All right, well, good evening, everybody. There's two things I forgot to pray for this morning. One is, Candace is expecting, so I meant to include her and pray for the baby, pray for Candace and for Lance, so I'll do that now. And then, Cosette is leaving as well this week. I believe, and going down to Reading where she's gonna be spending the next several months caring for her grandfather and grandmother. So let's pray for the Lord's blessing on that for her travel and for her time there.

All right, let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, We thank you that you are the Good Shepherd. We're thankful that you are our Good Shepherd, that you guide us, that you lead us, that there's no obstacle. no evil, no difficulty so great that you don't guide us through and work in all of these things. And so we're thankful that we can say along with David, the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. We pray that you would encourage us with this truth from the life of Jacob in this portion of scripture this morning.

Pray for Lance and Candace. Pray for Candace for the delivery of this baby. We just thank you for giving the blessing of this life into their family and we just look forward to welcoming this child into our church family as well and just give you the praise and the glory for this in advance. We pray for Cosette, just pray that she would go with your every blessing and that you'd make her a blessing to her grandparents and to all that she comes in contact with down there in Reading. Just pray that you would bless her time, give her safety as she travels. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well, we're picking up with Jacob where we left off. So please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 34. I like to take half a chapter. That's what I'm gonna try to do tonight. So let me read Genesis 34 and verses one through 17.

Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. When Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force. He was deeply attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor saying, get me this young girl for a wife. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept silent until they came in. Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. But Hamor spoke with them, saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. Intermarry with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you. Live and trade in it, and acquire property in it. Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, if I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me, but give the girl to me in marriage.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. They said to them, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you, if you become like us, in that every male of you must be circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take our daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go. 

Jacob and his family, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, walked by faith. And that's what we're doing. We're walking by faith. Walking by faith means that God leads you step by step. He leads you each day, sometimes through difficulties, sometimes through troubled waters, but he's the good shepherd, which means that he's able to lead you through. Walking by faith means learning to follow him, learning to trust him, learning to take him at his word, and learning to know him. through the experience of him leading us through these, of him being a good shepherd, and leading us through these experiences. 

And so he's the good shepherd to us when we're walking by, those of us who walk by faith, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the good shepherd to us, not only in our best moments, but also in our worst, and in the times when we don't know what to do. 

This chapter 34, is an unpleasant chapter, I gotta put it that way. There's nothing commendable in this chapter. There's nobody who says, well, why don't we pray? Why don't we try to do the right thing before the Lord? And so it's a difficult chapter. It's an unpleasant chapter. 

Not only is there unpleasantness in this chapter, and kind of a danger that shows up in this chapter. But there's also something a little bit deeper that is specific to this family. This family is a special family, the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob family. They were selected by God. God chose Abraham. And I like to kind of put it this way and imagine it this way, that the hope of the world was bound up with this family. They had some kind of sense of that as they walked with the Lord, believing in His word and the promises that He had given to them. 

And how was the hope of the world bound up in this family? Well, along lines that were more sketched out than explained. If they could have read Zephaniah, like we've been studying, they would have known a lot more about how their family was to be a blessing to the whole earth. They wouldn't have had all their questions answered, but they would have had some of them, a better idea, probably new questions. And the same today, like after the cross of Christ. and the church advancing, and now they would have an even better and more complex idea of how their family was to be eventually a blessing to the whole earth. And maybe again, not all their questions answered about how it's all going to work out. 

But they were told just in kind of the barest sketch, you know, somehow this cursed world is gonna be blessed through our family becoming a nation, being attached to this land, being in this land, possessing this land that the Lord had showed them and called Abraham to do, succeeding as a nation in this land, possessing the gate of our enemies, and being obedient, being obedient, and through being an obedient nation, something that hasn't happened yet, but they had this idea in their mind, because the Lord had promised it to them, kind of an outline form, through being obedient as a nation in that land, they were to be a blessing to the world, so that instead of, the curse being the dominant thing in the world, there'd be, again, blessing in the world, and that's what we're headed for along the way. Essential to keeping this blessing alive, you might say, in their family was believing it, was walking by faith. in it, that was an essential part, and it kind of reminds me of Mary, you know, the angel at Christmastime. 

