Dr Dean Alley: All right, Chaplain Dean Alley here. I had a moment. I hope you're doing well. It's Monday already, right? Where's the time going? We are at the last week of September, getting ready to go into October. And we're gonna see those seasons, which it was cooler this weekend and now it's warming up a little bit, but it's part of the seasons, and I love to see that. But we finished last week. Let's just get into it. So we talked about chapter thirty three last week and we were talking about just the sons of the reconciliation. Remember the story? Esau and Jacob were reconciling. Jacob was afraid. So he split up his his group and his people. And now we're at a point now where we are moving in through where Jacob's sons are going to ask or they're going to seek revenge just to preserve the line of God. But what happens is Jacob's daughter, just a high level here, she she actually is raped by this King Hamor's son and and and we'll read this in a second. But it's it's important that you know, even back in those days when something horrific happens, you even see it in in his attitude. I mean, he he he goes and defiles her, maybe felt bad, but he wanted to marry her and then that just it created a mess there. So We're gonna see this story unfold and talk about some things that we see that are in the world. We see the wickedness of the exposure or what this this guy does to Dino is Jacob's daughter. And then we look at what's being accepted, and then we look at the deception and then the greed and covetousness and things like that that come out from this, along with the revenge, which is gonna be horrific, and the results of w wickedness and then how does that all bring it together? So I'm gonna walk through it. I'm gonna read the Bible as we read it, maybe talk about a couple of things, and then I'm gonna give you some highlights afterwards and kind of walk walk walk through to how this can be from a spiritual sense or from a sense. How do we look at this Bible? Now remember I've I've said it before that People say, What version of Bible am I supposed to have, Chaplin Dean? I say, the one you're gonna read. That's the important part. Read it. Now all that other stuff comes later in your growth because it's a process, right? So when you come to know Jesus, Yeshua, God our I mean, Lord our our our our our Father that came and died on the cross, right? He came in human form, died on the cross, he was buried three days later, he arose and he's new living savior and you accept and you believe and have faith on him that is the the prerequisites of of starting that journey with him because what are you going to do? You're going to turn from the way you were living, you're going to look at things differently, right? Your outlook should change. You should be ye holy. She looking to be more loving, friendly. you should love the Lord with your God with with all your heart and mind. And so everything towards Jesus, and then that should emulate through the fruits what we see in Galatians. And then get into a good Bible-based church. Find a good teacher of the Bible, the scripture. I don't care how many smoke and screen and purple and the greatest music in the world. those are all good things. I'm not saying they're bad, but I'm saying that's not should not be the primary reason why you are stu going you. Going to be like with like-minded individuals, where you can get to a point where you're growing in your faith. That's the thing, it never stops, it perpetuates. You should be growing all the time. Ten years ago, or probably longer than that now, but where I was then to where I am now, it's a progression. I love him more today than I've ever loved him. Why? Because his word has opened up my mind in seeing things. Now Granted, sometimes you gotta read verses over and over and over before it kicks in, and that's why we have to have the Holy Spirit indwell in this temple. And I'm I'm just giving you the prerequisite of what a Christian, a believer, a believer on Christ, and I'm I'm I'm not a big huge proponent of religion. You you'll always hear me about say about that. Because that is most of most of it is man-made, and most of that it puts a lot of add-on things into what the Bible doesn't say. So and there I know there's a lot of folks out there that are will die on a hill for their religion. I think that's the problem. I think it ruins Christianity and our love for Christ is because you'll have one religion here or one church here or one church here that disagree on something completely different other than salvation and they start just kind of beating each other up back and forth. Like I had a guy once tell me. you're you're one of those Baptists. You're one saved, always saved guys. He starts laughing. Maybe looking to get a rise out of me or whatever, but that's okay. I mean, I I I yes, that's what the Bible says. but if you love Christ, you're going to continue in the faith. You're going to do those things He wants you to do, and you're going to you're going to do what Paul said he finished the race. You have to continue in the faith and your belief systems. And if you don't have that and you abandon it and run away from it and maybe you won maybe you didn't have it in the beginning and those are things that's between you and your maker. But remember, I have people all the time that'll tell me when I talk to them and I talk to lots of people and people will say well I'll say to them, I'll say, well why are you a Catholic? Why do you believe in Catholicism? And they'll say, Well my grandmother, my mother, her grandmother, we all go to the Catholic Church. Folks, I want to stop you right there, okay? You're gonna hear me say this about being a free thinker, right? Free thinker. What is a free thinker? Somebody that reads the Bible for themselves, discerns what's in it, lets the Holy Spirit show them what they're trying to be told, not what their mother's grandmother, mother, grandmother, what whatever they say. You don't do something. I