God's People, a Blessing

How do we know the will of God and follow it in our decision making? This is an important question for all Christians to ask. How can we know the will of God when we are making important decisions? Many books have been written on this because everyone wants to know, how can I know that I'm doing exactly what God would want me to do? This question pops up when we're looking to move, find new employment, find a spouse, care for our children. It's an important question, but the question I really want to focus on more and reflect upon today is how does our decision making process reflect a trust in God and a love for God? How does our decision making process reflect a trust in God and a love for God? This morning, we're going to look at a number of different decisions we make. We're going to look at the decisions that we make in terms of maybe choosing where we live, choosing how to raise our children, choosing how to respond to wrongdoing and how we trust God. How do we make decisions to trust God? The message this morning is simple. It's the good news that we've heard over and over again. If you've been with us in the Genesis series, the message is simple. God is faithful to His unfaithful people. Now, if you've been with us for a while, you've heard that before. Probably ten times as the main message. Well, God's Word is redundant because God's people are oftentimes hard of hearing. God is faithful to His unfaithful people. Israel's sons are going to exercise a great wickedness. And they're going to take wickedness to a whole other level. And as we see the greatness of God's people of their sin, rise. We're going to have an opportunity to see how much stronger His love is for them and His commitment is to them. Now, I need to give a warning. This is not a PG-rated sermon because it's not a PG-rated text. I doubt HBO could actually do this scene in the different events we're going to read about on their own network. It's gross. It's hard. It's something that is as bad if not worse than what we saw in Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's even worse because Sodom and Gomorrah, they weren't God's people. Here we're going to see actions taken by the people of God that are worse or as bad as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. We see God's people acting cruelly and viciously. We're going to be looking at Genesis 34 primarily. We will be looking at Genesis 35. And as we look at these cruel acts, as we look at this vile behavior, as we look at rape and murder and genocide, we need to have a rule always in our mind as we read the Old Testament. And it comes from 1 Corinthians 10, especially verse 6. And it's something we actually saw in Jonathan Edwards' resolutions. But the rule from Paul says this, these things were done so that we would not desire evil as they did. As we look at these despicable acts, we can in our self-righteousness quickly judge them and put them down and make ourselves feel so much more superior because we would never do these things. That's not the way we're supposed to read them. We're supposed to read them thinking about how we are as sinful as they are. How we are as capable of evil. as they are. So, as we look at these texts, as we look at these events, as we look at this wickedness, that is gross. We need to always be mindful of what Paul has directed us in 1 Corinthians 10. These things are examples for us so that we do not desire evil as they do. The idea there being is that our hearts are as wicked as theirs. So, let's take this opportunity to reflect upon our own sin. Let the Spirit reveal His truth to us as we think about this sin. Chapter 34, again, this would have a hard rating if we were to ever put these things on screen. Be warned. Our first point is this. We should be afraid of being in the wrong place. We should be afraid of being in the wrong place. This comes from chapter 34, verses 1 through 4. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And 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. And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this girl for my wife. Now, we look at this, we see, first of all, there's the daughter of Jacob. She is too curious. If we look actually ahead in chapter 33 of Genesis, we see that Jacob has bought land from the Shechemites. He set up camp right outside of the city. He's supposed to be going from Padan Haram, the place of his kinfolk, to the place of his family, the place of his great uncle, and now his father-in-law Laban, to the place of his family where God has revealed himself. And the first thing we see that he's actually in the wrong place. This says something about where we move and where we live. Jacob has settled himself right outside of the city, buying land there. It really reminds us a bit of Lot. Lot decided he wanted to live outside of the city. And whenever you get close to the city, you're in danger in the Old Testament. The city is a place of corruption. And we don't know why Jacob doesn't keep going to Bethel. That's where God obviously wants him. We'll see that in chapter 35. We don't know why. Maybe it's because he's afraid of being too close to Esau. They've made their peace, but he's still