Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #17 in Genesis 34, and we will read Genesis 34:22-24: 

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.

We were discussing the first part of verse 22 in our last study: “Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people.”   And we saw that there are a people of God, a people God calls “my people.”

The Israelites were God’s people in an outward way over the course of the Old Testament era, and definitely from the time of Jacob, who had his name changed to “Israel.”  And we could trace back further to Isaac and Abraham as the lineage that God was dealing with, and they were increasing in size, as many sons were born to Israel.  They represented God’s kingdom.

So they told the men of Shechem, “If you consent, and you agree to be circumcised, then we will dwell with you.  We will give you our daughters, and you will give us your daughters, and there will be marriage.  There will be no difference between us – we will be one people.”

And that was exactly the message of the Gospel.  God sent the Gospel into the world to all nations, and the Gospel called all people.  The Gospel was never sent to specific groups of people.  It was never sent to those wo spoke only a certain language.  It was never sent to those of a particular race.  The Gospel was “open,” and it went as far and wide as possible as it went out to the world.  It was sent to seek God’s elect, but God’s elect were scattered among the nations, and they were of every tribe, nation, tongue, and people.  So God sent forth His Word to save, and He did so without being a “respecter of persons.”  Sometimes God saved Jews that were physical descendants of Abraham, but very few, just like it was with the Gentiles, or nations.  Very few were saved out of the whole.  To all the various people groups of the world the Gospel went forth, and they came into the churches and congregations over the course of the church age.  Of them, many were called, but few were chosen.  God had His elect among them.  And they spoke practically every language of the world, and they were of all types, sizes, and races.  It did not matter if they had blonde hair, or black hair, or what color their eyes were, or what height they were. 

None of that mattered.  God did not care about any of those things that regarded the outward flesh of men.  He was not concerned with that, but He was concerned with the heart because the heart was the problem, and He had a plan of salvation to change the hearts (of some).  So He looked upon the inner man, as He had already chosen certain ones to obtain that salvation, and we can be absolutely certain that in God’s program of predestination (before the foundation of the world), none of His choices were made on the basis of physical appearance or characteristics.  Actually, it had nothing to do with a person, spiritually or physically, because before any had done good or evil, God had decided to love Jacob, and to hate Esau.  And this is helpful to us because Jacob and Esau were twins, and they would be a like color as far as race goes, even though one may have been lighter, and one may have been darker.  I t would have been immaterial because twins are normally very similar in appearance, although we know Esau was “hairier.”  But there was nothing that would have caused God to choose one over another, but it was based on God’s good pleasure.  That is the only thing the Bible tells us.  God determined, “I will save Jacob, and I will not save Esau.”  And He did that same thing regarding all the human beings that would ever exist for all the many billions of people, and He chose, perhaps, as many as 200 million out of the whole.  That was God’s salvation program, and the Gospel was just to go out, making the call far and wide to the nations, and opening the door.  “You are welcome.  Come in, no matter where you are from, or what language you speak.  Come in, and we will be one people.  We will be one people of God.  We will be God’s people, all Christians alike.”  You see, the true Gospel of the Bible is a tremendous source of unification.  It brings all the scattered peoples of the world together to serve the same God, and to obey the same commandments.  It is the great equalizer, as the Bible says to men that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  The Bible says to all people, “There are none righteous, no, not one.”  There is none good.  Only God is good.  So it “levels” all mankind.  It brings us low and smites us with condemnation, and it places us all in the same situation before God, as sinners in need of a Saviour.  And there we would remain, waiting on God for His mercy.  We could cry out to Him in the day of salvation, “O, Lord, have mercy on me!  Have mercy.”

So that was the true Gospel of the Bible.  Of course there was much abuse of it by the churches and congregations over the course of the church age.  But overall, that was the true Gospel.  Everyone could come in.  Everyone was alike, although there was an authority structure within the churches for spiritual oversight using deacons, elders, and pastors, but that did not make them better than anyone else.  They too were sinners.  They too needed a Saviour.  And this was God’s program when He designed these outward entities, like Israel of old, or the New Testament churches.  Of course we know that the evangelization of the earth did not take place officially until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 33 A. D., but, nonetheless, there were Gentiles that entered in over the course of Old Testament history to become part of them (Israel).

So these men of Shechem were correct, and they were doing everything they were told.  They were ignorant of the true Gospel.  All they knew was that these men were peaceable, and they were upright in their character.  The sons of Jacob would not have worked on the Sabbath, and they would have distinguished themselves as identifying with the true God.  Although there was no literature, through their outward behavior and conduct, they would have had that reputation, and we see that when Hamor and Shechem spoke to the men of their town, but it was all deceitful.

Let us look at a couple other verses about “one people.”  Let us go to John 11:50-52:

Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

They would be “gathered together in one.”  That is who Christ died for, the “one people” for whom He paid for their sins.

One passage in the Old Testament also relates to this.  It says in Ezekiel 37:21:

And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

God would make them one nation, or one people.

Let us go back to Genesis 34, and read Genesis 34:22-24:

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 have mentioned this already, but it is good to reinforce our memory that circumcision was a sign of the covenant that God commanded to Abraham and his house, and all his (male) descendants from eight days old and older.  If there were male servants in the household, they were to be circumcised.  This was according to God’s command, and it basically is the equivalent to the New Testament era “water baptism,” and we can see this when we turn to Colossians 2 where God ties circumcision together with baptism.  It says in Colossians 2:11-12:

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

So we are buried with Christ in baptism, and we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.  That is a way of saying that it is really a spiritual circumcision that is required – it is the circumcision of the heart, and not of the flesh.  And the Lord does tell us that in Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Circumcision it not outward, which would be physical, but it is inward, of the heart, or in the spirit.  And that is why it is a circumcision without hands.  To circumcise a child, hands are involved.  Today, when anyone is circumcised by a doctor, the doctor uses his hands.  But when God circumcises the heart, no hands are involved.  It is a spiritual matter.  It is a spiritual thing that has occurred in the life of an individual, and it is akin to being born again by having one’s sins washed away, and by receiving a new heart and a new spirit.  Anyone who has a new heart and new spirit is truly born again as a “spiritual Jew,” or a true Jew, as the Lord said of Nathaniel: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”  That is, there was no deceitfulness in his heart because his heart had been circumcised.  His sins had been cut away, and he had a new heart and a new spirit.

So these men of Shechem were debating and discussing the Gospel at the gate of their city.  “Let us consent to these men, and let us be circumcised, and we will be one people.  We will be the people of God.”  So the men of the city hearkened unto them, and they were all circumcised.  They were physically circumcised, so we should not think they were necessarily spiritually circumcised.  Many Jews, for example, have received physical circumcision, but never experienced the spiritual circumcision of the heart, just as many professed Christians have received water baptism, but not the spiritual baptism done in the heart that makes them “new creatures.”  Historically, we cannot conclude that Shechem or any of these men were saved.  God said good things about Shechem, so it is possible.  Maybe He did save Him, but it would seem unlikely because they are just a figure of those that hear the Gospel and respond to it in an honorable way, but that Gospel is deadly to them because it is not the true Gospel of the Bible.  It is a works Gospel.