A Walk With God Up 34:19
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid
(December 22, 2020)
“And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter: and he was more honourable than all the house of his father.” (Genesis 34: 19, King James Version [KJV]).
Greetings in the Holy Name of Jesus Yahshuah,
My sisters and brothers we continually find ourselves standing at the crossroads of decision making hoping all will turn out well when we know at the onset we are wrong and standing opposed to God’s will for the flesh is weak. God’s dealings with the Patriarchs, all the fathers of the people whom God has chosen to carry out his plan for the redemption of mankind is how mankind is guided to deal with the problems of the generations—-the origin of man (Genesis 2: 4, KJV). We find ourselves here in Genesis on this walk with God up [34: 19, KJV], wherein a young man a prince of his people a distant cousin flesh is challenged by the arrival of Jacob and Leah’s daughter, Dinah (Genesis chapter 34). Possibly it had been a long time in coming to feel that way about someone - a knockout attraction and first impression that takes your breath away but nonetheless wrongly placed in your heart for you to deal within your own body. How can you deal with the wanton feeling of lust without facing the truth about how you reach out to God’s love and how you react to another’s response to your reach? I know the possibility of failure is dismissed and usually we proceed even so without caution and walk away from God feeling we are capable of conquering the world and all the glory of God Yahweh.
We walk on with God to leave that place in Canaan where Dinah, Jacob and Leah’s daughter lost her virginity to her distant cousin, Shechem. [Genesis 33: 17-19, KJV, “And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him an house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money.”]. Her brothers, Levi and Simeon strongly felt, “And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?” [Genesis 34: 31, KJV]. We find ourselves now, with Moses in Mount Sinai, “All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.” [Exodus 34: 19, KJV; Exodus 34: 2, KJV, “And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.”]. How do we deal with all first-borns belong to God including first-born animals? Do your children understand they belong to God?
We continually walk with God to receive inheritance in the land of Canaan “And the names of the men are these: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.” Numbers 34: 19, KJV. How do you deal with inheritance? What is your responsibility to God? We walk on with God to discover the emotional response when the book of the law was found, “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.” 2 Chronicles 34: 19, KJV; And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying, Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.”, 2 Chronicles 34: 20-21, KJV. How do you deal with your sinful nature? Do you repent; turn away from your sins to reconcile with God?
Most importantly, we walk with God up the 34: 19 to find out how we interact with others, those with power and authority over us. Do you act like or pretend that you have all the power as Satan did with Jesus? What happened in your heart? How difficult are you to deal with? (“How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.” [Job 34: 19, KJV]; If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words. Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? [Job 34: 16-18, KJV]). More importantly we find in our walk with God, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” [Psalm 34: 19, KJV].
In our walk with God up the 34: 19 we find the Prophet Jeremiah, who bared his soul to the readers of THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH because “among the Prophets Jeremiah standing alone dealt with the apostasy of his own people as he announced the coming destruction of Judah, he still looked beyond the judgment to a day when religion, no longer national, would be individual and spiritual. However, the judgment of the Prophet Jeremiah prevailed to the chagrin of the sinners of Judah during the decline and fall of the southern kingdom, Judah.” (Holy Bible, n.d.). In our research we find in Jeremiah 34: 19, KJV:
“The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;
I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.”
Moreover, the challenge to get right with God was the power of righteousness, “a new kind of religion resulting from God’s new covenant with his people.” (Holy Bible, n.d.). Jeremiah’s engagement in this new kind of religion with the people could have provided solace to those who felt the pain of the forthcoming power of destruction but the apostasy of the people was a dreadfully ostentatious trap that left the people incapable of hearing Jeremiah and incapable of helping themselves, to escape. [“Apostasy is: 1 : an act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith. 2 : abandonment of a previous loyalty : defection.” (merriam-webster.com, 2020)].
Notwithstanding, on this walk with God up the 34: 19, we find Ezekiel who received his call to ministry as a prophet-priest when he was carried into exile in Babylon. We discover a compassionate Ezekiel “halfway through the 48 chapters in his book speaking to a helpless people of the hope and certainty of restoration to their homeland and of worship again in the Temple.” (Holy Bible, n.d.): “And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.” [Ezekiel 34: 19, KJV]. Obviously, conditions were poor for Judah in captivity in Babylon. Maybe you have heard the saying, “You do not know hunger and thirst until you have ate your last meal and you have drank your last swallow of water. “
The Prophet-Priest Ezekiel continually served God’s people and spoke to them:
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;
Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.
And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.” [Ezekiel 34: 20-31, KJV].
In closing, I love the LORD GOD YAHWEH. HE heard my cry! Hallelujah! I thank you Lord Jesus Yahshuah.
Tremendously unspoken and unforeseen are the troubled waters that we are called to bridge over. For had it not been so, I would not have told you. Life for you is all in the making. And he who makes a good life undoubtedly engaged in the doing of good for righteousness sake. Let us pray:
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” [Matthew 6: 9-13, KJV].
