Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #20 of Genesis 33.  We are going to read Genesis 33:18-20:

And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.

We saw in the previous verse that Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built a house, and built booths for his cattle and called the name of the place “Succoth,” which means “booth,” or “tabernacle.”

And now Jacob has come to Shalem, a city of Shechem.  Interestingly, both of these places are joined together in a statement made in the Psalms, if we turn to Psalm 108:7:

God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

This is repeated in Psalm 60:6:

God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

The word “divide” is used in regard to dividing the spoil in Joshua 22:8.  Also, in Joshua 14:5, they divided the land.  In Numbers 26:53-56, the land was divided by lot.  So God will divide Shechem, and we are told that Shechem was in the land of Canaan, as it says in Genesis 33:18:

And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan…

We know that the land of Canaan would later be divided and given to the people of Israel.  Again, the Lord said in these two verses in the Psalms that He would “divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.” 

The word “mete” is translated as “measure” in Ezekiel 43:10 in regard to the spiritual house that is representing the elect of God.  “Let them measure the pattern,” it say there. 

Also, in Zechariah 2:2 it says to “measure Jerusalem,” and Jerusalem would also refer to the people of God.

In 2Samuel 8:2, we read that David “smote Moab, and measured them with a line,” and two lines were put to death, and one line were kept alive.  That has to do with the Lord’s salvation program, with the one line representing “one third,” which typify the elect; and the two lines, or “two thirds,” representing the unsaved of the world.  David, a type of Christ, measured them with a line, and the word “measured” is this word translated as “mete.”  So it would relate, I think, to the Word of God, but I am not sure, as we are not studying Psalm 60 or Psalm 108 right now, but it is a verse that God has spoken in His holiness: “I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.”  I think it points to God’s wonderful salvation program and the inheritance that His people receive as a result, and it is the inheritance that the land of Canaan typified, which would include Shechem and the valley of Succoth.

One thing we can gather from these two Bible verses in the Psalms is that the Lord is connecting them, just as we find in our verse in Genesis 33.  First, we are told of Jacob’s journey to Succoth, and the next thing we know he has come Shalem, a city of Shechem.  So Succoth and Shechem must be very near one another, and God is using them to teach a spiritual truth by connecting them the way He did in the Psalms.

Again, it says in Genesis 33:18:

And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan…

The word “Shalem” is Strong’s #8004, and it is the same as “Salem.”  It is the same Hebrew word.  The word “Salem” is used in Genesis 14:18:

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

We see that Melchizedek is called the king of Salem.

Then we find Salem mentioned once again in Psalm 76:2:

In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.

The pronoun “his” is referring to God.  Salem is God’s tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion.  The word “Salem” is also part of the name of “Jerusalem.”  Some people have thought that Salem was the earliest name of the city that later became Jerusalem.  I am not sure about that, as I have not had time to check that out, but I did notice that one commentator made that comment.

But if we want to know what it means, we can turn to the New Testament because God interprets it for us in Hebrews 7:1-2:

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;

That is what Salem means – peace.  Melchisedec was King of Salem, or King of peace, and that is because it is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is that great High Priest that offered up Himself at the foundation of the world.  That is where the priesthood of Melchisedec originated, and that is why Jesus entered into the world, and He was a figure of Melchisedec, as it says further down in Hebrews 7:14-15:

For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,

So Christ is of the priesthood of Melchisedec.  He is after the similitude of Melchisedec.  In the past, we would have thought of it the other way around.  We thought of it as a “theophany,” a term that theologians use to refer to appearances of God in the Old Testament.  That is, it is God making an appearance, pointing to Christ, and he was of the similitude of Jesus who would come.  But that is not what the Bible says.  The Bible says that Jesus was “after the similitude of Melchisedec,” because Melchisedec offered up sacrifice.  That is what priests do.  And He offered up Himself.  Who is the essence of righteousness?  It is the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are told that in 1Corinthians 1:30.  He is our righteousness.  The King of Salem, or by interpretation, the King of peace.  Who is our peace?  He is our peace. That is what we read in Ephesians 2:13-14:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes (aforetime) were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Christ made peace.  That is why He is the King of peace.  There is no peace apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.  So He is Melchisedec, the King of righteousness and the King of peace, and He became righteousness and peace for us in our relationship with God when He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Let us go back to Genesis 33.   Jacob came to Shalem, or to Salem.  He came to “peace.”   Then it says that Shalem was a “city of Shechem.”  Now there is a bit of a question concerning how this verse was translated.  The King James Bible translated the way we see it in our Bibles, but Jay Green developed that excellent tool, the interlinear Bible, and he translated it this way: “And Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem.”  Instead of  translating it as, “And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem,” Jay Green has translated as what “Shalem” means, which is “peace,” and he was basically laying it out in such a way that Jacob came in a friendly manner, and not seeking harm to the people of Shechem.  He came “in peace” to this city of Shechem.  I think there was an added word, or two, in order to get the sentence to read that way, whereas the King James version tells us that Jacob came to Shalem, which means “peace,” a city of Shechem.

What version do we go with here?  We do know that when we come to the next chapter, we read in Genesis 34:21 that when Hamor and his son Shechem went back to their town and told the people what the children of Israel had said to them about being circumcised, they said to their fellow citizens, “These men are peaceable with us.”  And this word “peaceable” is Strong’s #8003, so it is a related word to our word translated as “Shalem.”  So it is true that Jacob and his family were “peaceable.”  They came in peace, and that could also relate to the idea of the Gospel, as Jacob is a type of Christ, and the children of Israel are a type of the people of Christ, and they come to this land. 

But we are moving on to another spiritual picture, or another portrait in the picture gallery, so to speak.  I think this is taking place in 1907 B. C. when Jacob was 100, and yet, this whole historical encounter with the city of Shechem is going to paint another Bible picture of the Gospel than what we have been following in the last few chapters.  So the idea of Jacob coming in peace can relate, of course, to the Gospel, as Christ is our peace, and when we carry the Word of God into the world, for those that are at enmity with God and in rebellion against God,  if they happened to be God’s elect, the Gospel would reconcile that situation and make peace between man and God.  So that is a possible understanding, since it does sound kind of awkward to say, “And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem,” although it could be that Shechem was the major city, and outside of it was Shalem (Salem), which was like a suburb, in a sense. 

So I think the important thing is the word “peace.”  Either way, Jacob is either coming in peace, or he is coming to a city of peace, and both would point to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It goes on to say in Genesis 33:18:

And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city.

By the way, “Shechem” is a Hebrew word, and if you look it up, you will see it is assigned two Strong’s numbers, #7927 and #7928.  They are spelled identically, so why there are two different listings I do not know.  And there is a third number, #7926, and it is also identical, with identical consonants and vowel points.  However, #7926 is not translated as “Shechem,” but it is most often translated as “shoulder,” as we find in Isaiah 9:5-6:

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Also, it says in Isaiah 22:22:

And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

The government will be upon Hi shoulder, and they key of the house of David will be upon His shoulder.  He will bear the burden or carry the weight, and both of these verses are pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He offered up Himself in atoning and paying for the sins of His people.  The government is upon His shoulder, indicating that the power and authority of the kingdom of God rests upon the shoulder of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And that is the word that is the same word as the word translated as “Shechem.”