Well, you're already to be commended because you're here on Super Bowl Sunday. Maybe when we get to heaven, you'll have a jewel in your crown saying Super Bowl 60, and we can all compare crowns, maybe some in Seahawks colors, some in Patriots colors.

But I hope this is a blessing, not just in eternity, but in time as well. both our time together and singing and time of the word as well. So let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you that we can be here among your people, singing your praises in these wonderful hymns. Thank you for our fellowship with one another. Thank you that you've brought us to be one body in Christ and given us unity in Christ. And then we pray that you would go with the reading of your word and the preaching of your word and that your Holy Spirit would go with it, make it cling to our hearts and go deep into our hearts and bear fruit in our hearts when we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, we're back to Genesis and the series that we're doing is entitled something like God's Faithfulness Continued to Isaac and Jacob. So I'm gonna ask you to turn to Genesis 34. And we're going to do the second half of this chapter. So we're picking up right in the middle of things. So let me catch you up to speed about what's happened in this chapter.

Jacob's back in the land. He settles near the town of Shechem pretty quickly and some time passes. And his kids grow up a little. And Dinah, his daughter through Leah, who has six older brothers, or full brothers, through Jacob and Leah, goes out to see the daughters of the land, and it turns into a tragedy. She's either raped, or seduced, maybe more like it, by the prince, the young sort of prince, I guess is what to call him, of the town, Shechem, and his name is Hamor. His father's name is Shechem.

After this occurs, Shechem, no, Hamor, I'm getting it wrong, Hamor, he's still infatuated with her. It says his soul clings to her. He's sort of obsessed with her. He speaks to her heart. which is a Hebrew way of saying he spoke tenderly to her, maybe a little bit successfully to her as well.

And so pretty soon he's on the doorstep of Jacob and family and proposing that this become a marriage and then also saying, why don't you just join us? You know, we're a small town here in the midst of the land. We'll just become one people. And so Jacob is sort of, for whatever reason, is sort of paralyzed. He doesn't say anything really throughout until the very end of this chapter, but his sons answer. And they answer deceptively. They say, that sounds great. Let's join. Let's become one. This is great. The marriage is going to work out.

Only on one condition is just something important to our family. And that is that all your males be circumcised. And they say this out of deceit. And so this is really a perversion of what God has given circumcision for. He's given it to keep them distinct as a nation.

They're gonna use it for kind of like a weapon of deceit and use it to cause the injury of it and then to surprise attack this town, which is what happens later in the chapter. So we reached the halfway point last time and the halfway point is the end of one conversation, the beginning of another. It's the end of the conversation that Shechem and Hamor, the two of them have with Jacob's family, and it's gonna go immediately to now Shechem and Hamor, and they're relaying what was said to the townspeople of Shechem, and that's what we pick up in verse 18. So Genesis 34, 18, I'll read to the end of the chapter.

Now their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem. Hamor's son. The young man did not delay to do the thing because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city saying, these men are friendly with us.

Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them. Only on this condition will the men consent to live with us, to become one people, that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. 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.

All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised. All who went out of the gate of the city Now it came about on the third day when they were in pain that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went forth. Jacob's sons came upon the slain and looted the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, that which was in the city and which was in the field, and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the lands, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and attack me and I will be destroyed. I am my household. But they said, should he treat our sister as a harlot?

Okay, what I wanna do tonight is first go through just what happened, verse by verse. And then when that's done, consider the theological implications of this. Why was this included for one thing? And most of all, what does this tell us about God? Okay, so verse 18.

Their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. The young men did not delay to do the thing. because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter and probably did not delay to do the thing. He's probably not talking about the operation of the circumcision, doing that himself. But probably just means putting the whole thing into effect. He did not delay to do this thing, so now the next scene is he's going to be with the men of the city. And he's sort of thinking about one thing. He's thinking about Jacob's daughter, Dinah. And then it gives a little background as to why People are gonna listen to him, even in this scheme that's kind of sudden and it's gonna cost them something. The people of the town, they liked him.

It says, now he was more respected than all the households of his father. Okay, so there's gonna be this second conversation between Hamor and his father Shechem and the men of the city. So that's in verse 20. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city.