The angel announced to Mary what would happen to her. She carried, of course, the hope of the world, literally, in her, in her womb, but it was important that she believed it, and sometimes that's overstated, you know, like she's saving the world, there's a bunch of things about Mary that have gotten out of control. But the belief, and the Lord gave her the belief to believe this as well, was part of the picture with Mary, and Elizabeth says that to her in what she says to Mary, blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. 

So the Lord promised he's gonna do this with this family, He's gonna do this as they walk by faith. They need to believe it, they need to participate. Abraham needed to actually leave and go to the land that God would show him and he did that by believing. And Jacob believed, Jacob believed the promises that the Lord made for his family. Not perfectly, not perfectly at all. Sometimes he felt like the Lord needed a little help to advance the promises and Jacob had a lot of ideas about how to help the Lord. So he believed not perfectly but truly. And Jacob was changed by trusting the Lord. It actually changes you. When you trust in the Lord and when you walk by faith, that's actually the only way to be changed. That's actually the only way to become like the Lord and to become more holy. And Jacob had begun to change. Again, not quickly by any means, but truly and irreversibly. 

for Jacob as well. Okay, I might have lost the thread a little bit, but I was trying to say that it's not just the unpleasantness or even the danger of this situation, but there was something about this situation that actually called that promise into question, something specific to this family, something a little bit underneath the surface. What is it? There was a temptation underneath the surface in this story that actually endangered the whole project. Maybe that's why it's included. It's not just included because it's unpleasant, but it's included because there's something in here that endangers the whole project that God had traced out and the whole hope of the world. It's endangered in this passage. See if you can figure it out. And we'll get to it, because it's in here, it's in here. But I'll give you a hint. 

Temptations come in all shapes and sizes. And this one, not so much from enmity, per se, of the people around them, but from a certain kind of friendship that was offered here at this point that really would have put the whole Israel project, if you want to put it that way, in danger. And that's God's project for restoring blessing to the world. So temptations come in all shapes and sizes. They come at times when you least expect it, when your attention is distracted as well and you're thinking about something else. They're probably just thinking about, okay, how do I get out of this situation? What's the right response in this difficult situation? They may not have realized the whole threat that was approaching at this point. None of this went particularly well. Jacob did not perform well, and I'm meaning that sort of spiritually here, and his sons definitely didn't. They performed horribly here, and yet the Lord protected them. and protected what he was doing through them in spite of themselves. He's the good shepherd, and that's sometimes what it means, as we are still sinful, that the Lord, what it means for God to be our shepherd and to walk by faith is that he protects us sometimes in spite of ourselves. Scripture says when we are faithless, he remains faithful. His blessings are overflowing towards us, and that's something that this family can be thankful for. and that we can be thankful for as well here.

Okay, an outline for chapter 34 divides pretty easily into three parts. First is what happened in this troubled relationship between Shechem and Dinah, that's the first five verses. Second is what was said about it, and that's in verses six to 24, and then third was what was done about it, and that's the revenge of Simeon and Levi, and that's verse 25 to 31. So most of it is in what's said. about Dinah and Shechem and then kind of on the two ends of it is what happened with Dinah and Shechem and then what happened with Simeon and Levi. In the middle is a lot of talking and a lot of negotiation almost. And that part, that middle part divides into two parts. One is a conversation between Jacob's family and the family of Shechem. That's the part we're gonna look at tonight. And then the second part of that is the family of Shechem talking to the men of the city. And both they're kind of persuading. We'll get to that part later. We'll stop just in the middle of the chapter.

