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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Hey, Moore and Shechem. His son came to the gate of their city. Why the gate? Because that's where the elders of the city hang out. That's where the men who make all the decisions hang out. And spoke with the men of the city, saying, now, these two guys have to sell this to the whole town. So put yourself in their sandals. Hey, listen, we all got to get circumcised. Who's going to go for that?
Some gals just ask your husband about that, and it's like no, we're not going to happen. So they've got to sell the idea to the men of the city so they begin with the elders. Now watch how they sell it. These men are at peace with us. Therefore, let them dwell on the land and trade in it.
Bring up the economy. For indeed, the land is large enough for them. Let's take their daughters to us as wives and let us give them as our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us to be one people.
If every male among us, every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them and they will dwell with us.
Okay, Hamor and Shechem haven't been totally honest with Jacob, have they? Go back just for a moment to verse 10 and notice what he says to Jacob. So you will dwell with us and the land shall be before you dwell and trade in it and acquire possessions for yourselves in it. This would be an economic benefit for you. You will be blessed and prospered materialistically if you do this thing. But when he has to sell it to his own, he says in verse 23, will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours?
Only let us consent to them and they will dwell with us. So he has to sell it as an economic opportunity. I know this is going to hurt, but it's all about the economy. And if you do it, you'll get prospered. And I'm sure the elders looked at him like, I don't know about this. I don't think the guys are going to go for this.
This isn't a great idea. But they went along with it because, as suggested, the Hivites saw this as an opportunity to absorb these people, Jacob and his sons, his family, his livestock, and he was quite wealthy, into their camp and it would prosper them. They would possess their wealth. And all who went out of the gate of the city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son. Every male was circumcised who went out of the gate of the city. Now, some of the commentators who treat this section, I noticed, see this as Jacob's sons promising or hoping that these unbelievers will be made right with God and covenant relationship by being circumcised.
You go through the ritual of circumcision and you'll be made right. That's the thought they say in verse 16, we will become one people. Well, that's an interesting thought.
I guess that's a possibility. There are people still today who say, well, we got to get you baptized boy or girl. We got to get you to church and get you to sing those songs and read that book. And if you do those things, you'll be made right with God. Keep this ritual, do this ceremony. But if you keep a ritual, but you don't live the reality of what that ritual says, it won't make any headway at all with God, will it? It won't make you one with God's people or one with God at all. Any ritual apart from reality won't make you right. Now, speaking of young men and young women, as the context shows, I know some young men who suddenly convert because they see that pretty young girl and they go up to that pretty young girl and she says, oh no, I'm a Christian. I would never date, let alone marry somebody who's not a believer. And he thinks, really?
Well, then I just became one. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. You know, it doesn't take long for conniving guys to get Christianese down pat, to get the lingo down. Just hang around Christians and figure out what they say. Oh, I can do that. I can say that. Honey, let's pray about it.
Whatever it takes to win her over. So verse 24, all who went out of the gate of the city, heeded Hamor and Shechem his son. Every male was circumcised. All who went out of the city gate.
Now, here's the reality of what's happening. They didn't do it in order to supposedly convert them by a ritual. They did it to deceive them and incapacitate them.
Verse 13 says, the sons of Jacob answered and spoke deceitfully. In other words, if these guys get circumcised, they will be incapacitated. They will not be able to be fast on their feet. They'll be in pain. They won't be able to move. It will give us the military advantage over them and we can kill them all. That's the whole idea of it. You can imagine immediately after being circumcised the first few days how painful that would be.
That would incapacitate them. Okay, here's what is mystifying. Jacob is totally passive in this. He didn't step up at all. He never stepped in and say, first of all, Hamor, this is reprehensible.
Shechem, young man, I have a few words for you. He doesn't do that at all. He's passive. He didn't say anything. So the boys come home.
The boys are plotting this and getting this ready and talking to the men of the city and Jacob just sort of sitting back and watching it all happen. Completely passive. It's a mistake to be a passive parent and not be an active parent. Now, there's no such thing, first of all, as a perfect parent.
So just take that off the shelf. No such thing as a perfect parent, but a passive parent will ruin a child. A parent has to stand up for what's right and what's wrong and live with conviction and pass on those values and pass on those convictions so that a child, whether he or she agrees with it or not at the time, has some moorings, something to relate back to and give them a standard of belief. Anybody who's passive toward their child and not actively engaged will ruin them.
And I believe that has been part of the case here. Now it came to pass on the third day when they were in pain, that is after their circumcision, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Diana's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. All the males.
