A wasted opportunity

Let's go to Genesis chapter 34. I want to share with you about an incident in Scripture in the life of Jacob and his sons, a sad, tragic, but also very instructive incident that has great lessons for us. And let me start the reading of the Word and then I'm going to leave it in the middle and then I'm going to narrate the rest.

Chapter 34 says: "Dinah, the daughter of Leah" Jacob's common-law wife "whom she had given birth to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the country" which means there that this young daughter of Jacob left to take a walk around the neighborhood, so to speak, to see her friends, to visit them. "And Shechem, son of Hamor Hebeo" Hamor with H not with A only "saw her, prince of that land and took her, and lay with her and dishonored her, but his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Leah and fell in love with the young woman, and spoke to her heart."

"And Shechem spoke to Hamor, his father, saying: take me this young woman as a wife, but Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled" that is to say, stained Dinah, his daughter, dishonored "and while his sons were with their cattle in the field, Jacob fell until and Hamor the father of Shechem went to speak with him, and Jacob's sons came from the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved and very angry because he had done wickedness in Israel by sleeping with Jacob's daughter. That shouldn't have been done."

"And Hamor spoke to them, saying: The soul of my son Shechem has attached itself to your daughter, I beg you to give her to him as a wife. And become related to us, give us your daughters and take our daughters and dwell with us, because the land will be before you, dwell and trade in it and take possession of it. Shechem also said to Dinah's father "the sound is being heard please leave it stable" Shechem also said to Dinah's father and her brothers: find I favor in your eyes and I will give what you tell me, increase at my expense a lot of dowry and gifts and I will give what you tell me and give me the young woman as a wife."

I am going to leave it here because the story is long and I am going to narrate the rest of this event, and what I want to tell you, my desire this afternoon through the study of this text is to talk about an opportunity that was wasted, a benefit that it could have been a great moment and a blessing to many people but it was wasted, a moment to reveal the values of the people of God and that instead of that, the values of the world, of violence and hatred, resentment and revenge as the world often works.

And understand that the people of God have been called to live according to other values: values of reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, love, grace, and that in this case, unfortunately, that opportunity was wasted. Because the world sees strength and dignity and honor in one way, but the Kingdom of God sees it in another way, often quite the opposite, the world says: the strong make use of others and lord it over others, the strong people do not let anyone abuse or trample on them or take advantage of them, strong people do not forgive an offense, strong people fend for themselves, they do not seek help from anyone, whoever does it pays for it, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that is the way the world sees the fortress; while the children of God are called to see things in a very different way.

And this passage shows us that contrast. Let me give you an illustration that I did not do with the brothers of the 9 and that this is your turn, an extra layer that the brothers did not have. I've been reading these days about the life of Jacob and Abraham as you know with all this Bethel stuff and God's calling our Church this year, and then I found myself last week reading this particular passage in the life of Jacob. and of their children. I had read it before but again the Lord kind of opened this passage to me in a different way.

And they had invited me several months ago to preach at a men's retreat in the city of Lowell with an American Church, yesterday they had their retreat and the theme of the retreat was: be strong and be a man, be strong and be a man or strive and I know man and I had heard those words before but I wasn't sure where they came from. And yesterday when I was in the retreat there before starting to preach I asked a brother, the Pastor of the Church in fact and he told me: well the one who gave us that title was the brother here Cecilio Pérez who is a Pastor from Lowell , and he told me: yes, those words come from a passage in the Book of First Kings when David speaks to his son Solomon before he dies and handing over the kingdom tells Solomon: be strong and be a man, be strong and be a man in English.

And then that made me think because it coincided precisely with the reading of this passage and I said: wow, these young people, the sons of Jacob who, instead of accepting the request of this young man who behaved tremendously badly with his daughter and who he dishonored her but he falls in love with this girl, he wants to marry her and it seems that she is willing to marry him too, she wants to fix things, she humbly comes before them with her father, asks their forgiveness, tells them that he is willing to do whatever is necessary, that they charge you anything because you know that in those times you know that there were dowries and money was given in a marriage and all this and they say: look, charge whatever, we pay; tell us what we have to do to fix this because we want to become related to you, we want you to be family, for our sons to marry your daughters and your sons to marry ours and for us to share the earth, and for us to be one family , and that we forget about this that has happened that has started so badly.

It seems that Jacob wanted to fix things, he wanted to forgive and again: everything seems to suggest, although the text does not tell us everything because the Bible never gives all the details, but it seems that his daughter who is now living with this boy, because later they come and take her out of the house, she had also agreed and I think that in a very practical way too, perhaps she also fell in love with the boy, you know these things are so rare.

The fact is that these sons of Jacob, instead of forgiving, conceive a diabolical plot and tell these men that they come to ask for their forgiveness and fix things: well, if you want to fix things, there is no problem, we are Jews and we are circumcised And circumcision, for those who are here visiting, is a very painful surgical operation in a very delicate area of the man's anatomy, and they tell them: well, you have to be circumcised like us and in this way we make a family, kinship.

There you can see the level at which these men wanted to fix the things that they say: amen let's do it, I don't know if they said amen because that word was not yet in the evangelical vocabulary, but they said: okay let's do it and all the men from the city including Shechem, his dad and all get circumcised, and what these boys wanted was to put these men in a fragile situation.

It says that on the third day that they had been circumcised when they were in the greatest pain, these boys came with their friends. I imagine that these men could not defend themselves and they killed all the men in the city, they massacred all the men in the city. They plundered the city, took the women, took all the property, and left a terrible massacre.

And as you can see, something that could have been fixed perhaps according to nobler and higher values ended up in the complete opposite. Now what is the illustration that I wanted to give you? It's not what I'm saying right now, but the following: I said, well, you know what? This is interesting because these men acted like the males who act in the world, the one who pays me, no forgiveness, they offended me: we are going to get involved, we are going to take revenge, and that is not being a man. They thought that this is being a man.

Because nowadays men and also women every day, while they go with feminine equality and all this, there is also the idea of: the corporate, strong woman, who is equal to men, who also does the same things as men, and how many heroines in the movies today; In karate and violence and action movies today there are as many women as men leading roles because it is the idea of projecting that men and women are totally equal, and one can do the same as the other and the distinction is gradually lost. ; but in this idea of strength: aggressive, militant, masculine, vigorous, that is the idea we have of strength in both men and women.

Well I said: you know what? I am going to talk about that, that topic that they gave me: be a man and be strong, I want to return to it and meditate: ok, what does it mean to be a man and be strong according to the values of the Kingdom of God and what is the difference from how I Does God see, and how the world sees it, this idea of being a man and having vigor, and having strength?

So the day before the retreat I'm driving in Summerville, I hope the illustration won't take me too long, but I'm driving to a place very quickly because I have to get there and I have about 25 minutes left to practically cross the entire city in a rush hour and get there to do something very important, I am on Broadway street, in the lane I realize that there is an Audi SUV stopped, the green light and the cars behind very meekly waiting but this man kind of forgot that he was in the street and the cars are passing by and he's standing there, interestingly no one honked but he kind of got busy texting or whatever.

And then, well, I go, I'm seeing it from afar like this, I continue a little more and when I get to the side of the car I realize that, since all that open space is there, I'm going to get in, at that very moment coinciding because that's how it is things happen many times, that's why there are so many tragedies in the streets, at the moment I'm going to get in he also begins to move and I was already quite committed, I put myself in front of him but I think that for this man it was an offense that someone got in front of him despite the fact that he had been there for so long holding all the traffic.

The case was that the man accelerated his car, almost stuck to the sidewalk, and cut into another car that was in front of me so that no one would get in front of him. And already at that moment the light had stopped and there it stayed, and then then he took his car, accelerated it and continued around as fast as he could.

You can imagine what one feels when one sees this type of thing on the street, these are the events that in other cases lead to so many accidents and so much violence. He recently told me that on the news, in a theater, an ex-police man, retired, 71 years old, a boy was texting, apparently to the girl who was at home taking care of her daughter, a newly married couple, and he spoke to her It seems that very violently after he stopped texting, it seems that strong words came and the retired ex-policeman took out his revolver and fired one or two shots, killing this young father, recently married.

