Genesis 34:14

But the sons of Jacob were far from honourable in the way they answered. No doubt Jacob did not suspect their motives at all. But it was with cruel deceit that they told Shechem and Hamor their terms. They would agree to Hamor's suggestion only if all the males of the land accepted circumcision. They even promised that, if the men did this, they would live together as one people and be willing to intermarry with the local people there.

Not the smallest thought or wish had they for inviting the Shechemites into the covenant. It was the lowest treachery, meant to trap and massacre them. Their pride and revenge ignored God as it did their father. Shechem was guilty of a great wrong; but Dinah too was in fault. Their own mothers and their grandmother were daughters of uncircumcised men. And no godly or sensitive reluctance showed in their own marriages. They set the condition as a lying, cowardly excuse, so they could carry their resentment as far as it could go.

In crafty malice and greed for gain, Israel's sons hand over to these men God's title to the land. And the one who valued that title so little that he based his claim on another's rights would hardly hesitate to trade circumcision away for treasure in the world. Circumcision was the reproach of Christ, separation from the world of the ungodly, the seal of faith, the sign of God's inheritance.

In self-will a man was killed there, and a fence thrown down. But Jacob himself had dug down God's fence first. The call of God had raised a wall between the clean and the unclean, between the circumcised and the Gentile. Jacob himself, in spirit, had broken that wall down when he settled as a citizen or landowner on his purchased estate at Shechem. And Simeon and Levi may complete this, as soon afterwards as they please.

What we see here is an uncircumcised Jacob, not circumcised Shechemites.

They plot together and deceive, as religious bigotry always does. Every genuinely religious person will join Jacob in disowning them. The innocent suffer with the guilty in these cursed crusades — the innocent ox along with the guilty Shechem — though Shechem was not half as bad as they were. The worst of this crime is that they do it in the name of God, religious order and separation. So they make thoughtless people hate religion. In this way they manage to wrong the world and the church at the same time.

Hamor also promised to give Jacob many things. He suggested that they might be one people, live in the land and trade, and marry together. Just like the world of today; they want Christians to be one with them — no difference. Christians, be careful! The Lord says, "Go out from their midst, and be separate from them" (2 Cor. 6:17). The world says, "We may be one." The Lord says, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19).