Compromise, Consequence, & Commitment

If you would, take the scriptures today and turn to Genesis chapter 33. Genesis chapter 33, I'll begin reading in verse 18 and read to the end of chapter 34. Genesis chapter 33, verse 18. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan Aram, and he camped before the city. And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he brought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.

There he erected an altar and called it El Elohei Yisrael. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born 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 this girl for my wife. 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. And Hamar 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.

But Hamer 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 our 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.

Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes and 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. Sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamar 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. Their words pleased Hamar and Hamar'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 Hamar 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 Hamar and his son Shechem. And every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.

They killed Hamar and his son Shechem with the 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 and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in their houses they captured and plundered.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You 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? Let's pray. Father, we come to this passage now and ask that you would help us to see what you would have us to see and to learn and to change as we see what you have communicated to us here.

Help us to that end, we pray, for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. What in the world is this whole sorry, sorry episode of Dinah and the Shechemites doing in the Bible? I mean, if you're reading the scriptures to find inspiring and uplifting stories, this chapter is not what you're looking for. Perhaps that's why we don't hear many sermons on it. And surely this passage will never be in daily bread.

You certainly will not find this in any children storybook Bible And if you happen to come across it as part of your Bible reading for your personal devotions you will probably say, oh my goodness, and go to another chapter to find something else to read. This is not exactly a what would Jesus do kind of a passage, is it? This is a hard one. And yet, God intends to equip you to live for him with this passage or it would not have been included in the scripture.

I am absolutely convinced after spending time in this passage, I am again absolutely convinced that God wants to talk about your faith again and the faithfulness of God. I cannot escape that conclusion I want to be careful when I'm reading this book not to force it to say what I think it says but the more I spend time in this book and in particular this chapter I am again, I must conclude and I think you must too that this has to do with faith and again, God's faithfulness and all of it all of it here is a story about compromised faith, the consequences that follow, and the commitment of God to his gracious purposes. It's to warn you about compromising your faith, to help you guard your faith against diluting influences, the things that would dilute your faith.

So let's dig down into the riches of this passage to see what God has for you. The first is this, beware of compromising your faith. Beware of compromising your faith. That's what we see at the last part of chapter 33, verses 18 through 20. Now Jacob is and continues to be a man of faith. Just as his grandpa Abraham had done at Shechem, he also erects an altar there and calls it El Elohei Yisrael, which means God, the God of Israel.

My God is essentially what he's saying. My God is the true God. He has not forgotten about his God or the blessings and protection he lavished on him while he was with his uncle Laban. He has not forgotten the wrestling match with God or reconciliation with his brother. He has not forgotten any of that. So at this point, we expect a happy ending for the prodigal son who's come home. right?

That's what you'd expect. We expect to read stories of the good times now that he has with his older brother. We expect a happy ending with Jacob enjoying his worship of God and enjoying his family as they all worship God together. But the story takes an unexpected downward twist of rape and vengeance and injustice and violence. What in the world has happened here?

What is going on? How did we get to this point? Well, I think simply put, Jacob has compromised his faith. He's compromised his faith. He is still a man of faith, but a man of compromised, diluted faith. first of all he did not follow up his vow that he made to god at bethel to return there and build a house for god you remember in the previous chapter you know i've looked at it several times this week chapter 28 you remember where as he's fleeing his brother god meets him god takes the initiative God graciously comes to Jacob and Jacob makes a vow and says, I will return here and build the house of God.

And you remember that when he left Laban, God commanded him to go back to Bethel. now it has been about a decade if you if you put the time sequences together and we won't take the time to do that if you do that you will see that it's been about a decade it's been about 10 years since he's left Laban and in that time he's gained a great amount of wealth through his livestock at the place called Sukkoth. But instead of returning to Bethel, he disobeys. He doesn't return to Bethel.

It's ten years. Bethel is a day's journey away. He hasn't gone back there yet. He has disobeyed God. He has not kept his vow. And instead of returning to Bethel, he disobeys and he loses the opportunity to see God provide for him just he had done in all those years with Laban.

If he had gone back to Bethel, he says, well, what am I going to do if I go back to Bethel? What do I do? What am I going to do with my livestock? Sukkoth is open, wide, spacious places. I can build places for my livestock here. Why do I want to go there?

You see, he lost the opportunity to see God provide. His lack of obedience dilutes his faith. Not only that, he compromises his faith by pursuing the good life. Having gained wealth at Sukkot, he moves to Shechem, which offers him greater possibilities for trade and business. This affords him greater opportunity to ease, to prosperity, to power. and like Lot, you remember Lot?

Like Lot he sees the prosperity of that city and like Lot he goes and pitches his tent on the outskirts of that prosperous but wicked city He buys a piece of property now. Not a burial ground like Grandpa Abraham. He actually buys a piece of property. If you want influence and power, you've got to buy property. You've got to be part of that land. You've got to have some stake in it. that's what Jacob does when he settles down at Shechem.

Having spent, we don't know how many years in Sukkot, and then all this time at Shechem, it's all adding up to ten years of not obeying his vow. Now, here's my question. Do you see how your faith can be compromised? Can you see how your faith can be compromised? That is to say, it does not happen necessarily by saying, it costs me too much to follow Jesus.

I have to compromise by lying and cheating or I won't be able to make a decent living. Alright? That's what we tend to think. We say compromise our faith. Here's what we tend to think. I'm going to do something bad.

I'm going to do bad things. I'm going to lie and I'm going to cheat because I don't see how I can make it on my income. So if I lie and cheat a little bit on my income tax, if I compromise here, then I'll make it. And that's how we think, but that's not what happens here. It happens even as you still exercise faith, just like Jacob. It happens as you add the pursuit of prosperity and comfort and power to your faith.

You compromise, not by denying your faith, but adding to it. Now here at the church here where I work, right, I eat lunch here. And oftentimes I open up my food drawer in my filing cabinet. And I grab a can of Campbell's Chunky Sirloin Burger Soup. Got it? And I go to the back and I dump it out and I put it in the microwave and all that sort of thing.

I know that that one can of soup will give me one bowl. They say it's two servings, but it only gives you one bowl. Okay? Gives you one bowl. Now, I know that I could get two bowls of soup if I wanted to. You know how I could do it?

Add water. Question. Am I going to have more soup or less? Sometimes you get less by adding more. I might get some watery stuff with these little burgers floating in it. But it's not going to be really soup.

See, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You dilute your faith. You compromise your faith by adding. By adding. you can continue to believe but you add those pursuits and you dilute and compromise your faith what are you adding to your faith entertainment okay that's first on my list you know why that's where i struggle i love movies i love watching stuff, right?

And what I've noticed is the more I pursue that, oh, I got a few minutes here. Oh, I can do that now. Oh, let's just watch a movie tonight. The more I do it, it's not that I quit believing. It's that my faith gets weaker. I'm not saying you shouldn't.

Entertainment's evil in and of itself. But when you start pursuing those things, what about vacations? What about ease? you know some of you are growing older and I wonder now that you're retired do you see more time to serve God or more time to serve your pleasures how do you see it add on their vacations and trips and all kinds of things what about prosperity prosperity are you really going hard after a big chunk of money so when you retire Right?

Boy, life will be good. What are you pursuing? What are you adding to your faith? What about the power and influence that maybe you have opportunities to pursue? What are you adding to your faith? Jacob was still a man of faith, but a man of diluted, compromised faith.

So we might say, too bad, I guess that means diluted happiness then. I can live with a little less happiness, right? No. It can lead to tragic consequences. Chapter 34. We have a tendency to say, and I want to tell you, this like hit me full bore yesterday. we have a tendency to say well if I add some of these things a little bit of ease a little more money if I pursue a little more money my faith may be diluted but I'll be a little less happy.

No! There can be incredibly tragic consequences to that. So what we see in chapter 34 then is to see that compromised faith can lead to tragic consequences. Not just a little bit of problem here and there, but absolute horrible tragic consequences Jacob has moved into close proximity with the sensuous immoral perverted Canaanites Again I know I said this about a hundred times but I say it again because not all of you have been here for all the hundred times I said it before But when you go on archaeological digs in the Middle East, the stuff they dig up is like digging up clay playboys and clay pottery with images on it that are absolutely disgusting. the people of that part of the world were unbelievably perverse even to the point even to the point they were so perverse they got to the point of heating up the hands of their god Moloch until they were red hot and putting babies on that and sacrificing them to Moloch that's how perverted these people had become and Jacob has chosen to go live near this kind of people.

And being so close, Dinah, who by now, if we do our math right, is about 15 or 16, goes into this awful place to see the women of the land. She would never have gone into that dangerous, wicked city alone. That wasn't typical. the lifestyle of these women the lifestyle of these women you remember had repulsed Abraham and Isaac they were so repulsive to them they said we don't want wives for our sons from these Canaanite women and yet Jacob doesn't seem to care now look if you're a dad who loves and protects his daughter, there are some neighborhoods you're not going to let her go into alone.

Especially the neighborhoods with the strip joints and the adult bookstores. I don't want my girls walking around those neighborhoods. Right? Well, the worst happens. This prince, this Shechem, the son of Hamar, first rapes this girl. and then seems to have a sense of love for her and demands that his father give her, give him what he wants. And not only does he rape and now want her, but he also keeps her in the royal residence.

Look at verse 5. It says, Now Jacob heard. Didn't hear it from Dinah. He heard it through the grapevine somehow. look at verse 17. In the midst of the negotiations, the brothers say, but if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will what? Take our daughter and we will be gone.

They've got to go get her if they want her. Look over at verse 26. They killed Hamar and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. Not only has she been raped, she's being held captive. Alright? And Jacob does nothing in response to this horrendous crime.

However, her brothers are furious at her treatment and they come in from the fields. Hamar approaches Jacob to negotiate for Dinah but he finds himself negotiating with her brothers. You notice that? He comes to talk to Jacob, but from then on he's talking to the boys. He's talking to the boys. My guess is Jacob is there, but he's surrounded by a bunch of boys who are really mad.

And Hamar knows he's got to deal with them. So here's what Hamar offers for Dinah. Unlimited access to the prosperity of the land. as well as intermarriage and the prospects of becoming one people and thus vested in that land. Okay? He's opening the gates to them. And Shechem, the boy, seems to be at his dad's elbow saying, yeah, yeah, ask whatever you want and we'll give it to you.

Right? so the brothers hatch a plan they're deceitful in this plan they have no intention not a bit of an intention of keeping of honoring any agreement they may come that may come out of this negotiation and so they say Shechem here's what you got to do you must be circumcised because it is a disgrace for an uncircumcised man to marry one of ours. And not only that, all your men must become like all of our men. That is, they all must be circumcised like all the men in our tribe are all circumcised.

That's what has to happen to you. And then we can exchange daughters and intermarry with you. well the royals agree to this but they have to get the city to agree to it as well i mean you know all the men are going to be circumcised you got to get the town's agreement to this in order for shechem to get what he wants they have to get everyone to agree and so they sell it to their subjects in terms of an economic boon for them look at verses 21 through 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. And 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.

They will dwell with us. See, that's how they sell this. And so everyone buys into it, and all of the males go through this painful procedure of circumcision. Three days later, Dinah's two older brothers, she has three, Reuben is the other one, Reuben's not involved in this, but Levi and Simeon enter the city, and they wipe out all the male inhabitants who, of course, are incapacitated by their pain.

Naf said. although not all the brothers participate in the slaughter all of them participate in the plunder the two boys go in they wipe out all the male inhabitants and then all the boys go in and they absolutely turn that town inside and out, upside and down taking whatever they want and the story here ends with Jacob but fearfully wondering about the loss of his wealth and his sons indignant at the injustice done to their sister. Now look at the consequences that have followed from this compromised faith. First, the consequences visited on Dinah.

Because her dad sought prosperity, ease, and power, direct connection. Because he sought that, she is raped. He should never have become part of that wicked people. He should never have moved that close. He should never have exposed her to that danger. But worse than that, Dinah ends up with a father who doesn't seem to care about her or to love her.

Men, what would you be doing if this happened to one of your girls? Let's not even go there. But it doesn't seem like Jacob is even thinking about going there. Look at the consequences for Jacob. What happened? Because his faith becomes weak through the addition of all these other pursuits.

He again slips into that passive leadership that we've seen in the past, that we thought was gone. Even though he made the mistake of moving close to these twisted Canaanites, He should have protected his daughter from wandering around in the city and exposing her to danger. Where's the leadership here? And then he says nothing and does nothing when she's raped and captured and kept in captivity.

By seeking prosperity and power, he had forgotten God's promise that God had made to him at Bethel. And that's the key to understanding Jacob's story. is in chapter 28, where God says to him, Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

He isn't living by faith in that promise. He is no longer, his faith has been compromised and diluted. He's not thinking about the fact. that God had made a promise to him to prosper him and to protect him until God was through, which would be until he died. And because of a deluded faith, he becomes passive. Another consequence, and you see this passivity full flower in verse 30.

In verse 30, here's the consequence of growing fear. Notice, then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You've 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. What? I mean, certainly he should have been angry at his sons, but please when he finally does say something right When he finally does say something what is he saying He expresses the fear of loss His sons are furious at the treatment of their sister, and the only thing he can talk about is the loss that he will experience because of what they have done. given the promise of God given the history of God dealing with him why does he fear?

Right? He's got the promise of God he's got a whole history with God why does he fear? You know why he fears? Because he's compromised his faith. He's not living by the promises as he should. Look at the consequences that find expression in Jacob's sons.

What can you say about them? Because Jacob compromised, they end up as angry, vengeful, violent men. Men of unrestrained temper. Men who cannot control themselves. And as we shall see shortly, it's going to affect the family in a major way because they can't control themselves. Because they get angry. lastly you cannot ignore the consequences that befell the Shechemites you can't deny that either tons of people slaughtered and killed and the rest plundered have you compromised your faith what do you pursue what do you pursue what dilutes your faith remember this as you rely less unless if you when you rely less and less on the promises of god you may reap tragic consequences not oh i've compromised my faith a little that a little can produce horrific consequences it can we see that here and not only you but it can affect others as well now that's a warning isn't it and yet the last thing I would say is this know that the consequences do not compromise God's commitment it does not compromise God's commitment you need to know that any consequences that flow from sin will never compromise God's commitment to his gracious purposes.

Hear me now. These are horrific consequences that have befallen this family and that city. But they will not derail God's commitment to his gracious purposes. With all this hostility in the land, and Jacob is right. Verse 30, he's right. you've made me stink you've made me stink in the nostrils of the people of this land where do we go now what do we do now wow do you realize that with all the hostility and all the consequences that flowed from this weak faith do you see that through this god keeps his promise of a seed to bless all the nations.

You say, wait, how do you see that? Look, the very deluded faith that brought about tragedy, God uses to fulfill his purposes of grace. How so? What would have happened if Jacob's family had agreed to the proposals made by Hamar and Shechem? What would have happened? They would have been what?

Assimilated into the Canaanites. And that's the end of the line. Do you see that If they had accepted that they would have indeed and there a key phrase in this chapter you know what it is One people They would have become one people The Abrahamic seed would have been wiped out for they would have become one with the Canaanites They themselves would have become Canaanites.

The Abrahamic covenant would then be nullified. Useless. There is no seed to carry on. The seed that God had promised that would crush Satan, the seed that God had promised that would bless all the nations could no longer come if they had agreed to those terms. Okay? It's all done.

So the very violence, the very deceitfulness used by Jacob's sons, God uses to accomplish His gracious purposes. Now, now they do stink in the Canaanites' nostrils, and the Canaanites will not want to have anything to do with them from now on. Praise God. That is wonderful. You see, even Jacob's compromise, even though he compromised his faith, He could never compromise God's commitment to his promise.

So you say, okay, Pastor Tim, I get the point of this message. God will accomplish his purposes regardless of what we do. And I can do whatever I want, and God will still accomplish what he wants. No, that's not what I'm saying. with a compromised faith you lose the opportunity to glorify God to those who do not know him the glory of Jacob's God was obscured by the violence and the anger and the vengeance of Jacob's sons do you see you see the irony here is Jacob building an altar to his God right there near Shechem.

Right? Here is God. Here is my God, the God of Israel. This is my God. Here is His altar. You think that made any difference now?

Do you think they would see God now? No! They squandered an opportunity to show the glory of God. The glory of God was manifested when Jacob was weak and dependent, right? But now with this show of strength, what happens? God's honor is distorted and defaced because they aren't living by faith.

However, here's the hope, as we experience the discipline of God for the compromise of our faith, just as Jacob did, we should never lose hope. Never lose hope that our failure derails his promises. There is always hope. Listen, some of you, some of you would be tempted to say, I'm Jacob. There's all kinds of tragic consequences in my life. God's done with me.

And the answer is, no, he's not. No, he's not. It doesn't matter what we do. Even the consequences will be used by God to produce people of faith. You see? There's no reason to lose hope.

There's no reason to lose hope. And do you know why you can always have hope? Because Jesus died as a guarantee of that hope. Isn't it interesting to me? As I read through this passage here the thought that kept occurring to me that the anger injustice vengeance and hatred that flowed from the nearly lack of faith in God people later on down the line, the diluted, compromised faith of the priests and the Sanhedrin and all those men later, and all the anger, injustice, vengeance, and hatred that flowed from that corrupt faith led to the death of Jesus and the fulfillment of God's promises.

That's why there's always hope. Because the greatest reason for hope was delivered over for death by people whose corrupt faith led them to anger and injustice. Jesus was not treated justly, would you agree? Was it vengeful against him? Absolutely. and because of all those evil things god fulfilled his promise in the death of his son your weakened faith cannot derail grace your weak faith will never derail his grace and isn't it interesting that it is that death that separates us from all the rest of humanity and makes us one people you see what's going on here they want to become one people the Shechemites say let's become one people and what happens is what God makes sure that his people remain separate you know what the world is always looking for ways of making us one people have you noticed that the world is always shouting always crying about where's peace where's unity let's all be one people can't we all just get along right and yet the one people of God separate from the rest of humanity comes about through the death of the Son of God.

Hatred led to a pure people for God in Jacob's time. But a pure people for God now exists because of the love of Jesus for his people. So with that kind of hope you must guard your faith against compromise and delusion. Be careful. Be careful what you add to your life. Be careful what pursuits occupy you.

It is too easy to add much to your life and lose much in your faith. Father thank you for opening up the lives of your people so that we see that even in your people there was weakness and failure and that you have given us that so that we will not compromise our faith oh God I pray help us we look for the big things to compromise our faith and we miss entirely all the little things bit by bit that we add to our life that ends up making our faith weak. Help us, I pray, to guard our hearts, to guard our faith, to pursue You above all else.

Oh God, we are entirely dependent on You for this. So help us. Father, if there are those here today who are suffering the consequences of their weak faith, their compromised faith, their corrupt faith. Remind them again that you are not done with them and nothing can derail your purpose of grace in their lives. Give them hope, I pray. Exhort us, encourage us, rebuke us for our compromise. but we thank you for our hope in Jesus we pray this in his gracious name