It is the violence that we live in this world, every day the world is becoming more and more dangerous and those of us who go out into the streets like this, who have to share certain spaces and certain things with each other, every day there is more violence in the world; people who carry weapons, people who don't want anyone to miss out on them, and we ourselves are sometimes part of that process.

And I said: wow, you know what? while I examined the feelings that I had inside I said: wow, here you have an idea of what the world's values are and that is that nobody gets in front of me. Although I was wrong but I'm not going to let anyone beat me. It's that sense of competition, right? and that is the value of the world, that is the value of the flesh, it is the diabolic value that governs the biological dimension of humanity. That is man in his basic nature, that is our unredeemed part, untouched by the Holy Spirit, untouched by the values of the Gospel.

But when Christ comes into the world he comes to bring a different value system. And the terrible thing about the Gospel is that, and that is what is difficult. Someone has said that the Gospel is for weak people and for slaves and for people with the mentality of slaves; look: the Gospel is the most difficult thing in the world if you want to live it as it is, although of course, with the grace of God we can do it but by our own strength it is impossible. It is more difficult for one to conquer oneself, says the Bible, than the one who conquers a city.

And the Gospel calls us to replace the merely biological, animal, earthly energy with a more sublime, higher, nobler energy called grace, mercy, love, kindness, forgiveness, compassion, that is the most important part of us. And I see in this story a missed opportunity.

So going back to the story, we have this moment. There has been an offense, no one can say otherwise. This boy misbehaved. In fact, the original Hebrew language does not tell us clearly if there was such a violent rape, you know, like a snuff but it seems that there was inappropriate pressure, there was some kind of struggle perhaps, the language is not totally clear about it, but this is boy definitely misbehaved terribly. He dishonored a virgin girl, a member of a noble family, decent in a context where this type of behavior dishonored a girl and already damaged her life for the rest of her days.

And there was every right to feel offended and outraged, you can't take that away. A man should never abuse a woman in any way, that's for sure. But I think that what this text invites us to do is to see, to see the greater complexity that arises when Shechem, this young man who starts out with bad intentions and bad behavior for the moment, falls in love with the girl with whom he has simply had a temporary sexual relationship, and he says that his heart was attached to her, he fell in love with the girl and then he wanted to fix things and put his life in order, marry her and make her his legitimate wife.

And so he asks his dad to help him, to step in and try to make things right. And I suspect that Dina, you can imagine a woman 3,000 years ago where women were treated very, very like objects, where the parents decided if a daughter married or not, who she married, if there was a war and they entered the people they took the women and took them away, it was a very different mentality; And I suspect that this girl, when this young man talks to her that way, her soul also became attached to him and I think that's why she stayed, he told her: look, stay with me while I fix things. There is no indication that she stayed against her will or that they imprisoned her because if that had been the case, when they approached Jacob and his children they would not have been able to do it with the humility that they do if they are holding their daughter prisoner there. .

One kind of suspects that she wanted to fix things and in fact when they kill all these people, they enter this boy's house and grab it and take it away, which means that the motives that these boys had were not so much their sister nor the dishonor that she had suffered, although that was part of the matter, it was rather them, their personal pride, their pride of men that had been bruised, they wanted to attend to that, no matter what their sister.

Because you may wonder: what happened to Dina after that? she was traumatized for the rest of her life, she was scarred. She had been the cause of a massacre although it was not her fault but I imagine that she was stained with this idea that she caused or was part of an event that led to the death of so many people including this man that she possibly had fallen in love with him.

But then one sees how these boys, followers of the living God, different in their culture from the pagan tribes that were around them, lost a great opportunity to see this situation in another way, look at their sister's situation, take care of her too, attend to her need, look at the humility of these people who came before them and of course, there had been offense but there could also have been forgiveness and mercy.

And I believe that this is what God calls us brothers as children of God, to understand that many times we are going to find ourselves in situations where people are going to offend us, people are going to do things that we do not like and we we have to decide how we are going to react.

