Unquenchable Promise

a half year or so, and we're now in chapter 34.

And what happened at the end of chapter 33 is we saw Jacob finally be reconciled to his

twin brother and rival, Esau, and purchased a lot of land in the city of Shechem.

And Shechem is in the land of Canaan, so this seems to be an auspicious beginning for him,

his return to Canaan, because the promise of God that he would inherit the land of Canaan

seems to be getting fulfilled.

Now, as that's happening, however, as it happens throughout the book of Genesis, a big threat

arises, and right now what we're reading about here is perhaps the most dramatic threat we've

seen up to this point to that potential fulfillment of Jacob's promise.

And while he's dealing with his fear and uncertainty in that situation, we learn from him and his

example that we should not compromise our exclusive devotion to God because he is the one who

keeps his promise.

He's the God who's faithful to keep his promises.

And we're going to learn that through two main points.

And the first is we're going to look at the promise threatened in chapter 34, and then we're

going to look at the promise renewed in chapter 35 and following.

And 34.1, it begins,

Now, Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the woman

of the land.

Now, that sounds innocent at first glance, but there is more going on under the surface

because the first word of the sentence is really awkward.

The verb went out is the very first word of the sentence.

And people, the Hebrew writers, do that for emphasis.

They front the word that they want to emphasize.

So he says, went out, Dinah, the daughter of Leah.

And why is that emphasized?

Because here in this passage, the verb went out occurs four times in just in chapter 34.

And every time it represents a crossing of ethno-religious boundary, kind of a social boundary,

right?

So first time is when Dinah goes out, went out to see the woman of the land, to see the woman

of Canaan.

And later in verse 6, Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak to them.

And then in verse 24, all who went out of the gate of the city were circumcised, meaning

all the able-bodied men who would typically go out of the city gate to represent their

city in battle with other nations and cities.

So these, they went out to cross, again, another social boundary.

And then finally, in verse 26, it says that Simeon and Levi killed Hamor and Shechem and

took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away.

Again, same word, leaving that social, that ethno-cultural boundary.

So each time the word is used, it refers to a crossing of a boundary, social-religious

boundary.

And that implies that Dinah is here crossing over, transgressing a boundary that she probably

should not be crossing given the context of Genesis.

This is confirmed by the fact that the only other occurrence of the phrase, woman of the

land, right, is in the book of Genesis.

The whole book is in Genesis 27, 46, where Rebecca says to Isaac, I loathe my life because

of the Hittite woman, if Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the

women of the land, that's the same phrase, then what good will my life be to me?

So all the patriarchs of Genesis have up to this point have shown great concern with preserving

their faith and allegiance to God by refusing to intermarry with the Canaanites, right?

And so, because they could potentially lead them astray, lead them to idolatry.

So the fact that Dinah here goes out, right, to consort with the woman of the land is not

an innocent comment.

So in verse 1 to begin.

So Dinah goes out to check out the social scene among the woman of the land, and while

she is out to sea, it says, that she is herself seen by a man of the land.

In verse 2, when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her,

he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.

Note the parallel repetition of the phrase, of the land, right?

Dinah consorts with the woman of the land and is caught by the prince of the land.

And what Shechem does here is unequivocally condemned by the narrator.

And we know that because of the phrase, he saw her and seized her.

Now, the word seize here is an over-translation.

So it's actually just the same generic word for take that is used all throughout Genesis.

It doesn't say seize.

It doesn't imply violence or force.

It just says take.

Now, but when you translate it that way, it says saw her and took her.

That raises up a lot of interesting parallels in the book of Genesis.

Because the very first time when someone is said to saw, and they saw and took, it was

at the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, 6.

When Eve saw that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was good for food, and that it

was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of

its fruit and ate.

So the first sin of humanity was described that way, saw and took.

And then the second time that happened was that someone saw and took was what precipitated

the flood judgment over all the earth, right?

So it's when the angels of God, the sons of God, saw that the daughters of men were attractive,

and they took as their wives any they chose, right?

Genesis 6, 2.

