Genesis 34 - Job 1 - Mark 5 - Romans 5

Genesis 34
- Now I understand why Dinah had been listed as a child of Leah. It was becuase she would be the reason for future events for Jacob's family.
- Shechem, the Hivite, lay with Dinah and "humiliated" (raped?) her.
- Shechem then falls in love with Dinah and asks his father, Haran, to talk with Jacob to get him Jacob's daughter.
- Did Haran know what his son had done to Dinah?
- How did Jacob find out about Dinah when she was still being kept with Shechem?
- Jacob's sons were very angry when they found out.
- Hamor says to Jacob and his sons that they should intermarry and share the land. (Sounds reasonable)
- Jacob didn't ask Haran for a bride price, but he did say that Dinah could not marry someone who had not been circumcised.
- Jacob also said they could all dwell together as one people, if and only if all their men were circumcised.
- Didn't any Hivite males object to do this? It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing everyone would/should get excited about doing to oneself.
- On the third day after everyone had been circumcised, Simeon and Levi went and killed all the males of that place, took the women and children, and plundered the people's things.
- Jacob apparently was NOT part of this plan because he was upset at his sons for causing future tension between them and the Canaanites.
- How had Jacob planned on enacting revenge and why had he said every man should be circumcised if not to wipe them out?

Job 1
- Job had great wealth, seven sons and 3 daughters. He was an upright man and blameless.
- Job would offer sacrifices for his children in case they had sinned within their hearts. He did this continually.
- Is this fact an exaggeration since in Romans it says, "all have sinned"?
- Who are the "sons of God" referred to in v. 6? Are these the angels?
- Why would God talk with Satan?
- Satan tells God that Job is only so righteous because God protects him and his household placing a "hedge" around them.
- Satan continues to say that if God takes away all Job's blessings, Job will curse God.
- God tells Satan do do as he wishes, but not to harm Job himself.
- Job lost his sheep and oxen, his servants and camels were destroyed by fire, and then finally ALL of his children were killed in a windstorm (tornado?)
- The amazing thing is that this all happened at the same time because the next servant came to tell Job these things "while he was yet speaking"
- Job falls and worships God who "gives and takes away" (a moving and godly response).
- What powers are Satan capable of since he called forth a firs storm and wind storm with God's permission?

Mark 5
- Jesus meets a man across the sea immediately who possessed by many demons.
- Again "Legion" the spirits know who Jesus is and state it to him. Legion begs Jesus to send them into the pigs, so Jesus does and they run down the hill and drown.
- Why wouldn't Jesus simply kill the spirits instead of sending them away to deal with again later?
- Why did the spirits drown the pigs and what happened to the evil spirits?
- The townspeople saw the possessed man well and asked Jesus to leave them.
- The depossessed man wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus told him to go tell others what God had done for him.
- Why would Jesus want this man to tell others, when He always orders people NOT to tell about Him?
- Jairus came to Jesus to have him heal his daughter.
- While Jesus was going to Jairus' house a woman pressed through the crowd and touched Jesus' clothes.
- It said Jesus knew that power went out from him.
- The disciples could not understand why Jesus was upset about who touched him when they were in a great crowd.
- The woman, who had already been healed, fell before Jesus who commended her for her faith which had healed her, sent her away in peace.
- Jairus's servants came and told him that his daughter had already died and that Jairus should not bother Jesus any longer.
- Did Jairus' faith waver in this moment or did he believe that Jesus could still heal her?
- Jesus told Jairus not to fear but only to believe.
- Jesus took Peter, James, and John in with him.
- The people laughed at Jesus when he said that the girl was not dead, but He still went in and healed the girl.
- Jesus charged them to tell no one what had happened.
- Why did He say this to them, when it would be obvious to others that Jesus had raised the girl from the dead, since she had in fact been dead?

Romans 5
- We have recieved grace and hope through our faith in Christ.
- We should rejoice in suffering because it leads to endurance which leads to character which leads to hope (similar to what James 1 says)
- Jesus died for us while we were still sinners (His enemies).
- Jesus has justified us and saved us from God's just wrath.
- We have been reconciled to God. (The effects of sin from the fall have been reversed for believers)
- The comparison between Adam's one sin and Jesus' one act of righteousness and how these two events affected mankind.
- Are there different types of sin? (v. 14)
- People were sinning from the times of Adam to Moses before the law was given.
- What does Paul mean when he says that sin was not counted before the law?
- Didn't Paul just say all people can see God in all creation even if they've never heard the gospel a few verses earlier?
- What's the difference between the grace of God and the "free gift"?
- Sin came into the world through one man, Adam, and righteousness and justification has come through one man, Jesus.
- Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more! (Wow!)
- Sin reigns in death, but grace and righteousness reigns in eternal life.