Not one, all the males. And they killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword and took Diana from Shechem's house and went out. Now you should know that Diana and these two boys, Simeon and Levi, were sons of Jacob through the same mother, Leah, the unloved woman, the unloved wife. Rachel was the one who was loved. Leah was the older but less pretty and most unloved one. So these two boys were full brothers and felt more of a connection, obviously, than the rest of the brothers who were half-brothers to her. They were full brothers.
However, Reuben, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun were also full brothers, having Jacob and Leah as mom and dad, but they didn't act or react the same way. So why did these two, Simeon and Levi, react so violently, so aggressively? Well, I don't exactly know why, but perhaps in their own rationale, and it's not right, but perhaps their rationale is, well, dad's not going to do anything. He's not going to step in and stand up for his daughter.
Somebody has to defend her honor. So perhaps that was their thinking and these two acted violently. Now, fast forward, and I'll take you ahead at a sneak peek. When Jacob is on his deathbed and the 12 tribes, the 12 sons are gathered around him, in Genesis 49, he gives a prediction. And he goes through each of the boys and calls them by name and says some things about them, for them, and it's prophetic.
These things will happen to them. And it'll be a fascinating study, but in Genesis chapter 49, you can turn to it or I'll just read it to you. There's just four verses that I'll read to you. In verse five, he gets to these two boys. This is Genesis 49, verse five through eight.
He says Simeon and Levi are brothers. Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place. Let not my soul enter their council. Let not my honor be united to their assembly. For in their anger, they slew a man.
They're referring to this incident that we are now reading. And in their self will, they hamstrung an ox. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, you are he whom your brother shall praise. So it's like the blessing is taken off of them and given right to Judah through whom the Messiah will come, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.
Your father's children shall bow down before you. The prediction is these two would be scattered. Now what's interesting is Levi, for example, was scattered throughout Israel. He had no land of his own. His tribe had no land. But here's why they were scattered.
You ready? They became what? The priests. They didn't have their own land allotment, physical inheritance, because God said I, the Lord your God, am your inheritance.
So they were scattered, but they were scattered because God in his grace and mercy turned the worst tribe into the priesthood. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, the 1960s promised us an explosion of love and brotherhood, but instead they delivered a nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has the solution for our damaged families. And in Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World, Pastor Skip Heitzig gives a biblical guide for marriage and families that can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin. Beyond the Summer of Love is our thanks for your gift of at least $25 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $25 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Now, that's what God does. He takes a bunch of vile, filthy sinners and turns us into a kingdom of priests, Peter said. A kingdom of priests, a royal generation. And in this royal priesthood are some ex-drug addicts, ex-alcoholics, ex-prostitutes, saved for the glory of God and made a kingdom of priests.
What style, what flair, what grace God has. So back to verse 26 of our chapter and we'll finish it out. And they killed Hamor and Shechem, his son with the edge of the sword, took Dinah from Shechem's house and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city so the two boys did the killing, but I guess the rest of the boys were complicit, they plundered the town because their sister had been defiled.
They took their sheep, their oxen, their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field. Now this is going to help you understand a law that has mystified some of you for a long time. As time marches on and the law of Moses gets inaugurated, there will be a law put into place known as the lex talianus. The lex talianus.
And the lex talianus goes like this. It's the law of retribution. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Now some people read that and they suppose what a vengeful God he is. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. You don't understand it.
The lex talianus was put in place to limit vengeance, not to enable or procure vengeance to limit it. An eye for an eye because you see it's human nature as we read here that if you take out one of my eyes, I'll put out both of your eyes. You just hit me in the face and took out a tooth. I'm going to take uppers and lowers. You'll need dentures your whole life.
All of them are going. It's not to match the crime. It's to be vengeful and go above the crime.
That's what we want. That's human nature. So the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth was to limit vengeance so that the punishment would be fitting to the crime because this tendency as seen here in human nature. They took the sheep, the oxen, killed all the guys, took and plundered the city, verse 29, and all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives. They took captive. They plundered even all that was in the houses.
Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites since I am few in number and they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed. My household and I. You get the picture?
This guy has eye trouble and it's not because he needs new glasses. It's all about me. What about me? What about I?
You're going to do this to me. But they said, should he treat our sister like a harlot? Jacob is an enigma to me. He never gets angry for the rape of his daughter. Now he does not rebuke Shechem, does not rebuke Hamor, but does rebuke his sons. But notice, he doesn't rebuke them for the massacre. He doesn't rebuke them for abusing the right of circumcision.
He doesn't abuse them for the breach of contract. He rebukes them because what they did gave him a bad name. My reputation is soiled. Dude, you have no reputation.
You have no testimony. You conniving creep. But that's what he's worried about. Not his daughter. Says nothing about his daughter.