Okay, what happens? First of all, what happens in this relationship gone horribly wrong between Dinah and Shechem? Verse one, now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. And I'll stop there. Dinah is, Introduced here again, we've already had her birth announcement. And she's the daughter of Leah and Jacob. And you have to say that in this family, because there's four mothers in this family. It's a dysfunctional family, to say the least. And Dinah is a daughter of Leah and Jacob, and that's important because Simeon and Levi are gonna carry out a revenge, and they're full brothers to Dinah, and that's probably why they took it upon themselves. They're also daughters of Leah. So Leah's their full sister, and she's the youngest sister. the youngest of the seven of them. I think there were six from Leah at this point. And Dinah is the youngest, probably not very old, because she's the youngest. They moved back into the land of Canaan shortly afterwards, and then they stayed. We don't know how long until this happened, but she's probably not all that old when this takes place.

So she went out to literally see the daughters of the land. What was it exactly she did? And was this a good or a bad thing that she did to go out and see the daughters of the land? What exactly does it mean? Was she seeking a husband? Went out to see the daughters of the land. It might be, if that's the case, and it's kind of a euphemism. for what is a delicate process of seeking a spouse in any age. And this might be kind of a good way to do it, to see, visit the daughters of the land and cross paths with their brothers too, or not. Was this not on the agenda? Here, Henry Morris is a creationist. He's written a really good commentary, actually, on Genesis, and he just takes this very straightforwardly. She's a sister, she's got all these brothers, she's looking for just some companionship and visiting the daughters of the land when this terrible incident takes place.

Maybe it was a little bit of both. There's, kind of a way of preaching through the Old Testament where you sort of Monday morning quarterback the things that happened and say, you can sort of rate, you know, this person did this in the story, was that the right thing to do? Could they have done better? And you say, well, I would give them a B minus spiritually, but they could have done better in this way.

Sometimes the Bible tells you what to think of things that happen in the Old Testament, but often it doesn't. just tells you what happened. And the point is not really to reduce the narratives of the Old Testament to a list of do's and don'ts and just have like a series of things for us to comment on. The point is an encounter with the living God that these people have. And so sometimes we read things that they did, things that happened and we're not told a comment on them. So it happened, it was pleasing to God or not that she did this or that Jacob allowed her to do this, maybe depending on their attitude, on their goal, we're not really told in that.

Was it right for her to seek a marriage opportunity with Canaanites or even to just have closer ties with Canaanites, because that's what these were? Probably not, probably not, probably this was not the best thing. Jacob and Abraham and Isaac with him were strangers and pilgrims in the land, though they were future owners. They were to keep themselves distinct, and so that put them in a difficult position. It was hard for them to walk by faith, to be strangers and pilgrims in the land.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how important it was for her to not marry Isaac. or let me put it this way, the nationality of the person that she married. Remember for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this was a really big deal, that they were not to take a spouse from anyone near them, but they were to take a spouse from their own family back where Abraham had come from. Remember that's a huge deal with Isaac. and also with Jacob. So Isaac makes his servants swear, there's this whole thing, put your hand on my thigh and all this about swearing that he'll never give, seek a bride for Isaac. with the people that live near them, same with Jacob.

It was important for Jacob, and Esau went the other way. Esau married Canaanites, two Canaanite women, and then he saw how much that distraught Isaac and Rebekah, so his solution was to take another wife who was a relative who was related to Ishmael from them, and that did not make the situation any better. Here's my point. I'm not sure that was so important with the 12 brothers, the 12 tribes. It just doesn't seem to be a big emphasis with them. And so perhaps less important, we only know about two of their wives, Judah's wife, and he did marry a Canaanite. that did not turn out well, and Joseph's wife, and he married an Egyptian.