mean, I'm not saying don't go to church or whatever with your grandmother or anything or disrespect. I'm not saying that. I'm saying for you to have a firm relationship with Christ, you have to be grounded. And and to do that, you have to know what the word says. What does the word say? Well, you gotta you gotta read it. You can't open it on a Sunday, close it, and open it back up on the following Sunday and say, I'm a Christian. And you've done nothing all week long to show anybody that you're a Christian. Those fruits should be evident everywhere. It should be in your speech. It should be in what you do and and how you react and and and and Pray, pray without ceasing. You got to continue. Continue what? Praying without ceasing. Reading the Bible and scripture for yourself, growing, telling people about your relationship with Christ. Share the gospel with people. People get that wrong sometimes. People say, Well, Chaplin, I'm just, I'm not the pastor. That's the pastor's job. Folks, that's not the pastor's job. You just like me, have a responsibility. And it's our responsibility to tell people about Christ. That's the message that has to go forward. And and you say, well, I don't know what to say. Well, you say you tell them your testimony. How did you come to know Christ? What made you change your belief system to where you are today? And you know, we are all priests, right? That's what it says in the New Testament. We're priests. we're we're grafted in to the Abrahamic seed. Okay, what does that mean grafted in? Well, first of all, without Christianity, okay, you had to have Judaism. Judaism through the Old Testament into the New Testament is where we see Jesus Christ. He came, died, and he becomes our living Savior. And that's where Christianity starts. And that's where the Gentiles and the church and all that are grafted in. Okay? So a lot of times I see people will say and start picking on the Jews. Well, they do this, they do this, this, this, and they put themselves ahead of or above the Jew because, hey, I'm I'm I'm a Christian now. I follow Christ, I'm better than you. And folks, that can't be that way. It can't be that way. You have to be able to get along with everybody. do I agree with everything that is a hundred percent in the Bible? no, but that's not my choice. I am to follow and believe what the what this Bible says, and it says. To love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and your neighbor, right? And your neighbor. You should be helping the poor. You should be doing things. You say, Well, I don't follow the 613 different mitvas. Right, you don't. They don't either. None of the Jews follow it either. They can't. There's no way they could follow it. Only one person could. That was Jesus. Paul was very close to it. He was he was the MIT Harvard Yale type of guy, but. Paul was very close to following and doing those things. How do we know that? We read that in his testimony. I do all things. He was a Jew of Jews, right? He was Jewish. He was a Pharisee. Pharisees and part of the Sanhedrin. He was like the attorney general of law. People read Paul and they struggle. Why did they struggle? Well, he was a lawyer, folks. Lawyer, he uses lawyer language in his epistles. It is hard for the normal person if you're not a lawyer. so it's important to understand, and when I you hear me say the word context, context, context. You know, the context is who's writing it? w what do we know about this writer? What what what culture was going on? What was happening at that time? What were the issues and concerns? You gotta add that into a scripture instead of dropping a scripture in there, and then you add this stuff on. You start climbing all those stuff that that has nothing to do with what but for your mind to be opened up and to see things that are in the Bible, you have to understand the context. And that's why I say you find a good Bible-based church, you find somebody that can answer those questions that you have. I remember after I finished discipleship program, and what are you supposed to be doing? Should be discipling people, by the way. That's what your job is, just like mine. I'm doing it now. and I continue to disciple people and look for more people to disciple. commanded to do and tell them about Jesus. But the the the the point is after I did my discipleship program, you know I bet I I bet I text the pastor at the time a thousand times. I he probably got I told myself you're probably it's little late I'm probably but I was just reading this past I'm really struggling. Can you help me out? He never once did not take the time to answer that question. And that's what we should be doing too helping people. start out with the as Paul talks about the the the the the milk as a babe in Christ and then you grow and you grow to the meat. Well it doesn't stop there. It's not okay now I'm a Christian. I made it I'm going to heaven that's all I gotta do now. Let me get back to my ballgame. Okay's not how it works. It's a continual progression. It's a continuing progression in the faith. It's a continuing of doing the things that we should be doing that the Bible tells us to do. And people get jazzed up over simple things. I see so many denominations arguing. I trust me, I get into you wanna have fun? Go into a TikTok room of Pentecostals. Have about ten of them in there and walk in the middle of it and start asking questions. Every one of them are gonna try to sell you on what they believe. But if you're grounded in the scripture and you respond in the scripture and you do that. you're doing what God c God commends you. Like I've said before, I've been invited back to these circles. And it's not that I condemn I try to understand where they're coming from and then I add on what I see in the Bible, how I how it it reads. And I'm not trying to win a battle. I'm not trying to convince you. That's not my job. It's the Holy Spirit. I'm to give you information. I'm to share the gospel. I'm to tell you about the good news of