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The Profanation of the Covenant and the Peril of Pragmatic Religion (Genesis 34:18–24) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine walking into a bank, right, and you hand over this
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brilliant counterfeit $100 bill. OK, I'm with you.
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So to the naked eye, the thing looks flawless.
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I mean, it feels right between your fingers.
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The ink has that that slight raise texture, you know.
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Yeah, that passes a quick glance.
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Right. It even passes that quick swipe
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of the cashier's counterfeit pet.
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It looks like legitimate currency.
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But then they look closer. Yes, exactly.
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Wait. Well, precisely.
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When the bank teller holds it up to the light, the truth is
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exposed. The security thread is missing.
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Oh wow, the watermark is completely absent.
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What you have is a worthless piece of paper masquerading as
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something valuable. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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It's great to be here. We are so glad you were here
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with us for today's deep dive because we are looking at a text
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that acts as that bank tellers light.
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A very harsh light too. Yeah, it is.
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We are examining an intense and difficult biblical text today,
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Genesis chapter 34, specifically verses 18 through 24.
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And we are tackling this from a strict reformed theological
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perspective. Right adhering to the
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Westminster Confession of Faith, because the goal of this deep
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dive is to understand the perilous trap of mercenary
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religion. Which is such a relevant topic.
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It really is. Mercenary religion is well, it's
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the act of using holy ordinances for earthly pragmatic game.
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We're going to dissect the narrative of Hamor and Shechem
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to uncover how unregenerate hearts adopt outward compliance
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while lacking true inward faith. They fake the watermark
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basically. Yes.
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OK, let's unpack this, because while this is an ancient
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narrative, it's reflection of human nature is strikingly
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current. I mean, the counterfeit currency
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analogy captures the dynamic perfectly.
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It really sets the stage. It does.
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The theological stakes here are incredibly high because this
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text exposes the total depravity of the human heart in a way a
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few other passages do. Right, it's a very raw text.
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Yeah, it highlights the severe danger of Sacramento hypocrisy.
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We're looking at a historical moment where men use the sacred
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sign of the covenant as a commercial incentive.
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They put on a mask of piety to, you know, fill their pockets.
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Precisely an outward physical ritual, no matter how painful or
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precise, is utterly impotent to change a heart dead in sin.
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God is not mocked by those who treat His holy ordinances as
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tools for social or financial advancement.
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So true. To really grasp what is
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happening at the city gate in verses 18 through 24, we must
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establish the immediate historical and biblical context.
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We have to ask why these men are negotiating in the 1st place,
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right? Right.
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The situation starts with a horrific, violent act.
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Shechem, the son of him or the Hivite, has defiled Dinah, the
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daughter of Jacob. He saw her, seized her and
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violated her. That sets a very dark stage.
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I mean, we are not talking about a simple misunderstanding
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between neighbors here. We are talking about a severe
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moral crime. Yeah, a severe crime that
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demands justice. But instead of justice, we see a
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political maneuver. To fix the situation.
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Right. Or rather, to extract revenge
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under the guise of religion, Jacob's sons deceitfully demand
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that all the men of Shechem be circumcised.
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They tell him more and Shechem that they can't give their
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sister to an uncircumcised man. And that intermarriage between
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the two peoples can only happen if every male in the city
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undergoes this religious right. Which brings us to verses 18 and
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19. They reveal A terrifying
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response from the perpetrators. Hamor and Shechem hear this,
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demand they hear that they have to undergo this massive, painful
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religious right, and the text says their words were pleasing
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in their sight. Is mind boggling when you think
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about what is actually being asked of them.
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Oh, it is entirely unnatural unless you understand the
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motivation. The linguistic analysis of the
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Hebrew is quite revealing on this point.
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What does the Hebrew say? Well, the verb used there is
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yabab, which means to be good, to be well, or to be pleasing.
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However, this proposal was only good subjectively.
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It was a functional means to an earthly end.
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Spot on. There is absolutely no
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theological inquiry in their response.
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Think about how a true conversion works.
