Hebrew 619, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. So it's a scriptural picture there, aren't you thankful for the anchor of salvation in the storms of life, no matter what happens in your life, no matter what storms come, your soul is secure, your salvation is settled and that's a wonderful comfort in every stage and season of life, isn't it? Turn with me back to Genesis 34 please and Genesis chapter 34, this is the first book of the Bible and we are going through it primarily on Sunday mornings but I felt I wanted to just finish the chapter off chapter 34 off today while it's fresh in our mind so that we can get into chapter 35 next Sunday morning and it won't be too long and we'll be into the life of Joseph and I'm certainly looking forward to that in chapter 37, kicking off our studies in Joseph's life as we continue through the book of Genesis. But I wanted to finish off the theme that we commenced this morning in Genesis 34, a sobering passage, a difficult passage and yet a very necessary passage and I hope you've seen already that there are important lessons for us to learn from these sections of the Word of God and we're dealing with the Dinah disaster, so the Dinah disaster part two tonight And let's reread the chapter so we can just get the account fresh in our minds again, we'll have a word of prayer, we'll briefly review what we covered this morning and then seek to learn what lessons the law would have for us tonight. This morning we really focused in on the sin of immorality, tonight if there's a main theme it'll be dealing with the issue of anger. and that'll come out of the passage tonight. Genesis 34 reading from verse 1 and we'll read responsibly tonight to keep us all alert and awake. I'll read verse 1, congregation reads verse 2 and we'll go back and forth like that to the end of the chapter. his soul claimed under Dinah the daughter of Jacob and he loved the damsel and spake kindly under the damsel Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter now his sons were with his cattle in the field and Jacob held his peace until they were come And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel, in lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. Make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren let me find grace in your eyes and what you shall say unto me I will give. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamel his father deceitfully and said because he had defiled Dinah their sister. But in this will we consent unto you, if you will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised. But if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter and we will be gone. 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. These men are peaceable with us, therefore let them dwell in the land and trade therein, for the land, behold, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours only let us consent under them and they will dwell with us. And it came to pass on the third day when they were sore that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males. sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister and all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives took their captive and spoiled even all that was in the house they said, should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? Genesis 34, the diner disaster, let's pray. Father, we ask for your blessing now upon our time in your Word, we thank you for the lessons that you taught us this morning in the first part of this chapter and Lord, I pray now for your help afresh. Lord, every time we gather together, every time the Word of God is opened, we have a sense of our need of your help. Lord, we are totally dependent upon you, the author of this book, to enlighten us, to grant us understanding, Lord, we ask that you would meet the need of the hour tonight, that you would speak to hearts. Lord, we have seen time and time again where you have just used the passage of Scripture we're up to in a series at a given time on a Sunday and so we just trust you for that tonight, that you would take the Word of God and minister it to every need and to every heart, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So in our message this morning we considered the first part of the chapter and this tragic event that took place in Jacob's family between Shechem and Dinah, his daughter. And tonight we really want to continue our study of the account and look at the aftermath and the fallout from that event and this morning we really focused on the issue of moral purity and of course the whole theme of being separate from the world and being careful about the world and its dangers and so this morning we dealt with that, the danger at Shechem and the danger of being close to the world. Jacob pitched his tent in front of the city or close to the city there and how that was a dangerous place and how that in time, Dinah was lured out into temptation and damaged there, very sad. Then we consider the defilement at Shechem and what took place there and emphasize the Bible's teaching on the matter of fornication and immorality. And tonight though, we really want to focus more on the problem of anger because what we have before us is one of the key examples in the Word of God of unrighteous anger, and what unrighteous anger can do. And so we're just going to, that'll come, we're going to get towards that in a moment, but we'll continue with our outline. So we're dividing the chapter into five sections, we looked at the first two points this morning, the danger at Shechem and the defilement at Shechem. Tonight we will continue look at the deception at Shechem, the devilry at Shechem, the actions of the two boys and then the damage at Shechem that took place there. So number three tonight, the