Christ. That's what we should be doing, folks. So I just I I go on to say that here because a lot of times I see it is is people they we are to labor in the scripture. We are to have we should be personal sweat and and and and working in the scriptures and and mean I've had verses twist me for two or three days praying, God show me what this means, how does this affect into this and then look for those things in the scripture and discern those because guess who's gonna be standing in front of Christ one day? And have to give an account. It's not my grandmother or my mother or my father or those people that all went to this one place because that's what we did. We're a tradition. I'm not saying nothing's wrong with tradition, but I'm saying, how did you come to be where you're at? Is what you have to ask yourself. I'm always asking myself, why do I believe what I believe? Well, I would use scripture again. That is part of what we should be doing, sharing the word of God. So, anyways. I'm gonna jump in here, chapter thirty four. We're gonna zip through it. It's only thirty one quick chapter, verses. And we're gonna talk about this a little bit and then Okay, let me give you some historical context. Shechem. Shechem from a historical standpoint, the context would be something like Elbow it's Ebulerzim Pass or the fortified mid bronze city with gate. So Haymor was a hippite, a chieftain. He was in charge. Chieftain you ever heard the word high man, high chief, whatever? He was in charge of that over this regional confederation. and not a lone village king. So he had more than one clansman. It's important to say that even when you think about the twelve tribes of Israel, they had clans around it. So here's a tribe of Judah and there might be ten or fifteen little clans around it that were part of them. So they could be the clan of Judah, you know, not just a tribe, a tribe is also with additional clans and things on that line. So Egyptian text tells us that the name Shechem, Jacob had just bought some land where he built this altar, right? This is the part where he builds the altar after he meets with this was remember in the last chapter, chapter thirty thirty three of Genesis, it talked about he built that altar all altar and owner in in honor to sh in honor to shame the world of the rape version and was ruined. The man's house was owned by Known by a bride's prince of marriage. Dinah had held outside the city. She was held outside the city. Adult circumcision left the men. We're gonna talk about that. That's the historical piece. That's the reason why it's throwing me off. He Esau goes ahead of him. He sends his family over Jabok, the river, and he goes and he prays and thanks God for where he's going next. And that's what Jacob is doing. and he builds this all altar in Genesis thirty three, eighteen. So Jacob arrived. Let's see, in Shulem the city of Shechem, which is the land of Canaan, when he came from Panoram and camped right in the front of the city, purchased a por a portion of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamar, Shechmar's Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. There he sat upon the altar and he called it Ellah El is Israel God, El being God, basically. so the doctrine here that we want to look at is the Abrahamic sign of circumcision. That really twists people up in the New Testament, by the way. I want you to think of it this way. If if you were circumcised eight days after you were born and you were in you were a Israelite or you were a Jewish person, that was the command. Eight days later you were circumcised. That means that that identified you as a Jew. Uncircumcised would be somebody like the nations. What were the nations? They were Gentiles. They were not circumcised. Okay. so that was a way of identifying from a physical attribute that if you got circumcised, we knew you were a Jew. If you didn't get circumcised in the New Testament, we're going to talk about what circumcision is with the heart, where Jesus comes and circumcises on the heart. and The difference between circumcised and uncircumcised is believer versus non-believer. If your heart is circumcised with God and He resides in you as the temple, you are a believer in Christ. If you are uncircumcised on the heart, that would be somebody that does not believe. So just a quick off off the cuff there, just to give you an idea of what the circumcisions are. People get twisted sometimes. So So the intermarriage of Canaanites would swallow the promise seed. They did not want to intermarry. Abraham had Isaac, the servant, go out and look for Isaac's wife, which he found Rachel. Rachel is the one that's outside the Canaanite. They didn't want to intermarry it. Why is that? Think about this, folks. You're married, you've been worried a long time, especially when a man and a woman get married. It should be God first and then them. Okay. A lot of times people that don't have that relationship, which cause as you were growing with your wife which should be in scripture and you're gonna be growing more in Christ. I tend to see those relationships lasting a little bit longer than I do the throwaway marriage. But I think the point I'm making here is why the intermarriage okay so there was a there was a object lesson was I saw a either TikTok Amazon I know what it was but the lady basically came on and said look I'm a Mormon I believe in Mormonism, been a Mormon Mormon for what'd she say, 30 some odd years. In and out, through and through Mormon. Marries a husband that is a Christian that is not a Mormon. Her whole thinking was when she married him, I'll convert him. He'll be part of the Moroni thing and the whole you know planets and all the things that they believe in. Which is unbiblical but That's what they believe. And I I can tell ya when I see coming around doing their deputations and stuff, they do the two years. I brought I brought to our church and and fed and take care of because they're they're God's people too. And I'm not