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Right when a person is confronted with the living God,
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there is trembling, there's conviction of sin.
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There is a desire to know the character of this God.
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Hemor does not ask about the character of Israel's God.
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He doesn't care. Not at all.
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He does not inquire about the spiritual reality or the meaning
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of the covenant sign. He simply sees a transaction
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that pleases him because it solves his immediate political
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and personal problem. Wow.
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Furthermore, the Hebrew root or is used when the text says
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Shechem did not delay in doing the thing.
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So he was rushing into it, yeah. This shows a feverish, reckless
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urgency. He is driven by carnal lust, not
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covenantal love. Let me stop you right there to
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make sure we are connecting these dots.
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You mentioned Total Depravity earlier.
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I did, yes. When we use that term, a lot of
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people think it means human beings are as evil as they could
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possibly be all the time. Right, which is a common
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misconception. But that is not what the
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Reformed doctrine of total depravity actually teaches,
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right? How does Shechem's eager,
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undisciplined rush to get circumcised illustrate the
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actual mechanics of total depravity?
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That is a crucial distinction to make.
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Total depravity does not mean utter depravity.
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It does not mean every person is basically a serial killer.
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OK, So what does it mean? It means that every part of the
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human faculties, the mind, the will, the emotions, the
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affections, is tainted and corrupted by sin.
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There is no part of the human condition that escapes the fall.
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Precisely so, looking at Shechem, his affections are
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entirely corrupted. His delight, his eagerness, is
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severed from the glory of God. He is excited to participate in
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a religious sacrament, but his excitement is entirely carnal.
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Yes. He simply wants to manage the
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consequences of his sin and secure the object of his lust
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under a respectable arrangement. He's using religion to sanitize
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his depravity. That makes perfect sense.
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I mean, this is like a modern PR firm stepping in after a massive
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corporate scandal. Oh, that's a great comparison.
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Right. Imagine an executive who commits
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a terrible offense, massive fraud or harassment.
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Instead of the executive facing the music, the crisis management
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team swoops in. They do damage control.
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Exactly. Yeah, they tell the press.
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Let's not focus on the negative. Let's talk about synergy.
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Let's talk about how our two companies can share resources
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and build a brighter future together.
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They reframe the narrative. Yeah, they try to rebrand a
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crime into a mutually beneficial corporate merger.
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It points out how quickly human beings try to legitimize their
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sin through negotiation. They bury the moral outrage
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under the language of policy, partnership and progress.
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Right. The PR firm analogy is
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incredibly accurate because it deals with optics over
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substance, which is the essence of hypocrisy.
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So true, and the text also adds a small but significant detail,
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doesn't it? It does.
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It says Shechem was more honored than all the household of his
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father. He has serious social capital
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within his community. That detail about his honor is
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not throw away information. No, not at all.
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Worldly prestige often masks internal rot.
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In the hands of the ungodly, influence becomes a tool to
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recruit others into compromise. Your world operates on a
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specific logic. If a man is honored, wealthy and
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successful, his methods must be right.
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Yeah, we tend to trust the successful, but the text reveals
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that an honored man can be the primary architect of a people's
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destruction when he is driven by carnal motivation.
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Because his personal desire is about to be clothed in public
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authority, he cannot achieve his goal alone.
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Right. He needs the whole city to buy
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into his private sin. Which brings us to the next
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major phase of the narrative. The city gate.
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Yes. They take their private carnal
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motivation and turned it into public policy.
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And the city gate in the Ancient Near East was a huge deal,
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wasn't? It Oh, absolutely.
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It was the center of judicial and commercial authority.
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It was the boardroom, the courthouse, and the town square
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all rolled into one. So this is where the elder set,
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where legal cases were adjudicated and where major
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civic decisions were finalized. Verses 20 through 22 detail
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Hammer and Shechem's speech to the men of the city.
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They stand before the assembly and use the language of peace.
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What's the Hebrew word there? The word is Shalom, which
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conveys a sense of wholeness, safety and friendly relations.