It's where a lot of business with the elders of the city or the men of the city is done. And they spoke to the men of their city saying, these men are friendly with us. Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.

And I'll stop there. He doesn't end up telling them the whole truth. He doesn't say anything about Dinah for one thing. He doesn't say, now listen, I want to marry this girl. And that's why I'm proposing all of this. He leaves that part out. He doesn't also leaves the part out about that the sons threatened him. If you don't do this, if you don't take this deal, we're going to take our sister and leave. We're going to take her and go. So he doesn't mention anything about that.

What he mentions is how beneficial it's gonna be to the men of the city. So he doesn't tell him all the truth, but it's more or less right. It's more or less what he was talking about with Jacob's family as well. It's put in terms of what is gonna be beneficial to the men of the city. So Calvin has a comment, which I didn't quote, but how it's a disease of leaders that they'll often present their own personal gain in terms of what's good for everyone else and put it in that way. And of course, that's something in our time as well. And they sort of put the front and the back of their speech on how this is going to benefit the people of the city and then hide in the middle of it this one little thing about the circumcision. that is going to be a painful thing and a difficulty them to say, well, we just need to humor this family in this one thing. So he talks about them trading, talks about them intermarrying. Talks about them becoming one people and how they're gonna be mutually benefited. Actually, he just tells the people of the city that they're gonna be benefited from this.

Only on this condition will the men consent to live with us to become one people that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. 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.

I think it was probably more or less right that a merger of these two groups would be beneficial to both. And it convinced the men pretty easily, even though it had this about circumcision in it. A merger made sense. They're in the land. Jacob's family is few in number, even fewer in number than the men of the city of Shechem. They're going to be mutually benefited if they just come together and join, and they'll both be bigger and richer in that way, and they'll be able to intermarry. In fact, I think this is kind of the secret of Esau's success. Remember, Jacob finally meets Esau, and Jacob's done really well. He's rich. He's got herds and flocks, and it seems like Esau's doing even better.

And I think the reason why is because Esau... not caring about the promise that God had given to his family and keeping the family distinct, basically just sort of merged with Edom. And so I think Esau is not so much the father of Edom as one who sort of merged together with Edom and then sort of became their father in that sense as well.

So the, The merger makes sense to the people. It would have made sense for Jacob's family as well, except it would have put all of God's promises at naught. The whole point is they have to be distinct as a family. It's interesting that both in the conversation that Hamor and Shechem have with Jacob's family, and in their conversation that they have with the men of the city, they talk about the two groups becoming one people.

And that would have been the end of the story. For the story of all that God promised for Abraham, they would have just been absorbed into this other people while they were still small and not distinct as a nation. So I don't know what Jacob was thinking, or if he even knew about this part of the plan to sort of go along with it. I don't know if he was just waiting for things to play out for Abraham. them to become one with this neighbor group, and not to mention using circumcision in that way.

And I emphasized this last time. that God basically protected Abraham's family from this threat to them just being absorbed into another people that came about through all this, and he prevented it through sin. Simeon and Levi are gonna act really sinfully, and the Lord prevented this wrong, not by Jacob, leading and doing what he should to get out of this, but through evil and God works all things together for good. And that's true of the walk of faith sometimes. Sometimes we sin before the Lord, we're not worthy of any of his blessing and the Lord works in spite of what we're doing as well. Hopefully we'll have fewer and fewer of those times as we grow in the Lord.

Okay, so it made sense to the people of the city, they liked Shechem anyway, or they liked Hamor anyway, and so they're gonna agree to this painful operation. All who went out of the gate, verse 24, of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

Okay, so they have this operation, and I don't wanna describe it or what I know of it much, but this is adult circumcision. This is not the circumcision of a baby. And it's a major operation. There's no anesthetic, and probably there's not much in the way of sanitation or hygiene that we would have with modern medicine. And so it leaves them really vulnerable.

And it comes about on the third day, and I'm sure that was sort of strategically put for when they'd be feeling at their worst. Simeon and Levi used this against the men of the city to mount a surprise attack. So verse 25. Now it came about on the third day when they were in pain. that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took a sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male. Killed every male.