trying to convince them, but I could tell you that when they go to our church they heard about the gospel, so they can't say they did. But point being is intermarrying like that, she intermarried that relational thing. And one of the things that I always talk about is in laws, sex. Money and religion. Those are the big four. You gotta have those settled before you get married because if not, it's gonna come ho it's gonna come haunt you. Well, what do you mean, chaplain? Well, my mom wants me to come to their house for dinner because we do that. That's part of what we do as a family, and we we get around and we do this and that and we pray and all we sing songs. Well, no, we're going over here to my mom because this is what we do over here every year. See the fight already, and can be over religion, it could be over the in-laws, it could be over those things. So you have to settle all of that way ahead of time and not let things get in between. Now, men typically will do what a woman tells them to do. Why are is why is that? So think about it. When it comes to any type of relationship with a woman, they typically will get men are easily could you know, can easily be d deterred when they see a beautiful woman. it's inherent, it's in them. What does the Bible tell us to do? Look away. Look away. Because if you keep looking, what happens? That's when you start coveting and you start thinking and your thoughts turn into bad things. And then you do some things that you really truly probably shouldn't be doing. So when you get married to somebody and you have a relationship, you're gonna do what your wife wants you to do most of the time, especially if you're ungodly. to keep that marriage going together. And you know, okay, I'll just do that. And you do that. And you start to follow the belief systems and situations. So the wife that was Mormon was trying to get her husband to join and be a Mormon and he he wouldn't. He would share her the gospel. So they had a rift there, I'm sure. 'cause they didn't get along with each other. But that's okay. So they'll steer you away. And in this example of the Canaanites, the pagan gods and all the pagan idols that were going on in that time frame. we saw it in the previous chapters. We saw where Rachel had hidden the idols of her father, who was a Caesarian, and he had these little idols and little stone things that he worshiped. And it was it was rampant back then, rampant in that time frame. So God said, Look, I don't want you to be part of the the the pagans. I don't want you to be part of that king. I want you to find your wife outside of Canaan. Canaan. That's the point I'm making. And 'cause guys guys think with the wrong head sometimes and I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but that's that's normal. And when they're young that's typically what I see. I see that a lot of times and It's natural in some cases. So you have to really learn to control that and you use the Holy Spirit to help you with that. So, anyways, let's jump into chapter one verse one, chapter thirty-four. And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, who she bare unto Jacob, went out into the into the daughters of the land, and so with friends who went out there where her friends were him. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hittite, catch the bite, Canaanite, Hittphite. All part of the clan of Canaanites, prince he had of the country, saw her and he took her. He just took her. He in other words, he laid with her, he defiled her. And her soul claved and then his soul claved unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel and he spake kindly unto the damsel. So you know, the it's kinda like the damage is already done. disrespected her and now you love her. Yeah. That'll be a challenge in the future, right? So anyways. And Shechem spake unto his father. So basically he says to his father, So typically you get a system in that time frame where the dowries come into play where they they in turn get things to give their daughter. So Jacob would say, Okay, I want X amount of cattle, I want this, this, and that, the dowry, they make an agreement, and then that dowry goes in and then he goes on to marry her. Now you say, Well, that's that's that that's not fair. Well That's the culture in that time frame. It happens today. We see it and we we're shocked when you see it. Why? Because you come from a first world country with civilization and morality issues that you were taught that is not the same as what is going on in the Middle East, totally different. I mean, look what he did. He just took her. He laid with her. I mean, it that happens today. I'm sure it happens over there a lot. So Jacob had heard That he had defiled Dinah, his daughter. Now his sons were in were were were with his cattle in the field, so they were out working. And Jacob held his peace until they were come home. He didn't want to go tell his sons, because he probably knew what was going to happen. So they'd be angry as can be. and the sons of Jacob came from the field when they had heard it. They were very, they were grieved, they were very wroth, meaning angry, they were very mad. And they were they were very be because they had they had because these this guy has brought folly to the fi foolishness in in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter, which ought not to have been or be done. And Amor communed with them, saying, The son of Shechem longeth for your daughter, I pray thee, you give. Her him her wife, him the wife, to wife, and make ye marriages with ye with us, and give your daughters unto us, and ye shall dwell with us in the land shall be before you, and dwell and trade therein to get the possessions of therein. So let's let's let's let's intermarry, let's let's share our families and stay in this area and take care of each other. And then he says, And ye shall dwell. And then and Shechem said unto his father her father, unto un said unto her father and unto her