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They talk about coexistence and mutual benefit, right?
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They tell the men, these men are at peace with us, let them dwell
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on the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough
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for them. Let us take their daughters as
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wives and let us give them our daughters.
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They frame the entire religious requirement as a massive civic
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opportunity for everyone listening.
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That is a brilliant political spin.
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They are selling a religious sacrament as a zoning permit and
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a trade agreement. It is the absolute deception of
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pragmatism. It really is.
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The rhetoric selectively highlights temporal advantage
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while entirely suppressing the moral reality of Dinah's
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defilement. Notice what is missing from
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their speech at the gate. There is no mention of the
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assault. Right.
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There is no mention to the outrage of Jacob's sons.
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The leaders dissolve a specific moral wound into the
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generalized, sanitized language of intermarriage and trade.
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They speak of room in the land and peaceful relations.
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What they were doing is reframing the situation entirely
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on their own terms, controlling the narrative to manipulate the
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populace. Because if you can bury the sin
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under the language of policy and prosperity, then the collective
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conscience of the city is much more easily silenced.
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Yes, the defilement of a young woman is absorbed into the
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broader promise of mutual profit.
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The evil evil itself is neither confronted nor confessed, it is
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just managed within a new social arrangement.
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You are hitting on the exact mechanism of how institutional
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sin functions. Yeah, the evil is managed, not
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repented of. But let's pause here and
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consider how an outside observer might view this.
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Actually, I want to play devil's advocate for a moment.
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OK, let's hear. Because reading this through
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modern secular eyes, you might ask, isn't civic diplomacy a
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good thing? Look at it from a purely
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geopolitical standpoint. You have two distinct groups of
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people who could easily go to war over what Shechem did.
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Bloodshed is on the horizon. Jacob's sons are furious.
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Hamor City is heavily populated. Right.
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To avoid a massive, bloody conflict, these leaders sit down
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and hammer out a peaceful compromise.
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They agree to share the land, share resources and intermarry.
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It sounds good on paper. In any modern conflict
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resolution seminar, this looks like a master class in de
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escalation. Why is this framed theologically
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as such a dark, deceitful moment in the text?
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That is the trap the text wants you to recognize.
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It looks like wisdom to the unrenewed mind, but peace
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without righteousness is no peace at all.
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Wow. OK, this peace was predicated
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upon a violent defilement and was being negotiated through a
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deceitful, pragmatic bargain. The leaders are not pursuing
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peace through righteousness, but peace without righteousness.
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That's a huge distinction. It is.
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Furthermore, we have to look at this through the lens of
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Reformed theology, specifically Chapter 5 of the Westminster
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Confession of Faith, which deals with Providence.
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What is the confession state there?
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It states that God, the great Creator of all things, upholds,
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directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions and
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things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise
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and holy Providence. So God is entirely sovereign
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over this negotiation at the gate.
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Yes, the theological stakes of this peace treaty are cosmic.
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God's severe Providence prevented this false peace from
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materializing. How so?
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What would have happened if this pragmatic peace treaty had
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actually worked out? If Jacob's family had merged
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with the House of Hamor through this purely pragmatic union, the
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distinct identity of Israel would have been swallowed up by
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paganism. It would have resulted in
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complete Canaanite syncretism. Yes, syncretism is the blending
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of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.
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If the seed of Abraham intermarried and blended with
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the Hivites, the holy seed would be destroyed.
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The distinct people through whom God promised to bring the Savior
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would cease to exist as a distinct people.
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This jeopardizes the foundational promise, well, the
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core promise of Genesis 3.15, the Protoevangelium.
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The promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of
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the serpent. The survival of the messianic
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lion was literally at stake at the city gate.
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God used the sinful wrath of Jacob's sons to prevent the
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assimilation of his covenant people.
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That reframes the entire narrative.
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We are not just looking at a local skirmish, we are looking
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at a threat to the lineage of Jesus Christ.
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It is a massive redemptive historical moment.
