Now, I hope coming here tonight
that you've studied this chapter so that you'll have the story
as it's recorded here in the scriptures in your head. I want
you to feel free to study not only chapters 34 and so on, but
kind of read ahead a little bit. Read 34, 35, 36, and read through
those things during the week You don't need to try to interpret
what it's saying or anything like that. I just want you to
have the scriptures in your head. So it's impossible for me to
stand up here and read three chapters to you in a night. But
I want you to have it in your head so you know when I'm telling
you the story of what's going on. So I'm always in hopes that
you'll look at these things ahead of time. Now I've just got one
message for this entire chapter. And it's inclusive of all 31
verses. So if you'll just place a marker
here in chapter 34 so I can return to these things throughout the
message tonight, I'll try to just tell you the story in my
own words. I just went through this rather
than a basic outline like I normally use and I just kind of verse
by verse and tell the story and show you the verse and so on.
But by the hand of God, Jacob had been delivered from his lying,
deceitful father-in-law. We've studied that and looked
at it. And he came out of that situation with wives and children
and possessions. And then he came out and he wrestled
with the God-man. He wrestled with Christ. And
he found himself consumed by him, broken by him, emptied out. Acknowledging himself to be nothing,
swallowed up in his power and presence and glory. And then
he confronts Esau. Esau was a great fear for Jacob. Jacob feared his brother. His
brother had sworn to kill him. He's angry with him. That's what
this world would do to us if it was legal. If they could legally
do it and it was socially acceptable. as it was in the days of Paul
the Apostle, that same enmity, that same hatred still exists
and they still take you out and stone you to death or hang you
on a tree. So he confronts Esau, whom he was persuaded would attempt
to kill him on sight. But Esau was overruled by the
hand of God and a place was made for Jacob just like God makes
places for his people in this earth. I can't explain that.
You look at the map of just known grace churches. There's a map
on the internet. You can get on there and it'll
show you every place in this country. that we're aware of
where there's a group of believers who meet and have pastors and
those pastors put their messages up and so on so we can locate
them and find them. And you look and there's a path,
a huge path, three states wide all the way through the center
of this country where there's nothing. Just a big vacuum. He doesn't raise these churches
up everywhere. People think they're on every corner. They're not
on every corner. So, God makes a place for him. He calms Esau down and Esau allows
his brother to come back in and live in that country without
any animosity and without any hatred. And being weary from
his stress, you think of the stress this man went through.
Labored seven years for a woman and then didn't get her. Had
to work seven more to get the one he really loved and then
She has problems with childbirth, can't have children, and now
they're going there and wrestling through all of that. And they
come out of this place and all these things that he faced and
how his father-in-law had cheated him. I mean, you just look at
his life was filled with stress. Just as fast as he could get
through one thing, here's the next. He'd get through that,
here's the next thing. Get through that, here's the
next thing. And I see that, don't you? I see that in my everyday
life. Just as fast as we get through
one thing, here's another. And that's just the way it is.
But from the stress, this man, if you look at it on an ancient
map, this was a tremendous journey. He didn't go to Spring Hill.
I mean, this would be like you and I going to Maine by foot
or camel and bike. And this man's weary. He's tired.
And he's halt now. He's halting. He's limping on
his staff. And his animals is wore out.
He told Esau. Esau said, well, come on. He
said, no. He said, you just look around.
He said, these little ones of mine are just worn to a frazzle. And the cattle and the goats
and all that I've got, they're just ready to fall over. He said,
I just need to rest. I need to rest. And being weary
from that stress and journey, and himself crippled and halting
on his staff, He stops in this place called Sucketh. And it
means booze. Maybe it was called that because
they was the place where they put booze for the cattle and
I don't know, maybe had a lot of barns. I don't know why they
called it that, but that's what it means. It means tabernacles
or booze. And he meets there this man called
Hamor. Now, Hamor was the lord of the
land. I don't know his official title.
It doesn't give it. But when the lord talks about
choosing a people out of every kindred and tribe and nation
and tongue, what he's telling us is all of these groups are
called by different names. If there's enough of them, they
call it a nation. If there's not enough of them,
maybe it's a tribe. Or if it's smaller than that,
maybe it's just a kindred. Whatever it was, this man was
the lord of the realm, right around there. His name was Hamel.