somewhat suspicious of his brother who's able to destroy him if he wants to. Maybe he's fearful of the wilderness. Shechem provided certain securities and comforts. Maybe he's afraid of going back out into the wilderness of Canaan. Maybe he just likes the pleasures of the city. We don't know. But as we look at this, he's made a clear decision as to where he's lived. And we know that the motivation for that choice is not a love for God. That's the one thing we know we can conclude. He is not following God. He has decided to set up camp. where God has told him not to. This helps us, I think, maybe reflect on how do we make some of the most important decisions? Let's actually just take the one where we live. Is money our primary motivator? Do you love money more than God? And one of the ways you can ask that question is are you willing to move for a vocation rather than being willing to move so that you can be part of a healthy church? Many of us will move because we have a vocational change. And you may say, well, I'll just find a church once I get there. But friends, you're putting you and your family in great danger to say, I'm going to move somewhere because the money is there. We're not knowing the Word of God is there. We're not knowing that you're going to be able to place with other saints and other believers that the Word of God is preached faithfully. And you and your children and your wife will be built up in godliness. So, one test, whenever we're making decisions, is it because the money is there, or because the Word of God is there? Maybe it's we love experience more than God. Is experience our primary motivator? Maybe it's because we need something new, rather than the same old thing you've been experiencing for a while. You get antsy. And instead of finding out where the Word of God may be preached more boldly and more faithfully, you just try to find a new, fun experience. Is God our primary motivator? Now obviously, you don't want to move where you can't make money for your family. You don't make a decision to move somewhere where you know you can't provide. But I want to stress the importance of making sure when you make life decisions, you're thinking about how the Word of God, how the power of God is going to be effective in your life. We need to make sure we are choosing according to God's Word. And God doesn't direct us in the same exact way He directs Jacob or Israel. He's going to tell him exactly where to go. He's going to say, go to Bethel. We don't get that kind of exact wording usually. God allows us to make wise decisions and the wise decision longs to love God in the way we make that decision. More so in relation to our text, we see Dinah going into the city. She wants to go out and look at what the women of the city are doing. Now, we don't know exactly what this is, but she's probably between the ages of 12 and 18, what we would call adolescence. She's a young woman and she has curiosity. She goes into the city. She wants to see what the women are doing. And all of a sudden, the prince sees her, takes her and humiliates her. What we see here is a daughter who is following temptation rather than Godly instruction. Now, one of the things that's really absent here and a lot we're going to talk about is what's missing in the text. What's missing in the text is Jacob, her father. What is her father doing here? He is responsible for her. Why is he letting her go into the city? Why is he not watching her? Has he warned her and she's just throwing his warning off? As we see, there's a lot of bad going on here. Yes, the rape of Dinah. by Shechem is despicable. It's wrong. He is culpable for that action, but Dinah is culpable for pursuing her temptation. Dinah is not innocent here. She's innocent in terms of the sexual relationship, but she's not innocent in the sense that she's pursuing temptation at some level. She is not where God would have her. As we think about her culpability and pursuing temptation, we also have to think about her father's lack of responsibility or his lack of being responsible. He's supposed to be watching over his daughter. He's supposed to be caring for his daughter. But here he has, we don't know why, not care for her well. As parents, we are supposed to be responsible for our children. That does not mean we're culpable. We are held accountable. We're not culpable for every sin they commit, but we are held accountable for how we care for them. We are held responsible for their decisions. So as parents, we need to be watching what our children see, what our children hear, where our children go and how they behave. We need to take on this high calling, this high responsibility and persevere in the hard work of being watchful overseers of our children. Now, children, you're going to miss out on some things in your own mind. One of our deacons, he recently went to a swimming hole and they hiked in and while they were there, as soon as they got there, they realized there was a bunch of drunk college students saying things and acting in a certain way that he didn't want his children to be exposed to. So he had to make his children leave that place without jumping in the water. They had hiked in, they were excited, they wanted to go swimming, but the father wanted to protect his children from the other things going on. The children missed out. But they really won because their purity was protected. You see, swimming versus purity, that's an obvious choice for a father. You protect their purity. You can swim another time or another place. Fathers, our responsibility is oftentimes inconvenient. It's uncomfortable. You've got to make your children unhappy sometimes because they're so committed to doing what they want to do. They're so committed to going swimming instead of protecting their purity. They might fight and kick and scream and cry against you. That is your responsibility. The same way they fight and kick and scream against you, the same way we fight and kick and scream against God when he's calling us to be obedient. But God doesn't stop pursuing us. God doesn't stop being responsible for us. So, if you look at this text, we see 1. Children, protect yourselves. Do not forsake your parents' instruction like Dinah does. Do not let your temptation overcome you so that you go where you should not be. And parents, let us be ever watchful because of the great danger that lurks, seeking to destroy our children's purity. The second thing we'll see today, verses 5 through 17. We should be fearful of the murder that lies in our own hearts. Verses 5-17, we should be fearful of the murder that lies in our own hearts. Starting in verse 5, Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, and his sons were with his livestock in the field. So Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. 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." Now, I'm going to pause there just as a side comment. If you want to see a parallel account of this, where it's actually Israel doing this inside of its own camp, 2 Samuel 17. A son of David rapes The daughter of David. The difference is, instead of pursuing her for marriage, the son of David hates her afterwards. It's an interesting parallel because the language is extremely similar. These things must not be done. It's repeated in that story to make you remember this story. Continuing on, verse 8. But Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take your daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it. Shechemeth also said to her father and to her brothers, let me find favor in your eye. Whatever you say to me, I will give. Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 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. 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." Here we see the son, the prince of Shechem. His name is Shechem. He comes to his father and says, give me the girl, which is different from the Israelites version, which is actually worse. The men of Shechem are following their custom. They're actually acting nobly according to custom, not according to God's word or God's way, but they're acting nobly. He loves her and he now wants to marry her. She's been defiled. She's unmarriable to any other man. So he says, I love her. I want to marry her. He shouldn't have taken her in this way, but he's doing the best situation now, the best possible decision now. It's interesting. that they come and they're acting nobly according to their custom and they're doing the best possible thing. Also notice in verse five and seven, that's the pagans doing the most noble thing here. Verse five and seven, Jacob is contrasted with the sons. Verse five, Jacob held his peace about the affair. Verse seven reveals that when the sons come up, they are indignant and very angry because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter. Now, we don't know if this is Jacob being lazy or this is Jacob actually being wise and noble. One of the things we can see here is we're going to look to this oath that's going to be made. The oath that has already been interpreted for us as deceitful. Israel is going to make an oath with his people. Now, when you made an oath in the ancient Near Eastern world, you made the oath in the name of a God. You made the oath as a certain God's people. The people around knew this was the Yahweh's. Jacob and his children, they were known as the Yahweh's. They followed Yahweh. And the other nations, the other tribes, they would follow a different God. And so, when they're making an oath, they're representing God. God has chosen this specific people to represent him. There's a corporate identity going on. It's kind of like when you say, I'm from Boston. Oh, you're a Red Sox or I'm from South Carolina. And you want to know, are you a Gamecock or a Tiger? Neither one really good options. You have a corporate identity going on and there's something, there's a greater power that represents you and that you represent. Point is, God's reputation is tied to these people. God's fame and His glory among the nations has been bound to this specific people who are supposed to be a blessing to all the nations. All the nations are supposed to look into Israel and say, these people are God's people. The one true God. Look at the way they live. They're moral. They follow God's instructions. Everything's orderly. Instead of being a blessing here, though, Israel's a curse. Instead of the nations looking at Israel and seeing orderliness and morality, they see murder. They see lies. They see deception. Israel as a nation is a failure. Israel as a nation has not represented God. That's why God Himself, the Father, had to send His Son to be the perfect reflection of God. Jesus Christ has replaced the nation of Israel. It's as clear as Matthew 2. Matthew 2 quotes Hosea 11, I have called my son out of Egypt. Israel as a nation is supposed to be reflecting the Father as a son. But they never did. They were always corrupt. They were always sinful. They were always murdering and lying. And so God said, I'm going to send my own son. And so when Philip asked Jesus, show us a father, He just says, I. I'm the Son, and when you see Me, you see the Father. I don't teach anything that I have not already heard from the Father. I only teach the things the Father has given Me. I do nothing I see the Father doing. Not doing. I only do the things the Father is doing. The Son comes and He's successful. The Son comes and He preaches a true word as the Son of God rather than the lies of Israel. The question there that really should cause us to reflect How do we reflect Christ? We're Christians. We're little Christ. That's our name. We're the body of Christ. He's the head. We're the body. How do we reflect the head? How do our actions, how do our words reflect the one who became a curse for us, died for us and rose again to give us life? We're going to continue to think about this horrible action of Israel. And our third point, we are called to be a blessing to the nations. We are called to be a blessing to the nations. Let's look at verses 18-31. Their words pleased Hamor, and Hamor's son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. Now, he was the most honored of all his father's house, So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, These men are at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people, when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property, and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of the city listened to Hamor, and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of the city." On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, died as brothers. took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with a sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, whatever was in the city and the field. All their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the house, they captured and plundered. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 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. But they said, should he treat our sister like a prostitute? Notice what's happening here. Verse 19, Hamor and Shechem, they're honored in the city. They're trusted men, so they're going to go make promises based upon the promises of Israel. You have these trusted honorable men making promises that are lies because the sons of Israel are acting deceitful. They are without honor. You see the different people groups. The pagans are actually more honorable than Israel. We also see the Hivites, they are seeking for peace. Verse 21, these men are at peace with us. The pagans are pursuing peace. God's people are plotting murder. Let's go back to that concept of deception here. Verse 13, the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully. Now, they're sons of Jacob. We're using his old name here. The sons of the ankle grabber, the sons of one of the best deceivers this world has ever known. His sons, they're showing that they reflect their father. His sons, they act deceitfully. We have a great author's interpretation of what's going to be taking place here. They are plotting to kill. They have vengeance in their hearts. Now, let's look at the different ways that deception has been used thus far. Abraham used deception in Genesis 12, Isaac in Genesis 26. When they went into another city and their lives were in danger, they used deception. They lied out of a concern for self-maintenance. They wanted to keep themselves alive. Here, it's a different deception. It's a different purpose. They're lying so they can kill everybody. They're not lying to protect themselves. They're lying to kill an entire city. This is not eye for an eye. This is genocide. This isn't trying to equate the one sin against Dinah with another sin. This is trying to wipe out an entire people group. This is Israel killing every man of Shechem. It's genocide. Now, as we look at the text, we're disgusted by the rape of Dinah. But what you're supposed to be disgusted by even more is the rape of Shechem. That's the emphasis of the whole story. The whole point of the story is to make us disgusted with how Shechem was raped by Israel. And it's very explicit. The word in Hebrew that kind of softens the rape is, he took her. He took her. Well, if we look at verse 26, if we're to translate this out, it actually says, they took their swords and killed them. Look at verse 28 and 29. They took their wives and their children. They took everything from Shechem. It's not eye for an eye. It's Israel responding to one sin with absolute genocide, absolute murder, and raping an entire city. This is gross. This is absolute betrayal, absolute vengeance, absolute murder, absolutely disgusting. Now, they told the men, we can't intermarry with you until you're circumcised. That's a half truth. That was a true rule. These men were supposed to be circumcised if they wanted to intermarry. But the reason they were supposed to be circumcised is because they believed in Yahweh. Israel was supposed to be evangelizing the nations. Israel was supposed to convince them that Yahweh was the one true God. And then they will be circumcised because they will become God fears. Here, they've used that rule in a corrupt way and said, all you got to do is be circumcised and then we can intermarry with you. They left out God altogether. They left out the call to believe in the one true God altogether. What's worse is they take the covenant sign that God gave to secure as a symbol the covenant promises, and they use that as a curse. They had all the men circumcised so that on the third day, when the pain was the worst, they could go in and kill a city that wouldn't fight against them. Now, think about how gross that is. They're taking the promise of God and using it as a curse against the nations. Circumcision was supposed to be a wonderful sign of the covenant blessings God gave his people, and they're using it as an instrument of war, of genocide and of rape. This is kind of like a con artist finding a rich widow, wooing her so he can rob her blonde. It's using love, one of the great instruments God's given us, as a means to an evil end. Let's contextualize this parallel. It's like us finding someone we hate, convincing them to be a Christian, so when we baptize them, we drown them. That's the parallel equivalent. It's the same sign. The baptism is a sign of the covenant. It would be like us drowning someone that we hate. It would be like us poisoning the Lord's Supper. It is not. But it's taking the promises. It's taking those symbols that we love. It's taking those symbols that are supposed to remind us of God's love for us. It's taking the symbols that mean so much to us. and carrying people with them. It's supposed to disgust us because it's perverting the salvation of God. It's perverting the fame and the glory of God. Now, I hope you don't like these people by now. This is disgusting. But as I've said before, we need to make sure we do not just stand over them and judge them. We need to think about how we are reflected by them. How we identify with them. Following Paul's correction and instruction in 1 Corinthians 10, how do we respond to those who injure us? How do we respond to those who hurt us and our loved ones? How do we respond to wrongdoing? Do we respond like the sons of Israel with murder and anger? Do we respond like our Savior has modeled and taught us to? You see, we are going to respond, I hope, to less injurious sins, to less damaging sins. How are we going to respond? The basic rule that we need to think about as we are called to be a blessing to the nations is that it is going to mean we must deny ourselves. If we're going to be a blessing to the nations the way God has called us to be a blessing, we must deny ourselves. We must deny ourselves what we think is a righteous anger at times. We must deny ourselves winning a fight. We must deny ourselves what we think is our right to always have peace, to always be thought of well, to always have words said about us that are nice. You see, as we are Christians, I think we need to focus on how can we just be a blessing to one another? We shouldn't even think about being a blessing to the nations that do not know Christ if we can't be a blessing to one another. As Christians, we are called to be gracious and allow others to win. This is most easily and clearly explained in Philippians 2. Paul says, have the same mind that is in Christ. He saw others' needs as more important than his own. He saw others in themselves as more important than himself. He's God Almighty. And he's considered us, those who are rebelling against him, more important than himself. We must be willing to endure hardship. We must be willing to not lash out in violence. We must not be willing to use our tongues to destroy others who hurt us. That's our natural impulse. When someone says something that is hurtful to us, our initial response is, what can I say? What has been lingering in my heart and in my mind for so long that I can lash out and give them the same pain? No, we must deny that temptation. We must deny ourselves the desire wanting to justify ourselves. Jesus instructs us that we are to turn the other cheek, that we respond to hatred with love. What a high calling. Paul calls us to overcome evil with good in Romans 12.21. Let's reflect on 1 Peter 3.8. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. But on the contrary, blessed, for to this you were called, that you may be a blessing." Now, there's something interesting taking place right here. It's not our nature to bless when we're being cursed. It's our calling. That's why it's so confusing at times. It's in our sinful nature to curse when someone curses us. To revile when reviled. But we're called. by God to be a blessing when we are being cursed. We're called to show grace and forgiveness. We're called to kill that anger and the murder that's in our hearts and seek to bless and love. Here, 1 Peter 2, beginning in verse 21. Peter again. reflecting upon Christ himself. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges Justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." Peter's instruction to not revile when being reviled, to blast when you're being cursed, it's all based upon Christ. It's all found in the Gospel. It's all found in who Christ is and what He's done. He's our model. He's our example. He's our Savior. In Christ, we see God is sure to punish sin justly. There's no way to respond to sin properly unless you believe in the Gospel. The only way to properly respond to sin the way Christ tells us to is if we truly believe in the Gospel and that God has punish sin, and that he will ultimately punish sin. You see, when we're sinned against, we think that sin has to have justification. I must be just and punish it. Well, no, friend, if we believe in Jesus Christ, we know that God will always punish sin. If we're going to take up our own battle, we know God is our great defender. He is the one who will take up that battle. Think about 1 Peter 3, 9. This is our calling and this is our blessing if we wait and trust God. Secondly, first we saw that in Christ we see God is sure to punish sin justly. Secondly, in Christ we see that we do not get what we deserve and that God will punish all sin perfectly and completely. In Christ, we say we do not receive the punishment we deserve. In Christ, we do not get what we deserve. So why should we be the ones that think everyone else needs to get what they deserve? Again, it's a matter of trusting God. It's a changing of our disposition, our perspective. It's a changing of knowing that the gospel is true and it changes everything. Because of Christ, we trust God and become more concerned about Christ's reputation and His being the champion, not our reputation and us winning. We are called to desire Christ's reputation above our own. We are called to want to make sure Christ is represented. And the best way we can represent Christ is by loving others, is by forgiving sins, is by not returning a curse with a curse, but returning a curse with a blessing. It's by actually suffering. It's by not letting that word of hatred come off your tongue, but keeping it down. That word that is so powerful and wants to bubble forth. By the power of the Spirit, we must trust God that He is able to give us the strength to not say the things that come from our sinful heart. So the main thing about this is, we can only do this if we really believe in the Gospel. If we don't believe in the Gospel, we're going to try to protect our name. If we believe in the gospel, we're going to respond with a curse, with a curse. We're going to respond to a curse with a curse. To believe in the gospel, we know that Christ is our curse and we receive every blessing. If we believe in the gospel, we know that the truth of God needs to be declared. And the truth of God is that sinners do not have to be punished for their sin. So the only way we can actually obey the command to not respond like the sons of Israel, murder for murder, or rather a rape for a raping of an entire city, is believe in the gospel. Really, we should consider this a test. Do you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ? And if so, how does that change your language, your tone, and your message when other people wrong you? What bubbles forth from your heart and out of your mouth when other people sin against you? That's a test. Has the gospel truly taken over your entire person? Has Jesus Christ become your Lord and master? We can only obey the high calling of Christ to respond to cursing with blessing if we believe in the gospel. Because of Christ, we should no longer protect our reputation as we should only protect our reputation as much as it relates to Christ. We should want a good reputation, but that's so when people talk about us, we can talk about our Savior. If we're concerned about Christ's reputation, we will have a good reputation. But it's not one that's longing for our boasting, it's one that boasts only in Christ. Because of Christ, we should long to protect the weak and indefensible. That's what he did for us. We were too weak to overcome sin. We were too weak to overcome death. We were too weak to help ourselves. So Christ came to help us. We can reflect God's ministry by helping those who are weak and indefensible. One way of doing that is sharing the gospel. Tell them how they can become children of God instead of children of wrath. Another way to protect the unborn fetus. The weak and indefensible. Protect the child being abused. Protect the woman being physically and emotionally abused. Protect the man who is being verbally abused. We need to look and see those who are weak and indefensible. And like Christ protects us, we should seek to protect them. Now, that means it's going to be inconvenient. Following God is always inconvenient because you have to deny yourself. You have to put yourself in an awkward place and you have to proactively seek out and care for others. That's the same kind of love and care we received from the Father. He had to proactively and difficultly seek us. Because of Christ, we must endure for the prize. If you want to participate in Christ's glory, as Romans 8 says, we must look to participate in His sufferings. Now, there's lots of monasteries. There's lots of different groups that have tried to go out and force themselves to suffer in odd ways. One group that I love is they don't sleep with pillows. It's a way of suffering. They deny themselves that luxury. I don't know if we need to go out and make odd ways of suffering. I think there's ways of suffering within our own relationships. Without going to a monastery, let's seek how we can suffer here together. Because this is the real truth about us. We're all sinners. We're all going to offend one another. And the way you suffer together is by not responding when someone sins against you with sin. Respond to someone with love and peace. Hold your tongue. Let someone else win. If we want to share in Christ's glory, we have to share in His suffering. And I think one of the greatest ways we can endure and suffer is by keeping ourselves from saying those things that seem near impossible. Those uncontrollable curses against those we love. Christ said nothing when the men were beating Him. It wasn't only whenever the Father Himself poured out His wrath that Christ cried out, My Father, My Father, why have you forsaken Me? We should remain silent as Christ remained silent when being cursed. As we conclude the rape of Shechem, it is interesting that the response is different. Jacob says at the end, he's not upset that Dinah gets raped. He holds his peace. But whenever there's no peace for his own home, He said something. Now everyone's going to hate us and kill us. We're not sure if this reveals his selfishness. He wants kind of the luxuries of life. Maybe that's why he's not watching Dinah. He's too busy being casual on holiday. We're not really sure, but the sons, they're bent on justice. We had to, Father. Now, there's no hero in the story. There's not a single good person. There's a rapist. A daughter who's where she shouldn't be, a father who's not watching his children, and sons who murder. There's no one good. There's no hero. There's no one righteous. No, not one. There's also no mention of God. It's interesting, this story. It seems like this is where God should step in and say, no, you can't use the covenant like this. Where is God in this story? He's eerily silent. He's letting His children run amok. His name is being defiled because of His children. What do we see here with God? Well, one, I think we see His permissive will. He's not inactive here. He knows what's going on. He's in control of what's going on. What we really see here is God's permissive will. He's not stopping them. He's letting them be as they will be. Sinners will sin. Apart from God changing us and stopping us, sinners will sin. For as we think about this passage, I think what you think about it is how deep the sin goes, how gross the sin is, because the farther we understand our own sin going, the farther we recognize God's love. It's not until we understand how bad our sin is that we can understand how great God's love is. What we really see here about God is He is faithful because He doesn't reject His people because of this. He remains steadfast. What's amazing about this story is that God remains Israel's God. God doesn't stop being Israel's God. He still loves them. He's still steadfast to them. I want to ask why? Why not just start over? It's because God never loved us because of who we are. He loved us because He loved us. God never loved us because He knew we'd be obedient. He loved us so that we could have a new life. Friends, sin is scary. Coming face to face and in grips with who we really are and what we're capable of, we don't like to think about it. But knowing how deep the sin goes allows us to see how deep God's love goes. The more we see how great sin is and how greatly offensive it is, the more we see the power of Christ. When we are lowly, He is high. What's amazing here is that God's love remains. My challenge is to not hide from the sin that's within. Don't try to keep it from a distance. Do not try to hide it. Being in self-denial about how sinful we really are. Come face to face with your sin. And know that through seeing how great our sin is, we will see how great God's love for us is. I want to conclude with the last part of Genesis 35. Because this is where God gives his clear direction that takes us to the gospel fairly explicitly. Our fourth point, remember the God who saved you and is with you. Verse 1 through 8, God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, make an altar there to God who appeared to you. When you fled from your brother Esau, so Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments, and then let us arise and go up to Bethel. So that I may make there an altar to the God who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me wherever I have gone. 