Genesis chapter 34. I'll begin reading in verse 1. Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and violated her.
His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. So Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, get me this young woman as a wife. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field.
So Jacob held his peace until they came. Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. And the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done.
But Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife, and make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you.
Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it. And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me, I will give. 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.
But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 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. But on this condition, we will consent to you. If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, then we will take our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone. And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father.
And Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city and spoke with the men of their city, saying, these men are at peace with us. Therefore, let them dwell in the land and trade in it. for indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised.
Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son. Every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
It came to pass on the third day when they were in pain that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, and all their wealth.
All their little ones and their wives they took captive, and they plundered even all that was in the houses. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.
But they said, should he treat our sister like a harlot.
Introduction
Well, we saw last time how Jacob had returned after 20 long years in Padom Aaron. He now returns to the land of Canaan, the land of promise, and this is the first incident that greets them. It's an unsavory chapter in terms of the rape of Dinah and then this retaliation. But I want to look at first the rape of Dinah, verses 1 to 4, second the proposed alliance between these Hivites and Israelites in verses 5 to 24, and then finally the retaliation of Jacob's sons in verses 25 to 31.
So as we look at this passage again, it's pretty unsavory. We see that Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. There's some commentary on that, that that was not wise as far as it goes. She should not have gone out without a chaperone.
They are amongst Hivites, they are amongst Canaanites. It might not have been the best idea for her to go out. Nevertheless, she does. And when she does, she is raped by this man by the name of Shechem.
It says in verse 2, and when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and violated her. Now, as we look through the context here, and as we look at the language that's used here in other places of Scripture, it was rape that he engaged in. One dictionary, rather, defines the term for Genesis 34.2 and several other Old Testament passages as to do violence to rape a woman. Within the context, in verse 5 it says she was defiled, in verse 7 it says they did a disgraceful thing, again in verse 13, defiled, and then in verse 31, treat our sister like a harlot.
So what he did was vile and it was reprehensible, and so now we need to understand what happens in terms of the retaliation by Jacob's sons. But if you notice in the text, after he rapes her, he is strongly attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, according to verse 3. And he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor saying, get me, literally, get this child for me.
She's about 14 or 15 at this particular time. He rapes her, but then he has this fondness for her, this strong attraction to her. and he wants to be married. In 2 Samuel chapter 13, there's an incident of rape, where Amnon, the son of David, rapes his daughter Tamar, and David is very upset about it, but David doesn't do anything. In this particular context, we never read once that Jacob was even upset.
I'm not, I'm convinced that he was upset to some degree or other, but there is a big rift in their family. Remember that with reference to Leah and Rachel, Jacob favors Rachel, Leah not so much. This daughter is a daughter of Leah. Later in the narrative when Joseph is taken, or when they say that Joseph had been torn apart by Beats, Jacob just about loses it.
Well, there's no hint of that whatsoever in this particular chapter. So he doesn't even express anger. In fact, all that he is concerned about is saving face among the Canaanites with whom they dwell. But as well, when we look at this particular passage and compare it with Amnon and Tamar, Amnon raped Tamar and then he despised her.
He loathed her, he hated her, he abhorred her, he wanted her out, he wanted her gone as soon as possible. So there's a great difference in terms of Shechem and Amnon with reference to the women that they raped. Here he has this attraction, he has this desire, he says this to his father, get this child for me.
The Proposed Alliance
And that brings us to this proposed alliance in verses 5 to 24. They've got to try and figure out how to deal with this situation in a way that will be pleasing to all the parties involved. But notice first that there was this knowledge of the rape. Verse 5 tells us that Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter.
Now his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came." Again, maybe he was just grieving silently, and he thought this would be the time to lay this on them, and he does so, and they respond the way that we would expect people to respond in the case of Ray. What it says about verse 5 is a little bit puzzling in terms of Jacob's response. But again, maybe he has this silent rage that we don't know anything about. But when we look at verses 6 and 7, it says that Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
And then verse 7, and the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. And the men were grieved and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done. Again, I think that's a more consistent response to the tragedy of rape in this particular instance than what is exhibited by Jacob. Now, notice that these men make speeches in terms of their desire to secure Dinah as a wife for this young man Sheka.
So we have the speeches of Hamor and Shechem in verses 8 to 12. Verse 8, Hamor spoke with them saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. No apology, no please forgive him. nothing of the sort whatsoever, but rather, please give her to him as a wife.