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And notice how Hamor and Shechem minimize the holy aspect of this
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agreement to make it palatable. In verse 22, they present
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circumcision as the only condition.
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They say only on this condition will amend consent to dwell with
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us. They frame it like a small
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administrative fee you have to pay to get a building permit.
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Just sign this one piece of paper, undergo this one quick
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procedure, and the land is. Ours they strip the covenant
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sign of all its theological weight.
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Circumcision was given by God to Abraham in Genesis 17 as a
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massive mark of belonging to the covenant community.
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It was a physical sign of a spiritual reality.
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Right the cutting away of the flesh, a symbol of purification
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and separation under the Lord. But in the mouths of Hemor and
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Shechem, it is turned into a simple administrative hurdle for
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a civic merger. The proposed oneness is entirely
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external. It is unity through arrangement,
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not unity through truth. Listen to their speech.
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There is no mention of the God of Abraham.
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There is no call to turn from Canaanite idols.
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There is no submission to divine revelation.
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The physical sign is accepted, but the spiritual substance is
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completely absent. Which brings up a massive
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logistical problem that I think anyone reading this text has to
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wonder about. How did Haymore and Shechem
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convince an entire city of adult men to undergo a painful,
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debilitating physical operation? Right, you do not get universal
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consent for adult circumcision just by talking about abstract
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concepts like peace and open trade roads.
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They had to appeal to something much stronger.
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They had to appeal to the ultimate human and idol to seal
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the deal. Greed.
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Yes, verse 23 is the climax of the persuasion.
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They look at the crowd of men and ask the deciding question.
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Will not their livestock, their property, and all their beasts
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be ours? That is the rhetorical linchpin
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of the entire negotiation. The Hebrew word used there is
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mickney, meaning livestock or property.
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In the ancient Near East, livestock was the primary
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measure of wealth, wasn't it? It represented immense,
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staggering economic power. That is the hook, Hammer and
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Shechem know the hearts of the men they are leading.
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They know that an appeal to morality or even mutual safety
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won't get them to endure the knife.
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But the promise of acquiring Jacobs immense wealth, that will
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do it. They are essentially promising a
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hostile takeover of Jacob's assets.
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Well, yes, that's it. And this raises an incredibly
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vital point about worship and sacraments, specifically when we
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apply this to Westminster Confession of Faith chapters 21
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and 27. Chapter 21 deals with religious
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worship, establishing that God may not be worshipped according
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to the imaginations and devices of men.
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And chapter 27 deals with the sacraments, stating they are
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holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace.
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What the Shechemites are doing is turning the sanctuary into a
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marketplace. By researching the usage of the
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word Mika throughout the book of Genesis, we see that this
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wealth, these flocks and herds, were a visible sign of God's
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blessing on the patriarchs. God blessed Abraham, Isaac and
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Jacob with Miknae. Hamor and Shechem are looking at
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the blessing, but they have no interest in the blesser.
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They are not seeking the God of the livestock, They are pursuing
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the livestock of the God fearing family.
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Religion is being violently pressed into the service of
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greed. A sacred sign instituted by the
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Creator is handled as a tool of earthly acquisition.
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So what does this all mean? This is where the ancient text
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jumps right off the page and stares us in the face today.
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It really does. Because you look at that and
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think how primitive, how greedy. But a staggering 2023 Lifeway
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Research study found that 52% of American Protestant churchgoers
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believe God will reward them with material wealth if they
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give money. Over half put that sink in.
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Every other person sitting in a Pew, statistically speaking,
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views their relationship with God as a financial transaction.
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This ancient greed is entirely modern.
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We've just dressed it up in nicer suits and better lighting.
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The statistics are a tragic indictment of modern
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evangelicalism, and they prove that the spirit of Shechem is
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alive and well. It is like joining an exclusive,
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wildly expensive Country Club simply to get access to their
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member directory for business contacts.
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That's a brilliant comparison. You buy the top of the line golf
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clubs, you pay the exorbitant monthly dues, you dress the part
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in the polo shirts and the khaki pants and you totally fake an
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interest in. Golf.
