Genesis 34:14-31 - Deadly Deception

[0:00] Last week, I'd wanted to do the whole chapter. If you remember, we didn't get that far. It's not a very fun chapter, but not a lot of Jacob's life has been very fun till now. But God is good, and we see his redemption in the midst of it, in the midst of all of Jacob's issues.

[0:18] So if you remember, we've traveled with him up to Haran. He's come back from Haran 20-some years later. He's met with the Lord at the Jabbok. He's crossed over into the Jordan after staying in Sukkoth for a bit.

[0:30] He's come to Shechem, and last week we said it's the picture-perfect place, right? He has a little space from his family. He's been with mom and dad up until he was 70, Uncle Laban into his 90s, comes back and meets Esau, and he's like, I need a little space from the family.

[0:44] And so he goes into the land, yes, into Shechem. Nothing wrong with some space. And we saw how it seemed like a picture-perfect place for our friend Jacob.

[0:56] But not all that glitters is gold, is it? And continuing with the outline from last week, we got through chapter 13. So we had 1 through 7 was Dear Dinah, where she goes out into the land to see the daughters of the land.

[1:10] And we saw how it wasn't just to see them, but to regard them, to look after. Like, she wanted to be like them. She desired their company. 8 through 12 was messed up morals. We saw that Shechem and Hamor, just the people of the land, their idea of morality, of what they thought marriage was, of what they thought was okay, their okay lifestyle.

[1:31] And then deceitful dudes. That's what we pick up this week, with the deceitful dudes, the sons of Jacob and their plots and plans. And then we'll see 20 through 24 is the father of Shechem, Hamor.

[1:43] He seems like, this is everything I've ever wanted. This is a sweet deal. But it turns into murder and mayhem in verses 25 through 29. And then at the end, we see Jacob speak for the first time in this chapter.

[1:56] And it's not a great response. It's not a great response. We kind of had a theme verse for this section. It was 1 John 2, 16. Today, we're going to add on 17. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

[2:10] And we saw lust is just desire fulfilled now. A desire for my desires to be fulfilled now. It's not of the father, but it's of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof.

[2:21] But he that does the will of God abides forever. And so the idea is the things of this world, they're temporal. The fulfillment of this world and the desire to have fulfillment now, it doesn't last.

[2:32] It's temporal. The only thing that lasts is he that does the will of God abides forever. There's nothing more fulfilling or satisfying. So just because there is no strife didn't mean there was no problems.

[2:45] For Jacob, like the strife was gone. He had a little break. And that's good. There's no problem with taking time to have space. The problem is when we go from taking time to have space to taking time to have nothing but space.

[2:58] We begin to dwell there. We begin to stay there. When Jacob came to Shechem, you know, I don't know how old the kids were, but we know when he left Haran, Reuben was like 13.

[3:10] Dinah maybe 7 at that point. Joseph the youngest, 6. And then at this point, she goes out into the land. She's old enough to be desirable. So we saw that she's like 15, 16, 17.

[3:21] So he's been here for a few years at this point. So let's pick up in verse 13. We kind of left off there, but we're going to go back there and start there.

[3:35] Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't give the title for the message. Deadly Deception is the title. And we're going to look a lot. Last week, we looked a lot at the heart and the leading of the heart and how the heart's not meant to be followed, but led.

[3:49] The heart needs to be led. We don't follow our heart. We lead our heart. And we ended in verse 13 there. It says, And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor, his father, deceitfully and said, Because he's defiled or created uncleanness or polluted Dinah, their sister.

[4:07] So Hamor, after this whole thing, Shechem takes Dinah, remember? And then Hamor comes with his son because his son says, I really like this one, Dad. This girl's really different than the rest. I want to marry her. And so Hamor comes to Jacob and says, let's cut a deal.

[4:20] An agreement's an agreement, right? We're going to make a deal. Give me your daughter. I'll give you my women. And you give me your women. It'll be a great deal. Let's have a marriage. And he flips the script completely.

[4:31] That's not marriage. What kind of, that's not marriage. I was reading where today the standard, the norm today is for people to shack up together until they want to have kids, which is usually the early 30s these days.

[4:48] Then you get married at that point because you want your children to have parents with the same last name. So you wait until that point and you get married. That marriage right now, marriage in air quotes, is more popular among the same-sex couples than traditional couples.

[5:05] That they are pushing hard to have marriage. Where it's even become acceptable in the church. That, well, yeah, okay, whatever. At least they got married in the end, you know. But that's not marriage.

[5:16] That's not God's best. Yes, God redeems. That's what we're going to see today. It's wonderful. So when Shechem and Hamor come, we saw there's no repentance. There's no acknowledging of their sin or even seeing this as anything wrong.

[5:30] And what we're going to find out from the beginning here, the sons of Jacob, they cannot believe the way their sister was treated and that nobody seems to care. That kind of underlies, we're going to see that repeated over and over.

[5:43] They shouldn't have treated our sister that way, but they defiled our sister. That's the underlying kind of motive to all they do. Their reaction is wrong. Very, very wrong. But I think what the scripture is recognizing is they were right in that sin needed to be dealt with and owned, identified, and repented of.

[6:01] And so we're never going to see the Lord step into the situation and curse anyone because of it. There'll be consequences from it. But I think because underlying was this desire to deal with sin in a situation where sin was trying to be just pushed off to the side or normalized.

[6:16] And so last time we looked at that word there, defiled, and we kind of ended looking at how it was defiled. Well, this week we're going to zero in on verse 13 there, that word deceitfully.