So I'm not sure how important that was, maybe a little bit less important for them. And then also another complicating factor, I'm not sure, Dinah was even, her descendants were even of the nation of Israel. The Bible's kind of silent on this, but the Bible tracks the genealogy through the male, typically, and the nation of Israel, the special nation of Israel, is through the 12 sons. And I'm not sure it's through Dinah. The rabbis have some ideas about this, but the Bible doesn't. And anyway, I may just be kind of musing here. I'm not sure what the future was for Dinah. If she was not part of the chosen, if her descendants were not part of the chosen nation, that's fine. That's not meaning that God didn't care about her, but her situation was certainly special. And this was perhaps one of the ways that she dealt with it was this trip.

Okay, I've spent too much time with that, verse two. When Shechem, the son of Hamorah the Hivite, the prince of the land saw her, he took her and lay with her by force. Whatever the intention here, this trip was an occasion for this rape of their neighbor, Shechem and Hamorah. who saw her, took her and lay with her by force. I'm not sure if rape is quite the right word for this. It may be more of a seduction. My translation says he took her and lay with her by force and that's not exactly what it says. It says literally in the Hebrew, he lay with her and humbled her. So I'm not sure if that was more of something that he seduced her. He was interested in her. She was different from everybody else. She was probably a beautiful girl. He's the prince. He's impressive. He's used to having his way in this city. And they've been introduced, Shechem and Hamor. He went to live near Shechem. Jacob went with his family to live near Shechem. The prince's name is Shechem, same as the city. So that could be a little bit confusing. They bought a property, probably a burial property from Hamor, Shechem's father. And so here they are again. And this sin, whatever it is, takes place here and harm to Dinah.

Verse three, he was deeply attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl, and he spoke tenderly to her. So he did this deed, whatever it was, but it wasn't just another conquest to him. He cared about her. Actually, that shows up again and again in the account here that he was attracted to her. Probably it was an infatuation, You know, this wasn't a holy emotion that he had for her, but at least it wasn't like Amnon, remember, who raped his sister or half-sister, and then he was, he hated her after that, and that's not the case here. And what Hamor has in mind, I'm sorry, Shechem, what Shechem has in mind is actually marriage. to Dinah and that's what he is seeking.

Verse four. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor saying, get me this young girl for a wife. Pretty straightforward there.

Verse five. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. but his sons were with his livestock in the field. So Jacob kept silent until they came in. So when Jacob first hears about it, it's interesting that it's very different from what the brothers do. When the brothers hear about it, it says they're enraged. They're just enraged from the moment that they hear about it. Maybe Jacob was too, and I don't know if it has to do with the favoritism that took place in this family, or just not as much detail is given about Jacob, but Jacob kind of suffers kind of a paralysis when he hears about this for whatever reason, and it kind of continues. He goes silent here, and he's pretty much silent for the rest of the chapter, and there's a real leadership vacuum here and Simeon and Levi are gonna step into it. Not Reuben, Reuben is kind of a weak character. But the next up is not Simeon, Simeon and Levi. And so they're gonna step into this leadership vacuum in a big way and actually in an evil way. So this is not one of the passage where Jacob shines really well in his response to this horrible event is silence.

Verse six, then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. And again, now these negotiations are going to start.

Verse seven, now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it and the men were grieved and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter for such a thing ought not to be done. So they're angry. In one way, their anger is well-placed. It's appropriate. God hates this thing that was done to Dinah. There's a disgraceful thing done in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter. Such a thing ought not to be done. So it does tell us what to think of this. It doesn't tell us what to think about Dinah going out to see the daughters of the Lamb, but it does tell us what to think about what Shechem did, such a thing ought not to be done. So they're very angry. It's put in a funny way. He's done a disgraceful thing in Israel, almost like they're already a nation. They're thinking of themselves as a nation. That sounds like something that would Somebody would say much later when Israel's already a nation in the land. They're just a family, and yet he's done his disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter.

So they're grieved in one sense, they have a right to be angry at this, but their anger is not really seeking the Lord's, it's not done in faith. It's not done in faith, it's not done trusting in the Lord, it's done out of kind of a revenge that's just for family honor. And so it's gonna be actually out of proportion to the evil that was done. They're gonna end up killing a whole bunch of people to give the story away. And yet the Lord is gonna use their sin to advance his plan. The Lord's the master weaver and he's able to weave all these things in and yet hold them responsible for what they've done as well. And so he's gonna use even their evil to protect the Israel project from a danger to this family.