When in marriage the husband offends you or does something that you don't like, or the wife does something that you didn't like, when there are differences of opinion on how things should be resolved, when your son offends you, when your father or your mother offend you or do something you don't like, when a brother in the Congregation does something that is not right and there are differences of opinion on how things should be done: how are we going to react? especially when we feel that it is our right to feel the way we are, that we are right and that other person is wrong, how are we going to act in those cases?

As an illustration: As we left here this morning at the 9 o'clock service, a sister came up to me from behind and told me about a family situation where, some brothers that she has in her country, her father passed away and they buried him and They didn't say anything to them, to the brothers who are here until after all this had happened, there was a cremation of the father's body and how hurt she was by that situation; And so, brothers, each one of us has our own stories, of people who have offended us at work, of people who do not act in the right way.

And I say that the Gospel calls us to see how it is that Christ wants us to handle the conflicts in the world and the offenses, and that we substitute the way in which the world does things, in which the flesh does things and that let us oppose the values of the Kingdom of God, and let us look at how Christ worked in the world because that is what makes the difference in the Kingdom of God.

As children of God, when we enter the ways of the Lord, we have to put aside the sword that strikes, the word that hurts, the humiliating language, and that is what truly makes the difference in us; It is not so much that you give money or not give money, it is not so much that you have stopped stealing or anything else, it does not matter that you behave well and that you serve in the Church. That's all very well, very good, but do you know what truly makes a difference in the Kingdom of God and makes us truly powerful? it is when we let God deal with our hearts.

Deal with our personality, break us, polish us, humiliate us, remove that laziness from us. When you enter the ways of the Lord, you know that God tells you: come now and let's work, I want to take you to a new level, I want to make you more like My Son Jesus Christ, I want you to treat others in a way like others deal in the world.

It is not enough to just do moral things but the hardest thing for us is to let God bleed us dry and make us like His Son Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit to manifest in our lives.

Because I can assure you my brothers that no matter how many laws are made in the world, no matter how many regulations are made in a Church, that will not prevent conflict in a Congregation or in a society. What prevents war from coming, conflict from coming is when there are people of peace, people of mercy, people of love, people of meekness, people of forgiveness; people who, before counterattacking, ask the Lord: Lord, what do you want me to do?

People who are sometimes willing to suffer injury and loss so that the highest values of the Gospel are not sacrificed, in a family or in a Congregational place or in a workplace. People who say: you know what? It is more important that there be peace in this place than that I get away with it and if I can suffer something for a moment so that there is a blessing in this place, I will do it. But do you know how wonderful? that when you do this, then God comes and supports you, and opens doors for you, and your sacrifice becomes an instrument for God to intervene and do wonderful things in your life.

I have learned over time, brothers, that when one steps aside and puts aside his pride, and lets God take control of situations, divine intervention is much more powerful, and God then cares for us and defends us. , and we can go on, and see the glory of God then.

In this very process of construction, do you know in three and a half years how many times there have been opportunities for serious breaks with people with whom I started working? and good people, well-intentioned and for one to be offended. I have learned that when one lets the Lord take care of things, it is not that one is not stupid as the Mexicans say, right? It's not that you're stupid either, but there are many times when what you have to do is wait, trust in the Lord, refer your case to the Lord, pray, and then give space for the Lord to come in and do what He can do.

And you know how wonderful? it is that God gets away with His, He blesses you and although you apparently lost something at the time, in the long run you end up gaining much, much more because that is the rule of the Gospel.

I'm finishing. The case of Lot and Abram found in the 13th chapter of Genesis. This is a situation that could have ended with war and conflict, and with the breaking of family ties, but there was a man who put the values of the Kingdom of God above, and that is why it ended in a glorious way that instead of this sad The example we have here of Dinah, Jacob, and their sons ended in a very beautiful way.

The Bible says that when Abram returns from Egypt God has blessed him and his nephew Lot who was with him, the two had acquired a lot of cattle, they had a lot of cattle, they had many servants and there was beginning to be tension between the two families because the servants of each were fighting for space.

And Abram realized that this was happening and he called his nephew. Imagine him, the uncle who was the source of Lot's blessing calls his nephew and says: Lot, let's talk. There is no need for there to be a struggle between your servants and my servants. And the idea is, in the text that Abram did not want the pagan tribes that were around them to see these two men of God fighting with each other and give bad witness, because that is one of the things brothers.