[6:28] We briefly said how that means fraud or treachery. And the only other place in Genesis that's used is when Esau comes to Isaac and he's all upset and crying his big crocodile tears. And he says, isn't there a blessing for me?

[6:40] And Isaac says, your brother has come with subtlety and taken your blessing. That's the only other time that word for deception is used in Genesis, those two times. And so here you see the sons of Jacob not falling, the apple not falling too far from the tree.

[6:56] And also the sons of Jacob are the grandsons of Laban. So, you know, there's a lot to be said there.

[7:07] But deceive, the word deceive in Webster's 1828 dictionaries, which is where I go for all my definitions, by the way, unless it's like a Greek and Hebrew definition. Otherwise, the English, I go to Webster's 1828.

[7:18] It's not been woke-ified. Deceive means to mislead by causing false belief. More specifically, by causing false belief, by causing someone to believe what is false or disbelieve what is true.

[7:31] So in this instance, you have the sons of Jacob. They get together and they say, hey, we want to deceive. We purposely want to answer deceptively to Hamor and Shechem.

[7:45] We want to lead them astray. We want to lead them either into a truth, which is actually a lie, or we want to lead them away from the truth so that they don't believe what is really true.

[7:57] But deceit's only possible when the scenario is plausible. What do I mean by that? Would you open that email? I wouldn't. It's your lucky day.

[8:08] You won the foreign lottery. I'd be like, oh, junk. Junk. That's not plausible. Come on. Maybe you might be in a hard spot and you're thinking, maybe this once it's going to work. Oh, no. Now my identity's stolen and, you know, you click on it.

[8:20] No, I shouldn't have. Right? But, you know, one of the most profitable deceptions of today is health. You can make a lot of money in health.

[8:32] Enhance your health. More energy? Greater stamina? Or your money back in 30 days? You know how many people go for stuff like that? Well, maybe this will work. I hate working out. This says I don't have to work out. It just will happen. That's wonderful.

[8:43] Right? It has to be plausible. Deceit has to be plausible. Deceit kind of builds a bridge. Right? I want to get to an end. Maybe the truth will get me there. Maybe it won't. But I want to get there now.

[8:55] In this instance where we just looked at is people who want money. They're like, well, I want to be well off. I want some money. Nothing wrong with being taken care of and earning a good wage.

[9:06] But they don't want to work for it. They don't want to save. So they're like, I got an idea. I know how I can get there quickly. The problem is that when you build that bridge, truth will not cross over that bridge. Deceit builds a bridge that truth cannot and will not cross over.

[9:20] However, you have to leave truth behind as soon as you decide to use deception. So let's put it in this situation with Hamor and Shechem and the boys. What we're going to find out, and if you haven't read ahead, is they're going to convince them that they all have to be circumcised and be like them so they can join together.

[9:35] And that's going to put them in a weakened state so that they can then go and give vengeance upon them. They say to them, hey, if you want Dinah, our sister, you're going to have to do this.

[9:47] You know, and this could be a good thing. And Hamor and Shechem are like, okay, let's do it. Plausible? Yeah. All right. If they brought the truth with them across that bridge and said, well, Hamor and Shechem, here's the thing.

[10:00] We want you to do this, to be circumcised, because what we really want to do is we want to whoop you. We want you to be so weak that we're going to come in and we're going to kill you. Will you join with us in this? No. Truth absolutely crushes that bridge.

[10:12] It can't hold up under truth. So whenever we leave behind deceit and we think maybe it's a good idea, if I just mislead, just to, you know, it's not really the truth, but I'll just mislead a little bit so I can get to this end.

[10:23] It's a good end. It's going to be a good end. But we need to get there quickly. And, well, it's just a little deception. Right? But to do that, you have to leave the truth behind.

[10:35] And now you are walking without the truth. We saw in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And so here comes the sons of Jacob.

[10:46] And they're like, you know what? If no one else is going to take care of this situation, we'll take care of it. But the method they use is not any better than those who committed the sin in the first place.

[11:00] In verse 14, and so they say to Shechem and Hamor, well, we can't do this thing. To give our sister to one that's uncircumcised, for that we're a reproach or it's despised unto us.

[11:11] That's, well, bro, no way. This is way outside what we're going to do. In Genesis 17, I'm not going to read it, but back when God gave the covenant to Abraham, the covenant of circumcision, he says it's for those born in your house or those bought with money that you bring into your house.

[11:28] He did not say, well, this is for the whole world. Circumcision. This is for everybody to become like, Abraham, go out and try and make everybody like you. He didn't say that. And so the sons of Jacob, they're taking God's word, they're twisting it.

[11:42] They're using it for their own ends. And they're making it say more than it means. Where's the first time God's word was ever made to say more than it means? Well, we saw that in Genesis 2.

[11:53] Literally in Genesis 2, I think it is. Or is it 3? When the serpent comes to Eve, right? He makes God's word say a lot more than it was meant to say. And that's what they do here.

[12:04] They're using God's word. They're twisting God's word. And here's another word for us. They're putting forward a pretense. Pretense is presenting to others a false or hypocritical appearance, usually with a view to conceal what is real and thus to deceive.

[12:19] So they put forward this pretense. Hey, what we want you to do is this. The real reason we want you to do it is because, like I said, we want to whoop you. We want to give vengeance. But we're going to put this forward, this hypocrisy, this appearance.

[12:33] Colossians 2.8 says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. That we're to beware of that. There are those who would desire with a pretense to deceive us.

[12:45] Well, that seems good. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. So how do we keep from being deceived? Is it after Christ? Does it promote Jesus?