So the plan that they had, it's kind of a crazy plan, it ends up sort of working perfectly. The men are in pain, maybe there's a loss of blood, at least it makes it to the... So this is a surprise that just works perfectly. It talks about the city was unawares. It's literally, this uses the word for trust. The city's trusting. They're trusting that there's not gonna be a problem. And so they're not expecting what's coming.

And Simeon and Levi, it seems like, single-handedly are able to kill every male with this surprise attack. So it's kind of a diabolical plan. It works perfectly and it's a massacre is what we would call it and what it was. Verse 26, they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went forth. So these two guys that they've been talking to in their house, and lying too, they kill him.

And they take the sister, she's probably just in shock, you know, it's not what she was expecting when she went out to see the daughters of the lands, whatever that means. This was not it, what she's expecting, and so she comes back probably not believing all that she's been through. She's with Hamor and Shechem when they're killed. And maybe that was part of putting this deal into effect is that she was sent back with them to wait for the marriage that was not to be. So they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went forth. Then, okay, so this is, this is Simeon and Levi that do this. They're the ones who thought of this. There's the one who just carries it out.

But notice the rest of the family. Notice the rest of the brothers show up in verse 27. Jacob's sons came upon the slain and looted the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks, and their herds, and their donkeys, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, and they captured and looted all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives, even all that was in the houses. So the rest of the family comes. They didn't participate in the murder and the massacre, but they certainly participated in the plundering. of the city, and it doesn't just say, you know, they plundered the city. It kind of catalogs it. It's interesting what the men of the city had just said.

All of their wealth is going to be ours. All their cattle and donkey is going to be ours. And they didn't understand until it was way too late that the reverse was going to be true. All of their goods, including their wives and their children, were going to belong to Jacob. and his family and his retinue of servants, however many that would have been.

So it lists the way in which they looted. the city and it lists how thorough it was as well. They took what was in the city, they took what was in the field, they took what was in the homes, they took all their wealth, they took all their herds and donkeys, they took their little ones, and they took their wives as well.

It may have been that Simeon and Levi were thinking, we want to kill Hamor. We want to kill Hamor. And the only way we're going to get away with this without the city retaliating is if we kill everybody in the city. And so they carry this out, even though people in the city are, of course, not at all guilty. And I'm not sure even Hamor was guilty of something worthy of death. Perhaps he was, but certainly not the whole city.

So Jacob, he's been sort of paralyzed, he doesn't speak up. He finally speaks up at the end, and he doesn't approve of what's been done. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and attack me, and I will be destroyed, I and my households. Jacob doesn't approve of what's been done. I'm not sure what the right thing to do in this situation would have been, and I kind of hate to be the armchair quarterback of people of the Old Testament.

Well, here's what should have happened. But certainly, this is not what should have happened, this massacre. They probably should have taken the daughter taken Dinah and left, just parted ways or sought justice in some sense. This is not justice. This is a travesty and this is a massacre.

So Jacob rebukes his sons, he rebukes Simeon and Levi, but even his rebuke kind of focuses on the consequences of what they've done. He doesn't tell them, you guys have done something evil. He tells them, well, the consequences of what you all have done is something that's not going to help our family. And so he talks about them making him odious among the inhabitants of the land. He's in a vulnerable position because they're aliens, they're sojourners in the land and they're small in number as well.

And he says, you know, what you've done is so unheard of. that even these Canaanites aren't gonna tolerate it, and they're just gonna team up and they're gonna wipe us out because you've done something that not even they would tolerate. And what he's saying was probably true. It's gonna take a miraculous act of God in order to prevent what he's worried about, and that shows up in chapter 35, verse five. As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around him, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So the Lord is protecting them again in spite of themselves. Verse 31, they said, Simeon and Levi, should he treat our sister as a harlot? And so they're not repentant at all. They kind of throw this back in.

Jacob's face is a very proud answer. They're sort of concerned about their family honor. And they kind of have the last word with Jacob. Jacob's answer's really wordy. He's worried about all these things that are gonna happen. And they give him just a really terse, short answer.

Like, I don't care what the consequences are. Should we treat our sister this way? And they just let that stand. So that's what happened. That's the end of the story of this. What is the point? What is the point of this ugly story? And it is a really ugly story, bloody story. Why was this recorded for us?