And then there's other times, and it's all kind of similar sins.

So Genesis 12, 15.

The prince of Pharaoh saw Sarai, Abram's wife, and took her into his house.

And it describes Leah's unfaithfulness as well later in Genesis 39.

When she saw that she had seized bearing children and took her servant Zilpah and gave her to

Jacob as a wife.

So the two verbs, when they're paired together throughout Genesis, always refers to sin, transgressing

of a boundary that God has placed for our good.

So what boundary exactly did Shechem cross here, transgress?

And many biblical scholars see this as an instance of rape.

And this particular translation certainly sends that impression, the way it's translated.

And that's the assumption that I, too, brought to this text as I was preparing this sermon

this week, and wrote like three pages of sermons, worth of sermons.

And then as I was studying more of it, I realized I don't think this is actually rape.

And I'll explain in a second why that's the case.

First, the word I mentioned to you, take, is just a generic word for take.

It's not cease.

And that's the typical word that is used to describe a man taking a wife throughout Genesis.

Over and over again, you find so-and-so took so-and-so as a wife.

Over and over again throughout Genesis.

Now, and then in, so to give you an example of this, a specific example, Genesis 38, 2,

it says that Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua.

He took her and went into her.

It's the same word for take.

But there's no indication whatsoever there that there was something inappropriate going

on because it just says took, right?

And in fact, it implies that the woman became his wife and she bears three children for him.

And then in Deuteronomy, also written by the same author, 22, 23, 29, it delineates specific

laws governing sexual relations.

And in those case laws that's in Deuteronomy, it specifically distinguishes rape from just

premarital sex, fornication, right?

And there is a specific Hebrew word that is used to mean seize forcibly, right?

To be strong over someone.

And that's the word that the Hebrew uses to imply rape.

That's the word that is used to describe Emnon's rape of Tamar in 2 Samuel 12, for example.

And that's the word that's used to refer to the rape of the widow or the wife of the man

from Gibeah.

So that's the word that's used, but that word is curiously not used here.

It uses just a generic word for take.

It doesn't say seized forcibly.

Second, and in verse 2, it says that Shechem humiliated her.

And this also is the word that is typically used to describe fornication and all kinds

of sex outside of marriage and not specifically sexual abuse.

So for example, in Deuteronomy 22, 23 to 29, a betrothed woman who consensually sleeps

with another man and thereby commits adultery, as well as an unbetrothed woman who consensually

sleeps with a man thereby committing fornication are both said to have been humiliated.

Exactly the same word.

So the third final thing, the word defile that's used to describe Dinah, which is used

three times, verse 5, verse 13, verse 27.

It also refers generically to uncleanness and inappropriateness and not specifically to sexual

abuse or violation.

So example, Deuteronomy 24, 4, a woman who is legally divorced from her husband and then

marries another man and then is legally divorced again from her second husband.

It says she is defiled and therefore cannot go back to marry the first ex-husband, right?

Even though they were all consensual relationships.

It has nothing to do with rape or abuse.

It's an inappropriate relationship.

All kinds of inappropriate sexual relations were defiled.

It's considered defiling.

And so Shechem and Dinah certainly have transgressed a divinely ordained boundary, but that boundary

is not that he forced her to have sex with her, but that they crossed the boundary that

God had tried to put a hedge around, hedge of protection around intercourse, around intimacy,

so that it happens in the trusting context and commitment of marriage under the covenant

of God, but they violated that by having sex outside of marriage.

So that's one way in which defilement and humiliation occurred.

And the second thing is that Dinah did this with a member outside of her religious group.

That's, again, another thing that leads to her defiling and humiliation.

And so this interpretation makes better sense of the whole passage as a whole because later

when the narrator comments on this episode in verse 7, he says,

The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were

indignant and very angry because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's

daughter, for such a thing must not be done.

What is the outrageous thing, right, that he's come to?

It's not outrageous that Shechem forced Dinah into having sexual relations.

What's outrageous is that he did a thing in Israel with Jacob's daughter, right?