[12:58] Does it end in Jesus? Or is it all of a sudden we started at Jesus, and now this pretense of Jesus, they've got us over here into something else. And I feel so deceived, and I feel like I'm taken advantage of, and where'd Jesus go in all of this?

[13:12] 1 John 3.7, What's the key there?

[13:24] Even as he is righteous. If someone comes and they declare to have the righteousness of Christ, and to align themselves with the church, and with Jesus, and with his word, and you're like, but that's not Jesus' righteousness.

[13:36] Then it's not righteous. He that does righteousness is righteous. But it's going to line up with the Lord's righteousness. We live in a day where a lot of people claim to be right, right?

[13:51] Everybody's right, but also everybody's wrong. And there's no truth anymore. That the end totally justifies the means. Like, hey, I may be deceiving you, but you know what?

[14:01] It's for a good cause, because we've got to save whatever. People, children, the nation, whatever. The ends are justifying the means here. But we left truth behind. He that does righteousness is righteous, as long as he's righteousness in the righteousness of Christ, right?

[14:17] We've all heard this phrase, you know, well, it's the lesser of two evils. Well, that means it's not what? Righteous. And if I keep picking the lesser of two evils, then what have I chosen every time?

[14:31] Evil, right? We're not called to do that. We're called to be righteous as he is righteous. I don't think that Jacob's son set out to wipe out the whole town.

[14:42] I hope not. I think they're thinking, we're going to go in and we're going to teach Shechem a lesson. You know, we're going to show him you don't mess with our sister. And we're not going to let him continue in this sin.

[14:56] And I think it's going to get out of hand. Their motives, maybe, were right. They wanted to deal with sin, right? But they didn't do it according to the righteousness of God.

[15:06] And what's the reason? We looked at that a lot last week, and we'll see that a little more. What's the main problem in this family? Jacob's standing back from all of this. He's letting the boys just kind of run the whole show.

[15:18] Hamor comes and says to Jacob, let's talk about this. And then who answers? We, in verse 15. But in this will we consent unto you, if you will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised.

[15:32] Okay, we will go along with this. If you do what we say. Well, who wants to talk to? Boys, I'm sorry, I'm talking to your dad, right? Where's Jacob?

[15:43] Well, Jacob has slipped right back into allowing those closest to him to direct his life, right? A 70-some-year-old man, and his mom's telling him, you know, now go into your brother's laundry.

[15:54] I just finished a load for him. And get some of his clothes, and we're going to deceive him. I'm going to make a meal. Is that the one that I like, Mom? Yeah, I'm going to make that one. And then he goes and he lives with Laban. And he's just letting Laban tell him what to do.

[16:07] And it seems like he's slipped back into that. That when Jacob gets comfortable, Jacob kind of just checks out. He's like, hey, there's no strife here. But no matter how wise the people are who God surrounds us with, our responsibilities are still our responsibilities.

[16:23] It was not for Jacob to abdicate and turn this over to his sons. Yes, scripture says that with much counsel make war, and there is safety in a multitude of counselors. Proverbs says that.

[16:34] But our responsibilities are still our responsibilities. I can't put that off done to someone else. I have to own that for myself. Then will we, in verse 16, give our daughters unto you.

[16:45] And we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone. Ooh, an ultimatum. And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem Hamor's son.

[16:58] They're like, you know what? All right, this can work. And we're going to see why it's going to please them so much. But the sons of Jacob, what were they asking of these men of Shechem?

[17:08] Were they saying, hey, come join us in this covenant? Because our God is the one true God. The true and living God. Because, guys, you don't even know what marriage is. You've got this whole thing flipped up. Come and learn the ways of the Lord.

[17:20] Come and learn true righteousness. No, all they're saying is, look, you need to look like us and act like us if you want to be part of this covenant. But without ever explaining to them or giving them understanding what the covenant is.

[17:34] Unfortunately, we see that today in the air quotes church, right? The church today in America is full of people who look like Christians, who act Christian, but have no understanding of the covenant that would make them Christian.

[17:49] It's just like, hey, come on in. Look like us and act like us. And again, I don't think maybe the motive behind that is wrong. Man, we want people in the church. We want people to be part of what God is doing.

[18:03] But to water it down so much that you use programs and events to just bring people in. The problem with that is I've got to keep them then by the same way that I brought them, right? So if we start doing, you know, all kinds of puppet shows and we give away free raffles and free iPhones and we make a lot of food and we bring people in.

[18:22] And it's like, the place is crowded. This is great. But as soon as we stop that, they're all going to leave because that's what they came for. And so you kind of have this very shallow group of people. And then you try and take them deeper.

[18:33] And they're like, well, what are you doing? Well, what are you doing? This isn't what I've come to know as church. Where's the fun and the games, the coffee shop and the concerts? It's, you know, and then you just tell me John 3, 16, I feel good and I go home.

[18:48] But they don't understand what the covenant actually was that makes them a Christian, right? It's that righteousness we were talking about. In Matthew 16, Jesus has just turned to the disciples.

[19:01] He says, but who say you that I am? Who do you say that I am? The Pharisees say one thing. The people say another. And Peter answered and he said unto them, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

[19:13] And then Jesus says, and I say also unto you, to Peter, that you are Peter. And upon this rock, referring back to Peter's declaration, Peter, upon the rock of me being Christ, the son of the living God, I will build my church.

[19:27] Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What do we build our church on? That Jesus Christ is the son of the living God. That's what we build the church on. In Acts, it says that the Lord added daily, to the church such as should be saved.

