11/05/2023 - IF YOU BECOME AS WE ARE

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But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised,  Genesis 34.15

There was one condition for the proposal of the Hivites to be accepted in Jacob’s family: they would have to be circumcised. Now, circumcision was a commandment of the Lord for the descendants of Abraham. He went through this procedure together with Ishmael, his son with Hagar, his concubine – and all his servants bought or born in his house (Genesis 17.23-26). He and Ishmael were circumcised on the same day. But what about the Hivites?

Well, the people of Shechem could not be circumcised, because they were not participants in the Covenant, unless its inhabitants became Jacob’s servants, but that was not the case. The Hivites would lose their land to the house of Jacob. The suggested physical circumcision meant nothing to them. Dinah’s brothers played pretense with the Hivites; thus, the plan of revenge would be put into practice. We will see this starting with message 5031.

Probably the abuse suffered by Dinah was the most difficult situation that the patriarch of the Hebrews faced. In life, we also go through situations that we never expected to happen to us. However, God instructs us on the path to take and guides us with His eyes (Psalm 32.8). Never despair when facing bad news, but see the way out that He will give you. 

Seeing Hamor and Shechem’s insistence on wanting to join their families and become one people, the patriarch’s sons set up an alibi. This way, they would gain time and plan the retaliation. They knew that it was wrong to accept the idea of Hamor and his son, and they considered it completely ridiculous. They would never disappoint the Lord by joining the people whose land they would one day inherit.

Imagine how David felt when he saw Amnon, his son, killed by Absalom, another son who avenged the rape of Tamar, his sister. The king must have been paralyzed, but he remembered the prophet Nathan’s warning: Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ (2 Samuel 12.10). Was it worth having possessed Bathsheba?

After this murder, David witnessed Absalom take the kingdom from him, so he had to quickly flee, and still saw some more of Nathan’s sentence fulfilled: Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. (2 Samuel 12.11). Absalom did all of this (2 Samuel 16.22). Wherever there is sin, there is always defeat!

Was there any sin in Jacob? The Bible doesn’t say so, but later on he received a revelation of something that changed his life and the lives of his children. Try to live in the presence of the Lord, so that in your home there will only be favorable situations. Here is the promise: by keeping the divine precepts, you and your family will be protected (Psalm 91.10). 

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares