# 320 Circumcision Then, Baptism Now, Must Be Accompanied By Faith

The Book of Genesis

Day 320

Ge 34:11 Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.  12 "Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife."  13 But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.  14 And they said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us.  15 "But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised,  16 "then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

Shechem professes to be in love with Dinah, but let us not forget that he forced his affections on her and raped her!. Now he pleads with Jacob and his sons to give her to him in marriage. He will give anything, pay anything to have her.

But the sons of Jacob spoke deceitfully because Shechem had defiled their sister. They were going to make him pay because they would not have anyone treat their sister as a harlot.

While no formal pronouncement against intermarriage with the Canaanites had yet been issued by God, it was certainly understood by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as they went through great lengths to avoid marrying Canaanite women. So the deceit on the brothers part here, is that they really had no intention of unifying the Hittites with them.  Rather, they planned to eliminate them and make them pay for their crime against their sister.

So they propose to the Hivites that they should become circumcised like them and then they can become one. Sounded like a good deal to the Hivites, but of course it was for the wrong reason. They thought by being melded into the Jews through circumcision they would then own all their livestock, property, and animals. They thought they could have all the benefits of the Hebrews by connecting with them superficially  through circumcision.

One problem, circumcision then, and baptism now, must always be accompanied by faith in order to be of any value.

This kind of superficial conversion still takes place today. People have their infants baptized with no intent of bringing them up in the admonition of the Lord, and the faith given to that child in baptism, flickers and many times, dies.

People often attend church in order to be called Christians but their hearts are far from the Lord.

Some profess to be Christians because they see it as a way to benefit materially.

God’s Word is clear, superficial circumcision (then) or (today) baptism doesn’t cut it. It’s the circumcision of the heart, the raising to new life in Christ that matters. Mr 16:16 says, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”