[19:42] And this is the temptation to think that I got to be a lot of, I got to be really busy. Sometimes I watch a lot of things. I like to see what's going on within the church, air quotes church, just the winds of doctrine.

[19:54] Just in case the little breeze ever starts to blow in here. I'm like, get that out of here. Someone close the window, right? And it was this guy and he sounded so, he sounded so enticing.

[20:06] But the pretense was that, man, God wants you to be wealthy. You know, God always wants us to be wealthy with these people. You never hear a guy say, God wants you to be broke, poor, miserable, and destitute.

[20:17] He's going to do great things in your life, which is more in keeping with the truth. But the guy's like, God wants you to be wealthy. And if you're not realizing the full potential of what God wants to do with your life, then millions of people are going to hell because you're not making the money that you should to be used to spend on the gospel so they can get saved.

[20:34] It was like, oh, wow. That was his pretense. It's like, wow, that was shocking. But that's what he's trying to build his church on. That's what he's trying to use to build his kingdom, right?

[20:50] And so you see Jacob's sons, just like Jacob, manipulating the situation, trying to use people to his advantage. And even more so like Laban, right? For Laban, we saw how relationships were just another commodity.

[21:04] In Genesis 31, the baby boom chapter, after they were done having the children and the Lord comes to Jacob in a dream and says, hey, I want you to go back home.

[21:15] It's time to go home. And he goes to the girls and he says, God wants me to go home. We're going to go back to the land of promise. And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, is there yet any portion or inheritance here for us in our father's house?

[21:30] Are we not counted of him as strangers? For he has sold us and has quite devoured also our money. So just like Laban, using relationships for his own advantage and his own purpose instead of caring about them.

[21:44] Did Jacob's sons care about Dinah? I think they did. But like we said last week, what's the one voice that we never hear from in this whole chapter? The key figure to everything that's happening, that's swirling or all these events are swirling around.

[21:58] Nobody ever asked Dinah. Dinah, what do you think? Dinah, how do you feel? Dinah, you know, I know you're the victim here. I know you're hurt. What do you want to do? How can we help you?

[22:11] Verse 19, And the young man deferred not to do the thing. So Shechem's like, woohoo, I finally found my girl. Because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. And it says, And he was more honorable than all the house of his father.

[22:24] Now for Shechem, I think that as much as he had the capacity to love Dinah, he did. The problem is, the basis by which he loves her is the fact that she fulfilled his desire. Right?

[22:35] That he took. He saw her. He took her. He used her. And he says, Okay, you're the one for me. What happens when she no longer fulfills his desire? Right?

[22:45] This marriage is not based in true love, in agape, in sacrificial love. But at this point, he's like, Yeah, I want to do whatever it takes.

[22:56] And it says he's more honorable. And I think that what that means is, he didn't have any ulterior motives. Shechem was more honorable than all of his father's house because he didn't have an ulterior motive. That his motive was pure.

[23:07] He really, he's like, I want to do what it takes to get this girl to make things right for her to be my wife. And he was willing to make personal sacrifice for the sake of his bride. He's like, Okay, if I got to be circumcised.

[23:19] And he kept his word in the face of great pain. Great pain. And he's like, All right, if this is what I got to do, let's do it. And so they go back into Shechem. Now at face value, Hamor and Shechem, they don't know there's a double cross.

[23:34] Right? They think, Okay, this is, this is a great plan. And in fact, they're planning to use this to take advantage and double cross Jacob and the boys. But they don't realize there's a double double cross coming to take advantage of them.

[23:48] It's a mess. But Hamor and Shechem, his son, they came onto the gate of their city and they communed with the men of their city saying, Hey, look, these men are peaceable with us. Jacob and his family, they've lived here for years.

[24:00] Okay? They're peaceable. He pitched his tent. He purchased that field. Therefore, let them dwell in the land and trade with trade therein. For the land, behold, it's large enough for them.

[24:12] Let us take their daughters to us for wives and let us give them our daughters. Hey guys, this is a good arrangement. They could stay here. They've been here for years.

[24:22] It's peaceable. There's enough room for everybody here. This place has great promise. Right? The world's pre, the world's peace promises room, gain, and relationship.

[24:35] There's room for everybody. Come on. There's plenty of room. Don't be so narrow. Don't be so, don't be so confined. There's room here. There's great gain in this relationship.

[24:46] This can work. Has there been any strife? No. This is good. Okay. Okay. So, you know, there's that thing with Dinah. That was, but we'll make it right. It was a little over the top, but we can handle this.

[24:59] Peace is not determined by a place, is it? But by a presence. In John 14, 27, Jesus says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.

[25:10] It's not about the location, what you can gain, or the relationships. Not as the world give, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

[25:20] So the peace that Jesus gives is because of his presence. And then in any location, whether I've gained or not, in any relationship, what do I have? I have the promise that my heart does not have to be troubled because of his presence.

[25:35] John 16, 33, Jesus says, these things have I spoken unto you, to his disciples, that in me you might have peace. In the world, you're not going to have peace. You shall have tribulation.

[25:48] But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. It doesn't say you might have tribulation. You shall have tribulation. But I've overcome that. God's leading. We can't discern it by a lack of conflict.

[26:00] We can't discern it by if there's gain in this situation. Like we said last week, picture perfect situation. Just seemed like the perfect place for his family to thrive. We can't discern God's leading because of the relationships that we think are going so well.

[26:18] Some relationships go really well for a while and then just don't. And it doesn't mean God's against us. It just means we're living out what he said, that we will have tribulation.

