{"id":16458,"date":"2021-06-29T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_34_1-17-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-27T00:05:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T07:05:01","slug":"genesis_34_18-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_34_18-31\/","title":{"rendered":"What Rage Can Do and Why We Must Get Rid of It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 34:18-31\u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 34:18-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Genesis 34:18-19 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 18-19:\u00a0 Verse 19 describes Shechem as a young man \u201cwho was the most honored of all his father\u2019s household\u201d (v19), which suggests that Shechem was a man of reputable status among his people.\u00a0 That Shechem would succumb to the temptation to sexually molest Dinah and rape her is a reminder that\u00a0no matter how high ranking, powerful or well respected a person may be, no one is immune from temptation and anyone can fall into sin if not careful.<\/strong>\u00a0 But praise God that whenever we are tempted God always provides a way out.\u00a0 As 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:\u00a0 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”<\/p>\n

Genesis 34:20-31 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us.”
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.<\/em>
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 20-31:\u00a0\u00a0Jacob\u2019s sons execute their deceptive plot.\u00a0\u00a0While Shechem, Hamor and all the males in their city are recovering from circumcision, two of Jacob\u2019s sons Simeon and Levi take swords and kill all the males in the city, including Shechem and Hamor.\u00a0\u00a0They also plunder the city and kidnap all their women and children (v29).\u00a0\u00a0Jacob’s sons did all of this in retaliation for Shechem raping their sister Dinah.\u00a0\u00a0Out of rage and revenge, Jacob\u2019s sons end up hurting far more people and committing far more injustices than the hurt and injustice that was originally inflicted upon their sister Dinah and their family.<\/p>\n

That what rage and revenge can do.\u00a0\u00a0Rage and revenge can give us a skewed sense of justice where now we feel justified to inflict far more pain and cause far more damage than the original pain and damage that was inflicted on us.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Think of mass shootings that take place in the United States where the shooter thought he was justified to take out his pain by killing people who had nothing to do with the original hurt they were suffering from.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder Paul says in Ephesians 4:31-32, \u201cGet rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there someone you have rage toward that you need to forgive?\u00a0\u00a0Instead of hanging onto rage and plans of retaliation, remember the mercy that God had on you, how He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You will never have to forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.\u00a0\u00a0The distance between you and God was far greater than the distance between you and the person who hurt you.\u00a0\u00a0So that you can move on with your life and not be a slave to your past hurts, you need to forgive.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for showing me today that rage and retaliation are not the answer when I am hurt, that they only make things worse.\u00a0\u00a0Help me God to forgive those who hurt me, knowing that I will never have to forgive anyone more than You have already forgiven me.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 34:18-31.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Genesis 34:18-19 (NIV)
\n18\u00a0\u00a0Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
\n19\u00a0\u00a0The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.<\/p>\n

On verses 18-19:\u00a0 Verse 19 describes Shechem as a young man \u201cwho was the most honored of all his father\u2019s household\u201d (v19), which suggests that Shechem was a man of reputable status among his people.\u00a0 That Shechem would succumb to the temptation to sexually molest Dinah and rape her is a reminder that\u00a0no matter how high ranking, powerful or well respected a person may be, no one is immune from temptation and anyone can fall into sin if not careful.\u00a0 But praise God that whenever we are tempted God always provides a way out.\u00a0 As 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:\u00a0 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16459,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16458\/revisions\/16459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}