Prayer: Father, You created sex to be beautiful. It becomes ugly when man perverts your original plan. Open my eyes to see sex from Your perspective. In the name of Yeshua, amen.
Reading: Genesis 34 key: vs. 31
31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”
Attention: Today’s study takes us into a very contemporary topic regarding sex trafficking and preying on women, men, girls and boys. God hasn’t yet given the Law or Torah to Moses. Yet, man has already grown an aversion to God and His ways. We saw earlier that Jacob was told by his parents (Isaac & Rebecca) not to take a wife “from the daughters of Canaan” (Genesis 28: 1). His brother Esau however, overheard the conversation, and despite his parent’s advice, “he saw that the daughters of Canaan were contemptible in his father Isaac’s eyes. So, he went (to them) the daughters of Ishmael” (28: 8-9).
To add to the offense of intermarriage between Adonai’s chosen people and nations who served other gods, here we see another culture lusting and raping Dinah, a daughter of Jacob and Leah. Her brothers were offended and hatched a plan, seeking revenge.
I find it interesting that Jacob seems rather casual and concerned when Dinah’s brothers kill the offenders and the men associated with the offender. His concern, “You’ve brought trouble on me, making me a stench among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am but a few men—they together against me and strike me—then I’ll be destroyed, my household and I.”
He is concerned about reprisal from the Canaanites and Perizzites. File this thought about Jacob’s concern when we get to the book of Joshua later this year. What was God’s command as they enter the promised land? Did they fulfill God’s command to possess the land (Joshua 1)? What was the people’s response to Joshua (1:16-18)? “All that you have commanded us, we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.”
In my own life, when I have gone my own way, made my own decisions, life hasn’t worked well. Life didn’t work will for the people of Scripture when they chose to go their own way. As we study the Torah together, there is going to be much more than the Ten Commandments. The Torah is comprised of the first five books of the Bible:
- Bereshit (meaning in the beginning) or Genesis
- Shemot (meaning names) or Exodus
- Vayikra (meaning He called) or Leviticus
- Bamidbar (meaning in the desert) Numbers
- Devarim (meaning words) Deuteronomy
The five books together compose the Torah. Let’s make a paradigm shift in our thinking about the Law of God.
Action: I will invite the Holy Spirit to transform my mind and thinking about the Torah.
Yield: I am yielded when I allow the Holy Spirit to transform my thinking about Adonai, man, sin and salvation.
Engaged: I am engaged with the Holy Spirit when I invite Him to transform me from the inside out!
Relationship: Full relationship is obedience to the Torah, the Law of God.
Prayer: Father, help me to see the purpose and fullness of Your Torah, Your Law. Help me to be obedient to Your Law. Amen.
Memory Verse: Proverbs 8: 35-36
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from Adonai.
36 But whoever fails to find me harms his life—
all who hate me love death.”
Music Video: Michael Ketterer—Spirit Lead Me https://youtu.be/ABWnLjXer10
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”