That's what's emphasized by the narrator, right?

So that seems to me like, okay, that's why they're concerned for her humiliation and defilement.

And finally, at the end in verse 31, after they take their bloody vengeance, Simeon and

Levi, they say, Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?

There's another clue because a prostitute is not raped, right?

A prostitute is paid for consensual sex.

And what they're accusing him of is you, instead of taking her into marriage and having a proper

relationship with her, you slept with her, and now you're bringing, after the fact, a bright price

as a payment.

So that's what they're saying.

You're treating our sister like a prostitute, right?

So I think that's, I mean, that's, I think this affects the way we understand the passage.

It's still, I think, the main point of passage remains the same.

So, I mean, if you guys are skeptical, I totally understand because I was skeptical of it myself

as I was studying it all week.

But that is, when we recognize that Shechem had a committed fornication with Dinah rather

than raping her, then Shechem's response afterward also actually makes a lot more sense.

Because look at verse 3.

And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.

He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

His soul was drawn to Dinah.

So the word drawn here is the same word that is used in Genesis 2.24, where it gives a vision

for Christian marriage.

It says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.

That's the same word, you know, drawn.

So even though he sinned, Shechem, now after the fact, is feeling exactly the right kind

of bond that he's supposed to feel, that a spouse is supposed to feel.

And then it says he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

That literally translates to speak over the heart.

So it's the reassuring, comforting word that he's speaking to her.

And so Shechem is genuinely infatuated with Dinah.

And even though he sinned by sleeping with her before marrying her, he now wants to do the

right thing by marrying Dinah and committing to a loving relationship with her.

And this is not the reason why I think this argument is compelling, but it's also confirmed

by social research, right?

So in an article published by UCLA in the Journal of Social Sciences, Dr. Neil Malamuth writes

about how men who had raped women, had a tendency to rape women, have a hostile adversarial relationship

with women in general.

So for them, the rape is not merely about sex.

It's not about gratification, but about control and conquest.

And it's frequently vindictive.

So generally what happens after a rape is that the rapist feels hostility and hatred toward

the victim, not love and attachment.

And that's actually exactly what you find in the case of rape in 2 Samuel 13, 13 to 17.

When Amnon rapes Tamar, it says afterward, Amnon hated her with very great hatred so that

the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her,

right?

So that's what you would expect.

But instead, what you find here is Shechem is drawn to her and loves her and cares for

her.

So Shechem is kind of a complicated character.

So he's not a one-dimensional character.

He's a complex character.

He's a sinner, clearly, but he also loves Dinah.

And then he speaks tenderly to Dinah, but he speaks incredibly rudely to his father.

So in verse 4, get me this girl for my wife.

Now that's a command, right?

It's abrupt.

There's no please.

And so when they finally come to speak to Jacob in verse 5, it tells us how Jacob responded.

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock

in the field.

So Jacob held his peace until they came.

So Jacob is undoubtedly upset, but he keeps his cool for the time being because his sons

are out of the house.

So he seems that he didn't want to start a confrontation that could spiral out of control

without his sons there to back him up.

So Jacob waits.

And when everyone's gathered, Hamor, the father of Shechem, makes this offer.

And notice he doesn't apologize for anything, right?

If his son had raped Jacob's daughter, you would expect some kind of apology because the

way the Hebrew Bible looks at rape, it considers it exactly the same as murder.

It says in Deuteronomy 22.

So he says,

And the word for property here is the same word that is translated possession in Genesis 17, 8 and 48, 4,

where God promises to Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan as their possession, everlasting possession.

So the fact that Canaanites here are offering them possession of the land, it's very appealing.

If you're Jacob, you've been waiting for a long time for this to be fulfilled, right?

So he's saying, maybe this is finally the way in which this will happen.

But of course, the offer doesn't just come with the carrot, it comes with the trap.

And it also requires that they intermarry and settle among the Canaanites with them,

even though that is explicitly forbidden in later Mosaic law, right?

So Exodus 34, 13 to 16,

Don't take the daughters of Canaanites for your sons, lest their daughters whore after their gods,

and make your sons whore after their gods, right?