third point in our outline, we're dealing with the deception at Shechem and this is found in verse 8 to 24 where a dialogue and a negotiation takes place between Jacob's sons Hamor and his son Shechem. Hamer and Shechem enter into negotiations here in good faith with Jacob and with Jacob's sons hoping that they will be able to reach an agreement where Shechem could marry Dinah and this is where Jacob's sons begin to err in their response to the situation and we've emphasized this before haven't we in previous messages, that God holds us responsible not just for our actions, but God also holds us responsible for our responses to the injustices, our responses to the various things that happen in our lives. And as we mentioned this morning, the fact that they were upset about what had happened to Dinah was only natural and even appropriate, but what they then did with that afterwards was of great concern and so we see this first aspect to the treachery that Jacob's sons were plotting here, there was deception involved. And so in verse 8 to 17 we have what I would call the deception presented. Here Hamel proposes that his son be able to marry Dinah but he goes beyond that, he sees an opportunity here to try and amalgamate the two peoples, to join them together. Now Hamor was not a righteous man himself and we get a hint at the motive in this in verse 23 when he's presenting the case to the men of the city as to why they should join with Jacob and with Jacob's clan, he says, let us consent under them and they will dwell with us.' So clearly his motive was to try and amalgamate with Jacob. Jacob was a man of great means, he had livestock, he had wealth and this was part of the motivation here of going beyond just a request for Dinah's hand in marriage to requesting that the Israelites and the Shechemites become one people. Now just hang on a second, right there we should see there's a problem. How can the heathen Shechemites and the Israelites, the believers in the one true God, come together? And that just shows how disingenuous and how unrighteous it was for Jacob's sons to even pretend to go along with this. And again we ask, where was Jacob in all of this? It should have been a very clear answer on this, I'm sorry Hamor, we cannot join together with you because we are the believers in the one true God, you are heathens, you are believers in idols and yet the sons were quite happy to go along here with this pretend negotiation with a hidden agenda. So Jacob's sons answered them deceitfully, the Bible says. So here we see the first part of the response that is wrong. What took place between Shechem and Dinah was wrong and to be angry at the sin that had taken place was an appropriate response but now to begin to use the arm of the flesh in the situation is also wrong and this is where we can make a bad situation much worse if we respond wrong to that situation. So there was deception involved here, they answered Hamor and Shechem deceitfully, they were intent here on murderous revenge. And we see that in verse 13 to 17, in this we will consent they say if you will be as we as we be and every male of you be circumcised. Now what was circumcision? Well it was a very important right between God and the nation of Israel, a sign and a seal of the covenant that he had with them. Do you see what Jacob's sons are doing here? They're taking something that was very special, something that was very sacred, something that was spiritual for the Israelite people, and they're going to use that spiritual, sacred thing as a cover for their murderous plot. That's a very wicked thing, isn't it? It's one thing to deceive someone, but it's even worse when you are using a spiritual cloak for your deception. and human nature hasn't changed, there are people still out there today that will sometimes use the name of God, they will sometimes use even the Christian faith or language about the Christian faith to mask an ulterior motive and a hidden agenda. So they lie to Hamer and his son and say that they're willing to consent to the proposal if only they will go through with the rite of circumcision. In reality, these men knew that by day three, they would be in a lot of pain and would be therefore incapacitated and vulnerable to attack on that third day. So we have the deception presented and then the deception accepted. in verse 18 to 24. The proposal here was accepted by Hamor and Shechem and again, it highlights the cruelty and the treachery of what Jacob's sons were doing. These men did not know the one true God of Israel and it's just a terrible thing what is going on here. So they go back to the men of the city and they present to them that this would be a good idea, obviously there was a motivation there on the part of Shechem to be able to marry Dinah, Jacob's daughter and then of course Hamel was interested in amalgamating the two peoples for his own personal gain and so they go back to the city and present this to the men. You'll notice that they have this discussion in the gate, you remember some of our studies from Israel and the importance of the gate and how official discussions would take place in the gate and decisions would be made in the gate and there's an acceptance here of the deception. And so really what we're seeing here and what we're going to continue to see is that the actions of Jacob's sons in response to the situation were not right and we need to remember that, that you do not correct a wrong by engaging in wrongdoing yourself. That is not God's way, it is not God's way for you to try and make a wrong right by doing a wrong yourself. got to be so conscious of that. You may even have a situation where there has been genuine injustice but you must be careful as a believer that you respond in a scriptural way and respond in a biblical way or you could actually do great damage to lives and to people. brings us to the next heading, the devilry at Shechem and I've called it devilry because there's no other way to describe just the barbarity and the butchery and the violent actions of Jacob's sons here. verse 25 to 29, and it came to pass on the third day when they were sore, the men were sore from that procedure, that two of the sons of Jacob, just two of them, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males. So what I want us to do here is look at their outward actions and then we're going to probe a bit deeper and look at their inward motivations. Okay, so let's look at their outward actions, let's see the terrible things that they did and then we're going to get to the heart of the problem and look at their inward motivations. So their outward actions, they slaughtered the Shechemites, they came there on the third day when the men were vulnerable, when the men were in the most pain and incapacitated, carried out a massacre of the entire city. How many people were there we don't know but it tells you how incapacitated those men were that just two of Jacob's sons were able to just to single-handedly put them to death and you see here that these were Dinah's full-blood brothers, okay, remember in the family of Jacob you've got half-brothers and so on, with the polygamous situation there. But Simeon and Levi were blood brothers of Dinah, they were hot-headed men, they were angry men and now they are concerned to take revenge, murderous revenge, upon the Shechemites. Now we should pause at this point and just note, that very often bloodshed and violence are fruits of immorality. How often do we see that in the Word of God and even in the world today, that bloodshed and violence is connected with immorality. David's immorality with Bathsheba brought about the death of Bathsheba's husband Uriah. Amnon's immorality with his half-sister Tamar resulted in Amnon being murdered by Tamar's brother Absalom. The immorality of Herod and Herodias led to the bloody death of John the Baptist. John Butler says, governments say we need more money to stop crime but the Bible says we need more morality. Governments say we need more programs to stop bloodshed but the Bible says we need more purity. It's true, isn't it? So often, violence abuse and all sorts of terrible things take place because of unwise choices to engage in immoral behaviour. So they slaughtered the Shechemites and then they spoiled the Shechemites, this means they took the booty, they looted the city and we notice here that now the other sons of Jacob get involved, verse 27, sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister.' So now we have the sons of Jacob, plural. So it seems that Simeon and Levi were the main perpetrators of the murders, they went in and slew all the men and now the sons of Jacob were happy to come along behind and be a part of the looting of the city and they took everything of value from the field, livestock and from the city, they even took the women and children as booty. Not a pretty picture at all, not a pretty picture at all. But I'd like us to probe a bit deeper here because there's a lesson for us, we can see the outward actions of these men and these ghastly actions of these men but let's now probe down into the inward motivations. And rage and anger were clearly the driving force behind this viciousness and violence perpetrated by Dinah's brothers. And isn't that the case today? That so often violence, terrible violence and murder and abuse is fuelled by ungodly rage. Could I just say this? Be very careful about anger in your life. In fact, don't underestimate what damage you can inflict on others if you allow unrighteous anger to boil unchecked in your life. aware of that. You say, well I'm just one of these people, I'm just like a shotgun, I make a big sound, I blow up and then it's all over. Yeah, it's all over for you but there's holes in everybody around you, pellet holes. And here we have carnage and we have wreckage and we have a disaster of a situation but underneath it all, it was the anger of Simeon and Levi that drove them to try and wreak vengeance on these Shechemites. Now we know they were angry from verse 7, they were very wroth but I want you to turn over for a moment to Genesis 49 and this really unmasks what was behind this because at the end of Jacob's life has some words for his sons. In fact, it's interesting to join Jacob at the deathbed here. Jacob is on his deathbed in chapter 49, he calls his sons together and he makes a pronouncement for each of his sons and it's very sobering and it's very accurate and he makes some predictions about their future life at times. He mentions Joseph in there, in fact, I think they're the verses we're memorising about Joseph being a fruitful vine and a fruitful bough there and how he had been hurt by the archers but his arms have been strengthened by the mighty God of Jacob. But look at what Jacob says, it's interesting isn't it, what's on his mind as he's about to pass into eternity here. And it's Simeon and Levi's turn to hear from Dad and his mind goes back to this incident that we're studying about in Genesis 34. Listen to what Father Jacob says here in verse 5 to 7, Simeon and Levi are brethren, Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret under their assembly. Mine honour be not thou united, for in their what? Anger they slew a man. And in their what? Self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed be their what? Anger, for it was fierce. And their what? Wrath, for it was cruel. Do you see the problem? Jacob knew what the problem was here and at the end of his life he's referring clearly back to this incident where Simeon and Levi butchered the Shechemites and Jacob says at the end of his life, this was terrible. He says, my soul enter not thou, come not into their secret. He acknowledges that there was this secret and this conspiracy and Jacob is making absolutely clear at the end of his life that this had no endorsement from him at all. that he was not a part of this wicked plan to wreak this vengeance on the Shechemites and he makes it very clear that the cruelty and the vile behaviour of his sons was because of their fierce anger and their fierce rage. And so, I think we could pause here and learn something about anger. What was behind these actions? What was behind the butchery of these men? Well, it was a burning anger, an ungodly anger and it led them to be very cruel. It's pretty staggering, isn't it? How cruel people can be when they're angry. Cruel verbally, cruel even sometimes in their actions. so you don't right the wrongs by committing a wrong yourself. And so, let's pause for a moment. Since this is one of the prominent examples of unrighteous anger in the Bible, let's remind ourselves of some of the key Bible lessons on anger. Are you ready? me just give you some thoughts on anger. Now, obviously, this is not an exhaustive study but let me give you some of the key points that I think the Bible, well, the Bible teaches on anger. Firstly, we could just think about the causes of anger. What is it that causes anger in our lives? And let me suggest that there are three flames that can get anger boiling in our hearts and lives. And this is adapted from Christian counselling material but it's very good. The first flame that can get anger boiling in our lives is hurts. Okay, we can see that in the chapter here. Injustices and mistreatments in our lives or in the lives of those we love. And again, we're not condoning what Shechem did to Dinah. and we should be righteously angry about the sin that had taken place. But do you understand the point I'm making? We are tempted to ungodly rage and ungodly anger and a spirit of revenge when there are hurts in our lives or hurts in the lives of others. When your rights are violated or the rights of someone you love are violated, you are going to be tempted to this kind of ungodly anger. so, I'm not saying we have to endorse sin, we should be angry at sin but then be careful that this does not turn into malicious, revengeful rage against the individual. Think about God and how God is, God loves the sinner and hates the sin. So if an evil injustice has happened in your life or in the life of someone you love, you don't have to go soft on that, you can clearly condemn that and call that out for what it is and say, I'm righteously angry against that sin, what this person did was wrong, but by God's grace I'm going to love the individual and pray for their salvation and seek to respond right. So hurts in our lives. When hurt comes into our lives, that can be a source of anger where we feel the injustice there instead of exercising forgiveness. Frustrations is the second flame of anger. ever get frustrated? In fact, I wonder whether sometimes we just excuse anger with the word frustration. I'm not angry, I'm just frustrated! Yeah, okay, it doesn't take long does it, before frustration turns into anger. What kind of things do we get frustrated over? Well, we tend to get agitated about things when things don't go our way. your schedule gets interrupted or your wants and wishes don't get fulfilled, I don't get what I want and that can be a source of anger in our lives, we can get angry and frustrated and start to boil in our lives because I am not getting what I want. I mean after all it's the end of the day, I've worked hard all day, I deserve to have half an hour of me time on the couch without an interruption. Do you realise that people actually talk about that today, I need me time. And I understand, sometimes you do need some quiet time, don't you, to catch your breath, but I'm just saying, as you think about it in life, so often you get angry when your personal rights or your personal wants are interrupted, you get frustrated, your schedule gets interrupted. some people don't mind that because they don't even know how to spell the word schedule and they're happy to be just as flexible as a rubber band. Okay, but for some of us who really love to run life by a schedule, sometimes we have to say, hang on a second, my schedule's not going the way I thought it should be but maybe God's hand's in this and I'll just submit to that Lord, keep me from getting frustrated and angry about this. The cause of anger hurts. going to be very careful when you see maybe a loved one hurt, you can go down to bitterness. Anger left undealt with turns to bitterness and to malice and guess who ends up getting destroyed? The person you're angry at or you? You. frustrations in my life, thwarted goals, my wants and wishes not fulfilled. A third flame that can get anger boiling would be fears, uncertainty of how things will turn out or anxiety, sometimes if we're very fearful about things that can fuel frustration and anger in our lives as we unnecessarily are anxious about things. So that's the causes, there's some causes of anger, what would be the consequences of anger? me give you a few points, a lot of these are out of Proverbs but anger if left undealt with can lead to a number of things. Firstly, hurting others. Proverbs 27 verse 4, wrath is cruel, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before envy? So if you allow anger to boil in your life, undealt with, it can lead to hurting others. Do you see how there's a clear connection in the Word of God between cruelty and anger? You say, how on earth could someone do such a heinous act, or such a cruel act, guarantee you there's boiling anger behind it? so Proverbs says, wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous. I thought, what does that mean, outrageous? I looked it up. We tend to use the word to, you know, say, oh what an outrageous thing to say. But the word outrageous actually has the idea here of an overflowing, like a flood, In fact, the same Hebrew word is translated, the overflowing of waters, Job 38.25 and floods, several times in Psalm 32.6, Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 11 and Nahum chapter 1. So, what we have here, when it talks about anger is outrageous, wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous, the picture here is of a bursting forth of a flood of anger. And have you ever seen that in someone's life? It's like the river overrunning its banks or the dam breaking up and the anger just pours out of someone's life and it damages people. Webster defines this word as meaning violent, furious, exorbitant, exceeding all bounds of moderations, as outrageous villainies, outrageous talk and outrageous abuse. So if you allow anger to dam up in your life, eventually it's going to burst out like a flood, that's the word outrageous there, and wreak havoc and damage in the lives of others. So that's exactly what we see in Simeon and Levi's actions. There was some boiling up of anger initially against what had happened but instead of taking that anger to God and submitting to the Lord in the situation and exercising forgiveness and trusting God in the situation, no, they allowed the anger to dominate their lives then we see the outrageous aspect of it, where the anger just bursts out in Simeon and Levi's actions. So, if anger is left unchecked, it can lead to us hurting others. It can also lead, number two, to us acting foolishly. How many of you have ever done something silly when you were cross? don't have to raise your hand. Thank you for raising your hand, that's very humble. Oh, my son over there, that's good. Okay, Ecclesiastes 7 verse 9, we can all raise our hand, can't we, on that one? Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. do well to remember that because sometimes the world has the idea, oh this guy, you know, he won't stand for anything, you know, he just really knows how to push his way to the top and if you get in his way, you know, I remember one manager saying to us, you know, if someone gets in my way I'll knock them over as if that was a good quality to have. No, if you don't have control of your spirit, if you are an angry person, you're a fool and you act foolishly. Proverbs 14 verse 17 says, he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. going to do a lot of stupid things and you're going to act very foolishly if you allow anger to dominate your life. Proverbs 14 29, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. So, if anger is left in our lives unchecked it can lead to hurting others, it can really hurt people with your words and your actions. Husbands can hurt their wives. Wives can hurt husbands or parents hurt their children. Children hurt their parents as they get older with their anger. It's terrible. In fact, it's just, there's nothing quite so nasty as dealing with a really angry spirit. Have you ever felt the heat in someone's spirit? It's not easy to deal with, is it? It can lead to acting foolishly. Thirdly, it can lead to causing division. Proverbs 15, 18, a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife. You see someone who's going around, causing division all the time, always stirring up trouble. Some people just seem to have a love for that, wherever they go, they start fires, they get strife going. Have you ever met people like that? They just can't help themselves. The Bible makes it clear, that individual has an anger problem. the angers behind all the agitation and stirring up division in the church and stirring up controversy here and stirring up controversy there, the Bible is clear, if you allow anger in your life you can become a divisive person. Proverbs 29, 22, an angry man stirreth up strife and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. If anger is left unchecked in our lives it can also lead to corrupting others. Proverbs 22, 24-25, Angry people can have a corrupting effect on others. Think about that before you listen to someone who's going to tear your church down and fill you full of all this sort of poison. Maybe there's an angry spirit behind that. Maybe you should be careful about making friendship with an angry man. Anger, if left unchecked in our lives, can also lead, is another point, to living wickedly. Proverbs 29, 22. angry man stirreth up strife,' we read that before but listen to this, this struck me as I was thinking about this this week, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. That makes sense doesn't it? If you're really full of anger you can just about justify anything with your anger. I deserve to do this. deserve to indulge in this sin or whatever it may be. The Bible says a furious man doesn't say he has a few transgressions, he aboundeth in transgression. If you just let the fires of anger burn in your life you're going to end up in all kinds of terrible sins. Do you have an anger problem? Third point about anger in the Bible tonight, so we've looked at some causes for anger, some of the consequences of anger, what's a cure for anger? Well, let me give you a few points on that. Firstly, be slow to anger. Proverbs 16, 32, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. amazing, isn't it? He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. You take someone who's a great warrior, who's conquered a city, God says in His estimation, if you are a person in control, have self-control by the power of God and you're slow to anger, you are way above that person in stature. So if you're an angry person, you're a very small man, a very small woman in God's economy, in