brethren, let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall unto me, but give me the damsel to wife. So he's trying to negotiate. So what do we got going on here? You got the wickedness and the exposure, the rape. The rape that happened. The Hipphite prince named Shechem, he seduced and raped her. I don't know if he seduced, but he definitely took her. And unexpectedly it happened. then he falls in love with her. And then he tries to comfort and reassure her and then wants to marry her. the wickedness of accepting and then sensitive to the morality, Jacob heard, but he kept quiet. He didn't want to tell his sons. He didn't want to get all riled up. He didn't want to get them going. So Hamor went to see Jacob, the father of Shechem. try to make a deal in a proposal. So what do we see? Do you see the wickedness of deception and misusing religion. Jacob's son had heard and they were grieved and angry. Hamor's proposal to Jacob requested that Dinah marry his son. And then Hamor elicited the benefits. If you marry into this is what you get. You get a greater nation of people through intermarriage. You get you would provide a mutual security with us helping you. You would get a greater trade and financial gain, I'll help you there. And the Shechem offered a large dowry, any amount. So whatever you're asking, I'm gonna give it to you. Verse 13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor, his father deceitfully, and said, Because you have to file Dinah, their sister, and they said unto them, We cannot do this thing to give our sister to the one that is uncircumcised. So they're certainly not. You're circumcised eight days later, you're a Jew, or you're maybe not a Jew, but you're definitely an Israelite. So they can't do this. And they go on to say that for that that were a reproach unto us, but in this will we consent unto you if now if you do this, we'll we'll can we'll think consider it. He's saying, if ye will be we be, or be like us. The ma every male be circumcised. So if you get circumcised, you can be like us. If you do this, as we say, then we will give our daughters unto you, and you will take our daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become your people. Or one, will be one, not your, but one as people. And But if ye will not hear us or hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter and we will be gone. And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem and Hamor's son, and the son, the young man, deferred not to do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. So he's saying he's gonna do it. He was more honorable than all the house of his father. So he's gonna do what he's being asked to do. And Hamor and Shechem and the son came to the gate of their city and communed with the men. That's typically where they met. Women met at the well, men typically at the gate of the city. I know that's where all they shoot the bull. And they came to the gate of the city and they communed. And then the men, these men were peaceful with us. Let us therefore dwell in the land and trade therein, for the land, behold, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters for our wives. And let us give them our daughters. Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, and or to be one people. If every man among the circumcised or be circumcised, and they are circumcised, shall not the cattle of their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? That's a question. And only to let us consent with them, and they will dwell with us. And unto Hamar And unto Shechem, the son hurken, and when he heard these things, all the things that went out in the gate of the city, every man was circumcised. So they all got circumcised because they thought they were gonna have great financial gain. There's a little deception I'm gonna find in both sides of the camp. But and unto Hamor and Shechem, they went out of the gate in the city, everybody was circumcised, and all that went out the gate of the city. And it came to pass on the third day when they were Sore that the two sons of Jacob, Simon and Levi, Dina and let me give you a little piece here here in a minute. Simon and Levi, Dinah's brother, took each of the men by the sword, he came into the city boldly, and he slew all the males. They were in pain, they were hurting. And they slew Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and they went out. And the son or the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled. the the city because they had defiled the sister. So they're gonna that's revenge. And they took their sheep, their oxen and their asses, and that and that which was in the city and that which was in the field. And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives they captured or took captive and spoiled, even as they that was in the house. And Jacob said to Simon and Levi, You have troubled me. You have you you you have troubled me here. To make me to stink among my inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Pezurites, and be and being few in number, they shall gather themselves against me, they and slay me, and shall destroy me in my house. And he said, Should he deal with our sister as with the harlot? So You know, there's a lot of there's some infighting going on here. It's just not good. So wickedness and greed and covetousness. We see where Hamor and Shaman they were deceived. They agreed to the proposal and rushed to fulfill the condition. So they were like, Okay, we're gonna do this because we're gonna gain from this. So that means they would have that mutual peace and security, right? If they had done this. They would have the greater opportunity for trade. Also means they would be greater of the people through the intermarriage, and then we see where Hamor and Shechem they present the condition to every male that had and they were circumcised. And they stress the greatest gain is that of financial. So they're telling them, hey, look, we're gonna we're gonna really get a lot of money out of this thing. And