Let's all get circumcised...

I've always said that Genesis is one of the "R" Rated books of the Bible. This morning I was reading out of chapter 34 and it's a bit sketchy.

You should read the chapter for yourself, but in the meantime, here's the summary: Jacob's daughter Dinah is raped by a man named Shechem. He then wants to marry her so he gets his dad to go to her dad to work out the marriage details. Dinah's brothers get involved and come up with the price of the marriage, which is really just an attempt to get revenge on Shechem for defiling their sister. The price is that every man, not just Shechem, but every man in their village/area had to be circumcised. Surprisingly, Shechem, his dad, and the men all agreed to this price.

Now let me ask you: What kind of influence would you have to have to talk all the men of an entire village into circumcising themselves?

During their "recovery" time, Dinah's brothers came in and killed all of the newly circumcised men and plundered the village it get vengeance for their sister.

It was greed that motivated these men to undergo an embarrassing and painful surgical procedure to a very private body part... the lengths we'll go to for power and money.

I would like to think I would have opted out of this deal, but this got me wondering: Who is influencing me? What voices am I listening to? Who am I allowing to speak into my life? 

In Proverbs 13:20 Solomon writes, "He who walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm." 

All of us are listening to somebody and something. Most of us don't even realize the influence those voices are having on our lives. 

Be careful who you listen to. Walk with the wise. 

I think I need to share this story with my boys tonight. Male body parts are common topics at our dinner table. Now I have a story with a male body part to leverage for good.