Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 of Genesis 34, and we will read Genesis 34:20-24: 

And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is 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 for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we were looking at the word that is translated as “peaceable” in verse 21: “These men are peaceable with us.”  We saw that this word is used 28 times, but only here is it translated as “peaceable.”  It is actually a word that indicates that they were walking in accord with God’s Law, walking uprightly.  They were perfect.  They were doing all things well – nothing was amiss.  There was no behavior that marred their reputation.  In other words, up until this point we could say their witness was befitting the character of those that identify with, and have relationship with, God.  The sons of Israel were giving the appearance of faithful Christians, we could say, if we modernize it to fully understand.  They were living close by to the men of Shechem, and the people of the city thought them to be good men, upstanding people.  So that was one of the points that Shechem and his father Hamor made to the men of the city when they said, “These men are peaceable with us.”

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 34:21:

…therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.

Let them dwell in the land and trade.  In our last study, I mentioned how this word “trade” relates to sharing the Gospel because God likens the Gospel to merchandise.  For example, it says in Isaiah 55:1-2:

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Come, and buy.  That is what you do when you go shopping.  You go to the store, and you purchase merchandise.  By using this kind of language, God is establishing Himself as though He were a merchant, and His Gospel of salvation, or the Gospel of the truth of the Word of God, is the merchandise.  Although He uses speech of “come, and buy,”  He also says in the last part of verse one, “Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”  And that is according to the biblical principle, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Nonetheless, that does not mean that God does not characterize the Gospel as merchandise, and Himself as a merchant. 

The same word for “trade” is also found in Genesis 42:33-34:

And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone: And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land.

The word “traffick” is the same word translated as “trade.”  To “traffick” in the land means that they could purchase and sell items, and they would have freedom to do so.  By the way, this was Joseph speaking to his brethren who were unaware it was Joseph.

This word is also found in 1Kings 10:28:

And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price.

That is, Solomon had merchants that did the king’s business, and that description would actually apply to God’s elect as we sent forth the Gospel, especially during the day of salvation: “…come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” We were carrying out the task of being the King’s merchants, and our King is the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal God.  We were the merchants, and that is the reason it became such an “issue” once God began to bring judgment on the churches and congregations.  He loosed Satan, and Satan entered in and took his seat (in the temple), and it was at that point the “image to the beast” was made, and all were commanded to bow down to the image.  We read in Revelation 13 where this is described in Revelation 13:14-17:

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Of course that was completely unacceptable to God and God’s merchants.  God would not allow His people to serve Satan in order to deal in the merchandise of the Gospel, so He ended the church age, and He commanded His people to come out.  Then outside the churches we would freely “trade” or “traffic” in the land, and that would actually be the spiritual meaning of what Joseph told his brethren.  Remember, that was during that seven-year famine, which is called “great tribulation” in Acts 7.  Joseph had not yet made himself known to his brethren, and his brethren were still in the land of Canaan (in the churches), and he would later draw them out to Egypt, and he would reveal himself to them during the second part of the tribulation, the last five years of the famine, and there they could traffic in the land.

So that is what God did.  He commanded His elect servants to come out of the corporate church, leaving all with the mark of the beast in the churches, which signified they were under the power and authority of Satan, and that meant they were unsaved.  It was only acceptable at that point for the unsaved to buy and sell, since they carried the mark of the beast.  That applied to their pastors, elders, deacons, preachers, teachers, and evangelists.  They were the ones qualified for that evil task, as they were not God’s people.

Let us go to one more verse that has this Hebrew word, Strong’s #5503, and that is in Proverbs 31:10-14:

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

This word “merchants” is the same word.

Let us go back to Genesis 34.  Again, it says in Genesis 34:22-23:

Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.

What they are referring to is what the sons of Jacob had said to Shechem and Hamor back in Genesis 34:13 when he and his father came to ask for Dinah’s hand in marriage.  Then it said in Genesis 34:13-16:

And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister: And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us: But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised; Then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

So when Shechem and Hamor told the men of their village, “Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people,” they were not making this up.  They were not exaggerating the conversation they had with the sons of Jacob.  They used the same words regarding “consent,” and they said, “If we consent, we can be one people.” 

Historically, it was a terrible thing what the children of Israel did to the men of Shechem and their whole town.  But, spiritually, it is even worse because it is teaching us about those who bring a gospel that they proclaim to be the true Gospel, but the things they bring are deceitful; they are lying to the ones they are witnessing to, and their lie  is when they are saying, “We are the people of God, and if you are (water) baptized; if you accept Christ; if you walk down the aisle; if you say the sinner’s prayer; if you consent and agree to these things, then we will be one people.”  And they wear the name of Christ, and they have the name of “Christian,” just as the sons of Jacob were the sons of Israel, as God had changed Jacob’s name to Israel.  They were the children of Israel, and they were representing the outward representation of God’s kingdom on the earth, and the people of Shechem are the people of the world who hear the Gospel of the Bible, and believe it.  And we would have to say that the historical context is indicating that these men “heard the Gospel,” and they believed it because they were willing.  They gave their consent, and they did what they were asked to do, and they took upon themselves the sign of the covenant, which was circumcision.  They were fine with the whole idea of being one people with the sons of Jacob, the Israelites.

When we think of “one people,” there are many Scriptures we could go to, but let us go to Romans 9:23-26:

And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

You see, the Gospel called many, and they came into the churches, and they took upon themselves the name of Christians, the family of God.  They had the name God’s people, children of the living God.  That is a like scenario to what was happening in Genesis 34.

We can also go to 2Corinthians 6:15-17:

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord…

This is why we know it is God’s elect that are in view in Revelation 18, which is a chapter describing the fall of Babylon (the fall of this world) during Judgment Day, our present time.  God proclaims in Revelation 18:4:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

God is saying, “My people, come out!”  And that would identify with 2Corinthians 6 where it says to come out from among them, and be separate.  We are to leave the things of the world because we are God’s people.  That is how God looks upon His elect.  But we are now living in different circumstances than during the church age, or during the time of Israel, when the wheat and tares grew together, and God was calling many, but chose few.  (Now the Lord is just dealing with those that are truly His elect, and have already become saved.)  That is what the Gospel always pointed to, but due to the erroneous nature of the “call” that many churches made with the lies and deceitfulness that was involved in doing “works” like accepting Christ to become a child of God, the churches, as it were, “guaranteed” salvation to all that consented.  They had the obligation to teach that doing these things were only signs.  If you got circumcised or baptized, a proper prophet or preacher would have rightly said, “It is only a sign to be circumcised, or baptized.  It cannot save you, or guarantee your entrance into the kingdom of  heaven.  It is only a sign.  There is a deeper spiritual meaning.”  That is what should have been done, but in most cases, it was not done, so people eagerly entered into the “family of God,” thinking that they were one people.  “All of us are one people.  All of us are Jews.  All of us are Christians.”

This was the deceitful nature of what the people of Shechem were told, and they followed it to the letter.  They followed the Gospel of the children of Israel to the letter.  They did it precisely as they were told to do, and it led to their death.  And that is the big take-away that God would have us to understand from this chapter: false gospels kill.  They kill their hearers.