And then he steps up, or he ups the ante even further. In verse nine he says, and make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.
So as far as Hamor is concerned, this is a no-brainer. Give your daughter Dinah to my son Shechem and then we'll have this agreement going forward where we intermarry between Israelites and Hivites and then you have a tenure in the land and you can benefit and you can prosper. So he is basically selling social and economic peace to these Israelites. They don't have any sort of apology whatsoever for the disgraceful thing that was done to Dinah, but rather, let's just call that water under the bridge, give her to my son, and everything will be hunky-dory, and all of us will live happily ever after.
And then, of course, Shechem steps up to the plate, and he says in verse 11, he said to her father and her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me, I will give. 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." Kind of helps us to understand why at the very end of the narrative, the young men, the sons of Jacob say, should he treat our sister like a harlot? He rapes her, and then he says, well, I'll go ahead and pay a dowry, and I'll give a gift, whatever it is that you impose, so that I can have her as my wife. Again, no apology.
He's done a horrible thing. This is vile and reprehensible, not only to Israelites, but to Hivites as well. This was not something that the heathen even took license in. The law codes surrounding Israel pretty much frowned on rape in terms of dealing with people within the social polity.
And so both of these men speak as though the rape had never occurred and that Dinah is not now currently captive. As we move through this particular section, that's something that we need to understand. Dinah is still in Shechem's house. After the young men do the killing, they go and kill Hamor and Shechem, and it's there that they free Dinah.
It's there that they liberate her. It's there that they release her from what was most likely a hostage-taking situation. This isn't all fun and games. We just want to bring together these two cultures.
We want to celebrate by having a marriage. They hold all the cards. They have all the leverage. They currently possess Dinah.
And this is something we need to get our minds wrapped around, because what seems to be overkill, no pun intended, with reference to the retaliation of the sons of Jacob, is actually a calculated mission to liberate Dinah. Before I came to this passage in more detail, I always wanted to believe that the sons of Jacob were right. I'm gonna preach tonight that the sons of Jacob were in fact right, that it wasn't some sort of flying off the handle, but it was calculated, and it was tactical, and it was strategic. They had a city full of men they had to overcome in order to free their sister from this particular situation, and we need to keep that in mind as we move along.
Jacob's Sons Respond with Deceit
Now notice the response of Jacob's sons in verses 13 to 19. Now the narrator tells us they are speaking deceitfully. Verse 13, the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father and spoke deceitfully because he had defiled Dinah their sister. I've said before that the narrator doesn't always give us ethical lessons.
The narrator doesn't end chapters like this and say, OK, here's five points of information that you need to take away from this. What is ethical and what is not ethical? And believe you me, the commentators get into the ethics behind passages like this in great detail, and I'm not sure they're always consistent or right. I think that what we're dealing with here is something akin to a wartime scenario.
And I think if it's put into that light, that their retaliation is not only legit, but it's what is expected in a situation like this. And so the author tells us that there is going to be deception. And then notice, the reason for the deceit was because he had defiled Dinah, their sister. We need to keep in mind that they are using deceit because they presently hold on to Dinah.
Dinah is not at home in Jacob's house. Dinah is in Shechem's house. They, as I said, have the leverage. They hold all the cards.
So verse 14, 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. But on this condition, we will consent to you, if you will become as we are. If every male of you is circumcised, 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. But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.
This was not the way that circumcision was intended to be administered as a sacrament of the Old Covenant. You see why the sons of Jacob want to do this, because on the third day, when they're in great pain, they're not going to be able to mount a good defense against the sons of Jacob when they go on this rescue mission. So they're thinking a few steps ahead. Again, it's not a knee-jerk reaction, it's not a crime of passion, but rather that it's calculated and they're moving tactically in the midst of the situation to liberate or free Dinah from this particular bondage or from this particular position of compromise.
And so they used deceit, they say we want to circumcise you, and then the men agree to the terms. Now, notice verses 18 and 19. Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. So the young man did not delay to do the thing because he delighted in Jacob's daughter.
He was more honorable than all the household of his father. One wonders if Moses chuckled as he wrote that particular part in the narrative. I don't think that is a compliment to Shechem. I think it is a means by which we're supposed to understand the general tenor of life there in Shechem, the life of the Hivites.
They were reprehensible, wretched, wicked people. Remember that in Leviticus chapter 18, one of the reasons why God uses Israel to remove the Canaanites from the land of Canaan is because of gross sexual sin, gross sexual immorality. This is something that identified or characterized these people. Again, law codes prohibited it, but that doesn't always mean that people follow law codes.