that's the benefit of it. So Amen Hamor and Shechem, they got the agreement from all the men of the city. The wickedness and revenge of and the false judgment. This is where we see two sons. We see Jacob sons, Simon and Levi. Levi never received land. They became the priests. They never ever actually had land. And I believe it's part of the reason for this situation that God didn't give them land because of what they did. And I don't think Levi he became a priesthood and he and they they basically presided in all the temples and everything and all the tribes of the Israelites. and Shechem their servants and probably help them. So they they killed Hamor, Shechem took Dinah and he led they had left. And the sons showed up and began to loot the city. So the other son said, yeah, well, we might as well take take advantage of it. So the whole family of brothers go in there and they start looting. they take the livestock and everything that's in it and both in and out of the city. So they carry off all this wealth. They took the wife and the children of, you know, because they can't provide for themselves, women and children. Which is a which is a common denominator. You know, the stronger over the the wife. Men are stronger than women physically. so the result is what? Wickedness. So Jacob rebukes Simon and he rebukes Levi for ruining his testimony because he was a he was a he was thought well of. He was highly thought of and he had a good reputation going and they were ruining it. And Jacob rebuked his sons for fracturing the peace that he had made with the surrounding nation. So remember, we bought that land, he was trying to do the things that were right, and his son reacted against the rebuke of the father just by saying, Should we just let him do what they did he did to our sisters and get away with it, basically? So they take justice in their own hands, right? So a couple thoughts. you have to note The para the parallel with our society today. We live in a day when people are attracted to the l bright lights and the pleasures of this world. Is that a true statement? A true statement or not? It is. When people are exposing themselves and their bodies at the point of invit inviting trouble and foul play. You know, if you we talk about modest women dressing, that doesn't happen anymore. You Well, that's the fifties, Chaplain Dean. Well, You're gonna bring unwanted t attention to yourself if you go out of the house looking like you are about to go to work at a strip club. And I'm not saying you they should be violated or raped. I'm saying that you shouldn't bring unwanted attention to yourself, especially with a bunch of bunch of men. Men or men or dogs, if you will, when it comes to that. So they exposed themselves and they were inviting trouble. sexual abuse and rape, that was common back then and we see it today. People are more interested in how they look and in and in exp in exposing their bodies. and their purity of their heart and mind. So they are r they're rather look at my Big Mini old story, Beauty's only skin deep, right? They didn't care about their heart, their honor and all this stuff. We don't see that today as much as we should. And I think that is a you could say it's a times it's it's a sign of the times, but I think that's where we're going wrong. We've got to look at that a little bit there. I would want my daughters to dress modestly, my granddaughters dressed modestly, and not out there looking like they were trying to find somebody. that's just not what I would I would approve of. But when people of power position, money and success feel they could do whatever they want, that's what happens. And that's what happens with people of power. Gotta remember What do most people they want? Either power, they want they want to they want sex or they want money. What are they trying to do? They want recognition, they wanna be famous, or they wanna have all this money, they want you got all these three these things that they think is gonna make happy if they do these things. And, you know, that's why it's so important, you know. I think people in politics have a better opportunity of Not being as honest, taking advantage of certain things, and they use a lot of word play to justify their thinking. In other words, if you listen to a politician or spend any time with a politician and you say something, they s they could take anything and write anything on a piece of paper and make it look good, right? So you could have 100% inflation. They'll find a way to spin it, tell you that you're doing better than you ever did 10 years ago. And then people tend to just believe that because they're not free thinkers. They can't think for themselves and do their own research. They believe what they're being told. And they ought not to be in the place they're at. I think there should be term limits on all those guys. And I don't think it should be if you're a wealthy individual that you are in politics because you bought your way in there. I don't think it's the case. Am I saying that for everybody? No. But I can say that we see a lot more of it today than I did in the seventies and eighties. It's and maybe it was there, I just never saw it. But point being so there was immorality, insensitive, there was sin, and then they were excusing it. So think about this. The society today, the sex, the sexual pleasure, outside the marriage are considered to be acceptable behavior. It is promoted as if it was acceptable. I know that as guys, locker room talk, they're before they're married, they're high fiving each other on who they're dating and how good she looks and all this. and they They're not looking at the virtues of a woman the way they should be looking at They're looking at typically from an outerward appearance or, you know, in a sexual sense. But they use the basically it's promoted, acceptable. They sex to sell products. Turn on the TV. Half naked people trying to sell something. Sex to make money. OnlyFans, all these different things