Part two: GET OFF THE FENCE!
Let me remind you of the challenges of this message.
I believe that it is time for the children of God to arise, and get ourselves up from the place of complacency in our Spirit and in our flesh, and ’get off the fence!’
I believe that it is time for the Church of the Living God to step up to her place and become what God intended for her to be!
I believe that it is time for “THE SANCTUARY” to ARISE FROM HER SLUMBER, GET OFF OF THE FENCE OF MEDIOCRITY, AND BECOME THE CHURCH OF DESTINY THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN OF SO MANY TIMES!
Let’s get ready to grow together
as we learn how to be pleasing to God!
Let me give you some bio-background here: Shechem, is a location in the area of Canaan, that is mentioned several times in the Bible, 66 to be exact.
The word means ‘a ridge’ in Hebrew.
The best way that I know to describe a ridge is that place along the top of mountains, or hills that makes up the ‘backbone’ of the high place.
It’s not difficult for me to see that ridge as the ‘top of a fence line.’
So, in this series of messages, when you see Shechem, think about the FENCE.
Now turn to the Book of Genesis Chapter 35:
For a little more interesting background, Let’s find out what went on in Chapter 34.
Interestingly enough, there is a situation that takes place that causes us to consider the fence issue again, but in another light.
Check this out. Dinah, is Jacob’s daughter, and she and some of the girls went out about town one day, as they were there, a man named SHECHEM, -go figure-, sees her, and lusts after her to the point of taking her into his house and defiling her. (He became sexually intimate with her.) Problem: SHECHEM IS A HIVITE. Not an Israelite. BIG PROBLEM. Jacob found out and was very angry. He waits till evening, and the brothers of Dinah find out as well, and they go out into the field, and question SHECHEM AND HIS DAD HAMOR. Hamor comes up with an idea that Shechem should have Dinah as His wife, and they should mix marry with the Israelites.
In this place, Shechem represents THE FENCE LINE OF compromise.
· Come on, folks give a little.
· Relax your rules,
· let down your guard.
That is exactly what the ENEMY OF YOUR SOUL, SATAN wants us to do.
· Relax our guard.
· Let down a little.
· Give in for a while.
· It’s ok. A LITTLE OF THE WORLD CAN’T DO THAT MUCH DAMAGE.
· It’ll be all right. A LITTLE BIT WON’T HURT.
DON’T YOU DARE DO IT FOLKS, DON’T YOU DARE COMPROMISE WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE RIGHT!
The boys and Jacob say ‘no way’, these guys are ‘uncircumcised’. They aren’t God’s people. Then they convinced the men of that area to be circumcised in order to mix marry.
While the men were still recovering from their circumcision, Simeon and Levi ~ Dinah’s brothers, and Jacob’s sons, go and kill all of the men of that area, in response to Shechem’s defiling Dinah.
There’s a penalty to compromising in sin folks, and the scriptures make it plain:
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Those wages have not changed, they are still death for sin. Eternal life for Righteous living. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH RIOTOUS LIVING!
Are you at Genesis 35 yet? Let’s read His Word!
Genesis 35:1-15 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. (2) Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: (3) And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. (4) And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. (5) And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. (6) So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. (7) And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. (8) But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth. (9) And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. (10) And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. (11) And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; (12) And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. (13) And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. (14) And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. (15) And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
Punch your neighbor, and tell them,
“GET OFF THE FENCE!”
Genesis 35:1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
To bring us into the picture with Jacob, let me tell you where He currently is. He is dwelling in Shechem (v.4) when He hears from the Lord in verse 1 of Gen. 35.
Shechem is known as ‘the ridge’. That’s what it means.
God told Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there:
Bethel is known as ‘the house of God’. This is where this series has come from. “GET OFF THE FENCE!”
God, in effect, told Jacob, to get off the ridge, to get off the fence line, and get in to the house of God!
He told Jacob to get off the fence, and go to the house of God and settle there.
Jacob the deceiver was now known as Israel ~ “He struggles with God” also, (He rules with God)
As Jacob – now Israel, obeyed God, God changed him from a deceiver to a Ruler (v10), He blessed Israel, and confirmed that blessing by renewing the covenant (promise) by multiplying Israel’s seed (v.11), and inheriting the land of Canaan.
What I want you to see is this:
“When Jacob got off the fence; (WHEN HE left shechem), God blessed Him at Bethel (the house of God).
When you leave the place of compromise in your life, and you begin to get your priorities in order spiritually, and physically, then blessings abound!
When you GET IN TO THE HOUSE OF GOD, the blessings begin flowing, and the river of abundance is headed toward you, as opposed to away from you!
Getting off the fence, and choosing God will TURN YOU AROUND, LITERALLY!
Shout, I’m getting off the fence!
Somebody needs to get off their fence of compromise today!
Somebody needs to get off the fence of dabbling in the world today!
Somebody needs to get off the fence of indecision, and pour your life into serving God, TODAY!
IF that someone is you, then GET OFF THE FENCE, AND COME TO THE ALTAR NOW!
Don’t wait, don’t delay, don’t keep playing a spiritual balancing act, come NOW!
GET OFF THE FENCE!