Look: I say that to the leaders of the Church, those who serve here in the Congregation, I say it to the Ministry of Worship, to the usher brothers, to those who direct different ministries. I assure you that the most important thing is the quality of how we treat one another so that God's blessing flows and that we do not give bad witness, and that we make sure that the ministries where we work reflect the values of the Kingdom of the Lord. . May this place be a place of refuge for the souls that come here.

What good is it for us to dance and sing and do things if we're pulling our bows backstage over there, what good is that? We have to make sure that we always here in the Church do things by the Book and that we always put the values of the Gospel above. Look: if I have to gag my mouth a little and suffer a little so that there is peace where I am, glory to God for that.

You have to be a good agent wherever you are working. That is why Christ said: blessed are the peacemakers, because people of peace are needed everywhere because there are many people of war and a single person of peace in an environment can make all the difference, because that person of peace becomes like a a prop where the grace of the Lord comes down and others begin to say: why doesn't she scream like we are screaming, and why isn't she always looking for her piece of the pie like everyone else is? and that intrigues people. An essence of peace and blessing begins to be distributed in a place.

That is why there are places where you enter and what is there is displeasure, at the counter they treat you badly. If you ask a question, it's like they're doing you a great favor by answering it, and it's because there are people of war in those places and there are no agents of peace.

And I beg him and I say to myself: Lord help us to be a people of peace, mercy and grace. That instead of always being ready to draw the sword and hit, complain, complain that our rights were not taken care of, that there is no this and there is no other: hey, become part of the solution, don't be part of it of the complaint committee, be part of the response and solution committee.

And people who are like this are blessed because again, going back to Abram's example, Abram tells Lot: come here, we don't need to fight and bear bad witness; Let's go to the highest mountain in the region. And the Bible says that they did so: they went to a high place where they could see all the earth around them.

And look at what Abram does, Abram tells him: Lot now look where you want, north, south, east, west and choose the land you want, and if you go north I'll go south If you go east, I'm going to go west. How interesting that Abram gives Lot the first opportunity to choose him.

If it was me, I'd say: hey I'm the guy, this guy is here and he has benefited from my patronage so I have the right and would have if he was the one who chose first but he says: no, be the one you choose . Lot had a different spirit, the spirit of the world. It says that Lot looked around and saw the land that went to Sodom and Gomorrah, you know what, and that it was green and leafy and attractive and fertile, and he said: well this is my thing here I go; He didn't think of his uncle, he didn't think of telling him: well, uncle, you have the right to be whoever you choose, no. He saw the best and chose what he wanted, he thought according to his principles, values, advantage as the world thinks.

And Abram told him: perfectly fine, don't worry, go away. Amen, I bless you and Lot left believing that he had gotten away with everything. And the Bible says that at that very moment when Lot was leaving, the Voice of the Lord came to Abram and said: Abram, look to the north and to the south, look to the east and to the west that all the land that you see, as far as it can when you look at it, I will give it all to you, including the land that Lot had chosen.

And you know the story: Lot lived a terrible life, Sodom and Gomorrah were places of corruption so much that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Shortly before that happened an enemy tribe came, took Lot and his family prisoner and Abram had to go and rescue him. And Lot lost his wife when they left Sodom and his daughters, a horrible situation that played out with his own father, terrible life; a man who wanted to provide his own benefit and blessing instead of referring his cause to the Lord and acting according to the principles of the Kingdom.

Brother: the only thing, I'll leave you with that. Brothers, I call you in the Name of Jesus to embrace the values of the Kingdom of God and I also call myself to be a different people and ask the Holy Spirit to work in us. By the way, I promise you that next Sunday that light will disappear somehow, okay? It's already bothering me too, but we're going to fix that, don't worry, these are little things that you discover when you're in the place.

Brothers in the Name of Jesus I invite you, open your heart now, open your heart to the Word of God and I want to read you a few words from the Gospel inviting us to embrace the Spirit of Jesus Christ and to live to a greater height in the way we treat others.

