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Bro. Otis Fisher
Genesis chapter 33. From this point forward, we're going to see a change in Jacob's life. You're gonna think you've met a new man. In fact, he is a new man. Jacob's will is now surrendered to the Lord.
It reminds me of the little boy that mama had him sitting in a corner. After a while she heard a noise. She said, Johnny, are you sitting down? He answered, yes I am, but I'm standing up inside. After the wrestling match, we find that just a finger of this man touched Jacob and he was crippled.
Romans 8 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the laws of God, neither indeed can it be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. We find that our will is an act of yielding.
The regenerated person will submit himself to the will of God. First Corinthians 10 11. Now all these things happened unto them for in samples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Now beginning with 33 1. Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, to Rachel, and to their two handmaids. What Jacob sees is an Arab chief as head of a great band coming toward him.
And he put his the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
He fears meeting his brother. He fears this Arab chief with four hundred men. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children, and said, Whose are these with thee?
And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near, and their children. They bowed themselves, and Leah also with her children came near, bowed themselves, and after came Joseph near, and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.
And he said, What meanest thou by all of this drove which I met? Remember there had been droves of cattle spaced about a quarter of a mile apart, and there'd been many of them. And Jacob said, I have enough, my brother.
No, to aid. And he said, What meanest, and he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. He was trying to appease Esau, because he didn't know what to expect. But we find Esau has changed also.
Jacob had all, because he had the God of all. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself. Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee. Now, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand.
For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. To the end God sets all of our fleshly plans aside and does his own. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.
And he urged him, and he took it. And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. And he said unto him, My Lord knoweth that the children are tender, or young, and the flocks and herds with young are with me.
And if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my Lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me, and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my Lord unto seer.
Now Jacob has set up the situation where Esau is to return, and he is to go slowly because of the cattle and of the children, and he intends then to go to seer, where Esau will be. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me.
And he said, What needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way to seer, and Jacob journeyed on to Succoth and built him a house, and made booze for his cattle.
Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. Evidently Jacob never intended to go to his brother's house at seer, also he hadn't returned home yet. And Jacob came to Salem, a city of Shechem, which was in the land of Canaan, when he came from Badanaram and pitched his tent before the city.
And he bought a parcel of a field, which he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamar, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of silver money. And he erected there an altar to God and called it Eloha Israel.
And we're going to go to Dianna now. This is the daughter that Jacob had, the only daughter mentioned, even though there were others. And Dianna, the daughter of Leah, which she barren to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
Jacob stops and spends a while in Salem, and it's going to cause him trouble. There is a change in his life, but it's slow, slow coming. God adopts us as full-grown sons into the family where we're able to understand divine truth because the Holy Spirit is our teacher.
But our spiritual growth and our progress are very, very slow. We may learn truths in the Bible, but we will find that in our lives we are not very much, we are very much like Simon Peter, stumbling here, falling down there, and so forth.
Now, Dianna is 15 or less. The daughters were kept at home under the discipline of their mothers. Dianna slipped off to see the excitement of the world. She'd never seen this. She ended up in a place where she should not have been, just like some young people do today.
Titus 2 .3 tells us the aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children.
What happened was Dianna visited a heathen temple festival. It's all brand new to her. And when Shechem, the son of Hamar, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her.
He raped her is what he did. Sin needs to be pronounced plainly. There was a time when sin was sin. Some of you can remember that. Today they've taken the S out of it and all we have is the N crowd. And his soul clave unto Dianna, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the damsel.
Now, he has her at his house. He hasn't turned her loose. And Shechem spake unto the father, Hamar, saying, get me this damsel to wife. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dianna, his daughter. Now his sons were with his cattle in the field and Jacob held his peace until they were come.
Seems rather strange that the father would not do anything until the brothers were there. And Hamar, the father of Shechem, went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it.
And the men were grieved and they were very wroth, because they had wrought folly in Israel, in line with Jacob's daughter, which things he ought not to have done. Just like today, they never addressed the first cause of the sin.
Nothing said about Dianna, Dianna being turned loose to the city of sin, the world of sin. We don't address that. Hamar communed with them, saying, the soul of my son Shechem, longeth for your daughter.
I pray you, give her to him for wife. And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take your daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade ye therein, get you possessions therewith.
He paints rather a pretty picture. There is no value to a secret from our neighbor when God knows everything. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brother, let me find grace in your eyes, and what you shall say to me, I will give it.
Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me, but give me the damsel to wife. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamar the father deceitfully, remember that, and said, because they had defiled Dinah, their sister, now two deceits don't make one good, or make good one.
And they said unto them, we cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised, for that were reproached to us. But in this will we consent unto you, if you be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised.