Okay, verse eight. Hamor, he's the father of Shechem and he's talking to Jacob. Here, and I think the sons are all there too, Jacob's sons. Hamor spoke with them, saying, the soul of my son Shechem belongs for your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. And in one way, in one way, this is kind of not unreasonable, in one way, especially depending on the nature of exactly what happened between Shechem and Dinah. There's, in the law, which comes later, and would only be for Israelites, But in this kind of a situation, in some situations like this, this would actually be one of the solutions that could be, is that the two of them would marry. They're not married. They've slept together. or even something like a rape, perhaps, has taken place. And one solution would be kind of what Shechem offers here, that there'd be a marriage that comes out of this, and there'd be a big fine that is paid to the father because of that. So in some ways, this isn't totally unreasonable. It's certainly very straightforward. The soul of my son, Shechem, belongs to your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. But then notice verse nine and 10. and this mystery that I've been talking about, about something that kind of endangers the whole family at this point is gonna come clear in what he also says. 

Verse nine, intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us and the land shall be open before you. Live and trade in it and acquire property in it. Okay, now why is this part of the solution? This is bigger than just this one marriage. Well, he's a prince and they're saying, okay, not just one marriage could come out of this, but maybe, maybe, A lot of marriages. Maybe we could all intermarry. Maybe this could be a larger thing. Intermarry with us. And they're trying to make this deal happen. And they think this is something good for Jacob. This will be good for you. Give your daughters to us. Take our daughters for yourself. Live with us. The land shall be open before you. Okay, your relationship with the land is gonna change because of this deal. You know, they existed as strangers and aliens in the land. They had kind of a precarious existence. They were small. And they had to kind of move around and stay out of people's way, even though the Lord was promising them that all of this belonged to them. And what was important is that they keep distinct. That's what the circumcision was for. It was to keep them distinct. 

And the danger that's here is the danger of absorption. you're just gonna merge with us. And the Israelite identity is gonna be lost and the Shechemite identity, we're gonna become one people. And it's gonna go better for you. This is gonna work well. All the stranger and living in the land like this is gonna come to an end. So the Shechemites see how Jacob and his family is living and they kind of see an opening here. 

And this could end at Hebrews chapter 11, says, kind of memorably, 11, except I'm having to look at it and not quote it from memory, 11, verse eight. By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien. in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise." And he did this by faith. 

Part of the deal is, and this is when, like verse 16, this is when the sons of Jacob are quoting this back to Shechem and his father, so they're doing this disingenuously, but they're saying, then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters for ourselves and we will live with you and become one people. We're gonna become one people. 

Or verse 23, and we're getting ahead of ourselves, but this is where Shechem and his father are presenting it to the people of their city. Verse 23, will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them and they will live with us. So this is a merge, this is a total merge. And it's a loss of identity. So that there is no Israelites if this deal takes place. There's just Shechemites who absorbed a family. along the way, and they sort of lost their identity in it. 

In fact, I think this is exactly what happened to Esau. Esau became the nation of Edom, and we're going to get to a big, long genealogy of Esau pretty soon in chapter 36. But I think, and I'll have to look at this when we get to it, I think the nation of Edom is older than Esau. In other words, I think Esau kind of joined their elites and helped rule over them. I think Esau was an impressive person. That's why Isaac wanted him to be the one to inherit. The Edomites were impressed with him as well. And I think they sort of merged with him. His name means red. The Edomite nation means red. And so they were sort of like, that this was meant to be, and it was meant to be in some way, that's the way Genesis uses some of the names. So Esau became a father of Edom, I think not genetically so much. But more like George Washington is the father of our country. We're not descendants of George, but he's the figurehead of our nation. I think that's what Esau was for Edom.

