Genesis 34:18

Then Jacob's sons stepped in with a trick. They made circumcision for every male the condition. They had not the smallest thought or wish of inviting the Shechemites into the covenant. It was the basest treachery, meant to trap and massacre them. Jacob had nothing to do with the cruel secret. Their pride and revenge ignored God just as it ignored their father. The condition was a lying and cowardly pretext to carry their resentment through to the end. Hamor and Shechem fell into the trap. They had enough influence to persuade all their townsmen to join them in submitting to the painful rite, and to its unexpected danger.

Jacob's sons proposed the terms of the pact, and Hamor and Shechem were entirely agreeable. Shechem himself did not delay to be circumcised, because he loved Dinah. We are told that he was more honourable than everyone in his father's household... Everyone no doubt recognised that circumcision had a religious meaning. They would not have been in the least suspicious of any hidden plan against them. On top of that, the wealth of Jacob's family would be a welcome addition to the area, and all would benefit from them. These were persuasive arguments, and the men of the city were fully agreeable, so that all of them were circumcised.

Surely what we see here is an uncircumcised Jacob, not circumcised Shechemites. It is all miserable... This is like the religious energy of Christendom. It has put the name of Christ in the company of a world that lies under His judgment, a world He bears with only in His patience. It is as if Israel had agreed with Pharaoh and undertaken to give the Lord an altar in Egypt. But such altars are no altars — just as another gospel is not another. Such religion is empty, whether practised in these earliest days at Shechem, or now, among the nations of a judged, condemned world. God's call is to separate from it.

Hamor also promised to give Jacob many things. He suggested 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, with no difference. Christians, be careful! The Lord says, "Go out from their midst, and be separate from them" (2 Corinthians 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 Timothy 2:19).

We see in Genesis 34 the bitter fruit of his stay at Shechem. A stain fell on his family. Simeon and Levi try to wipe it out by the sheer energy and violence of nature, and that only led to deeper sorrow... If he had not settled at Shechem, Dinah would not have been dishonoured, and the violence of his sons would not have appeared. We constantly see Christians getting into deep sorrow and trouble through their own unfaithfulness. Then, instead of judging themselves, they start looking at circumstances and blaming them.