[26:32] So for Jacob, let's think of this from Jacob's perspective. He's our man of the covenant. This is kind of all swirling around him. He doesn't know what his sons are thinking. And we're going to find out here that Hamor and Shechem, they're going to say like, this is a good deal because it's going to benefit us more than them.

[26:47] He has no idea what each of these parties are thinking. To him, this is like, wow, we got past that. That was rough. You know, sorry, Dinah. But you know, I know you got defiled and we're living a little close to the world, but we can still make this work.

[27:00] So for him, it's like, this compromise is working. And Satan is happy to compromise God's people through whatever means he can. If Satan can compromise us through peace, he'll do it, right?

[27:13] If he can compromise through entertainment, he'll do it. If he can compromise through a relationship, he'll do it. He's happy to compromise whatever means necessary. Remember then what Shechem meant?

[27:24] It meant the back or the shoulder, like this area. And so here, Jacob, who's just come from Peniel, meaning the face of God, where he's seen the face of God, walked before God, living before God, comes into the promised land and goes and lives on the backside of it.

[27:39] He's in the back. Like he's just kind of hiding in the back, hoping that he can kind of make this work. And look, if Satan can keep us back there, if he can keep us in compromise, sure, live in the land.

[27:50] Live in the land. And then we're going to see what's coming here. But only herein will the men consent unto us. So he's just presented this to the men of Shechem, Hamor has.

[28:02] He says, hey, listen, this is going to be really good. We're going to trade with them. You know, we can give them our daughters. We can take their daughters. And the men are thinking, you know, okay, this isn't bad. You know, new business venture.

[28:14] Their kids are really nice, very moral, very well behaved. You know, maybe they would make good spouses. And then Hamor says, well, only herein will the men consent unto us though, to dwell with us, to be one people.

[28:27] If every male among us will be circumcised, as they are circumcised. And then the whole crowd left. Look at the world's idea of unity is compromise, right?

[28:38] Christ's idea, the scripture's idea of unity is in the spirit. It's oneness in the spirit. Unity in the world is always just compromise. And so Hamor is like, look, we're going to have to compromise to be one.

[28:48] Do you want to be one with these people? Well, then you got to compromise. The world says to us, Hey, do you want the benefits you can get from us? Well, you're going to have to compromise. And unfortunately the church many times does the same thing. They say to the world, Oh, I mean, you're the world, but you know what?

[29:01] If you just act like us and look like us, we'll compromise and let you in. And then we can all be one big happy family here. Jesus said in Matthew 10 34, think not that I am come to send peace on earth.

[29:13] I came not to send peace, but a sword. That's not a good campaign slogan. Okay. Hey, I've not come to send peace. I've come to send a sword for God's people.

[29:26] Division with the world. It's not optional. It's not, it's necessary. You know, come out, come out from among them and be you holy as I am holy. Touch not the unclean thing.

[29:36] And I will receive you, saith the Lord. We are to be separate. Now we're to be in the world, but not of the world. We're to be salt and light. So where God places us, that never changes, but we're never going to, through compromise or through unity with the world, make a change in the world.

[29:52] Right? First John 2 16, our verse for all that's in the world, dot, dot, dot, dot. It's not of the father, but it's of the world. And it's passing away.

[30:04] So it was heck, shame, uh, Hamor and Shechem. They've just presented this to the men of Shechem. And I'm sure they're kind of standing there looking at him like, really? And then here's the hook in verse 23.

[30:18] Hamor says, well, shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? Only let us consent unto them and they will dwell with us. Hey, we can get everything that's theirs.

[30:30] This compromise is going to give all that's theirs to us. And under Hamor and under Shechem, his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city. And every male was circumcised all that went out of the gate of his city.

[30:43] So they didn't have cell phones, right? They weren't like, Hey, call up everybody and bring them down. They just stood in the gate. And as men came through, they said, Hey, here's what's going on. We just voted on this resolution. The whole town is in agreement. So, you know, he's got his lunch pail.

[30:55] He's heading out to work. He's like, wait a minute before you head out to work, just step over. We're here for a minute. We'll take care of something. And he didn't go to work that day. He went back home. So it's, but the, the hook was, Hey, it's gain.

[31:11] It's just gain for us. So what do we have here? We have false spirituality, right? And it results in gain. And it's for that purpose of gain. At face value, this might be seen as a victory for God's people.

[31:24] Again, if you, at face value, like, okay, we know that the boys are using this as deception, but from Jacob's point of view, he doesn't know that this might look like as a victory for God's people.

[31:35] We've just convinced the world to come along with us. They look like us. They act like us. They've taken on our covenant. This looks like it could be a victory for God's people, but all it was, was the world setting itself up for greater control over God's people and over God's substance or God's people's substance.

[31:55] Compromise always costs God's people the most. When God's people compromise, it always costs them the most. We think we gain. Like, man, if I just compromise in this relationship, I'm going to gain so much.

[32:07] I'm going to gain his affection. And then that poor girl realizes how much she's lost, that she was the one who gave up much more, just like Dinah. It's not a very happy chapter or section of Jacob's life, but it's God's word.

[32:25] And I think what we're going to see as we come to the end, God is so faithful that he puts these people in front of us. One, not to be our idols. Like, man, if I could just be like Abraham and have that faith, if I could just wrestle this out with God and, and he could touch my life and, and make me new like he did with Israel.

[32:43] And, and it's also not to look at them and, and think like, Oh, I would never do that. I would do that. I would compromise in my flesh.

[32:55] And it's only God's grace that keeps the covenant. And it came to pass on the third day when they were sore, I guess that's how that works. The two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren took each man, his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males.