God's estimation. James 1 19 to 20, You're not going to produce anything good or anything right allowing anger to dominate in your life. So, the cure for anger? Learn to be slow to anger. Trust God to help you to be a patient person and not to get angry quickly. Number two, deal with it promptly. What's the solution for anger? Deal with it promptly. Ephesians 4.26, be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Let's be honest, we all have our moments, we all have times when perhaps anger bursts out of our lives or we yield to the dictates of the flesh there and God gives a solution for that. If you have been involved in, if you've allowed anger in your life in some way, you've been angry in your words or your actions, don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. In other words, don't let it sit there and let it simmer for too long. Keep short accounts with God and short accounts with others, the quicker you confess it and put it right, the better. Just learn, we talked about this last week, learn to say I'm sorry, learn to put things right because if you leave anger to smolder in your life, it can turn into malice and it can turn into bitterness. So deal with it promptly. Three, put it off by God's power. you have an anger problem don't leave it undealt with in your life, actively seek God's help to change. Ephesians 4 31, let all bitterness and wrath anger and clamor and evil speaking be what? Put away from you with all malice. So don't be content to live your life with a habit of anger. If you are a person who struggles with anger, if you're a person who is constantly blowing up at people in your words or your attitudes, your actions, then you need to take God's Word to heart and seek through the sufficiency of Christ and through the power of God to put off that terrible habit. Colossians 3.8, but now you also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. You notice that both those verses mention both wrath and anger, so what's the difference? Well as I understand it, one deals with the smouldering anger that's unseen in the heart. then the other word and I'd have to double check again which word deals with what but I think Roth has the idea of the outbursting of anger or the expression of anger whereas the word anger, you study the Greek word there, has the idea of anger that's hidden inside and smouldering away and so what the Bible deals with there is both types of anger, the anger that's seen, the anger that I express, the anger I don't show, that's in here. Some people can look very spiritual on the outside because they very rarely have a blow-up, they very rarely raise their voice or get mad outwardly. Sometimes there can be a lot of icy anger boiling away underneath and you don't show it to anyone but the Holy Spirit knows and God knows and God says, I want that kind of anger out of your life as well. Don't comfort yourself with the fact that you're really good at just sort of, by your personality, keeping a cool head but inside you're full of anger No, no, God wants you to deal with internal anger and the anger that bursts out of your life as well. In fact, sometimes the ones that keep their anger real quiet are the real ones to watch. You're the kind of person who's going to have to really watch out for bitterness because no one will know where you're at. Sometimes, I'm not saying this is right, but sometimes the person that blows up, at least you know, okay, that person's got... we know where they're at. you know what I mean? Some people just aren't able to hide it, if they're cranky they just know. Some people, hidden. No, God says get rid of wrath and anger, get rid of the internal seething anger and deal with that, take it to the Lord, Lord I'm feeling angry in my heart towards this individual, sweeten my heart Lord. Lord, just help me to cool off here, take this anger away from me. Do you know I've found that if you ask the Lord for help, he'll actually help you? Surprise, surprise. You take your anger to the Lord, you're starting to feel that anger and learn to discern that, you feel anger starting to boil up in your heart, get a prayer through to the throne of grace real quick. Lord, I'm starting to feel angry here, help me to calm down, help me to be spirit-filled, help me to be dead to this situation and the Lord will help you. we're to put off anger and remember the emphasis on being in Christ in both Ephesians and Colossians because we are in Christ, we have all the resources we need in the all-sufficient Saviour to overcome the sin of anger. Another solution here, or cure, would be to yield to the Holy Spirit. you have to acknowledge that, you don't have the power to overcome anger yourself, but there is someone, capital S, who dwells in you, if you are saved, who does, and his name is the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, means self-control, against such there is no law. It's very interesting, you read the previous two verses, it talks about all those nasty fruits of the flesh, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, And surprise, surprise, wrath is one of the fruits of the flesh. And so, what is the solution? Well, to allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life, patience and self-control, which are the opposite to anger, are fruits of the Spirit. And so, when we recognise anger boiling up in our hearts, we need to pray and ask God to quench our anger and sweeten our hearts. And if you ask, He will help you. So why talk about anger? Well, I think we see in chapter 34 of Genesis a very clear example of what happens when anger is allowed to boil in the life unchecked. What's the result? Carnage, damage, wreckage, breakage everywhere. And so you can't afford to be complacent about anger in your life. It's going to damage you, it's