on teens, pornea and all the pornograph, is to get people to spend money on looking at their bodies, you know? I've had two OnlyFan people reach out to me both times and try to get me to go on their page. And I've tried to witness to them. I flat I mean, no, I'm not going to your page, but let me just let me give you some insight about you know, serving God. Stop doing what you're doing and selling your body. Your body is only going skin deep. It's beauty is only skin deep and it won't last forever. So this short little window you say, Yeah, but I'm gonna make millions. Yeah, but are you gonna sleep well? Are you setting a good example? Are you making God happy or you making you happy? Most of the time you're taking care yourself. And they use self, so they use the sex for self or selfish pleasure. they use it for gratification. They dress and expose one's body to attract attention. That's just the norm. And they share sex with close kin companions. You see a lot of that. And sex on social occasions with other special events. So there's just a lot of sinful stuff when it comes around, when it comes to this situation. And the reason we're having this conversation is because we're talking about this situation with rape. We're talking about how Dinah who was she was raped and they took advantage of her. And you know, there's deception. I think of it this way is religion. Okay, so there is is a wicked deception and a misuse of religion. People do that too. There's people that I I hear horror stories when I talk to people that have been part of relationships or been in churches where they've been accosted by the the the pastor or they've been taken advantage of. And you know, I know that when I served in a l in a in a leadership position in the church for a long time, almost ten years, we never let a man with a woman by themselves, we never let a woman with Vice versa, it was always with you know, two two men, two women, or whatever it is, we always made sure that they were not gonna be, okay, we're gonna do Bible study, two of us are gonna go in here. No, that never happened. Why? Not because we didn't trust them. We didn't want to give the opportunity for something to to to to to to take hold because that can happen, especially in churches and things. It happens everywhere. And not just at church. I mean I you know I see it you know work and different things. People use their attributes to get where they want. I can sit here and go through a whole list of people that are in leadership positions because of their attributes, not on their qualities, not on their character, not on their ability. Of course, people that move them into those positions, they find a way to spin it and they put these people in there. But they're not fully co qualified, my book. How did you get to where you at? Tell me how you made this organization better. What is it that you personally did to change and improve us? I don't see it when I see these people in these roles. I see these people in these roles because of their their their personal outward appearances. And I can't wait to one day do an exit interview and have a conversation with some leadership because they may be not happy. But anyways, so we have to think about that in our society today, we live in it, it attracts these we we have these lights and you know, sex and all this other stuff and just the deception. they misuse religion. I've heard horror story after horror story of people in church. I think if you can make that situation not present a opportunity as a leader, I think that you're like when we do counseling, we would we would do you know group count counseling. It would always be like the pastor, his wife and the wife of the or the man and then one other guy would be there or something like that. But it would always be conducted in a civil way and and and not that anybody was gonna we were thinking they were gonna do anything we just weren't we're making sure the opportunity wasn't there or the op optics of it. You say, well what do you mean? I know that they're great people. No, but but it gives an optic to somebody that doesn't know these people or know the situation when they see this. And that is typically what I see sometimes. Sometimes the optics can make a person start thinking something outside what they really they really mean. So anyways, so yeah, so as we see we see this, So we see the covetousness, the wickedness, the greed, Amor and Shechemor, they were deceived by Jacob's son. They agreed to the proposal, and they circumcised, Rushed off and got circumcised. Didn't work out good. So there was revenge and murder that happened, that's Levi and Seaman. And then the rest of the clan or his sons went in and took took the women and children and pilfridge. so think about this. If a person in a society sows the wickedness, they're gonna reap what they sow, folks. Right? If you and I say it all the time, if you end up in hell, you do. If you end up in hell, it's your fault. You want it to be there. And you say, well, Chaplin Dean, it's a little harsh, isn't it? We have in this Bible tells us everything that we should be doing. Are we gonna be perfect? No. Are we gonna fail? Yes. Are we gonna we gotta be held accountable to ourselves first and to God? And am I honoring him? What am I doing? What am I thinking? Am I honoring my Lord Jesus and his and and our Savior? And if there's any wiggle room in that, folks, then you need to get alone and spend time with God and say, help me with whatever that is. It's it's it's whatever it is that you may be dealing with. So so Genesis 34, we see where Dinah was 15 years old when this happened. the raha is it equals wanting to see or learn. That's a Hebraic statement. Shechem, the son of the king Hamor, he rapes Dinam. And when an act of rebellion to go into the city alone, I think she goes into that city all by herself and she brought some of that on herself. But the king's son now says he wants to marry her. Okay. So King Amor is a picture of him