Says nothing about the murder, the massacre, the abuse of that spiritual right of circumcision. You made me obnoxious. They're not going to like me. My reputation has been soiled. And the name of God is not mentioned once. Now I want to close with this.
I want to be tender, but I want to be upfront. Parents, you think this through. If you're letting your dinas run around the pagan neighborhoods with all the Shechem's running around through town, scoping out the chicks, don't be surprised if those girls, those young children of yours, start adopting their values and becoming like them. Like these sons are even worse than the pagans. If you put your children in pagan environments, don't be surprised if they start, I can't believe it. I can't believe you said that or thought that.
Really? That's what they're around all the time. And it was this environment that he let them come in that was a problem. Because what will happen is you'll reach a point and you'll say to that child, you're troubling me. You're making me obnoxious by what you say or what you do or how you dress or what friends you have. But if you've allowed those dinas, those Daniels, those Davids in the wrong places, doing the wrong things at the wrong times that you know in your heart they shouldn't be involved in.
I should step in and do something or say something or counteractive. You're hurting them. Because the environments are blatantly, overtly sexual in this world. There's lots of peer pressure. And if there's no pressure to counteract the pressure they have in the world, they'll collapse.
The pressure has to be compensated with other pressure. Peer pressure must be compensated by parental pressure. The good kind. The active kind.
The involved kind. Interesting, I was reading about the Thresher, a nuclear submarine in 1963 that was making an attempt to go under the polar ice cap toward the North Pole. It went down too deep. There was too much water pressure and the submarine imploded. The thick metal skin hull of the submarine imploded. Because the pressure was just too great. It went down too deep and the pressure was too great. And even though it was thick steel, it just imploded.
And yet, here's the ironic thing. There's little tiny fish that live at that same depth. That don't implode. And the secret is the pressure that is at that depth in the fish is counteracted by equal pressure from the inside going out. They're pressurized fish.
So one pressure counteracts the other pressure. If our children, our precious ones, don't have a good solid environmental pressure monitored by parents, then the peer pressure on the outside will cause them to fold. I want to close by saying something about Jacob. Jacob is flawed. But you know what? Isaac was flawed.
But you know what? Come to think of it, Abraham was flawed. And you know, come to think of it, who isn't flawed? All of us are flawed except God. Everyone's flawed.
Everyone. As flawed as Jacob was, please give him at least this, there was deep within his heart underneath all of the conniving and all of the double crossing, there was this deep seed of a desire for spiritual things. He wanted his brother's spiritual blessing.
His brother could care less about it. At least he had a desire for spiritual things. He went about it the wrong way. And he lied and he cheated and he connived and etcetera, etcetera. But he had that deep desire to serve the Lord.
And you're going to see things pick up. Because this story didn't just end with a sordid tale of murder and deceit and rape. Chapter 35, it is what I will call the first revival in the Bible. Jacob gets revived and he wants his sons, his family to get revived. He goes back to that place at Bethel. He goes back to calling on the name of the Lord. He goes back to building an altar and worshiping and tries to influence his family with that same spiritual value system as he takes leadership of the home. So yeah, he's flawed, but I'm glad the Bible tells us the truth about these heroes.
Because I look at him and go, man, there's hope. Now tonight, you're in one of two camps. And again, I love the simplicity of Scripture.
Not one of 18, just one of two. You are either dominated by the Spirit or you're not. You're dominated by the Spirit or you're dominated by the flesh.
Now if you're dominated by the flesh and not the Spirit, it's for one of two reasons. Either you're an unbeliever or you're a carnal believer. If you're an unbeliever and you might be a make-believer, you might think, well, I'm a believer, but you're not. You're a make-believer. There's nothing true that has been a conversion of repentance toward God in your life. And you need to make your life right with God by trusting in the one that did it all for you, Jesus on the cross. Or you're a carnal believer and you've just lived according to the value systems that you grew up with and though you gave your life to Jesus and there's been this struggle between flesh and spirit, the flesh has been winning a lot. In fact, it's dominated you. And the reason you have no peace, no contentment, no consistency is because the flesh is consistently dominating over the Spirit. Wouldn't you love to see that changed?
It can happen. God is all about change. God isn't all about just having church services.
Let's just have another church service and yet another Bible study. It's to lead somewhere. It's to lead to change. For some of us, it's incremental change. For some of us, it's radical, drastic, dramatic change. But you've got to do something and cooperate with the Lord and allow Him to change you.
Give the gift of forgiveness and everlasting life and come into relationship with Him. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you understand and follow God's plan for your relationships.
Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World by Pastor Skip Heitzig is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
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