going to damage others and we need God's help to overcome anger in our lives. So we see there, the devilry at Shechem, what a terrible, terrible thing took place. Levi and Simeon taking matters into their own hands and creating all sorts of carnage and misery in the lives of the Shechemites because of their boiling anger. Is that you tonight? Maybe you're not to that level of murdering someone but maybe you have a very dangerous anger problem in your life. you come to church and you put on a front there but behind the scenes you are an angry individual, angry with your family, venting rage on people around you. That's not good and don't underestimate what damage can be done if you don't deal with that. How many people end up in court or even end up in jail and they think, if I just hadn't lost my temper? Don't underestimate what you are capable of Yes, even you as a Christian. Now hopefully if you're saved and have the Holy Spirit there's going to be some restraint there but I'm saying Christians who entertain anger in their lives can get into a very bad state. Colossians says, husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them. I understand that wives can get angry too but I think, could I just talk to the husbands for a moment? You need to be very careful as a man with how you treat your wife. Angry spirit. Angry words. God forbid even angry actions. Happens. If you're so low as a husband to inflict some sort of physical abuse on your wife because you're angry, you are a scoundrel. And if you claim to be a Christian, a blood-washed, born-again Christian, you are... that is despicable and unspeakably evil to have that kind of anger in your life as a child of God and you need to deal with it. Fifth point, fifth heading tonight, I just want to look briefly at the last couple of verses and just note some damage at Shechem, some further damage now really to Jacob and his family. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me to make me to what? Stink among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being fewer in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me. And I shall be destroyed, I and my house. And they said, should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? The wicked actions of Jacob's sons caused some damage here, obviously damage to the Shechemites, we've talked about that, but there's some further damage here to Jacob and his family and I'd just like to note this briefly, I think we can see damage to Jacob's testimony here. Would that be a fair point? Damage to Jacob's testimony, you've made me to stink among the inhabitants of the land. So, Well done Jacob, you found your tongue again. By the end of the chapter he'd been a bit quiet but he rebuked Levi and Simeon for their actions and charged them with making his name stink amongst the inhabitants of the land. Henry Morris in his commentary writes, instead of being a witness for truth and love, their name would become associated with deception and cruelty. They had become an actual stench to the other Canaanites in the land with their vaunted moral purity becoming an excuse for murder and pillage rather than an example of God's holiness and mercy. Weasby adds, what good was it for Jacob to build an altar and worship the true God before his pagan neighbors if his children were going to act like pagans? good point, isn't it? He built a beautiful altar back there and called it, Eleh-lu-he-yisrael. One day I'll work out how to actually pronounce that. But what's the... do you really think the Canaanites are going to take Jacob's faith in God seriously? And could I just say this, that anger in an unsaved person's life will make them have a stinking reputation? But could I just say this, there is something particularly odious, could I emphasize it again, something particularly odious about someone who claims to be a blood-washed and born-again child of God, allowing the sin of anger to run wild in their lives. I mean, this brought a terrible stink upon the name of the one true God and the testimony of Jacob and just mark that down, that if you allow anger to just run your life, you will damage your testimony and the testimony of others. So before you entertain boiling anger in your life, pause and think about your testimony. Just one challenging sermon after another in the book of Genesis, isn't it, sometimes? But there you go, this is for all of us. Anger, there it is, anger, wrath. Put it off. The power of God, don't entertain it, let's deal with anger in our lives, it grieves the Holy Spirit of God, it damages our testimony. That makes sense, doesn't it? You say, I'm a Christian and then your work colleagues see you blowing up all the time. By the way, don't be so proud and pious as to not apologise to an unsaved work colleague if you did. Well, I'm a Christian, I shouldn't get angry, but you did get angry and at least as a part of your testimony, go and humble yourself to that person and say, I'm very sorry for the way I spoke to you. It might actually restore your testimony to that person. It might actually help them realise there is something different about you, that you could humble yourself about that. Because in the world, people don't tend to humble themselves over such things. I remember once working as a young man at a sawmill and I was working with the guys that were just the roughest of the rough, you wouldn't get much rougher than these guys. As soon as they had enough sick leave accrued, some of them, they would take a day off and go to the pub, they were just rough. And I can't remember which man it was now but I remember speaking sharply and getting a bit hot under the collar one day with an individual and getting angry and we had to exchange words and by the grace of God I felt convicted about that, went back to