[33:13] And they slew Hamor and Shechem, his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out. You say, how did this happen? Okay.

[33:23] So maybe they're in a weakened state and they're sore, but really they're going to come, these two guys and just take out a city of like, let's say it had like 300 people in it. And, you know, half of them are grown men.

[33:34] They're going to come and take out 150 people. Well, the word word there for boldly, where it says they came upon the city boldly, means with confidence or safety. They were confidence men.

[33:46] They had their confidence. They saw them coming. They're like, Oh, these, these, we know these guys. We just make a covenant with them. Yeah. Come on in fellas. Come on in. They came with safety. It's the same thing we see in Daniel eight, chapter, chapter eight, verse 25.

[33:59] We're speaking of the man of lawlessness, or as we would call him, the antichrist. And it says that through his policy, also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnify himself in his heart.

[34:12] And by peace shall destroy many with confidence, with safety. He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. So we know his end is that Jesus is going to take him out, but through peace, he shall destroy many.

[34:27] He will come with confidence. Ezekiel 38, which we refer to as the Magog invasion, when all the nations surrounding Israel will come against Israel. Gog, it says about him in verse 11, and thou shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages.

[34:42] I will go to them that are at rest, them that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates. And I will go up to take them, to take me a prey. They're dwelling safely.

[34:52] And it's the same idea here, that these boys, I say boys, but they're young men. They're probably like 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, somewhere in that range. And they come up, they come with confidence and they come with safety.

[35:05] Who's missing in this? Do you remember from the baby, baby boomer chapter? What the birth order was for Leah? Who was the oldest?

[35:17] Reuben, then Simeon, and then Levi. Where's Reuben in all this? When Joseph, when we change this lens, the lens shifts and the narrative goes to Joseph, we're going to see the same thing.

[35:31] Where's Reuben? Reuben's a compromiser. Reuben is a lot like Jacob. He's very passive when he should be taking responsibility. And it seems like he's very happy here to sit back. I don't know how much all of the sons were involved with the scheme.

[35:45] It's just two of them, two of them that go and then enact the scheme. But then afterwards, we're going to see they all come and take part in it. I doubt Joseph is. I don't know how many of them are, but where's Reuben?

[35:56] He's happy to let those go and do his dirty work for him and then receive of the spoil. But he's not here in this, but we have Simeon and Levi, the second and third of Leah's children.

[36:10] Excuse me. Shechem had defiled Dinah. He had. But which is worse? Your sister being defiled or murdering your sister's husband?

[36:22] Right? Her brothers murdered her husband. The sons of Jacob, after this, they came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister.

[36:33] I don't think Levi and Simeon went up and were like, we're just going to take everybody out. But there is the idea behind this that there's a great frustration because nobody in the city has understood what's happened or cares what happened.

[36:46] The idea is almost that when she went out to see the daughters of the land, that instead of helping Dinah, they were kind of like, hey, Shechem's nice that nobody did anything to prevent this. That after the fact, the entire city doesn't see a problem with this.

[36:59] That they're like, this is a good thing. We can use this to our advantage. And so that's where I think Simeon and Levi and Reuben and the boys, they were right in their wrath and their frustration over sin.

[37:13] They were just wrong in how they carried out the punishment of it. The flesh has no restraint, none whatsoever. And here they come, maybe thinking, I'm just gonna, we're just gonna go and take out Shechem and Hamor.

[37:29] And then they don't restrain themselves. They're all in on all the men of the city. Micah 6.8 says, He has showed the old man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

[37:45] Do you know the purpose of justice? The purpose of justice is to show mercy. God's mercy cannot exist outside of justice. You can only have mercy when you first have justice.

[37:59] Not one human being ever, ever, ever, ever, needed to fall under God's justice, the wrath of God's justice. All the way back to the garden, God made a way.

[38:11] Every single one could have come under that mercy. Why? Because where was God's justice satisfied? At the cross. All of God's justice completely satisfied. And every man, woman, and child who's come into being in this world could have said, yes, I will receive God's mercy because I recognize His justice was poured out upon the cross.

[38:29] That we, none of us ever needed to experience the wrath, the punishment, that goes along with that justice. And so, we are told that as men and women of God, that God has showed us what He requires.

[38:40] To do justly, we are, but we're to love mercy. We do justice for the sake of mercy. Right? As the church, as believers, right, we want to see the world saved.

[38:53] We want to see God's justice done in every person's life so that God's mercy, God's justice is the cross. Man, I want to see that in your life, in your life, in your life, so that God's mercy then can come upon your life.

[39:04] As much as we say, man, that person, oh, and it is frustrating. It's hard to see sin. It's hard to see the innocent taken advantage of. And we think, man, that's how I feel about these impastors, right?

[39:17] An imposter pastor is an impastor, someone pretending to be that. And they're just like taking advantage of the poor and the needy. The guy begging for money, he never says to the rich guy, plant your seed in my garden.

[39:29] Why? Because they're not desperate. He's not desperate. But the desperate, it was like, I need, I need something. And they hear, you know, Joe Deception over here go, hey, plant your seed in my garden.

[39:39] And they take advantage of them. And this guy's made rich off of the backs of others. And I think, man, that guy, there's a place in hell for him. And the Lord looks at that and goes, but there's a place in heaven for him. I'd much rather have him there because my justice was satisfied so that I might show mercy.

[39:55] Romans 12, 17 through 21, recompense to no man evil for evil. So this is on this side of the cross. We're looking back at this situation on this side of the cross and we would say, the Lord would say to us, recompense to no man evil for evil.