And to answer that, I want to circle back to why Abraham's family was chosen in the first place. What is the Abraham Project all about? I've been calling them the faith family, the Jacobsons, we could call them at this point, the Jacobsons. Why was this family chosen in the first place?

They're destined to be a nation. Why did God choose them? Not because God wanted to have a favorite nation. saying I'd like to have a favorite, there's nations on the earth and I'd like to have a favorite one and I'm gonna choose one to be my favorite nation and give them a special status as a nation. The reason why God chose this family and chose them to become a nation is because God wanted to put his name and character on display to the nations. That was the point all along and it's still the point of him choosing them as a nation. And so the nation of Israel was chosen and this family is what it is at this point. They're chosen not for themselves, but they're chosen for other nations. They're gonna put God on display to other nations.

And the way that that's gonna be brought about, he tells Abraham, and it's still gonna be brought about this way eventually, although it hasn't happened yet. I like to turn back to these verses of Genesis chapter 18 and verse 17, and it's the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but it's kind of a moment, a tender moment, maybe that's the wrong word, with Abraham, because he's walking with Abraham. The Lord himself is walking with Abraham and he wants to tell him what he's gonna do with Sodom and Gomorrah. And this is given just kind of as an aside, but I think it's quite important for why this family was chosen. Genesis 18, verse 17, the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That's the point all along. For I've chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. And so if you put that together, Abraham's chosen so that he and his family that's gonna become a nation can pursue righteousness. and justice so that all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

And they're gonna be blessed by being able to look at Abraham's family, look at Abraham's nation, and having some sense of what God is like. He's like Abraham. He's like the nation that comes from Abraham. He's like the way in which Abraham has taught his family. And so that was what Abraham was, is destined for. God delights to be called. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If you want to know what I'm like, look at them, or look at my dealings with them, at least. So, if you're the surrounding nations, if you're the surrounding cities that heard about this, What do you think of Abraham's God or Jacob's God at this point, the God of this family? What's he like? What's he like?

What's revealed in this deed? And what's revealed in this deed is that God is deceptive. and cruel, and you could throw in greedy because of the plunder. That's what this ugly deed says about God, and of course it says that falsely. So this is really clear in Genesis. God hates what they did in lying to these people, in carrying out this act of cruelty. And so this is something that God expresses his disapproval of. And the reason why he expresses his disapproval of it is because it sends completely opposite message about who God is, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Let me ask you this question. How many do you think died in this massacre in Shechem? Maybe, I won't make you answer, but maybe it's a town, maybe a small town. So maybe it could be measured in hundreds of men, two of them. Dylan is into numbers. But what's that? Go ahead.

500. 500, OK. Yeah, something like that. I mean, the two of them seem to have sort of single-handedly slaughtered them in their condition. So it's something along that.

OK, how many of them do you think were saved? How many of them went to heaven when they died? I don't know, I don't know. The Lord's full of surprises. Maybe some of them were saved. They were exposed to Abraham's family in some way. But probably not very many, probably not very many. Maybe none, maybe none of them were saved.

So you might say, does it matter? Does it matter that they were killed? Shechem was killed, he was maybe a rapist, maybe. The townspeople were killed, they probably approved of what Shechem had done, if they'd heard about it. At least they didn't have a big problem with it, they didn't care what had happened. All of these are Canaanites, and so if you just fast forward a few generations in the future, actually Israel was supposed to go in, and slaughter the town.

It's kind of hard for us to take in, but that's clearly what they were supposed to do. They were sinning if they didn't do this. So does this really matter? Is this matter to the Lord? And I'm reminded of in chapter 15, where the Lord talks about the Canaanites who are going to be under a curse. And he says to Abraham, the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. They're filling up the iniquity to the point that they're gonna be removed from the face of the earth, and this terrible judgment is gonna fall in the form of the Israelites coming into the land. And the Lord's saying, these are totally wicked people. that live here and yet their iniquity is not yet full. My patience has not yet run out with them.

And so I think we can gather from this that God hates this and that it sends the total wrong message about God, that God is very serious about his common grace. to unbelievers, to unbelievers, to treat them fairly, to treat them rightly, to treat them with justice, to tell them the truth, to treat them even with dignity in that way. And I do use that word common grace. Some people don't like that because they think it should be only a word that's used for salvation. And I understand that.