And the city of that place was called, the way you pronounce
this is Shechem. S-H-E-C-H-E-M, Shechem. And Jacob purchases a portion
of a field there to pitch his tent in, and he rested in the
land for quite a few years. And most of And John Gill, he
likes all these historic writers, Josephus and
all these type of men. And so whenever I read Gill,
I get all of their input on this thing also. They put Dinah, his daughter,
which is what this story's all about, to have been about nine
years old when he came to this land, and now she's somewhere
between 14 and 16 years of age. So he'd been there a while, that's
my point. I don't know how long he'd been
there, maybe she was 14 and they stayed there two years and now
she's 16. I don't know there's no dates
given here there's just a lot of reading between the lines
and going to other scriptures and and things to account for
this but the point I want to make is she was a young lady
very young very tender and She was the daughter of Leah Dinah
she was the only daughter the only girl And she's lured out
by something. We're not really told here. It
just says that Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto
Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the Lamb. But there's some
reason. There's some reason why she went
out. There was a festival. Something was going on. In all
these heathen lands, they have festivals. They have spiritual
ceremonies. They have religious things going
on, certain days. There was something going on
in this town that attracted her attention and attracted all these
other young women. Something going on. And she was going out to see these
young girls and they got her attention and she wanted to be
with these other girls at her age and I suspect that she wanted
to see how the other half lived. She was very sheltered, grew
up in a sheltered home, had no other sisters. No doubt lived
a strict life, no doubt in my mind that she did. But, and I
know that she'd been warned about wandering around in this pagan
land, and I know she had proper instruction from her parents
and proper dress to be put on. But she was sweet 16. And the world was like a big
apple. And she won't see it. The world was calling to her.
She was curious. And she saw these other young
women, and they were all out there, and they were having fun,
and they were dancing, or whatever it was they were doing, and she
wanted to be with them. And there's not a doubt in my
mind that there was drinking and dancing and merrymaking going
on. No doubt in my mind. Young women
and young men are not drawn to mundane affairs of life. They're
just not. Somebody said, there's a town
hall meeting. When I was a young man, did you want to go? No,
I think I ought to stay here. Oh, there's a dank dog now. Now,
maybe I'll go. But they're just not drawn to
these mundane affairs of life. They were attracted by the lust
of their eyes and desires of their fallen nature. And so the
curious, inexperienced daughter of Israel wandered where she
was forbidden to go. Now God himself had strictly
forbidden marriage and any kind of religious gatherings or relationships
with these heathen tribes. Told Abrahamson, no, you want
to take a wife, you go back here. You don't take a wife from here.
They were idolaters. They were immoral people in their
habits, altogether ungodly in their ways. Nevertheless, she
goes out. And while she's with these young
girls, the prince of the land, the one for whom the city was
named for, Sheikah, he spots this young virgin of Israel,
and he overwhelms her, and he has his way with her. And I suppose,
I was talking to Kathy about this, I suppose it would be,
at best, it would be what our law calls statutory rape. with consent, but way underage. Taking advantage of this underage,
inexperienced, sheltered maiden who found herself by nature and
experience unable to resist this boy. This boy owned the town.
The town bore his name. This little girl had never known
anybody. She'd never seen anybody. She
was overwhelmed. But any way you want to interpret
this verse, I don't care how you interpret it, If he threw
her down and had his way with her and was rough and forced
himself on her physically, or if it was a statutory type thing,
either way, he raped this young woman. That's what he did. And it said he loved her. I think
you can take a big pencil and put it through that and write
lust. Because what this world calls love, the Bible calls lust. He said, I know you that you
have not the love of God in you. You don't even know what love
is. But it said he loved her. And it says he spake kindly to
her in verse 3. Now I'm going to tell you something.
Whatever you feel in your heart that comes in the spur of the
moment is not love. It don't come that way. It don't
come that way. It's just lust. And this was
the daughter of her tender-eyed mother. Now, I believe that she'd
taken off her veil. I read several writers on this,
just several writers on this. And I believe she'd taken off
her veil. They were required to cover their face and cover
their entire body. Nothing was to be seen on this
woman. She wore a veil. But this was
the tender-eyed daughter of her mother. And I think she took
that veil off because these other young girls didn't have veils
on. And she might have even put on one of their dresses. I don't
know. It doesn't say. But under that strict coat of
dress, with her face and body covered, it'd been hard for Shechem
to saw anything in her that would have caused him to have been
so sexually aroused. But now the deed's done. There's
no going back. There's no changing the crime.