[40:09] Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. It's not always possible to live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath.

[40:23] I've written in my Bible, get out of the way. Step aside. Get out of the way of wrath. You know, don't take up the wrath. Just move aside. For it is written, vengeance is mine.

[40:35] I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger. So in other words, therefore, since vengeance is dealt with, I can focus on the mercy.

[40:46] If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt keep coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

[40:58] Good. You can't fight fire with fire. Sin cannot be corrected by sin. Sin cannot remove sin, and sin never justifies more sin. It doesn't work that way, right?

[41:10] If we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption. And so, as Levi and Simeon recognized rightly that there was a great sin in this situation, they thought they could deal with it in the flesh, but that just led to greater corruption.

[41:26] We are to give place unto wrath because it's God's place to take vengeance. And he already has on his son, so we can focus on the mercy. Jacob's compromise had made for a great opportunity, he thought, for his family.

[41:42] It was. There was great opportunity for wealth, for business, for maybe some friendships, but it also led his family to defilement and corruption.

[41:55] It placed his children in a place where his daughters defiled, and now his sons are absolutely corrupted because he thought this was going to be a good place for his family. And Jacob then, in verse 30, and here we see the last part of our outline, our terrible response.

[42:14] And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, and I in my house.

[42:32] Troubled. He says, you have troubled me. That word troubled means to disturb. He's like, God, you disturbed me. I had no strife. I had a good situation here, and you disturbed me, and now I'm going to have to deal with this.

[42:46] I was comfortable. You disturbed me, and you've made me to stink. That means you made me odious. You've made me hated. Well, look what he says. He's so upset because the Canaanites and the Perizzites hate him.

[42:59] The Canaanites and the Perizzites, these are the guys that when Joshua comes around, they've got to fight battles with to get them out of the land. They're so corrupt. And Jacob's so upset because they're no longer his friends that they don't want to hang out anymore.

[43:10] Jacob has lived so close to the Lord for so long that he's begun to think like the world at this point. It's just become normal for him now.

[43:21] Well, it's okay. We can work this out. And sadly, unfortunately, Jacob was so concerned with the effect his son's sins would have upon his own personal comfort and reputation.

[43:34] He was more concerned about that than he was the effect their sin had upon their own soul. It wasn't about what they did and how terrible it was and how, you know, God expects better of us.

[43:45] We are his people. We need to live in righteousness. It was, oh, look how your sin has affected my personal comfort and reputation. John 15, verses 18 to 19.

[43:59] If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Jesus is saying, know this. The world hated me and then it's going to hate you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own.

[44:09] But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So it doesn't mean that we shouldn't get along with the people we work with. My co-workers like me and I get along with, I get along really well with my co-workers.

[44:22] I think some of them are believers. Some of them most definitely are not, but I get along with the group I work with. It's not what it's talking about. It's saying the world system, you're never going to be part of that because we've been chosen out of that.

[44:33] We can't fit into that anymore. There's no fit for us. That puzzle piece is not there. It's just, we're not going to fit. But I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And the world will always hate us because what we represent is something they can't attain to.

[44:46] We represent something that they can't get or where they can't be. And we also represent a constant source of conviction for them. When I'm there, essentially, and you're there, when the church is there in the world system, they're constantly convicted and they don't like that because we shine the light in their darkness over and over and over.

[45:05] So they hate us. That's why it's harder and harder. The further you get up in the world system, the more persecution there is against God's people and why it's so hard to stand in that without compromising.

[45:21] For Jacob, dwelling so close to the world, unfortunately, it's caused him to begin to think like the world. And he just seems very out of touch at this point. Look how many times the word I is used in that.

[45:31] Me. And I being few in number. They shall gather themselves against me and slay me and I shall be destroyed. I in my house. Sounds a lot like his brother there, doesn't he? And then the chapter ends with what we were talking about.

[45:46] And they said, should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute, as with a harlot? It ends with that whole idea from start to end. There was sin that needed to be dealt with.

[45:58] Sin must be dealt with. We can't move forward in this relationship. We can't have an effect in the world. We can't be, have a positive influence if there's sin that's not dealt with.

[46:09] We can't be friends with the world when their sin's not dealt with. I want to be friends with the world in the sense of, hey, come and receive what I have, but let's first deal with your sin.

[46:23] Jacob's sons had understood what Jacob was unwilling to acknowledge. Sin must be dealt with. You think, oh, wait a minute. What about Levi and Simeon? They sinned greatly.

[46:33] The next chapter starts with God telling Jacob to go and build an altar. You think, well, where's the part that says deal with their sin? What's going on here? Remember we said about the flesh, Galatians tells us, he that sows of the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

[46:49] When you sow, you reap a lot later than you sow. Jacob, at the end of his life in Genesis 49, Lord willing, well, no, Lord willing will be raptured.

[47:00] If not, we'll get there. Genesis 49, when Jacob's dying, he's giving blessings and speaking prophecies over his sons. And in, come up, yeah.

[47:11] Genesis 49, verse five is when he talks about Simeon and Levi. And he says, Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Oh, my soul, come not near into their secret.

[47:24] Under their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united. I think he's saying, you guys totally deceived me. I trusted you. For in their anger, they slew a man.

[47:38] And in their self-will, they dig down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

[47:48] So here's this curse pronounced upon them. Maybe they thought, man, I can't believe dad never said anything about any of that. And here is, he's dying. It all comes up. It all comes back.

[48:00] It was not dealt with. And I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Both Simeon and Levi, when they come into the land with Joshua, are scattered throughout the tribes.

