Today’s passage is Genesis 34:8-17. Hamor asks Jacob to give Dinah to Shechem and to intermarry with the Hivites. When Shechem says he will do anything to marry Dinah, Jacob’s sons tell him to circumcise himself and his men.
What compromises have you been invited to make?
What desire overwhelms you, blocking your ears to God?
When have you failed to call a halt to desire in order to pray for God’s will?
Hamor’s invitation of intermarriage is a threat to Jacob’s identity as the leader of God’s people.
Shechem’s promise to give anything and do anything in order to possess Dinah is the same thoughtless promise of King Herod to his stepdaughter.
Jacob’s sons’ plan of revenge against Shechem is yet another Biblical example of prideful revenge.
All three--Hamor, Shechem and Jacob’s sons--are acting out of self-centred motives of greed. And Jacob is silent in all this, unwilling to follow God, trust in God and make the stance he needs to in the face of Hamor’s deadly compromise, Shechem’s lust, and his sons’ desire for vengeance.
I keep failing to read God’s word throughout my day.
Today at the chiropractor I began the painful process of removing the physical symptom of stress in my neck and shoulders, which is the result of trying to carry my school on my shoulders, of trying to do my very best with my power, not God’s.
For months I have been losing sleep until insomnia sent me to a psychiatrist. Excruciating pain in my left scapula sent me to an osteopath who drove needles directly into my bone and prescribed medicine and physiotherapy.
The psychiatrist finally told me I needed to go to a chiropractor to work on my neck because I had a stress problem that needed what he couldn’t give.
I abandoned the osteopath’s ineffective treatment and headed for the chiropractor my wife and I have gone to for years.
From just one treatment I’m able to sleep for most of the night.
What I have in my neck and shoulders is literally bony lumps of stress that can be broken with treatment. It hurts. A lot.
But it is a reminder of how I failed to attend to God’s word in my life.
In my school, I teach our teachers to understand a little of how the brain works, what prevents its good operation and what basic technique helps restore the brain’s healthy function.
The technique is focused breathing. It takes a spinning, unfocused mind and calms it by focusing it on the in and out of breathing, gently bringing the focus back to the breath when the mind wanders away, which it continually does.
There is nothing new or radical about any of this. The only problem is getting all the teachers and all the students to do it regularly and consistently, but it’s coming. One day, it will be normal.
I, as the spiritual leader of the school, need a lot more than simple breathing.
The accumulation of stress in my body has shown me that I took on more than I needed to or should have.
I tried to carry the school instead of God. God sent me to that school for his purposes and my training.
In the last few months I have not seen what it was I needed to be doing according to God’s will so that things would go the way He wanted. Now I do.
Instead of breathing alone, I need to be taking regular breaks to read the Word, especially the daily QT passage.
Just as I repeat my focused breathing, I need to repeatedly read the Word.
In God’s word, I will find all that I need.
That is his promise. I will find peace, guidance, chastisement, encouragement, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, joy, love.
I didn’t see how I had gone astray just like Jacob.
Loss of sleep and a bit of pain have served to bring me back to my God senses.
Application: read the Word three times a day at work and reflect on it.
Lord, take my burden from my shoulders as you promised when I came to you. Let take your yoke instead.