But but it is it is grace that the Lord gives to unbelievers. They don't deserve it at all. And it's just a gift that comes from him. And it's very important to the Lord so that when something like this happens, that totally violates that for people who aren't even saved. Most of them. I don't think the Lord is outraged by it. The Lord hates that. The Lord hates what they did and hates what it says about him.

The truth is God is not deceptive. The truth is God is not cruel. The truth is God is a straightforward truth teller, and he's also kind. He's also generous and gracious. And that's really important. That's the most important truth that's worth coming to church even on Super Bowl Sunday to hear, that God is like that. it's a practical truth as well, that God is like that as well.

So I think that's what's at stake, and maybe Jacob is not even too far off to, in what he does finally say, to be concerned with what the nations are gonna think when they hear about this. And he says it kind of in terms of self-preservation, but what he says is when the peoples around hear about this, It's going to stink. It's going to be a stench in their nostrils. And it's very opposite from the effect that we're to have in the verse that we end up reading twice, Dylan read it once and then I read it at the end of the service, that we're to be a sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ. in every place and Simeon and Levi were the absolute opposite of that. Instead of spreading a sweet aroma of the character of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they spread a stench in the nostrils of the nations and of those around, of those that Israel was chosen in order to be a blessing and a testimony to them of God's character. So God hates what they did. It's made clear in Genesis that he hates what they did. How is it made clear in Genesis that God hates what Simeon and Levi did here?

Well, he says so, he says so, but he says so in the matter of leadership of this family, right? This is the event by which Simeon and Levi, who were the second and third sons in Jacob's family, lost what eventually fell to Judah. which was the leadership of the brothers. It would end up being the royal family. It's gonna be the Judah family. And it didn't fall to Simeon and it didn't fall to Levi because of this event.

And that's really clear in Genesis. And that's the way in which God expresses I hate what happened here. And this is the opposite of my character. The firstborn son, Ruben, it didn't pass to him either. This leadership had passed him over. And that's because of an event that hasn't happened yet in our story. It happens in the next chapter in verse 22, where he sleeps with his father's concubine, Rachel's handmaid. But Reuben was never really much of a leader anyway. Simeon was. Simeon was a leader. And Levi was not too far behind him.

And the Lord talks about this in Genesis 49. I thought I'd read it. I thought I'd read it. Genesis 49. Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come. Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel, your father. Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch. So there's that preeminence, and it's, Ruben, even though you're my firstborn, it's not gonna go to you. You shall not have it. Who's next? Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are implements of violence.

Let my soul not enter into their council. That's an interesting way that Jacob puts it about them. I don't want to be part of what they're talking about and planning. Let my soul not enter into their council. Let not my glory be united with their assembly, because in their anger they slew men. And in their self-will, they lamed oxen.

It's interesting. The Lord is even concerned with animals. It kind of reminds you of Jonah. And the Lord rebukes Jonah and says, shouldn't I have been concerned about this town? Nineveh has 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left as children and much animals as well. And so the Lord has a purpose for that.

And even animals show forth his character and his compassion. So they slaughtered. the town and they blamed the oxen as well. They hamstrung the animals that were part of this town. 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. And that has to do with the tribal allotments. When it came for Simeon and Levi, they were both dispersed in different ways. Simeon was, well, Judah's land was too big for Judah, and so Simeon ends up being a little island, kind of down in more of a desert region of Judah. And then Levi gets scattered in a different way by becoming the priestly family, the priestly tribe, and so they're not given a specific assignment, but they're sort of scattered in the desert. all of the land in kind of a way that turns out to be a blessing. There's another kind of character-defining moment for the tribe of Levi where their cruelty or forcefulness is put to good use in carrying out not their own vengeance, but the vengeance of the Lord with the zeal of the Lord.

And so it's kind of turned into a blessing. And I think that's actually true for all the tribes. even what they've done wrong or what the person that it's named after has done wrong is going to end up turning for a blessing. All 12 tribes are blessed. All 12 tribes are destined for blessing. And so even this is going to be turned into blessing.