[48:15] At the beginning of the wilderness wanderings, Simeon is one of the largest tribes. By the time after those wanderings in the wilderness, and one generation dies off, and the other one goes to go in, 60-some percent of that tribe has been wiped out.

[48:29] They're now one of the smallest tribes. And they're scattered in Israel, and you never see them again. Levi, while they're in the wilderness at the golden calf, and Moses comes down from the mountain, and he throws the Ten Commandments, and he says, whoever's with me, come and stand over here.

[48:44] Levi's the tribe that does. And then he says, go and slay those, you know, who are in idolatry, and they do. Levi chooses to stand with the Lord, and the Lord honors that.

[48:58] And he turns the curse into a blessing and scatters them throughout all of Israel to be a blessing, to become priests for the nation, for God's people.

[49:10] And they do not receive an inheritance. They receive no tract of land, for the Lord says, I will be in your inheritance. I am going to be your inheritance. You see, redemption allowed Levi to become a priest to God's people.

[49:23] This curse was turned to a blessing through a priest. John 8, 31-32, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.

[49:38] You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. When we continue in Jesus' words, when we hear his word, instead of following the deceit, we follow the truth. It puts us in a place where we know the truth and it makes us free.

[49:51] It takes the curse and turns it into a blessing. Hebrews tells us about our high priest who took upon himself the curse so that the curse upon us of sin, of being separated from God, might become a blessing.

[50:05] Hebrews 9, 11 says, but Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

[50:23] Our curse has been turned into a blessing, not by the Levitical priesthood, but by our great high priest. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[50:49] In other words, if the Levitical priesthood, if this priesthood that only can purify the outward, actually can ceremonial, ceremonially purify these things, then how much more can Jesus, through the eternal spirit, not only purge and cleanse the outside, but he can redeem the inside as well.

[51:09] Redemption allows us then to become kings and priests to God. Because of what Jesus has done, we, like Levi, have the curse turned into a blessing.

[51:21] Not only is Jesus our high priest gone before us into redemption, he then can take those of us who are cursed, who are under that curse, and we then become kings and priests unto God.

[51:33] Revelation 1, 5-6, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

[51:46] Amen. And so as we end this chapter, it just seems like such a curse, but that curse will be turned into a blessing and then into redemption. And we bear witness to that, and we fall into the blessing of that.

[51:58] And so I think as we'll pick up next week in Genesis 35, I think as it starts, God is stepping in with his grace into this situation. It's a mess. They're trying to deal with sin on their own and they can't and the Lord will say to Jacob, go to the house of God, Jacob.

[52:12] Go back to Bethel. Go back and make a sacrifice. Go back to the place where your sin is covered. Don't try and do this on your own. You can't deal with sin on your own. You can't try and make things right on your own.

[52:23] You can't fix this world on your own. It's not going to work. I might think it's a great situation and I find out I was deceived. That was just a pretense. I really thought I won the Australian lottery.

[52:35] A lottery. Man, I clicked on that link. Right? Man, there's none of that. There's no pretense in Christ. But he has gone before us into redemption and now he then comes and brings us in and says, not only are you redeemed, but I'm going to make you a priest and a king.

[52:50] Not to God's people, but to God. Kings and priests. Before God. Amazing. Father, as we worship you now, as we close, Lord, sitting in your presence, Lord, basking in the glow of the grace and the glory of your word, Lord.

[53:05] A hard section of scripture to go through. So much hurt, Lord. And so much suffering because of sin. Sin undealt with. Sin unrepented of, Lord. And then men on their own, in their own flesh and with their own perspective of justice, attempting to step in and correct that sin, they took a bad situation and made it much worse.

[53:28] Lord, on my own and my own strength and efforts, trying to view things with this very narrow perspective I have, thinking I know what's right, I know what's wrong about that situation.

[53:40] Lord, I can end up causing so much more harm. But Lord, when we bring you into it, when we bring Jesus into this situation, when we bring God's mercy in, because we don't need to bring our own justice because God's justice is sufficient, we can bring in God's mercy.

[53:59] And then we can see redemption, taking a curse and turning it into a blessing. Lord, we pray, as you said, Jesus, you prayed not for the world, but you prayed for the disciples. Lord, we pray not for the world, not that you'd make it a better place, you'd fix it, Lord.

[54:13] No, Lord, we pray that you would use us, Lord, to take this truth into the world, to let them know you don't have to try to figure this out on your own. It's already been figured out.

[54:24] You don't have to live in some crazy, moral, mixed-up view of what you think marriage is or love is or relationship. There's a better way. Lord, we have the truth.

[54:36] You've opened our eyes, Lord, and we are no longer deceived. And Lord, I can say, we can say without a doubt and 100% assurance that we will never, Lord, be brought under the deception of the curse of sin again because we've been set free.

[54:53] We will fall. We will be tripped up by sin, Lord, but we will never again be brought under that deceptive curse, Lord, the one that started in the garden that you finished on the cross, Lord, and I thank you for that.

[55:05] And I pray now, Lord, if there's anyone, Lord, myself included, Lord, that you just reveal those areas in our minds, Lord, that we're applying our own idea of justice to or our own idea of morality or that area we want to see vengeance instead of desiring your mercy.

[55:27] Lord, this doesn't mean we're passive like Jacob, Lord. It doesn't mean we don't have responsibilities. It doesn't mean we don't stand forth in truth and righteousness, but we do it with a purpose, with the purpose of making known the Son of God.

[55:41] Thank you, Jesus, and in your name we pray. Amen.