So to intermarry with them risk apostasy, lack of faithfulness to God.

And so that's why here we find Jacob and his sons in a great bind under the dilemma.

And so Jacob can't simply accept this offer, and his sons respond in verses 14 to 17,

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 agree with you that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised.

Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves,

and we will dwell with you and become one people.

But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised,

then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.

So for Hamer and Shechem, the only problem with Shechem and Dinah's illicit relationship is that they're not yet married.

So they come to solve that problem by offering a bride price and get them to marry.

But for Jacob and his sons, that's not the only problem.

There's another problem, and that's that they belong to a different religious ethnic group.

They don't worship the Lord God that they serve.

And so because of that, even though the Shechemites are offering a great,

they are highlighting the economic advantages of this intermarriage,

the sons of Jacob highlight the religious disadvantages of intermarrying with them.

And so in verse 13, it says,

but so everything that the sons are saying here are true.

I mean, they're saying it would be a disgrace for us to intermarry with the uncircumcised people.

But they're not saying it sincerely because their intention is simply to deceive them, it says in verse 13.

The circumcision was a ruse designed to incapacitate the men of Shechem so that they could raid them and ransack the city.

So not knowing this, obviously, Hamer and Shechem used their political clout to influence all the men of Shechem.

And they are saying it's a really interesting study in human psychology because they know how to cajole people into doing things that they want

because when they come to talk to them, they don't mention anything about their personal stake in this, right?

And the whole driving force of this transaction is that Shechem wants to marry Dinah, but they mention nothing of that.

But they say, oh, but look, all their stuff is going to be ours, right?

You're going to be rich once these people settle with us.

So that's what they say.

And that's also a contradiction of what they promised to Jacob and his sons because he promised them,

you get property in our midst, but now he tells his own people that we're going to get their property for ourselves.

So he's not being entirely forthright with either of them.

And John Calvin's comment about this is incisive, very telling, a comment about the human psychology.

It says, Hamer and Shechem then enumerate other advantages.

Meanwhile, they cunningly conceal the private and real cause of their request,

whence it follows that all these pretexts are fallacious.

But it is a very common disease that men of rank who have great authority,

while making all things subservient to their own private ends,

feign themselves to be considered for the common good and pretend a desire for the public advantage.

Ouch.

So that's what's going on here.

And nonetheless, their pitch is accepted, and all able-bodied men are circumcised.

And it's ironic because they tell themselves that these people are at peace with them

all the while they're planning this raid.

And it says in verse 25,

Nowadays, a lot of men are not circumcised.

And even the men who are circumcised were probably circumcised when they were babies or infants,

so they don't know what it's like to circumcise as a grown man.

But when you're circumcised as a grown man, it's incapacitating for weeks.

So, I mean, they can't fight.

They can't even walk properly.

And Levi and Simeon surely take advantage of that and raid the house.

So as they do that, there is kind of an eye-for-eye principle at work,

in the sense that they took Dinah, that's the same word,

and now it says Levi and Simeon, they take Dinah out of Shechem's house in verse 26.

So they're kind of returning what they did to them.

But then they go beyond that because the word take is used multiple times

to refer to all the other stuff that they take.

They don't just take Dinah back.

It says they also took the sword, right?

And then they killed all the people, killed all the men in the city.

And it says that they also took their flocks and their herds,

their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field.

And it says in verse 29,

all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives,

all this was in the houses.

All that was in the houses they captured and plundered.

So this is a despicable act that they're doing.

They're taking, this is not justice.

They're taking vengeance into their own hands.

And what they're doing is widely disproportionate.

It's not just.

And so Jacob, who was apparently not privy to what Simeon and Levi were planning on doing,

rebukes them in verse 30.

You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land,

the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me,

I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.

So that's the threat, the promise threatened.

So not long after Jacob's return to the land of Canaan,

the promise that God had made to Jacob appears to be in jeopardy.