The Lord Jesus Christ tells us: Congregation Lion of Judah, you have heard: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you: "Do not resist the one who is evil, but rather whoever strikes your right cheek, offer him the other as well, and If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, give him your cloak as well, and whoever forces you to carry a load for one mile, go with him two. " The Lord is using exaggerated examples like when Peter said to him: Lord, the Bible says that we have to forgive people seven times, is that correct? and Christ said to him: not seven times but seventy times seven. It is hyperbole wanting to capture in ourselves the level to which we have to be generous, okay? that's the idea. He is going to extremes for you to learn: ok wow, at that level I have to be generous in my life.

"You have heard that it was said: you will love your neighbor" that is to say your friend "and you will hate your enemy, but I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who insult and persecute them so that they may then be children of their Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun rise on the bad and good and makes it rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, listen If you love who loves you, what merit is there in that? that's easy. The unconverted also do it, it says here, the tax collectors.

And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more? don't the Gentiles do so also? When you leave here from the service, who is it that you always look for? the people you know, right, to greet them? but that person you don't know, who is strange, do we approach her?

Who do we invite to our parties and our homes for dinner? Isn't it people who talk very well, people who are attractive and who are entertaining? Those are the people we like to invite, yes or no? confess it. But what about the person who is home alone, who doesn't have someone with him, and who perhaps can't be as helpful to your emotional and entertainment and socializing needs? do we tend towards them?

What Christ is saying, brothers, is: we have to go beyond what is common, what is biological, what is human, and we have to be like our heavenly Father. If he had treated us as we deserve, none of us would be here, we would be in the hell right? But in His Grace the Lord makes the sun rise over the just and the unjust, He gives His air to the evil and wicked and also to the saint.

And we have to be like our heavenly Father, the only way we can identify with God is by being like Him: generous, loving, forgiving, kind. And I ask the Lord: help us Father on this day not to waste opportunities.

Every day there are situations in which you can uphold the values of the Gospel, every day there are situations in which you grow a little more in faith, every day there are situations in which you can choose to forgive before taking revenge, to remain silent instead of offending to someone, give grace instead of demanding that you be paid what is owed to you, forget a debt instead of demanding: pay it to me with interest, put yourself aside so that another grows and expresses himself. Remove your application so that another person who perhaps needs that position more may obtain it and then let God be the one who promotes you, and when He promotes you, He will give you something better than what you even thought, believe the Lord.

Because what justifies this way of living is the belief that if I honor God He will honor me and that if I fight the battle according to the principles of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God will support me, bless me, He will defend and put me on high as Jesus Christ was, who humbled himself, lowered himself, did not take being equal to God as something to cling to but became a servant and that is why he says that God gave him a Name that is above all names. so that before the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, every knee of what is in heaven, on earth and under the earth. Because that is the very essence of the Gospel, whoever humbles himself will be exalted and whoever exalts himself will be humiliated. He who loses for Christ will win in the long run. The Lord wants that to be our mentality this afternoon.

Lower your head for a moment, receive the call of the Lord in your life and let God speak to you and deal with you right now. From up here, when I preach these sermons, I tell him: Lord, have mercy on me because I still have a lot, a lot to learn, a lot to apply to Your Word as well, but I know that this is Your norm, this is Your call, I am not going to try to lower it or dilute it, that is what the Lord calls me and I have to do everything possible to enter into what I am preaching.

The Lord wants this to be a Church of peace. May the Lord want this to be a Church where the fruit of the Holy Spirit is always manifested, where love, kindness, mercy and patience are the hallmarks of this Congregation so that God's prosperity can manifest itself freely and the devil does not has no place to attack us or to accuse us. Thank you Lord Jesus, thank you Christ, forgive us when we do not live up to Your call Lord and by this Word Father, activate Your intervention in our lives.

We ask for marriages of peace, we ask for homes of peace, we ask for families of peace, we ask for a Church of peace, we ask for ministries of peace, we ask for peacemaking men and women, with the Spirit of God in them, a gentle, merciful people and we know that they are not we can do for ourselves; we need Your Grace Father. Send Your Spirit this morning, this afternoon upon each one of us and may this Word mark our hearts, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you in the Name of Jesus and the people of God say: amen, God bless you my brothers, amen.