What's done is done. And this young prince wants this
girl, and he takes her. He not only took her by this
act, but he takes her home to his daddy's house. And he knows
he's done wrong, and he knows he's in trouble. So he goes down
to his daddy's house. Now, his daddy's the lord of
the land. He's the lord of the land. And I don't suppose I'd
be reading too much into this verse. I'm trying to give you
some practical applications here. Some of you have young women
in your house. There's going to come a time when you're going
to have to watch them. She wasn't being watched. And she was at
the right age. But she wasn't being watched.
And she went out. And I don't suppose you'd be
reading too much into this verse to say that this young man, being
son of the Lord of the land, wasn't used to hearing the word
no. I think he pretty much got anything he wanted whenever he
wanted it. I think he was the spoiled son
of the Lord of the Lamb. And so he goes down there and
he tells his father, the Lord of the Realm, verse 4, now listen
to the language because the language changes throughout this whole
thing. He said, get me this damsel. Get me this damsel. Now I'm telling
you, this is the language of religion. If you'll just listen
to it. I'm not making a play on words here. I want you to
listen to it. Turn your TV on and listen to it. Get me. That's what they're talking
about. Get me. I got saved. Get me a new life. Get saved. Get sanctified. Get
a church. Get a house in glory. Get this.
Give me that. Not too long ago, Too many years
back, they started this whole thing. I've never heard anything
about it up to that time. They started this whole thing
of claiming. I claim this. I claim that in
the name of the Lord. I claim this. I've got that.
Get me. That's what's going on here.
Get me this damsel. So now, all right. Now the father
goes with his son, and he goes out to smooth things out. He's
not Lord of the Realm for nothing. He didn't get to be Lord of the
Land without learning how to sidestep these things. Being
able to get around this and get over that and get under this.
He was slick. This is the Lord of the Realm.
Verse 6. So Hamar, the father of Shechem,
he went out to commune with Jacob. He didn't go out there with an
army. He didn't call on all of his servants and surround the
house. He didn't go out there to intimidate him. He just took
his son and went down there to Jacob's house, and not with his
finger in his face, but in humility, and talked to him just one father
to another. And he begins to talk to him. And here's the bottom line of
this thing. A compromise was wont to be made. Now that's what this is all about.
Compromise was wont to be made. And when Jacob's sons heard what
was going on, Dinah's brothers, they left the field and they
came back to the tent and entered in as Hamar began to speak. And
old Smoothy began to sell another story about what had taken place.
Now this boy had went down and raped this girl, went over and
demanded to get her from his father, get me this girl. I'm next in line to be lord of
this outfit. I want her. And so they keep
her in the house. And they come down to an old
smoothie. He begins to spin his yarn about what happened. Verse 8. Now watch this. This
is a whole different deal here. The soul of my son. Boy, that don't sound nothing
like what happened, does it? The soul of my son, Shechem,
longeth for your daughter. I pray thee, give her hymn to
wife. Now, if his intentions, and I
was shocked, nearly every old writer I read had Jacob in the
right and his sons in the wrong in the story. I was amazed at
that. I was just totally amazed. If this man's intentions were
honorable, this conversation here would have been taking place
before the other. Don't you think? If his intentions
was honest with this young woman, he wouldn't have taken her and
then stole her away and put her in his house and then come down
here and having this conversation. What was going on here was a
compromise. This is after the fact. And now
he's going to come down and try to sell this thing as a heart
marriage. Nothing mentioned about love
or soulmates until after the fact. And now all of a sudden,
a whole different picture is being drawn. I love your daughter
and I want your permission. I want to be honorable now and
I want your permission to marry her. And then listen to this,
a trade was offered. He said, if you'll give her to
us, we'll give our daughters to you and you can just dwell
here with us forever. You can stay here. You don't
just have to take a year or two and rest up here. You can stay
here forever. You give us your daughter, we'll give you our
daughters and we'll buy and sell and trade and you can just stay
here and be one of us. You can be one of us. Now listen
to the compromise here in verse 11. I want you to see this. It
jumped out at me like a bright, bright light. He said, let me
find grace in your eyes. And I will do and give whatever
you say." Now what's wrong with that statement? Huh? Can you spot it? Is it jumping
out at you? We'll buy this grace. We'll buy
it. We'll pay whatever you charge.