Not merely because the Canaanites might now be out to get them,

but also because of the raid that they conducted

and all the idols potentially that they have accumulated for themselves

and with all the women and the children that they took.

But whenever this happens in the book of Genesis,

God graciously intervenes for his people.

And that leads us to our second point, promise renewed.

God says to Jacob in chapter 35, verse 1,

Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.

Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you

when you fled from your brother Esau.

This is a kind reminder from God of the other time

that when he delivered Jacob from a mortal threat from his brother Esau.

And this is an allusion.

That's what God says here to the promise that God made to Jacob

in chapter 28, 13 to 16.

When Jacob was first leaving Canaan, God promised to Jacob,

I will be with you and keep you, protect you,

and I will bring you back to this land.

And then Jacob responded by making a vow,

If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go

and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear

so that I come again to my father's house in peace,

then the Lord shall be my God.

And this stone which I have set up for a pillar

shall be God's house.

And of all that you give me, I will give a full tent to you.

So this is a vow that Jacob had made.

And throughout this narrative,

God has faithfully kept his end of the bargain.

He has protected him.

He has given him clothes, enriched him,

and now he has brought him back to the land of Canaan.

So we're waiting as readers to see if Jacob will actually fulfill his vow.

And that's what God's calling him to do here.

But interestingly enough,

this happens at a time when Jacob would be most reluctant to venture out

into further into the land of Canaan,

to go to Bethel,

because he thinks there are people,

all the Canaanites are going to gather and kill off his entire household.

But it's that moment when his faith is most needed,

God calls him,

Go now, arise, and go and worship me in Bethel.

And Jacob responds promptly.

He obeys.

And sensing that his vow to have the Lord be his God

is inconsistent with all the household idols that were in their possession,

he calls for a purge of this in verses 2 to 3.

Put away the foreign gods that are among you

and purify yourselves and change your garments.

Then let us arise and go up to Bethel,

so that I may make there an altar to the God

who answers me in the day of my distress

and has been with me wherever I have gone.

So if you guys remember from chapter 31,

remember Rachel stole a household god from her father, Laban,

when she left with Jacob, her husband.

So there's probably household gods from that.

But there's also likely household gods from Shechem

because he says that they took all that was in the houses

and they were pagan nations.

They worshiped idols.

And so that's why he calls for a purge.

He says,

Wash yourself and change your garments,

so that represents a new way of life,

a purified way of life.

And then it's only then they can arise and go up to Bethel,

which is a language of pilgrimage.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, right?

Who has clean hands and a pure heart, right?

So that's what they're doing,

purifying themselves so they can go up and worship him.

Jacob's family members also promptly obey Jacob's call.

And so he says,

So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had

and the rings that were in their ears.

Jacob hid them under the terebin tree that was near Shechem.

It's not exactly clear why they also take their rings off.

They take the gods, but they also take their rings off.

It might be that later in the Pentateuch,

like in Exodus 32, 2-4,

Israelites take their rings and melt it

and forge an idol out of it.

So it may be expressing a total commitment,

saying we will never return to these gods at all.

And so we're even getting rid of the ways

which we can make these idols.

It could also be a way of bringing an offering.

So there's an example of that in Numbers 31,

where after a raid of the Midianites,

Israelites offer the plunder that they have to God as an offering.

So anyway, in this episode,

that they're going through a purification of the defiling that happened,

not just of Dinah,

but also through the raid of Simeon and Levi of the town of Shechem.

And in this, we learn that we as people,

God's people should not compromise our exclusive devotion to God

because He is the one who is faithful to keep His promises.

And because if God has promised it, then He will fulfill it,

and then we don't have to resort to our own devices

or compromise our devotion and obedience to God.

So Israel was not supposed to become one people with Canaan, right?

Shechem was not the man that God had chosen

through which the nations and Israel will be united.

And for that reason, and because Israel had to preserve its line

from whom the Messiah would come,

the Jesus Christ would come,

they had to be faithful to Him.

And this is confirmed.

I won't really speak too much about Genesis 36,

which tells us about the genealogy of Esau.