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All because you want to land a massive real estate deal with
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the club president. You do not care about the game.
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You do not care about the rules of golf.
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You are enduring the pain of the membership requirements solely
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for the financial payout at the end.
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You are faking the whole thing to get access to the malt.
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That is a great way to understand the dynamic of
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mercenary religion. The Country Club analogy
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perfectly illustrates the theological critique of both the
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prosperity gospel and certain strands of seeker sensitive
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pragmatism. These modern movements mimic
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Hamour's pitch at the city gate. They offer the perceived
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benefits of Christianity, community networking, a sense of
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purpose, financial blessing, health for while completely
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obscuring the offense of the cross.
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They lower the gates of the Church by presenting
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Christianity as a pathway to earthly success.
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Come to Jesus and your marriage will be fixed, your bank account
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will grow and you will achieve your destiny.
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It is the exact same pitch. Consent to this one condition
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and will not their livestock and property be ours?
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It is a theological tragedy. The world says use God to get
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gold, but the biblical reality, the clear teaching of Christ, is
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that you cannot serve God and money.
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When worldly advantage becomes the controlling motive of your
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heart, even the most sacred language and symbols of religion
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will be bent toward corruption. The Shechemites are invited into
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a collective selfishness. They are bound together not by a
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shared love for truth, but by a shared lust for property.
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And that same spirit haunts many pews today, where people gather
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not to worship the sovereign God, but to consume a religious
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product that promises to optimize their lives.
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And the terrifying part of the narrative is that the pragmatic
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pitch works perfectly. The promise of wealth fuels the
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crowd to do something completely irrational.
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Verse 24 shows the chilling efficiency of this pitch.
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It says all who went out of the gate of his city listened to him
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more, and his son Shechem and every male was circumcised all
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who went out of the gate of his city.
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The compliance is absolute, The unity is total.
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Every single adult male submits to the knife.
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But it is a unity of collective self-interest, not a unity of
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faith. They submit bodily to the
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condition, but the entire arrangement rests on a
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foundation of deception and greed.
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This mass compliance leads us directly into a major
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theological error that has plagued the Church for
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centuries, the error of ex opera oparato.
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Yes, let's pause on that Latin phrase, ex opera oparato.
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For anyone who hasn't taken a seminary class on Sacramento
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theology. How does that actually work?
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What are the mechanics of that belief?
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Ex. Opera Oparato translates
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literally to from the work worked.
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It is the belief that an outward religious act, a sacrament,
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confers grace objectively and automatically, regardless of the
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inward spiritual condition or faith of the person receiving.
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It it reduces grace to mechanics.
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Right, if you perform the ritual correctly, the grace is
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dispensed. Like putting a coin in a vending
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machine to get a soda, the narrative of the Shechemites
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shatters this false doctrine. Because the Shechemites endure
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severe physical pain, they perfectly execute the physical
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requirement of the covenant sign.
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But this proves that zeal, exactness and ritual, and a
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willingness to suffer do not equal divine grace.
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Because costliness is not the same as godliness.
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Spot on. Costliness is not godliness.
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A person may undergo massive inconvenience, pain, strict
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discipline and even social stigma for religious reasons,
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while their heart remains completely governed by pride,
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ambition or greed. The body bears the mark, the
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physical action is complete, but the conscience remains entirely
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untouched by the Spirit of God. Outward religious compliance
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when divorce from a regenerate heart is not a means of grace in
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fight, it is a precursor to divine judgement, as the
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Shechemites are about to find out when Simeon and Levi enter
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the city with swords. I really want you to ponder that
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concept for a second. Why would someone go through
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genuine, excruciating physical pain for something they do not
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actually believe? In it shows you how strong the
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idol of worldly advancement really is.
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It is strong enough to compel an entire city of men to bleed for
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a business deal. They literally shed their own
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blood just for the chance to acquire Jacob's livestock.
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It is a haunting display of profane compliance.