But God said if it's by grace, It's not over. You can't buy
it. It has to be given. He said,
do you ask a dowry? I'll give it. Do you have a price? I'll pay it. Do you require a
gift? I'll give it. I'll give it. Grace. Now, the sons of Israel
get into their father's conversation. And it says here, they spake
deceitfully to Hamar and his son. I don't know whether this
deceit was how they themselves answered, whether they was deceived
in how they spoke, or whether they had intent to deceive in
their answer, but I kind of tend to the latter. But here's the
deception, circumcision. Here is what the sons are going
to tell. Verse 14. They said unto them,
We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised. For that would be a reproach
unto us. But in this will we consent unto you, if you will
be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised. Then when
we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters
unto us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
We'll just be like one people. We're going to make you Israelites. That's deceitful, isn't it? Now,
it's important here to note what this circumcision is. And the
clearest definition of it that I can find in the Bible is in
Romans chapter 4, verse 11. Now, these boys, the only thing
they knew about circumcision is what they knew that their
grandfather told them. Now, watch this. Romans chapter
4, verse 11. And Abraham received the sign
of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which
he had yet being uncircumcised. He was... God gave this man faith. And he believed God. He believed
God. And he wasn't circumcised yet.
He wasn't circumcised. God gave him this circumcision
as a seal of the righteousness, God's right and righteousness
in justifying this heathen idolater while passing by his kin. He
chose him out, called him out, justified him through faith,
and Abraham followed him and God had him circumcised. Now
this righteousness imputed to Abraham was given to him by faith
while he was still on the other side. Same way it's given to
us on the other side. And he did it because Abraham
was the father in clear type of all those who would yet believe. Canaan's a picture of the kingdom
of God and of the heavenly rest, but Abraham was justified by
faith before he ever set foot in Canaan. And that's what Paul's
telling them. Circumcision is that of the heart
and in the spirit and not in the letter. That is the letter
of the law. whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Now, back to Genesis, verse 18. So they told these men, you're
going to have to be circumcised. We can't dwell with you, we can't
give you our daughters, you can't give us your daughters, we can't
have anything to do with you unless you're circumcised. And
the words pleased Hamor and his son, and the young men The young
man deferred not to do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's
daughter. And he was more honorable, at
least in his willingness and agreement to do this thing, than
all the house of his father. So Hamar goes back to the city.
He calls a town hall meeting. Come one, come all. Come on up
here. And again, Old Smoothy changes his story. Now watch
this. Listen to how he sells this thing of circumcision to
his people. He said, these folks out here, he said, I know what
you might think of them, and a lot of you got a lot of suspicions
about them, but these folks out here are peace-loving people.
They're not over here to make war. They're not over here to
start trouble. They're peace-loving people. So let's let them dwell
here with us. We've got plenty of room. We've
got plenty of land. And in exchange, we'll take their
daughters and give them ours, and we'll live and let live.
All we have to do is give in to this one little thing, circumcision. It's their custom. It's their
way. And if we can submit to this
one ordinance, we'll have them right where we want them. Watch this. Verse 23. We'll have
their cattle and substance, and every beast that they own we'll
have. It'll be ours. And the whole outfit swallowed
his life, and they went out and submitted themselves to these
angry sons of Jacob to be circumcised. And I don't
think I'm stretching things a bit to say that these brothers didn't
like these men to start with, and they weren't skillful surgeons.
And I just don't think there was a lot of sharpening of knives.