But the main point from that is the fact that Esau,

you know, Esau left the land of Canaan,

the land of promise,

and he intermarried with Canaanites.

And so that's set up there in Genesis 36

as a contrast to Jacob in Genesis 35.

So it says 36, 1 to 2,

These are the generations of Esau, that is Edom.

Esau took his wives from the Canaanites.

And then later in 36, 6, 8, it says,

Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters,

and all the members of his household,

his livestock, all his beasts,

and all his property that he had acquired

in the land of Canaan.

And he went into a land away from his brother Jacob,

for their possessions were too great for them

to dwell together.

The land of their sojournings could not support them

because of their livestock.

So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir.

Esau is Edom.

And that's contrasted with 37, 1,

which said that Jacob remained in the land of his sojourning.

Jacob remains a sojourner in the land of promise

because he's holding on to the promise of God

that God will give him this land.

Esau forsakes that promise.

He leaves the land of Canaan

and intermarries with the Canaanites.

And that's given to us as an example

so that we should not compromise

our exclusive devotion to God

because God is faithful to fulfill his promises.

And I want to just ask you,

just for a way of application,

what are the ways in which, you know,

you are tempted to settle and compromise

with the ways of this world,

with the ways of Shechem?

Maybe, I'm just thinking about some examples,

maybe you, like Shechem,

are tempted by promiscuity, pornography,

premarital sex.

Everyone else seems to be doing it, right?

Maybe there's a TV show you watch

or a musician you listen to

that does not fill your mind

with whatever is true

and whatever is honorable,

whatever is just,

whatever is lovely,

whatever is excellent and praiseworthy.

Instead, it fills your mind with violence,

lust, crudeness, pride, cynicism,

unbelief.

Maybe your speech is not always gracious,

seasoned with salt,

as it says in Colossians 4.6.

Instead, it's rash and presumptuous,

puffed up with pride,

sharp with anger,

cutting down instead of building up.

Maybe there's a biblical teaching

that you know of

that is particularly unpopular

in our culture this day and age.

And instead of holding fast to it,

you're beginning to slip,

sliding closer and closer

to the world

in order to be more relevant

and accepted.

We must not compromise

our exclusive devotion to God

because He is faithful

to fulfill His promises.

His words are true

and His words are good for us.

What are the idols in your life

that you have been hiding?

Maybe like Rachel

and the other servants

in the household of Jacob.

You worship the true God, yes,

but you say to yourself,

maybe, well,

it's nice to hold on

to some of these things

as an insurance policy,

maybe not consciously,

but subconsciously.

What competes with God

in your life

for your affection and trust?

Maybe you struggle

with idleness

and distraction.

You retreat

to mindless scrolling

and surfing

to get away

from the responsibilities

and demands of this life

instead of finding

your true rest in God.

Maybe the opposite

is true for you.

You're constantly busy.

You're struggling

with perpetual business

not because your schedule

is busy,

but because your heart

is busy.

You're trying to find

fulfillment in something

other than God.

Maybe you're trusting

in wealth,

how much money

you've saved up

that makes you feel secure.

Maybe you're trusting

your boyfriend

or girlfriend

or husband

or wife

or just your best friend

and you're looking

to them to fulfill

and satisfy longing in you

that only God

can fulfill.

maybe if you're a believer,

you're becoming legalistic.

You're trusting

in your own diligence

and your own law keeping.

Striving to be good enough

to earn God's favor

so you can make the cut.

That too is an idol

because ultimately

you're relying on yourself

not on God who saves.

We must not compromise

our exclusive devotion

to God

because He who promised

is faithful.

Seek first the kingdom

of God

and His righteousness

and all these things

will be added to you

as well.

Trust in Christ

and His sufficiency

for you today

and let's daily

as God's people

take inventory

of our lives

to purify ourselves

as Jacob's household

has done.

And so after Jacob's

household purified

themselves,

God acts decisively

on their behalf

and He strikes

the Canaanite population

with fear.