They pretended to have scruples after the marriage of the daughter to a heathen. Then we will give our daughters unto you, and you will take your, take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
Now that can never be. But if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we'll be gone. And their words pleased Hamar and Shechem, Hamar's son, and young men deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob daughter, and he was more honorable than all of the house of his father.
We'll find honorable men even in the camp of Satan. So be very, very careful. What is a cheat? Let me just ask the question. Greg, what is a cheat? A cheat is a free man of all trades, and all trades are of his fraud and treachery or his calling, any way he can.
He spins nets like a spider to entrap the simple and unwary that light in his way, whom he devours and feeds upon. The common ignorance of mankind is his providence, providence, which he orders to be best, to is but a tame highwayman that does the same thing by strategy and design, which the other does by force, makes men deliver their understanding first, and after that their billfold.
Oaths and lies, that which is that which he works and gets his living, he can put on as many shapes as the devil that sets him to work. The first thing he gets is the good opinion, and afterwards anything he pleases.
Does that remind you of anybody you've heard of? And Hamar and Shechem, the son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of the city, saying, These men are peaceable with us, therefore let us dwell, let them dwell in the land, and trade therein for the land.
Behold, it was large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only herein will the men consent unto us to dwell with them, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised, shall not their cattle, their substance, every beast of theirs be ours.
Only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. Now I can just hear this man talking. He goes on and on about how good it's going to be, and how much we'll prosper by it. We'll finally get all that they have.
All we got to do is be circumcised, and he skips over that part very easily. He does say it, but he skips over it. And unto Hamar and unto Shechem his sons hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city.
Every male was circumcised, all that went out the gate of the city. And it came to pass on the third day, now every male has been circumcised, so that this one boy, man, can get what he wants. And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Diana's brethren, took each man his sword, came upon the city boldly, slew all of the males.
And they slew Hamar and Shechem, his sons with the edge of the sword, took Diana out of Shechem's house and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city, because they defiled their sister.
They took their sheep, their oxen, their asses, 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 took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.
Jacob said to Simeon on Levi, Jacob hears about it now, you have troubled me to make me distinct among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Presites, and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
He doesn't go back to correct the original sin. Jacob rebukes his two sons for giving him a bad name, just for giving him a bad name. And here I thought this man was changed, Russell. Something's obviously wrong.
We sometimes get the wrong perspective of sin in our actions. Think only of the effect that it's going to have. There are many men and women in our churches that will not take a stand on a certain issue.
Why? Well, the little crowd of which they run may not accept them. It's never a question of whether it's right or wrong with them. It's a question of whether it will offend the crowd. God have mercy on Christians who shape their lives by those who are around them, and who are constantly looking for the effect of conduct their conduct is going to have on others.
It's a wonderful thing to stand for the truth, and when you stand for it you do not have to compromise. And they said, should he deal with our sister as a harlot? And God said unto Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel, dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
Now why doesn't God mention this sin, Greg? He tells Jacob just to go back to where I met with you. Russell? Clarence? Why doesn't he mention our sins today? He forgives them, yes, but he doesn't correct us for them.
Bill? Why didn't he mention this awful sin? David? I want to learn this fact. God doesn't have to mention our sins. The sin has its own consequence that always follows. It followed these boys, it follows us.
If we sin, we can be forgiven, but that doesn't remove the consequences whatsoever. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's right, that's right. So the consequences of that sin goes on forever, the rest of their life.
So does ours. We can be forgiven, we are forgiven, but not the consequences. You understand, Greg? Then Jacob said unto his household, go to all that were with him, and all that were with him. Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments.
For the first time, Jacob takes a spiritual leadership. When the purpose, when you purpose to come back to God, where you left him, you must dispose of those things that are wrong in your life. He came back to Bethel, where he left him.
Back in chapter 31 30, Jacob did not know that Rachel had taken her father's gods. Now you would think that when he did find out, he would have destroyed them, but he didn't. Now the entire family is worshiping them.
There are too many Christians who, for six days a week, serve other gods and come on Sunday to worship the Lord. Unless you worship him each day of the week, do not expect him to listen to you on Sunday.
Isaiah 59 2. Put your iniquity, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Jeremiah 7 16. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up crying or prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee.
17. Seest thou not what they do in cities of Judea and the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
To be clean for us means to confess our sin. To change our garments is to change our habits. Verse 3. And let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
And they gave unto Jacob all of the strange gods which were in their hand. Now there were a lot of them. These are Jacob's people. And all their earrings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
I've never understood why he hid them. Looks like he would have destroyed them. But he didn't. In that day, earrings were associated with worship of heathen gods. We're going to stop here. Are there any questions from anybody?
If not, let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Bill, dismiss us please.