And so in this particular instance, what we find or what we see is that these men agree to the terms, and when it says he was more honorable than all the household of his father, it doesn't mean he was honorable. He's a rapist who has never asked forgiveness and who has never tried to fix the situation. And I don't think that Moses is telling us that this man legitimately was honorable. I mean, if he was the honorable one among the rest, then just think how miserable the rest of that lot was because this guy is a real loser.
And then notice what we have in terms of the terms are explained to the townspeople. Okay, so in order for this to take place, it's not just Shechem and Hamor that has to get circumcised. They have to sell this to the town. They have to bring this to the town and say, okay, here's what we want you to do and here's why.
Now, I would imagine this was a tough sell, and I imagine this is why they sell it the way they do. See, Hamor and Shechem don't say, you know, we have a little problem. Shechem was off the reservation, and he raped this woman, and now we have to sort of fix that. They don't mention anything like that at all.
They only mention what is politically advantageous to them in this instance to get these men of the city willing to be circumcised so that the sons of Jacob can kill them.
The Terms Sold to the City
Now that part they didn't know, but I'm just sort of ad-libbing there in terms of the whole overarching story. So they have to sell this to the townspeople. Notice in verses 21 to 23, the men speak to them. Verse 20, Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city and spoke with the men of their city saying, these men are at peace with us, therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it.
For indeed the land is large enough for them, let us take their daughters to us as wives and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition. There's always a catch, right? There's always a condition.
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. If you haven't learned Tanstaffel, you need to learn that. That's the most basic fundamental rule of economics. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
That's what Tan Staffel is. That's what these townspeople are learning. We have the opportunity to do great things. We have the opportunity to become one people.
We have the opportunity to increase our holdings. But there is one thing that we need to tell you that you have to do. Verse 22, only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us to be one people. If every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised, Okay, that's the catch.
That's the stumbling point. But then notice how they sell it in verse 23. Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be yours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.
Typical politicians. You'll get more free stuff as long as you do what we say. Get circumcised and you'll get more free stuff. Politicians haven't changed one bit.
They were giving away free stuff then to get votes. They're giving away free stuff now to get votes. John Calvin says, it is a very common disease that men of rank who have great authority while making all things subservient to their own private ends feign themselves, they fake, to be considerate for the common good and pretend to a desire for the public advantage. They don't care about them one bit.
They care about themselves, and this is the means by which they're going to secure not only Dinah, but they're going to secure future wives for future sons, and they're going to take all that Jacob has amassed in terms of land and property and all the sorts of things that these men want. Now, the townspeople agree to this, verse 24. Was it W.C. Fields who said, there's a sucker born every minute?
I mean, that's obvious, isn't it? As long as there's free stuff, we'll vote for whatever it is they say. That's a, you know, it's not the main lesson in the chapter, but it's certainly a lesson in the chapter. So verse 24 tells us, all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Amor and Shechem his son.
Every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. So they agree to the terms, and then
The Retaliation of Jacob's Sons
that brings us to the retaliation of Jacob's sons in verses 25 to 31.
The Killing of the Men
Note first the killing of the men. Now, two sons of Jacob are mentioned specifically. Notice in verse 25. Now, it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers.
Simeon, Levi, and Dinah were all from Leah. This is why Simeon and Levi are mentioned in this particular section, because they're spearheading this, they're leading this campaign, because it was their sister by blood that had been violated by this wretched son. And so these men orchestrate this particular plan in terms of not only killing the men, but in terms of liberating Dinah. So in verse 25b, it says that each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males.
Again, in order to get to Shechem and Hamor, you've got to dispose of all the particular troops that could be amassed to come to their defense. This is systematic, this is strategic, and this is the means by which they engage on liberating Dinah from this particular situation.
The Deliverance of Dinah
Notice the deliverance of Dinah specified in verse 26. So they kill all the males in the city, and then verse 26 says, and they killed Amor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went out. I submit that that changes the reading, or at least should inform the reading, away from this thought that they were just full of blood vengeance, and ungodly, and in an unbridled way. That's not it at all.
I mean, today I had to disagree with some guys I really love and esteem, but I just think they missed the point of the text. I don't think this was a crime of passion. I think it was cold and calculated in order to liberate Dinah from this bondage of now being in the home of the man who raped her. You know, the text tells us that he was fond of her, he loved her, his soul was strongly attracted to her.