here, and I don't know if that's he asked Jacob and his sons if he could She if his son Shechem could marry D Dinah. And Hamor ruled over the Confederate Confederation of the tribes and he and he had dip he had the diplomatic end of it too. So Shechem was a large kingdom. So here's the the little sign here. You can see the the circle. This is what he's in charge of. You got Samaria in there, Silo, Bethel, you talking? Judaism, Sokoth. I mean, you got a lot of stuff going on in Shechem right here. And that's about a thousand square miles. a thing not to do or to be done is Rape of Dinah was an illegal thing. Compensation was required for the family. That happens. If that happens, that's what they have to do. They have to pay for the family because you've ruined them. The girls now ruin it, right? Dinah was being held hostage inside the city. Jacob's sons reply to the king. The sons say all males in the city must be circumcised for marriage to occur. no one could marry into Israel without submitting to the covenant of Abraham. And the results of the circumcision would be painful and an affection possibly, and resulting in a physical weakness at the time. They knew that. So the revenge is where King Amor convinces his citizens to be circumcised. So they're now totally what? Defenseless. And they're totally self serving, defenseless at the time because you're they just got they just out of the circumcised. So three days later, Levi's and Simon, they lead a raid and they kill all the males living in the city. Then the other brothers loot the city. So it's just a lot of ugliness there. So Jacob is heartbreak broken and he's furious. Jacob becomes what he calls stink or stench, remember? And the Pezzerites are probably a general name for the various tribes living in the hill country. So there's pr there's there's Hittites, Eli I mean there's all kind of heights, It Itites throughout the time frame. So the the line of Ham. You remember Ham? One of Noah's son, the one exposed his son. He was naked, his Shem and his other son had to go in and cover him up and Ham was cursed and he is the son of Canaan. Now Noah didn't curse Ham. He cursed Canaan, his first son. And this is where this all comes back. And Jen and then you see here in Genesis forty nine five. Simon the Levites are brothers Their swords are implemented of violence. Let my soul not enter in their council. Let not my glory be united with their assembly. Because in their anger they slew men, and in their self-willed they lamed oxen. Verse 7: Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. So, Levites, what happened? Remember I told you? They didn't get land. They became the guards and butchers. They were to take care of all of the sacrifices that would come to the temple and they would ham they would handle all that. Levites got no land. they were scattered among the twelve pro tribes, so there was different Levites that became the guards of the priesthood and stuff in the different tribes. Simon was surrounded by Judah and was the first tribe to be absorbed. And so he didn't last long. And God would not allow them mixing the Hipp Hivite Hivites with the Israelites. He's like, no, that's not gonna happen. And then he says it would have united the line of Ham with Shem, because that's not what God wanted. And God is always gonna win, folks. He's always gonna win in these circumstances, and and certainly in this this case, we see that play out. Just a couple points. we talked about Dinah. She was on chaperone, goes into the into this city. Shechem's son basically defiles her. Then he claims he loves her. Jacob hears it, he waits for his sons to return. It's just the highlights. the sons answer deceitfully, every male to be circumcised, following the Abrahamic covenant, before they were be become their people. So they would have to do this to be something. Amor sells it to his his friends and the men and they go out and they do it. So they get circumcised. Three days later, the wealth, the the livestock, women, children, they themselves together again, they slay him and the sons should de he should deal with our sisters as a harlot. That's what they end up arguing with their dad. So later in we'll find that the fierce anger and violence that Simon and Levi will be divided and scattered among the nations of Israel. Levi becomes the priestly tribe, he gets no air, he gets nothing, and Simon is later absorbed into the Judah tribe. So there's no more Simon tribe. So from a spiritual standpoint than an application. Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land, so she was looking for friends, unguarded cur curiosity towards the pagan world, Shechem's lust is called love. And then Jacob stays silent with his son as he inherits and deceit and he makes it bloodier. And then the holy language covers the murders, and the rage begins with the sisters honoring become fierce and cruel. The zeal of the family without the fear of God profanes the covenant and endangers the whole house. So if you don't have the fear of God, you're not following him and doing the things you should be doing. You're gonna bring some shame to the to yourself and your family. So don't let the young wander uns chaperone in a world of feasts. What am I saying? You have younger women or children or girls or daughters or whatever, it should never be unchaperoned, should always be with something. force by doing force is not love. do not use God's ordinance as a cloak for revenge like they were. were they felt that they were dishonored and from a religious standpoint that's what they were supposed to do they were supposed to kill And the family honor that refuses God's justice becomes a curse on the family. And after the wreckage, the only way forward is the same as Jacob. Rise up, go to Bethel, put away the idols, and let God Make the house clean again. Folks, Chaplain Dean Alley, I had a moment. A little long, but hope it's a blessing. And we'll look at chapter 35 next time around. You take care. God bless. Bye-bye.