Gen 34:10, Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it, and acquire property in it." 
We continue, this week, with our consideration of this passage in the context of what was done, by God, despite the attempted direct human interference of the sons of Jacob. Because of their anger over their sister’s rape, Dinah’s brothers conceived a plan of retribution which ultimately led to the utter destruction of Shechem and his people. While the brothers had taken revenge into their own hands, God was still the ultimate Victor in terms of giving protection to His Chosen People. What the sons did, not only served to alienate the family of Jacob from the inhabitants of the land, but ultimately forced them to move, as we will see, to Bethel, at the commandment of the Lord. 
There is a principle in motion, within this account, that we dare not overlook. While the actions of the brothers were entirely reprehensible, it served to keep a separation between the people of God and those who would try to infest and to hijack the promised lineage of what God was doing. Even in this beginning activity of God to create a people unto Himself, there was a counter insurgency that was very active to try to derail His plan and purpose. We want to see that there was far more at stake than just the retribution for the rape of Dinah.  
Even in the request that Shechem be allowed to marry Dinah, an insidiousness of purpose was proposed and initiated in the minds and the hearts of the gathered people of that city. What was suggested was infused with the very core of what those Canaanites thought would be their gain and the Lord’s frustrating loss. The brother’s deceitful response played directly into the schemes of those Canaanites. Gen 34:15+16, Only on this condition will we consent to you: if you will become like us, in that every male of you be circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people.
It was the idea of the incorporation of the Children of Israel into the ranks of the Canaanites that set their pagan minds racing with the possibilities of taking from Jacob’s family all their possessions and their blessing from God. While the brothers did not truly intend to follow through, the possibility of that compromise and incorporation into the manner of this realm was still at the heart of the whole matter.
As we read in Gen 34:21-23, the people of Shechem were persuaded to circumcise themselves for the gain of the Israelite’s property and eventual submission. "These men are friendly with us; therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage, and give our daughters to them. Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will live with us." 
While the commandment of the Lord to remain separated from the rest of the nations with all their vile and corrupting influences had not yet been formalized, there was still something in the hearts of the patriarchs that kept them from seeking to invest themselves and their children into the nations that surrounded them. They were led, as we have seen with Abraham and with Isaac, to not seek the daughters of the land for their son’s wives and to not invest themselves into the earthly entanglements that such marriages would entail. It was an internal sense that the Lord would not be pleased, nor would He so bless such a thing.
When the ordinance was formally given by God to His people, through Moses, it was to be very strictly enforced and obeyed for their very own protection and blessing. Please turn in your Bibles to Deut 7:1-8. Deut 7:1-8, "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 
You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. The Lord was very specific and absolute in His command that His people guard themselves from becoming entangled or blended with the other nations of this earth. They were His Chosen people, His heritage on the earth. They were to be the testimony of Who the One True and Living God of all creation is. They were to be seen as a people who lived life in a completely different manner than the rest of the nations. They were to be removed from all the godless ways of this realm and to remain a pure and unadulterated witness of the holiness and the righteousness that is the blessing of God on this earth.  
As well, God was very specific as to what would happen if they did not practice such a separation from the entanglements and the connections and the ways of this realm. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods… If they did not keep separated unto God, they would soon turn their hearts and their minds and their ways away from God Who had been so faithful to His Promises to the patriarchs. … but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Sadly, as we will read throughout the pages of the Old Testament, His people did choose to be like the other nations of the earth, even to the point of rejecting God as their King and choosing to be ruled by a man, just like all the other nations around them. Just as the Lord warned them, they did turn away from Him and from His blessing upon them to continually strive after the ways of the other peoples on earth, turning their backs upon God and His love and His faithfulness and His grace and His divine providence. 
This was so even with the wisest man who was to rule over any nation, King Solomon. Please turn to 1 Kings 11:1-8 and follow along in your Bibles as we read of how all that God declared, came to reality, despite even the greatest of the wisdom of mankind. 1 Kings 11:1-8, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 
Every warning given by God with regard to what would happen if the people intermingled with the nations of the earth came to pass. It was to the point that, as was promised …then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. The nation of Israel was splintered asunder and then overrun and made captives of the ruling nations of their devastation. 
There did remain that remnant, however, which held to the course of the Lord’s way as His people. We see that evidenced after the exile as those hearts were turned again to all that would please the Lord. Ezra 10:10-12, Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. Now, therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives." Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, "That's right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do. 
	When Ezra challenged those who remained to separate themselves from those entrapments with which they had bound themselves, they all agreed that it was the proper thing to do in the eyes of the Lord. They severed their ties with the elements of their bondage to this realm and turned again to that which would please and honor God.
	This is something that we must take to heart as Christians. While the following passage is so often misused to describe marriage, it is best viewed in terms of the entire context of all the earthly affections of the heart after the things of this realm. 2 Cor 6:14-18, Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. 
	The Apostle continues with the all-encompassing completion of this thought in Chapter 7, verse 1, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Our separation is from the affection of the things of this realm. We are not to be bound up together with any of those things of this world which would serve to pull our hearts from the Lord, just as was ordained in the full removal of those elements surrounding the Children of Israel. We are not to touch or to dabble with those things which are not clean, no matter what disguise they may take. Our hearts are to remain focused only on that which will honor and please the Lord. 
	As we are charged by Our Lord Jesus, Himself, in Matt 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. We are not to allow ourselves to seek after what this world craves and promotes as necessary and needed and of value. All that we need will be supplied as we continue to seek to develop our living relationship with God in obedience to His Word and in complete line with that which is honoring and pleasing to Him. He is our Lord and He is the One we are to serve with all our beings.
	The Apostle Paul delineates this truth in his letter to Timothy. 1 Tim 6:6-10. If you would please follow along, 1 Tim 6:6-10. But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. 
	We are not to be lead astray with all the promises of what we can get in return for turning our backs and our hearts on the Lord. We dare not allow ourselves to follow the deceitful path of destruction so cunningly offered to the sons of Jacob and to all those who do hold fast to being wholly after the Lord God Almighty. He supplies all that we need as long as we continue to look to Him and not become enamored and tempted and lustful after the things of this age. It is for His blessing that we go forth in the contentment of the eternal riches of Christ Jesus as our goal and our heart’s desire. So be it.
Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it, and acquire property in it." Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Isa 40:3-5. A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. "Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Amen.