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You can lead for a religion you don't even believe in if the
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earthly payout is high enough. To properly address this
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terrifying reality, we have to draw a strict theological line
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between the national sign of Israel under the old
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administration and the New Covenant reality.
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The Apostle Paul addresses this exact issue in Romans chapter 2,
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verses 28 and 29. Paul writes.
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For no one is a Jew who is merely one out inwardly, nor is
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circumcision outward and physical.
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But a Jew is 1 inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the
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heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.
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True circumcision, true belonging to the covenant people
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of God, requires a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to cut
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away the deadness of the heart. It is not a commercial entry
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fee, the visible sign of belonging to the church,
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baptism, partaking in the Lord's Supper.
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Church membership can be externally possessed, while the
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inward reality is utterly lacking.
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External covenant administration, the real and
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commanded by God, cannot of itself produce inward covenant
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fidelity. A mark in the flesh or water on
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the forehead is not the same thing as a heart renewed by
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sovereign grace. If this text only exposes human
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greed and our tendency to fake religion for profit, it leaves
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you in total despair. It is a devastating diagnosis.
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It really. It's like the doctor pointing to
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the broken X-ray and saying, well, it's shattered and there's
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nothing we can do, but we have to move from that devastating
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diagnosis to the divine cure. This is where the theological
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analysis shifts gears. Because Reformed theology isn't
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just about pointing out how sinful we are, it's about
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pointing to the one who rescues us from that sin.
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Yes, and to make that pivot, we apply the Law gospel
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distinction. This is a vital hermeneutical
22:55
tool. The Law Gospel distinction
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teaches that the Bible speaks 2 primary words to us, the law
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which commands and condemns, and the Gospel which promises and
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saves. Here the narrative functions as
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law. It functions as a mirror.
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Theologians often call this the first use of the law.
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It exposes your own mercenary tendencies.
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How does this ancient narrative act as a mirror for a listener
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today? Well, it forces you to look at
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the times you might have played church for social standing.
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Have you ever used Christian values or vocabulary to sell a
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product in your business? Have you ever adopted A pious
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posture to win the favor of a Christian spouse or to please
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your parents while your heart was far from God?
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The law forces us to stand before the city gates of our own
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souls and confess that our motives are often as mercenary,
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as transactional, as those of the Hivites.
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We want the blessing without the blesser.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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How does this dark, violent, greedy text actually point to
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Christ? Because that is the central task
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of Reformed preaching and analysis, finding the redemptive
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history right. How do we get from a city of
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greedy, bleeding men in Genesis to the cross of Jesus Christ?
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We get there by looking at the striking contrast in the
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shedding of blood. Think about the contrast here.
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It is actually staggering when you put them side by side.
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The Shechemites shed their blood for the sake of greed.
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They attempted to hijack a covenantal blessing through
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deceit and self-interest, and it resulted in their absolute
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destruction. They bled to acquire the world.
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But look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true covenant
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keeper. He shed His precious blood for
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the sake of grace. He bled to give, not to get.
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Precisely, the prophet Isaiah tells us he was cut off from the
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land of the living, bearing the sword of divine justice in our
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place. Where the blood of the
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Shechemites was a profane sacrifice to the idol of greed,
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the blood of Christ is a perfect sacrifice of grace that actually
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cleanses the conscience from dead works.
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He does not create a holy people by an outward badge alone or by
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demanding we bleed for our own entry.
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He creates a holy people by the inward power of His Spirit,
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purchased by His own blood. Wait, let's unpack that, because
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that completely flips the script on how human religion normally
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operates. It really does.
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Every other religion, including the counterfeit Christianity
25:14
we've been talking about, says you bleed, you sacrifice, you
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pay the toll, and then God will give you the goods.
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But the Gospel says the exact opposite.
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God bleeds, God pays the toll, and God gives you the goods
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freely. That changes how you view the
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entire concept of justification. It changes everything.
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This brings us to Chapter 11 of the Westminster Confession,
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which defines justification meticulously.
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Justification is a forensic declaration.