I think this thing went hard. It went hard. Because it said
after three days, these men couldn't move. They was bound in the bed. They couldn't move. They was
sore. They couldn't get up and walk. They was laying in the
bed, unable to move. And Simeon and Levi, the two
sons of Leah, they came in on the third day. That's the day
of resurrection, ain't it? The third day. They came in on
the third day. That's what that seal of circumcision
is all about, the third day. They came in on the third day,
and they began to slay these heathen men. And they didn't
spare any of them. Hamar and Shechem was the first
to go, and then their servants, and every male that had circumcised,
they killed, every last one of them. They came in boldly. They didn't sneak up on the place.
They strapped on their swords, winched in and marched right
up Main Street and kicked the door in and took the sword and
just started chopping off heads. And they took their sister out
of Hamor's house and they spoiled the city. And they took their
oxen and their asses and that which was in the city and that
which was in the field and all their wealth and all their little
ones and all their wives and spoiled all that was in the house.
They killed the whole outfit. The whole outfit. And bless his
heart, old Jacob swallowed old Hamar's lies. He bought into
that whole idea of peace. And these people, by compromising
the word of God and ignoring the gross conduct that these
men had done, he totally ignored that. Oh, this thing of peace.
He was going to have peace. He was tired. He was weary. He
wanted rest. He wanted peace. And he was willing
to do anything to get it. And he bought into this. And
he called these two sons, Simeon and Levi in, and he said, you're
a trouble to me. You're a trouble to me. He said,
you caused my name to be a stink in this land. And I'm just a
speck. We're just a speck. He said,
you boys don't understand. We're just a speck. We're just
the size of a fly in this land. And when the Canaanites and the
Perizzites get wind of this, they're going to gather themselves
together and they're going to wipe us out. Now, this was the
same man, the same man that I preached on last week, that built an altar
with the inscription on there that God ruled. Same man. This is Israel. This is the father
of Israel. And he's standing here, and he
built this thing, and he said, God rules in me. And God rules
through me. And God rules for me. And I worship
God at this altar. And now he's out here siding
with these heathen idolaters against his own sons. And he's
chewing out these two boys who, as far as I can tell, maybe I'm
over the hill or something here. He's chewing out the only two
boys in the whole outfit that knew really what was going on. When their father laid down the
law to these two sons, they looked up at their father and here's
what they said. They said, that man, that man
that you're defending, that man that you're respecting, that
man to which you showed reverence, and communed with him like a
brother. Should that man deal with our sister as a harlot?
Isn't that what's going on here? Was she not raped? Was she not
ravaged? Was she not taken by force? And
now we're over here talking about peace in the land and giving
away brides and love and just smothering everybody with kisses
and we don't understand that. Should we let this man deal with
our sister as a harlot? Why does your pastor and these
preachers that I invite down here put these religious preachers
and teachers of our day in such a bad light? Why do I tell you
to get out away from them? Why do I warn you to flee their
presence and avoid them? Why do I put labels on them like
hucksters and merchandisers of men's souls? Why does the scripture
call them vipers and sons of Satan? Why does Christ himself
call them enemies of God? And Paul tells us, let them be
accursed. Why does the gospel I preach
slay these men? I'll tell you why. Because they
raped God's elect. That's why. You leave them alone. And that's exactly what they'll
do. That's exactly what they did to me. Exactly what they
did to me. And God found me in their house
just like He found her. In their house. There isn't but one way to get
Israel's beloved daughter out of the hands of those heathen
idolaters and that is to strap on the sword and go boldly into
the city and towns and fields and slay every one, every one
who circumcised under the pretense of religion, under the pretense
of doing men good. And I know old Hamar, he's slick,
and his words drip of honey and love and fellowship, and his
promises drip of the sweet wine of peace and rest, and his motives
appear to be for the good of all. But his intention was a
double lie. He lies to cover up this spiritual
fornication. He lies to cover up this fornication
that had taken place. He's done smoothed that out.
He just went right over that like it never even happened.
He lies to cover up his spiritual fornication. That's what the
religion of this world does. And he lies so as to possess
everything that you have. That's what he wants. He wants
the peace and he wants the the possession. He wants the inheritance.
He wants the power. He wants the glory. He wants
all of those things. But he wants it at the compromise
of God's name and God's servant. And this man would not be satisfied
with the daughter. He wanted to rape the whole house
of Israel. The son just wanted the daughter.
The daddy wanted the whole thing. Now, we're in this world, but
he said we're not of it. We're regenerated, circumcised
in heart and ears, and we don't walk in darkness and deceit.