It says in verse 5,

and as they journey,

notice this happens,

as they are journeying

and stepping out in faith

to what God

has called them to do,

as they do that,

a terror from God

fell upon the cities

that were around them

so that they did not

pursue the sons of Jacob.

So though Jacob

and his sons

were afraid

of the Canaanites,

it's the Canaanites

who are struck

with divine terror

and fear.

And then God

appears to Jacob again

to reaffirm

the new name

he gave him

earlier in chapter 32,

20,

it's saying this,

your name shall

no longer be called

Jacob but Israel

for you have striven

with God

and with men

and have prevailed.

It's a really powerful

name change

because the new name

Israel

is a combination

of the Hebrew word

for God

and the Hebrew word

for strive

or struggle,

right?

So it means

God struggles

or God strives,

right?

And Jacob

in that episode

in chapter 32,

his name

was played,

it was a word

played on

the place name

Yabok

which also means

struggle.

Yaakov,

Yabok,

there's a,

it sounds,

it looks very similar.

So Jacob's name

was also played

along with the word,

a different Hebrew word

that also means

struggle or strive.

So the name change

is,

this is what's happening.

So Jacob

is the heel grabber,

right?

He's the deceiver,

he's the usurper,

but now he becomes

Israel,

the rightful heir

to God's

covenantal promises.

His name was

Jacob,

the wrestler,

right?

The,

the struggler,

the striver,

always striving for himself,

grasping to advance himself.

But now,

his name becomes

Israel,

meaning God

will contend for him.

God will strive for him.

And that's a powerful

name change,

and that's God's taking

is the,

and Jacob

and redeeming him,

saying to him,

I will be your God.

Now,

this doesn't mean

from this point on

of Jacob's life,

everything goes smoothly,

and he doesn't struggle

and doesn't experience

any sorrows.

It's,

that's contradicted

just in this,

the rest of chapter 35.

Jacob loses

his beloved wife,

Rachel,

right?

And Rachel

had earlier said

to Jacob,

give me children

or I shall die.

And ironically,

it's in giving birth

to children

that she dies.

But nevertheless,

he who promised

is faithful,

and God's promise

of progeny

continues to be fulfilled.

And God answers,

Rachel's prayer

for another son

by giving her Benjamin.

And then still later

in 35,

22,

Jacob's oldest son,

Reuben,

sleeps with his

father's concubine.

This is not just

a sensual act,

it's a power-grabbing act

because he's assuming

and asserting

authority over his father

by doing that,

right?

And so,

he's trying to assert

his firstborn rights.

Perhaps he was

a little bit afraid

because he's

the firstborn son,

but he's the son

of Leah,

not the son

of the favored wife,

Rachel,

so maybe he thought

he would lose

his firstborn rights,

but it's actually

in his presumption

and sinful act

of sleeping with

his dad's concubine

that he will actually

lose his firstborn's rights.

And in spite of all of this,

through all these

sinful children

and all the division

that they're experiencing

because of Jacob's

sinful polygamous marriage,

God's plans

still go forward.

So Jacob's life

is still full

of brokenness,

suffering,

and grief,

and sorrow,

but God,

who promised,

is faithful,

and we see

that his promises

advance in an

ineluctable way.

The promise

of multitude

of descendants

is being fulfilled,

and Jacob's

final return

to Mamre,

where most

of the promises

that God had made

to Abraham was,

and where Abraham

first got to

own property

in Canaan.

That's, again,

a reminder

of the fact

that God's promises

to Jacob

are being fulfilled,

which is great

for storytelling purposes,

but why do we care?

Why do we care

about Jacob?

Because ultimately,

Jacob is a small,

insignificant man,

right?

His life

is streaked

with sins and sorrows,

and you won't find

any story about him

in our history books

in schools,

so why do we learn

about him?

And the reason

why he figures

prominently here

in the Bible

is because God,

in his sovereign grace,

chose to use

the people

of Israel

to bring forth

Jesus Christ,

who in turn

will save

not just Israel,

but all the nations

by reconciling them

to himself.

It's for that purpose.

