Deception (Gen. 34:6-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 04-09-2007

 

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  Deception

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Genesis 34:6-24

 

            Message of the verse:  “6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage. 9 “Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 “Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it." 11 Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, "If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. 12 “Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; but give me the girl in marriage." 13 But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 They said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. 15  "Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised, 16  then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. 17 “But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go."

    18  Now their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 The young man did not delay to do the thing, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father. 20  So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21  "These men are friendly with us; therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage, and give our daughters to them. 22 “Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 “Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us." 24 All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.”

           

            It seems to me that there was great deception on both sides for Jacob’s sons knew that after circumcision that these men would be too weak to fight and would be easy prey and these men thought that after the marriage that they could get all of the wealth that this family had.  Jacob seemed to go along with this idea, not knowing what his son’s planed to do, however it would have been better to just battle them after Shechem had done this thing to Jacob’s daughter. 

 

            I have to believe that this was a ploy set up by Satan in order to mix the children of Israel with those heathens in the land, and therefore they would not be able to have the Messiah come through their family.

           

            This is the kind of thing done by these types of people and this is one of the reasons that God was raising up a people who would follow Him, and then to bring the Promised One into the world.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Deception is not something that I should ever do, especially I should not try and do this to God, for that would be impossible to do any way.  I need to be honest in all of my doings and live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

 

The Word of God has been convicting to my heart as I read and studied it this morning, along with being a great challenge to me too.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Today is a day that is nerve wracking to me as I have to go to school in order to be able to work at this mine, a job site that Tim’s company is working on, and so I want to trust the Lord and ask Him to guide me and keep me in His hands as I go to this school.