We don't walk by the ways of this world anymore. But I'm going
to tell you something. We're just as apt as Jacob, if
you're not careful. Let old smoothie come in. Now,
I'm telling you the truth. This man worshiped God. There's
not a doubt in my mind this man knew God, wrestled with God,
submitted to God, but he was tired. And he was weary from
the journey. And all he wanted to do was just
live a few days in peace. Ain't that what we want to do?
Huh? Just live out our days in peace. And old Smoothie comes
in and he said, here's how you can do it. Here's how you can
do it. And he'll have you. He'll have
you. Why? I can fill your fuse up.
I'd fill your fuse up. I'll guarantee you that man that
was with me today as I conducted that funeral, if I stick my hand
out and put my arm around him and talk to him for a little
bit, got to be friends with him, he'd fill this place up. You couldn't hold people. All
I'd have to do is just compromise a little. Just compromise a little. It'd be okay to mention election
every now and then, but just don't make that the main thing.
Let's don't talk about predestination all the time. Let's talk about
good things. Let's talk about good works and love and all that
type of thing. We're just as apt as Jacob in
our everyday affairs to let ourselves be drawn into the snares of the
devil. He'll tell you it's all right. It's not a preaching service. You can come down. It's just
a piano recital. It's not a preaching service.
It's just a car wash. It's just a food kitchen. We're
just trying to feed the hungry. It's just a young people's activity.
We're just going to ride horses. We're not going to preach. It's
just a bake sale. It's just a garage sale. We're just trying to raise money
for a worthy cause. We're just going to build this
basketball team so our young women and young men don't have
to go down here and mix in with the world. I don't know what was going on
that drew out that little girl. Some of the historians say that
old Shechem put on the shindig to draw out little girls. That
was his whole idea of doing that. Might have been. That's what
religion does. They put on these shindigs to
draw these young kids out and then they got them. But whether
it was or not, it is certainly the way of religion. And when
they're caught, when they're confronted with the fact, old
Reverend Smoothy steps in and smooths everything out. He smooths
everything out. He begins to spin his lies. We
did it because we loved you. That's why we did it. We did
it because our soul sought your fellowship. We could have been
one. But in the end, the truth is
still the same. What he did then and what he
does now is the same. He treats our sister as a harlot.
Back yonder in the garden, he came to Eve, and in his subtlety,
he spoke in her ear. And he said, submit to me. Just
listen to me for a minute. Just listen to it. I know what
God told you. I know that. That's all right. That's all
right. We don't need to talk about that.
Just listen to what I've got to say for a minute. Speaks in
your ear. Believe me. Follow me. Come into
my house. Come over on my side. Give yourself
to my words, not his. Let me be your teacher. And spiritually
speaking, he raped the mother of all mankind. He sure did.
And what's he doing in the worldly church today except spinning
the same old yarn? You don't need to be so exclusive. You don't need to be so dogmatic.
You don't have to be such a separationist. You don't have to be so cruel
and hateful. Just listen to me. Come over
to my side. Paul tells us this. He said,
stand against him. having your loins girt about
with the truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness
on, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, and
carrying around the shield of faith to quench those fiery darts,
and put on the helmet of salvation, and take in your hands the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray for your pastor. Pray for me, he said. Pray for
me, that I might go boldly and make known the mystery of this
gospel. And when you do, those heads
roll. Those heads roll. And when you
don't, He'll take advantage of you, and He'll find a compromise,
and you'll wind up, here is the father of Israel, chewing out
his sons for doing the will of God. But here's that loving rule. It overrode old Jacob's ignorance
and stupidity, and God laid it upon the hearts of his children,
and his children accomplished the will of God. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. We thank You for an experience
of grace, and the revelation of the New
Testament, and the revelation of Christ that helps us to interpret
these old types and pictures. Use these things that we've said
tonight to open blind eyes, to open these hearts, and teach
us how to walk uprightly in this world, and to be on our guard
against old Smoothie, how he works his way in our lives. In
times we least expect it, he steps in. And He has us, and
He sets these snares and we fall in them. Protect us, teach us,
mature us by Your grace. We ask You for Christ's sake.