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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. When Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. His heart was drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."
When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home. Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.
Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter—a thing that should not be done. But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it."
Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife."
Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go."
Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. The young man, who was the most honored of all his father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. "These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us." All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.
Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."
But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"
Genesis 33:18-20, Genesis 34:1-31
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In the 33rd chapter of Genesis, we found Jacob fearing that his brother Esau was coming with an army of 400 to harm him and his family but ended up receiving the exact opposite as the expected bloody, vengeful confrontation instead turned into a peaceful, loving, forgiving reunion, one that left everyone feeling good as they parted company and went their separate ways.
Unfortunately, as we move to chapter 34, we see where Jacob didn’t have much time to savor the blessed experience that answered his prayerful plea for God to "save him" from Esau. For disaster was about to strike in a big way.
As Chapter 34 opens, we find Dinah venturing out to "visit the women of the land." These women were the Canaanite women who resided in the vicinity of Jacob’s new settlement near Shechem and what is troubling about Dinah venturing out alone is that she was a teenage girl who was allowed to go unattended into territory dominated by a people who worshipped many gods vice the one true God, the God worshipped by Dinah and her family. Why Jacob and her mother allowed her to go is not explained but one might bring into question their judgment especially given what happened. For as Dinah was in the midst of the Canaanites, we read where she was raped by Shechem, the son of the region’s ruler, Hamor, who then held her captive.
The scriptures tell us that Shechem was so obsessed with Dinah that he convinced his father, Hamor, to go to Jacob and ask for Dinah to be given over as his wife. Hamor obliges and goes with Shechem to meet with Jacob who is joined by his angry sons, who come in from the fields enraged after hearing what had happened to their sister.
Well, instead of offering an apology for what had happened to Dinah, neither Hamor or Shechem show any remorse over what took place. Instead of offering an apology, we find them willing to give Jacob and his sons material items with the hope that land, inter-marrying, and the prospect of wealth might bring them pardon for Shechem’s sinful deed. Under the surface, we can sense Hamor’s selfish motives for if he could absorb Jacob’s clan into his, then he would inherit all that Jacob had which included the special blessing of God.
Ironically, the covenant agreement proposed by Hamor would result in him falling for a scheme propagated by Jacob’s sons as they used circumcision, a sign of God’s covenant with the Israelite people, to leverage an advantage against Hamor, Shechem. And their people. To mask their true intentions, we see where Jacob’s sons tell Hamor and his son that could never allow their sister to marry a man who was uncircumcised as it would be a disgrace to the family. And so they tell Hamor and Shechem that there will be no deal struck until every male within their ranks was circumcised and the two men agree to the demand, going back to Shechem and convincing all the men to go through with the circumcision.
The scriptures tell us that three days after the circumcision happened, the Shechem men were incapacitated with the pain from the procedure and this when Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, sprung into murderous action, slaying every male in the town (including Hamor and Shechem) before pillaging everything. As they returned home with Dinah, now free from captivity, both Simeon and Levi thought they had done something noble in avenging her defilement and I’m pretty sure they expected their father to praise them for what they had done but as we see in our passage, Jacob was far from happy with them. In fact, we see him chastise them, letting them know that their act of revenge had now placed a bulls-eye on the clan with an associated risk of vengeance. He said:
"You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."
After hearing this, the sons, upset by their father’s lack of approval, simply asked:
"Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"
Now, the obvious answer to their question was “no” for no one deserves to be mistreated or violated by another, especially where the act of rape is concerned. However, what can be brought into question is the degree of rebuttal exercised by Simeon and Levi who killed every male in Shechem over the wrongful act of one man.
In other words, the punishment didn’t meet the crime in this case and this story shows us how an obsession with revenge can lead to terribly destructive sin. For too often, a person or persons decide to exact judgment based on their plan when they should have placed control in the hands of God.
In other words, removing a matter from the hands of a perfect justice administrator will result in imperfect justice being rendered.
Indeed, as we see in this passage, there is no consultation with God on how to address Dinah’s rape.
No prayers lifted up to God asking for intervention and justice to be done.
No cries to God for help or guidance.
No, Simeon and Levi acted on emotion and took matters into their own hands, misusing God’s blessed covenant symbol of circumcision to set up their execution plan. Shechem’s sinful violation of Dinah led to Simeon and Levi’s sinful annihilation of the entire city of Shechem.
And so as we see so many times in the Bible, and in every generation of mankind since, sin beget sin.
Friends, we all need to learn from this story so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Unfortunately, as we see in many places, people haven’t learned for we still see too many killings every day that have their root in vengeance and retribution.
In the end translation, we’re only going to eradicate revenge from the human race by turning to God first, laying down any and all vengeful thoughts at His feet, while allowing Him to be the one and only bearer of judgment.
For when we do, He will always administer it perfectly.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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