him and apologised. you could see he was surprised by that and it affected him. I'm not saying that there aren't times in work where there's a robust discussion about work-related things but you know when you've crossed the line in your spirit, you know the Holy Spirit will help you, tap you on the shoulder, excuse me, you shouldn't have spoken that way, you were angry in your spirit, you went too far. So damage to Jacob's testimony. But there's also some damage here to Jacob's family. And we see the damage in their vulnerability here to the heathen nations. Jacob says, Now obviously God didn't allow that to happen but that was a very real concern for Jacob that now this story would get out and the other Canaanite nations would gather together and come and wipe him out. think there was also damage to the unity of Jacob's home here. Look at the son's response and they said, should he deal with our sisters within Harlot? They're not on the same page, are they? Their, Simeon and Levi's, Kurt response to their father's rebuke highlights the disunity that this sad event caused in the family. Could I say this? Remember, if tragedy does come to you and your family in one form or another, anger, hatred, bitterness and disunity are never the answer. Did you hear that? If some sort of tragedy comes to your family, whatever form that may be, anger, hatred, bitterness and disunity are never the answer. What would be the answer? Well, I think we get some very valuable instruction in Romans chapter 12, let me just finish with this. Romans 12 really gives us some helpful truths for handling hurtful situations like this. Romans 12 verse 14, verse 19 to 21, So what should our response be to terrible injustices? I mean, this was a terrible and sad situation. Well, Romans 12 gives us the solution here, we're to bless and not curse, verse 14. We are to leave, very importantly, justice in God's hands. was the whole problem here? These boys said, we'll take matters into our own hands, we're going to get vengeance. No, no, no, you leave that in God's hands. God is well able to deal with sin and with sinners without any help from you and I. Avenge not yourselves. What does that mean? Well, to vindicate your own right, to take the law into your own hands. But rather give place to wrath, it says, verse 19, it is written, vengeance is mine I'll repay sayeth the Lord.' What does it mean to give place? Well it means to give the place occupied to another or to make room for. So in your situation, do you know what you need to do? You need to step aside and make room for God in that situation and let Him deal with that situation. Do you see that? Avenge not yourselves, don't try and get vengeance, your own strength, you give place to God's wrath and God's judgment, give place to God because God says, vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord. You leave justice in the hands of God and let Him deal with it. Now that may involve in a... we understand the authority of government, there are times to seek justice through that biblical authority, certainly, ultimately you've got to leave justice in God's hands, step aside and leave matters in the hands of the judge of the universe who will always do right. And then the Romans 12 formula there, we are to repay ill-treatment with kindness as well. So, the diner disaster... you know the amazing thing though is that God can work in a disastrous situation like this? Simeon and Levi, what a candidate to be the founding father of the Levites. You say, is there any hope, any grace in this? Well, it's pretty amazing, isn't it, that God used the Levites, the descendants of this rough man, to be the spiritual leaders of the nation. Now there were consequences, remember Jacob said, I will scatter them in Israel, that happened, the Levites were scattered, they didn't have one fixed location. And guess what, Simeon too, he was swallowed up in Judah's territory, he didn't have his own exclusive territory, he was actually within the territory of Judah. So exactly what Jacob prophesied came true there, there was some consequence to these men. But we can't but look at the family of Jacob without coming away with a sense of God's grace that God could make something out of such a mess of a family. that's the hope. Maybe you're a diner here tonight and you've been caught up in sins or a shechem and you need to just come to the Lord and receive His grace and His forgiveness and His repair work. Aren't you thankful that God is a God of the second chance, the third chance and that God can pick up the pieces, the broken pieces in our lives if we'll let Him and He can begin to mend, begin to use us and begin to work in our lives and that's certainly what we see in Jacob's family. But some real warnings there. warnings about the world, warnings about the sin of immorality but warnings there about taking matters into your own hands and allowing anger to dominate and to control our lives. I hope you can see those lessons there and that it might be a help to you, let's pray. Father we thank you for your word both this morning tonight and truly a challenging passage Lord with lessons for us in many areas. Lord we pray tonight about this whole matter of anger Lord, we confess we all struggle at times with that emotion of anger that boils up in us and we thank you though, Lord, that you have given us the keys to victory, help us to yield to your Holy Spirit, Lord, to surrender our rights, to go to the cross with our wants and Lord to not allow the sin of anger to run rampant in our lives and so we pray for each and every one of us tonight that you would give us victory over anger that we would not bring disgrace and dishonor upon your name and by engaging in the sin of anger and all the evils that come with it we pray in Jesus name, Amen.