Genesis 34:22

Then Jacob's sons stepped in with guile and set the condition that every male be circumcised. 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 as much as it ignored their father… The condition was a lying and cowardly pretext to carry their resentment to the very end.

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 — no difference. Christians, be careful! The Lord says, "Go out from their midst, and be separate from them." The world says, "We may be one."

All no doubt recognised that circumcision had a religious meaning. They would not be in the least suspicious of any hidden design against them. What is more, the wealth of Jacob's family would be a welcome addition to the area, and everyone would benefit from them. These were persuasive arguments, and the men of the city agreed fully, so that all of them were circumcised.

The true circumcision is that done without hands in Christians "by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ." As the next verse shows, this points to His death. He, the Messiah, was cut off, as predicted. He was severed from His life here in flesh and blood, so that He might take up life again in resurrection. As those identified with Him, we put the sentence of death on the old fleshly life we once lived, and so put off the body of the flesh. So the meaning of the rite was the putting of the death sentence on the flesh and all its works.

Surely it is rather an uncircumcised Jacob we see here, and not circumcised Shechemites. It is all miserable. Is this a son of Abraham? Is this a saint of God? Is this one of God's strangers in a world that has revolted from Him?… Such religion is empty, whether practised in these earliest days at Shechem, or now in these days of Christendom, among the nations of a judged, condemned world. God's call is to separate from it.

He was on low moral ground at Shechem… If he had not settled at Shechem, Dinah would not have been dishonoured, and the violence of his sons would not have been displayed. We constantly see Christians getting into deep sorrow and trouble through their own unfaithfulness. Then, instead of judging themselves, they look at their circumstances and blame them.