Worship Come Now Is The Time To Worship youtube/watch?v=NPWq8eM4lu8 Friend Of God youtube/watch?v=bGJ_81dgoEQ Remind Me Who I Am youtube/watch?v=0OBIQe6zKdg A Failed Father - Genesis 34:1–31 How we respond to tragedy reveals our true character. When we allow God to shape us, we respond in faith—seeking Him for assistance and guidance through the storm. When we follow our own impulses and instincts, we may react to tragedy with violent emotion and impulsive action. The biblical picture of a righteous person is one who is in regular communion with God. For the most part, Abraham, Moses, and Daniel all weathered difficulty in their lives by seeking God first. They also experienced struggles when they did not. 1. A Tragic Event (Genesis 34:1–4) A. Jacob’s Attitude - Having finally returned to the promised land, Jacob bought a piece of property from the sons of Hamor, prince of nearby Shechem. He built an altar there and called it El-Elohe-Israel, “God is the God of Israel.” Israel was the patriarch’s new name, which he received after wrestling with God all night. As Israel settled back in the land of Canaan, he professed that God was his God, the God of Israel. Yet in the troubling events concerning his daughter at Shechem, Jacob never turned to his God for help. Instead he demonstrated lack of faith in God’s promises and lack of concern for the descendants God had given him. B. Dinah’s Rape - The trouble between Jacob’s family and the Shechemites starts in Gen 34:1, where we meet Dinah, “the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob.” Jacob never loved Leah, nor was he impressed with the sons she bore. He was even less impressed with his daughter. In Genesis 34, Dinah went “out to see the women of the land”—an unusual outing, in that culture, for an unchaperoned girl of marriageable age. The narrator never indicts Dinah for the horrors that happened to her. Instead, the responsibility falls to her father, who failed to care for her before the rape and after. Dinah encountered Shechem, whose father was chief over the city of Shechem and 1,000 square miles of rural territory in the hill country. The chief’s son “saw her … took her … lay with her … and raped her.” Shechem’s appalling actions against Jacob’s daughter disgraced her and dishonored her entire family. Then the story takes an unexpected turn: We are told that Shechem loved Dinah, spoke tenderly to her, and wanted to marry her properly (compare to Amnon, who hated Tamar after he raped her; 2 Sam 13:15–17). We don’t learn until later that Dinah stayed in Shechem’s house after the rape, and we never learn whether she stayed by force or choice. Her brothers assumed the best of her and the worst of Shechem: She was held against her will. 2. A Tragic Response (Genesis 34:5–29) A. A Silent Father - Word reached Jacob that Shechem had defiled his daughter, Dinah. We expect an outraged father to rush to his daughter’s rescue and defend the honor of his family against the Canaanite brute. But Jacob kept silent. Jacob’s sons were a different story. When they heard the news, they stormed in from the field, ready to avenge their sister. These different reactions show a blatant contrast between Jacob and his sons: Jacob heard the news and was silent, waiting for his sons to return. The brothers heard the news and raced in from the field in a fury. Before the brothers made it back to camp, Hamor swept in to speak with Jacob on behalf of his infatuated son. But he had more in mind than just joining the families of Jacob and Hamor. If the patriarch’s people would intermarry with the people of the land, Hamor promised, “The land shall be open to you; live and trade in it, and get property in it.” B. Deceptive Brothers - Dinah’s brothers answered deceitfully when they responded to the extravagant offer. They refused the offer because the Shechemites were uncircumcised, outsiders to the Abrahamic covenant. However, if every male in Shechem were to get circumcised, the family of Jacob would intermarry with them and “become one people.” Hamor and Shechem agreed to the terms and then hurried back to town to persuade all the Shechemite men to undergo circumcision. In their pitch, father and son extolled the peacefulness of Jacob’s family and the potential benefits of intermarriage with them. Without any mention of Dinah, the men highlighted the economic advantage of intermarriage for the city and convinced the men that circumcision was a prudent choice for all of them. In the process, they hint at their intention to further take advantage of Jacob’s tribe. C. Vengeance and Condemnation - Three days later, when the men of Shechem were still healing from their circumcisions and thus defenseless, two of Jacob’s sons exacted their revenge. Simeon and Levi slaughtered the men of the city and whisked Dinah away. Then the rest of the brothers plundered the city. Jacob, silent in the text until now, finally spoke. But he did not decry the senseless slaughter, the abuse of the covenantal rite of circumcision, the opportunistic greed, or the deception that lay behind the brothers’ heinous behavior. Instead, he rebuked only Simeon and Levi because their action made him “odious to the inhabitants of the land” and thus potentially endangered his life. 3. Passive in the Face of Tragedy (Genesis 34:30–31) A. Jacob’s Failure to Protect His Family - The appalling account ends with a question asked by the avenging brothers: “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” The answer hangs in the air and indicts Jacob for his passivity. His failure to protect his daughter, defend her honor, and then rein in his sons results in atrocity. Furthermore, Jacob said nothing in response to larger issues of the covenant that lay behind the proposed alliance between the Shechemites and the Israelites. Of great importance to both Abraham and Isaac was the marriage of their sons to women from their own kindred, yet Jacob did not protest Hamor’s proposal for tribal intermarriage, which risked the entire covenant promise. B. Jacob’s Failure to Trust God - Furthermore, Jacob had returned to the land God promised him, yet he allowed his sons to negotiate a deal in which they can acquire property. The property was his by promise from God, but instead he viewed it as something to be bargained for, just like he has bargained for nearly everything else in his life. His passivity is, at best, careless indifference; at worst, it is a lack of faith that God would keep His promises to give Jacob the land and to multiply His descendants. His failure to act in faith on behalf of his family had disastrous effects. C. Simeon and Levi’s Vengeance - Years later, when Jacob dies, he “blesses” Simeon and Levi with something more like a curse because of their actions at Shechem. He condemns their violence and angry behavior at Shechem and deprives them of their rightful share of his inheritance by dividing their portion among the other tribes. Jacob’s censure of Simeon and Levi is later fulfilled in the Pentateuch as the tribes of Israel receive their allotment of land, but it is fulfilled in an unexpected way. We learn in Josh 19:1–9 that rather than inheriting its own territory of land, the tribe of Simeon was folded into the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Levi was also made dependent upon the other tribes of Israel, but rather than residing within the land of another single tribe, the Levites were allotted 48 cities among the other tribes. The vengeful actions of Simeon and Levi in Gen 34, as well as Jacob’s cursing of their violence, altered the fate of their descendants in the biblical narrative. Although the Levites redeemed their tribe to a certain degree when they responded to Moses’ call for faithful Israelites after the golden calf incident, their actions were once again characterized by violence. The Painful Process of Spiritual Growth - The catchphrase “two steps forward, one step back” aptly describes Jacob’s spiritual growth. In fact, his progress often looks more like “one step forward, two steps back.” Jacob’s encounter with God at Peniel and his reconciliation with Esau were highpoints in his spiritual journey. What happened at Shechem certainly represents one of his lowest points. Spiritual growth can be painful and arduous. Our failures and besetting sins can sideline us, making us feel like we have made no progress. Jacob’s life with God should encourage us that God can work through even our failures. God patiently helps us along, one little step at a time. When we reflect upon how God has worked in our lives—either through journaling, praying, or some other reflective action—we are able to see how He uses both our successes and failures. We learn how He accomplishes His purposes, even (and often) in dire circumstances. We can also see how He thinks and feels about unjust circumstances and seek His guidance in each decision.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 20:59:21 +0000
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