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 terebinth tree that was near Shechem. And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel. which is in the land of Canaan. He and all the people who were with him. And there he built an altar and called the place El-Hethel. Because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. And she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Elan-Bakuth. Now that last verse, it really stands out as somewhat interesting. We never hear a memorial for Rebekah. the deceptive wife of Isaac. She gets no memorial. Here, her servant gets a memorial. Apparently, a beloved servant in the house. But Rebecca doesn't. Just an observation of silence there. She's mentioned in the very end of Genesis. But she gets no memorial at her grave. If we look here, Jacob has... God's word comes in very decisively. God does respond to all this sin and he corrects and protects his people. God says, arise, get up, dwell in Bethel, build an altar. There's four clear commands. God's Word comes in and fixes the situation. The same God who declared the all of creation into being with His Word, the God who gave great promises from the very beginning, He now gives instruction. Arise, get up. Arise, go up, settle and build. He's going to Bethel, which is a comforting place. Bethel is where the ladder came down. Bethel is where God first appeared to Jacob and converted him. Jacob responds to God's word by leading his family well. He has three commands in response. Cast out your idols. Purify yourselves. Change your clothes. Now he needs to purify his home. Rachel brought idols down and it wasn't clear if Jacob knew about it, but now we know Jacob knows about the idolatry going on. He's cast these idols out. He's cleansing his home. He's getting rid of the foreign gods that have been plaguing his household. We wonder if Jacob himself had been flirting and being tempted with these idols. He says, purify yourselves. Change your clothes. Well, it could be that these clothes need changing from the murder. It could be that these clothes need changing as just a symbol of a new lifestyle, a new way of living. They need to purify themselves so that when they worship God, they worshiped him with pure hearts and clean hands. Let me finish quickly with our last word from God. And God said to him, verse nine, God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Badan Haram and blessed him. And God just said to him, Your name is Jacob. No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel, and God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. I will give the land to your offspring after you. Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of that place where God spoke with him, Bethel. Here we see God coming and giving the very explicit covenant promises. You will be a nation. You'll be a people. Kings will come from you. He changes his name. He reminds them, you know, your name's Deception, right? Again, we have the we actually have the reoccurrence of the name change. The deception cost Jacob greatly. And here God gives them a new name and a new identity. What I really want to focus here is that these promises, well, they all find their yes and their amen in Christ. Particularly here, that promise that there will be a king that comes from his own body. There will be kings that come from his own body, but we're really looking for that one king still. We're still looking for that one promised child. Genesis 3.15, God says there will be an offspring. There will be a child that will reverse the curse. There will be a child who will destroy sin and death. And we were longing for that child. And every time we get to a new patriarch, we see Abraham start so lowly and so unfaithful. And we finally get to where he's a faithful godly man on Mount Moriah. Then we've got to start all over again. And every child starts out so poorly. And every child of Israel is a sinner, a murderer. We keep wondering, who is this child going to be? And these promises are reminders that God is going to keep His promise. There will be offspring. There will be the one offspring. And it will be the one true Son of God, the one true King of Israel, Jesus Christ. He will reign in righteousness. He will come down and He will bring righteousness. And He'll bring it by taking on our unrighteousness. The one King of Israel will die on the cross for sinners. He will die a death he doesn't deserve. The one true Christ, the one true son, the one true king, he died a death he didn't deserve. He died for our sins so that we believe in him. Our sins are forgiven. Our curse is removed. And then he rose again to life so that we believe in him. We have hope. We get eternal life. We receive God's love. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our great God, we love You because You have first loved us. Our sin is deep, Lord. It's deeper than we'll ever even know. Our sin runs deep into our hearts in a way that we will never understand, but You see it as it is. In all of its offensiveness, in all of its ugliness, and yet, You love us still. Help us, Lord, to see How deep our sin goes. Not so that we're entertained by it or mesmerized by it, but so we can see how deep your love goes. We can see that your love truly is as far as the East is from the West. Help us, Lord, to see our sin, to see it in the light of your glory and your love, and to hate it. Help us, Lord, to see you as our one Savior and to love you. In your name I pray, Amen.