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Let's break that down because forensic sounds like a crime
25:43
scene. In theology, forensic means a
25:45
legal courtroom declaration. It is God the Judge slamming the
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gavel and declaring the Sinner righteous in his sight.
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But this declaration is not based on our outward compliance
25:56
or our religious zeal. It is based solely on Christ's
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imputed righteousness US received by faith alone.
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Imputed righteousness. That means his perfect record is
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credited to our bankrupt account.
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Yes, it is placed onto our Ledger.
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Justification is not a reward for religious compliance.
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You do not need to bleed to be accepted into the covenant
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family. Christ has bled for you.
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You do not need to fake your way into the Kingdom.
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Christ has opened the door by His perfect obedience.
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Furthermore, understanding this forensic justification leads us
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to the third use of the law. If the first use is a mirror to
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show us our sin, what is the third use?
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The third use of the law is as a guide for the believer, for the
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person who is united to Christ by faith.
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They now obey God out of gratitude, not profit.
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The imperative, the the command to live a holy life is firmly
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grounded in the indicative, the reality of what Christ has
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already done. Your sanctification, your growth
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in holiness, is not a commercial transaction to win God's favor.
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You aren't trying to bribe God with good behavior.
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Your obedience is the natural fruit of being a branch grafted
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into the true vine. The Shechemite obeys to get
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rich. The Christian obeys because they
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have already been given the unsearchable riches of Christ.
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Bringing this all together, how does this apply to the local
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church? We've talked about ancient
27:12
history. We've talked about massive
27:13
theological concepts like total depravity and justification, but
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how does this hit the ground on a Sunday morning?
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The analysis we're looking at provides an incredibly practical
27:22
synthesis. It discusses the absolute
27:24
necessity of fencing the table, referencing the Apostle Paul's
27:28
warning in First Corinthians 11.27 about partaking of the
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Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner.
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Fencing the table is a vital practice in Reformed churches.
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It means the elders of the church must spiritually and
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practically guard the Lord's Supper.
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They must ensure, to the best of their human ability that
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participants are not approaching the communion table with the
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mercenary spirit of Shechem. The table is for repentant
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sinners who trust in Christ alone.
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You cannot come to the table seeking a social blessing, or
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trying to maintain a respectable image, or looking for a
28:02
pragmatic peace while your heart still loves the world more than
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the Savior. You can't take the bread and the
28:08
wine if you are just trying to get the livestock.
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That's right, there is also a severe call to church office
28:14
bearers here, the pastors and elders.
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They must guard the gates of the church just as the elder sat at
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the city gates in the ancient world.
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They must reject seeker sensitive marketing tactics that
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mimic Hammer's pitch. They must maintain theological
28:28
fidelity over numerical growth. Leadership can become an
28:32
instrument of communal corruption when it is severed
28:34
from the fear of the Lord. Because if a pastor stands in
28:37
the pulpit and says come to our church, we have the best
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networking, the best programs, and God will bless your
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business, he is acting like Hamor, not like a shepherd of
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Christ. When a church lowers the
28:47
requirements for membership to accommodate worldly lifestyles,
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when it softens the call to take up the cross, it is luring
28:55
people into physical compliance without demanding spiritual
28:58
repentance from their sin. It is creating a congregation of
29:02
Shechemites willing to go through the motions for the
29:05
benefits, but completely devoid of saving faith.
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Which brings us back to that counterfeit $100 bill we talked
29:11
about at the very beginning. You cannot perfectly see the
29:13
human heart. Only God can see the watermark.
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But you can, and you must examine the motives driving your
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own faith. We've spent this time looking at
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the extreme danger of mercenary religion, of treating God like a
29:27
vending machine or a business partner.
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A terrifying trap. It is.
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I want to leave you with a final, lingering question to
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consider long after this audio ends.
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Think about your own life, your own attendance on Sunday, your
29:39
own prayers. If your faith suddenly brought
29:41
you social exile and economic ruin tomorrow instead of peace
29:45
and prosperity, would you still cling to the cross?
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Or would you realize your religion was just a transaction
29:50
waiting to be cancelled?