Daily Devotional #1

Day 17

Today we are continuing in Genesis, Matthew, and Psalms.

One day, Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see the women of that place. She was seen by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area. Shechem took Dinah and raped her. But he was so attracted to her that he fell in love and began expressing his feelings to her. He told his father, "Please get this girl for me so that I can marry her." Jacob learned that Shechem had done this very bad thing to his daughter. But all his sons were out in the fields with the cattle. So he did nothing until they came home. Then Shechem's father, Hamor, came out to talk with Jacob. In the fields Jacob's sons heard the news about what had happened. They were very angry because Shechem had brought shame to Israel by raping Jacob's daughter. They came in from the fields as soon as they heard about the terrible thing Shechem had done. But Hamor talked to Dinah's brothers and said, "My son Shechem wants Dinah very much. Please let him marry her. This marriage will show we have a special agreement. Then our men can marry your women, and your men can marry our women. You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own the land and to trade here." Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah's brothers and said, "Please accept me. I will do anything you ask me to do. I will give you any gift you want if you will only allow me to marry Dinah. I will give you anything you ask, but let me marry her." Jacob's sons decided to lie to Shechem and his father because Shechem had done such a bad thing to their sister Dinah. The brothers said to them, "We cannot allow our sister to marry you because you are not yet circumcised. That would bring us shame. But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us. Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women. Then we will become one people. If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah away." This agreement made Hamor and Shechem very happy. Shechem was very happy to do what Dinah's brothers asked. Shechem was the most honored man in his family. Hamor and Shechem went to the meeting place of their city. They spoke to the men of the city and said, "These people want to be friends with us. We want to let them live in our land and be at peace with us. We have enough land for all of us. We are free to marry their women, and we are happy to give them our women to marry. But there is one thing that all our men must agree to do. They must agree to be circumcised as they are. If we do this, we will become rich from all their cattle and other animals. We should make this agreement with them so that they will stay here with us." All the men who heard this in the meeting place agreed with Hamor and Shechem. And every man was circumcised at that time. Three days later the men who were circumcised were still sore. Two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, knew that the men would be weak at this time. So they went to the city and killed all the men there. Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem's house and left. Jacob's sons went to the city and stole everything that was there because of what Shechem had done to their sister. So the brothers took all their animals, all their donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. The brothers took everything those people owned. They even took their wives and children. But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have caused me a lot of trouble. All the people in this place will hate me. All the Canaanites and the Perizzites will turn against me. There are only a few of us. If the people in this place gather together to fight against us, I will be destroyed. And all our people will be destroyed with me." But the brothers said, "Should we let these people treat our sister like a prostitute? They were wrong to do that to our sister!" (‭Genesis‬ ‭34‬:‭1-31‬ ERV)

God said to Jacob, "Go to the town of Bethel. That is where I appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau. Live there and make an altar to honor me as El, the God who appeared to you." So Jacob told his family and all the other people with him, "Destroy all these foreign gods that you have. Make yourselves pure. Put on clean clothes. We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to the God who has always helped me during times of trouble. He has been with me wherever I have gone." So the people gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and they gave him all the rings they were wearing in their ears. He buried everything under an oak tree near the town called Shechem. Then Jacob and his sons left that place. The people in the surrounding cities wanted to follow and kill them, but God filled them with such great fear that they did not go after them. So Jacob and his people went to Luz, which is now called Bethel. It is in the land of Canaan. Jacob built an altar there. He named the place "El Bethel." Jacob chose this name because that is the place where God first appeared to him when he was running from his brother. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died there. They buried her under the oak tree at Bethel. They named that place Allon Bacuth. When Jacob came back from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. God blessed Jacob and said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but I will change that name. You will no longer be called Jacob. Your new name will be Israel. " So God named him Israel. God said to him, "I am God All-Powerful, and I give you this blessing: Have many children and grow into a great nation. Other nations and other kings will come out of you. I gave Abraham and Isaac some special land. Now I give the land to you and to all your people who will live after you." Then God left that place. Jacob set up a memorial stone there. He made the rock holy by pouring wine and oil on it. This was a special place because God spoke to Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Bethel.