So Edom, or sorry, Esau merged with another people. and just kind of became part of them. And the reason why is because that was advantageous to him. He did really well doing that. And it's because he was walking by sight instead of walking by faith and walking according to the promises. So what I'm trying to say is this is actually kind of a big danger. for the family, and Jacob probably doesn't even see it. You know, he just goes silent here, and the brothers don't see it. They're just defending family honor, and yet the Lord is gonna help this family to dodge this bullet.

So, they present the... marriage option to this family and then they're sort of like, this is your big break. This is the big break that's coming for your whole family where things can be different. And you all can live better, just join us. Just become Shechemites with us and be absorbed into it.

Verse 11 and 12, Shechem also said, to her father and to her brothers. If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me. But give the girl to me in marriage." And you can sort of hear his enthusiasm. He's locked into completing this deal, and he's adding this sweetener that whatever bridal payment, just name the price, and I will give it to you as well. By the way.

It might be that Dinah is with him at this point. It's not totally clear, but in verse 17. The brothers say, if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go. That's not totally clear. But at least by the time when they mount this attack on the city and take their revenge, Dinah's living in the house with Shechem, that's verse 26. They killed Hamor, I'm giving away the ending there, and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword. And they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went forth. So Dinah, perhaps at this point already, but certainly later, maybe after the supposed deal goes through. She's with Shechem, and they're engaged. They're waiting on the marriage. apparently at that time.

So okay, verse, so that's the offer. That's the offer. Let's complete this marriage and let's do something bigger as well. Let's join these two peoples together. Let's absorb this little family into this larger city.

Verse 13, but Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit because he had defiled Dinah their sister. So they're just, they're seething with anger at the way she's been treated And so they're gonna answer Shechem and his father deceitfully because of what they have done. And they come up with kind of an ingenious, wicked plan. They use something the Lord gave them, circumcision, to keep them distinct, just as a marker, to keep them distinct as a people. And they're gonna use it, strangely, as a weapon. So to have all the males circumcised at the same time from this town, to make it to where a smaller group can, with the element of surprise and with probably the blood loss that comes from adult circumcision, to take the town by surprise and to just do a massacre of the city when the men are in a weakened state. So that's their plan. And they sort of agree to everything. It should have been suspicious. 

For Shechem and Hamorth, there's only one thing they want to talk about. They don't want to talk about the price or how it's all going to work, but there's just one thing about circumcision is on their mind. But it's actually a wicked thing. You might ask, was that okay? for them to, maybe not even deceive, but to put them to the sword for this. They were Canaanites. You know, when the Israelites came into the land 400 years later, that's exactly what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to kill the Canaanites that were descendants of these people, the Hivites, Shechem, and so on. 

The Lord, did not like what they did. And it tells us, so Genesis chapter 49 verse 5, this is when Jacob is speaking of his sons in the future. He's speaking prophetically here, and there's a blessing for all of them, but there's a rebuke for Simeon and Levi. Genesis 49 verse 7, cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Oh, and I started in the wrong place. Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are implements of violence. Let my soul not enter into their council. Let my glory not be united with their assembly, because in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they lamed oxen. And so what they did was wrong. 

Remember the Lord said about the Canaanites during Abraham's time, he said, you're gonna go, you're gonna go down to Egypt. for hundreds of years, I forget exactly how he put it, and he said, because the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. There are sinful people, there are terribly wicked people, the Canaanites, so much so that the Lord is gonna wipe them off from the face of the earth at some point in the future, but his patience has not run out with them. Yet. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full, and so what they did was very wicked. 

Simeon and Levi took the lead in this. Actually, all the brothers are going to plunder the city when they're done. That's in verse 27. Jacob's sons came upon the slain and looted the city because they had defiled their sister. So it's a wicked thing. And the deceit is wicked, too. The Lord hates this kind of thing, of deceiving people in order to cover violence. And that's spoken of, in fact, I'll read it, because it's just so explicit in Proverbs chapter six and verse 12. 