But this is the way in which the Lord expresses at least his disapproval. of this kind of defining moment in Simeon and Levi's life and separates himself from that, that the Lord is not like that. That's not going to be part of the way in which Israel blesses the nations going forward. And then if it comes to Judah, he's number four, verse eight, Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's son shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey of my son you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares raise him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. And that Shiloh, probably not a name, it's probably, a collection of several really common Hebrew words, and so it means something like, until he to whom it belongs comes. The scepter's not gonna depart from Judah until he to whom it belongs, that's Judah's son, Christ, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Judah has his own problems.

He's pretty much cut out of the same cloth as Reuben and Simeon and Levi, and we'll find that if we go forward in our study of Genesis. But Judah has this kind of an interesting trajectory, and it has a wonderful defining moment that really stood out to me as I was reading through Genesis this time in the Bible reading not too long ago. And I won't turn to it or read it, but just so you know, it's Genesis 44. Verse 18 through 34, that's a lot of verses. 18 through 34, it's the longest speech in Genesis. So it's an important one, and it's kind of the turning point of the Joseph story. He's been hiding his identity from his brothers, maybe even longer than you want him to.

And this is the moment, after Judah says this, is the moment where Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. And what is it that Judah says in this speech? He says, What is totally true, what's totally earnest, almost childlike in what he tells to Joseph, and he substitutes himself for Benjamin. It's a wonderful act that I'm sure is a type. if you want to call it that, of what Christ has done for us.

Because Benjamin's guilty, or appears guilty, of this crime of stealing Joseph's cup. Deserves punishment. Joseph made that very clear. Only Benjamin deserves punishment. Judah steps forward as the leader of the family, and he says, I want you to punish me. And I want you to let Benjamin go. And so it's interesting to me that that's the defining moment. for the one that the scepter belongs to him. The scepter's not gonna depart from his family.

Judah's by no means perfect, but at that moment at least, that's what God is like. He's not a God of deception, cruelty like Simeon and Levi are in this chapter that we've been doing. He's a God of truth-telling, earnestness, and sacrificial love. And so when you come to Revelation chapter five and there's a scroll on the throne, and who is worthy to open the scroll and to read it and to open it?

Nobody's found. And so John starts weeping and then one of the elders comes to him and says, stop weeping. The lion from the tribe of, what does he say? From the tribe of Simeon has conquered. So as to read the book, no, he doesn't say that. The lion from the tribe of Judah has come.

And so this is foreshadowing of what, imperfectly, but it's a foreshadowing of the character of God himself. So this is good news. This is a poor signal of what God's like. what Simeon, this act of terrible cruelty and terrible deception is something that God hates and that his character is the opposite. And his character is one of truth telling and one of love. And so that's good news for us and we're to rejoice in it. We're to rejoice in it.

John chapter 15 verse 11 says about Christ, he's telling his disciples, I want you to abide in me. And he tells them, I'm gonna give my joy to you. so that your joy may be complete. And part of his joy is that he knows who the Father is. He knows the character of the Father, and that's the joy that we have in Christ when we abide in Christ. So we're to rejoice that God is like that in his character, and then we're to act accordingly. We're to act so as to put his name on display.

We have the same or similar job as Abraham's family did, and that is to put God's character on display in the world. First Peter, chapter two, verse nine, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so we're not to act with deception, with greed, with cruelty, or anything like it, but we're to act with truth-telling, with earnestness, and with self-sacrificing love. We're to have that as a part of our character, not perfectly, but to reflect that in our character because that's the character of the God that we serve as well.

So we're to rejoice in his character. And then as we have opportunity to put his character on display, the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. All right, let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are not like what was put on display by Jacob's family at this ugly moment in their history, but that you are instead kind, loving, truth-telling, giving sacrificially, and you have shown your character most of all, not even in Judah's wonderful act, but in the Lion of Judah's act of overcoming by being a lamb slain and by taking our place on the cross. And this is not an anomaly to your character, this is the heart of your character.

And so we pray that we might rejoice in this. that we might be those whose joy is made full because we have Christ's joy in us, the joy of knowing you, his father. And we pray that we might proclaim and also even manifest the excellencies of the one who's called us out of darkness and into light. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.