a typical daughter of the desert.  When she became the mother of a child, the highest honor that could come to a Semitic woman, she could not resist the temptation to taunt Sarah.  In keeping with early Semitic customs Sarah had full authority to demand the expulsion of Hagar, for in the eye of the law the slave wife was her property.  The tradition of the revelation to Hagar also represented the popular explanation of the sanctity of the famous desert shrine Beer-lahal-roi.  Like most of the prophetic stories, this narrative teaches deeper moral lessons.  Chief among these is the broad truth that the sphere of God’s care and blessing was by no means limited to Israel.  To the outcast and needy he ever comes with his message of counsel and promise.  Was Abraham right or wrong in yielding to Sarah’s wish?  Was Sarah right or wrong in her attitude toward Hagar?  Was Hagar’s triumphal attitude toward Sarah natural?  Was it right?

In the story of the destruction of Sodom Lot appears as the central figure.  His choice of the fertile plain of the Jordan had brought him into close contact with its inhabitants, the Canaanites.  Abandoning his nomadic life, he had become a citizen, of the corrupt city of Sodom.  When at last Jehovah had determined to destroy the city because of its wickedness, Abraham persistently interceded that it be spared.  Its wickedness proved, however, too great for pardon.  Lot, who, true to his nomad training, hospitably received the divine messengers, was finally persuaded to flee from the city and thus escaped the overwhelming destruction that felt upon it.  What was the