A worthless person, a wicked man is one who walks with a perverse mouth, who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who points with his fingers, and these are all kind of like hand signals for violence to fall on somebody when they're not expecting it. Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. "'There are six things which the Lord hates. "'Yes, seven that are an abomination to him. "'Hotty eyes, a lying tongue, "'hands that shed innocent blood, "'a heart that devises wicked plans, "'feet that run rapidly to evil, "'a false witness who utters lies, "'and one who spreads strife among brothers.'"

And certainly a number of those categories are what Simeon and Levi do as they lie to these people in order that they might destroy them. So verse 14. Then they said to them, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you, if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take our daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. "'But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, "'then we will take our daughter and go.'"

It's funny, they call her our daughter. They're her brothers, but Jacob's not doing anything, and so they're sort of acting as her parents at this point. So they tell him this half-truth. Well, we have circumcision among, well, it's true. They do have circumcision among them, but this is totally disingenuous, and it's used in order to destroy them.

So God is gonna use their wickedness to do what Jacob, at this point, was too weak to do, which is to get out of this situation. And I've just said we shouldn't go through the Old Testament and talk about what should have happened, but basically Jacob should have just said, We're taking Dinah and we're separating. That's it, just being straightforward about it. But Jacob doesn't do that, and so Simeon and Levi step in, and the Lord is gonna use their wickedness in order to dodge this bullet that would not only be bad for the family, but for the world.

It would snuff out the hope of the world that the Lord gave for this family to be absorbed into this city state of Shechem. So the Lord's going to have to work in spite of this family through the sin of these people. And then he's going to have to send a mini miracle as well, because they do something horrible, massacre a whole city and the Lord's gonna send a fear of them to the other cities of the land so that they give them some space instead of wiping out this sort of dangerous family.

That's said in chapter 35 and verse five. As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. Okay, so the Lord is gonna have to make a way for them, and he's gonna do this, and he's gonna use even the sin of Jacob's sons at this point to bring about his purposes.

So it's an ugly story. Everything that we've been talking about is an ugly story, and you might say to Moses, who wrote this down, or to the Holy Spirit, who allowed it to be included, why couldn't we skip this? There's nothing really uplifting in here. If you're looking for inspiration, you're not going to find it in this chapter.

But perhaps the message to be gleaned from this, I think it is, is about the Good Shepherd, who's at work in every circumstance of your life. the bad and even the ugly, and he doesn't stand aloof from it, but he's working sometimes to advance his good purposes in spite of ourselves. He leads us through the mall. He only can do this for us, to work out his good purposes, sometimes in spite of ourselves. because we're forgiven. That's why he can treat us like this. That's why he could treat this family like this as well. And forgiveness is what makes the walk of faith even possible. Psalm 130 verse four says, there's forgiveness with you in order that you might be feared. And so it's in circumstances, experiences, sometimes like these, sometimes real ugly ones like these, and not just after they're over, but in them, that we learn to trust the Lord as a good shepherd, to know Him, and then to follow Him, to actually obey Him, to learn, even through circumstances like this, because we know Him and know Him as our good shepherd.

All right, we've stopped in the middle of this story. We'll pick it up next time, Lord willing, and finish, and let's bow before the Lord in prayer.

Terribly, Father, we thank you that you are at work in the world around us, that you're at work in all circumstances, weaving them together even ways that we don't understand for your purposes, and we pray that we might trust you even when we cannot see by sight what you're doing, and then we thank you that you're at work in us as well. You're patient with us, but you're at work in us to cause us to know you and to know you is to want to obey you.

And so we thank you that you've opened a way for us to know you truly by faith and then to be changed by it. We thank you that you are patient with us And we pray that we might be encouraged to trust you, to keep walking with you, to walk by the Spirit, and to walk following after you, our good shepherd. Pray that you'd guide us this week, in this coming year, as only you can. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.