So this is not parochial.

This is not

ethnic,

you know,

ethnocentrism.

This is God's plan.

His sovereignly chosen

plan through which

he will bring redemption

to all nations,

and it is that reason

why that Jacob

has to be so concerned

about fidelity

and faithfulness

and preserving

the faith

of his household.

And later,

when Jesus does come,

Paul speaks

about what Jesus did,

and he addresses

Gentiles,

the non-Jews,

in Ephesians 2,

11 to 16.

Therefore,

remember that

at one time

you Gentiles

in the flesh

called the uncircumcision

by what is called

the circumcision,

which is made

in the flesh by hands.

Remember that

you were at that time

separated from Christ,

alienated from

the commonwealth

of Israel,

and strangers

to the covenants

of promise,

having no hope

and without God

in the world.

But now,

in Christ Jesus,

you who once

were far off

have been brought

near by the blood

of Christ,

for he himself

is our peace

who has made us

both one

and has broken

down in his flesh

the dividing wall

of hostility

by reconciling us

both to God

in one body

through the cross.

It's when we truly believe

that Jesus Christ,

the Son of God

and Son of Man,

died for our sins

and rose again

from the dead.

And it's when we,

in that faith

and in accordance

with that faith,

are baptized,

which signifies

our union,

our identification

with the death

and resurrection

of Christ.

That's when we can

be assured of this.

Then we are born again

into the family of God

and into the nation

of spiritual Israel,

the new Israel

which is in Jesus.

Then we no longer

also, like Jacob,

have to contend

for ourselves.

We don't have to

strive for ourselves

to save ourselves.

There are people

I see every week,

right,

and during the week,

I meet believers

all the time

who are striving

so hard

but down on themselves

and plagued by guilt

and giving up

on what it means

to be a Christian in life,

giving up on sanctification

because they're trying

to do it

in their own strength

when the strength

for sanctification,

strength for growth

comes only through

Jesus Christ

and His power.

And it's when we believe that

and when we become Christians,

we no longer have to

contend for ourselves

because God contends for us.

He strives for us.

Jesus earned

our righteousness for us.

And we no longer

have to be our own

saviors and lords.

And then,

like Jacob,

we also receive

a new name.

We are baptized

in the name

of the Father,

Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

And we become Christians

known and called

by the name of Christ,

not by our own name,

no longer living

for ourselves.

We're living in Christ

and for Christ.

Our allegiance

is no longer

to ourselves,

to this world,

or to our race,

or to our ethnicity,

or to our gender,

or to our country,

but to our God

who is faithful

to keep His promises.

And that's what it means

to be a people of God.

I pray all of you

will come to know Him

and have that relationship

with Him.

And if you're not yet

a believer,

not yet a Christian,

then I urge you

to consider

entrusting your life to Him

and getting baptized

in His name.

We're planning on offering

a baptism service

sometime in the fall.

I'll probably

write in the next

couple weeks

a class

as a primer

for people

who are interested

in getting baptized.

If you're having a baptizer,

if you want to know

what the basics

of Christianity is,

what is Christianity

all about,

it would be a great

opportunity to take

advantage of that.

I guess that's not

the way I wanted

to conclude that,

but I think that's

all I have to say.

So let's pray.

God, we are thankful,

just overjoyed

in Your presence,

grateful that we can be here,

that we can be sitting

in Your presence

and not be consumed

by the just wrath

of the Father,

that we can be sitting

in Your presence,

the holy God,

the perfect God,

the eternal God

as just fleeting human

beings,

sinful,

selfish,

prideful.

Yet because

of Jesus,

because of Your grace,

because of the eternal love

that You set on us

from before the foundation

of the world,

we are here

and we love You.

We are grateful for You.

and Lord,

we want to live

in light of that truth.

As people who are called,

not by Your own name,

but by Your name,

we want to live

with exclusive devotion

and allegiance to You.

We want to worship

only You,

O God.

Help us to do that

through Jesus,

by the power of Your Spirit.

It's in Your Son's

precious name we pray,

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.