I wonder if she felt the same way. This man saw her, he took her, he raped her, he violated her, he did a disgraceful thing. So I'm not, I think, off the reservation when I surmise that maybe she wasn't as willing for this marriage to be contracted as he was. And so the sons of Jacob, headed by Simeon and Levi, want to liberate their sister, and so they do.
The Plundering of the City
Now the plundering of the city may go a little far, I don't know, verses 27 to 29, I guess when all the men are dead, that's what you do, you plunder the city. So I'll leave that to the other guys. My own personal thought is that yeah, they've already killed everybody. They might as well take the stuff.
Maybe I'm very bad for that. I don't know. I'm sure some of you will probably disagree with the exposition tonight. But realize this, that it can go one of two ways, and most of the ways is that people blame these men for what they did in terms of killing the men in the city.
I think they're vindicated for that. The plundering, I don't have a problem with it personally, but others might, and that's fine. But in terms of verse 27, it says, the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. So it doesn't let us forget that.
They're not doing this just because they need new stuff. They're doing it as retaliation. They are inflicting the lex talionis. I mean, this man uses his sexual organ to perpetuate a crime against their daughter, against their sister, and so they then, legitimately, lex talionis, law of retribution, demand the same sort of payment.
And then verse 28, they took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field. And all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, they took captive and they plundered even all that was in the houses. So you see, it was total in terms of decimation of these men, and then as well, the plundering of all their goods. And the text never lets us forget that it was because this man had defiled their sister.
Now,
Jacob's Failure of Leadership
we need to finish by looking at the response of Jacob in verses 30 and 31. I think one of the larger lessons in the flow of the narrative is the ups and downs in the Christian life. We last saw Jacob having an up. I mean, in chapters 32 and 33, he was doing well.
He prayed, he wrestled with God and prevailed. He was a peacemaker when it came to Esau. I mean, that was some high moments with reference to Jacob. In fact, last week I said, we see spiritual maturity in the life of this patriarch.
Ever since Bethel in chapter 28, when the Lord promises to be with him, we see this sort of wind in his sails in a spiritual way. This is not a good point for Jacob, how he responds in verses 30 and 31. I don't think it is a good response of a father, of a patriarch, of a man of God. I'm not saying this means he's not saved.
I'm saying that in the Christian life we have these ebbs and we have these flows. But notice what he says in verse 30. And he holds on to this till his deathbed. In chapter 49, he lets these kids have it again for what they've done in this particular instance.
But here in verse 30, then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land. I think it's literally, you've made me stink among the inhabitants of the land. I've lost face, my reputation. Now, think about it, Jacob, you've been given this land, and eventually your descendants are going to be told to exterminate, or to, that's probably not the best word, rid the land of all the Canaanites.
Right now, your allegiance should be to the God of Israel and to your baby girl, not to these pagans, these Hivites, and these Canaanites, and these Perizzites. You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I." So his trouble is specifically losing face with the inhabitants of the land.
Not a word about Dinah, not a word about her honor, not a word about the sorts of things that these monsters did, but he's concerned about his reputation. I'm looked at as obnoxious now because you sons of mine went out there and killed all these nice, wonderful Hivites. I gotta tell you, if Shechem was the best of the lot, That doesn't bode well for that city. I'm going to tell you that's a city where there was some genuine need of some policing at least.
So he's got this, but then he's also got this fear that he is going to be killed. Here's a man who's overcome his fears. Here's a man who's wrestled with God and prevailed. Here's a man who faced down Esau, who faced down Laban, who saw God's faithfulness in his own life to vindicate him and to protect him all along the way, and now he's cowering with reference to these pagans.
Wenham says, of course, fear is natural in such a situation. But the reasons Jacob gives for damning his sons betray him. He does not condemn them even for the massacre. Supposing it was wrong, that would have been where he should have wagged his finger in their faces.
You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have killed those. That's not his concern. He goes on to say, for abusing the right of circumcision.
They did that too. He could have shaken his finger in their faces for abusing that. Or even for breach of contract. They went into this with a contract.
He says, rather, he protests that the consequences of their action have made him unpopular. Nor does he seem worried by his daughter's rape or the prospect of intermarriage with the Canaanites. He is only concerned for his own skin. I don't think that's a stretch.
I think Wenham's got the text. I think he's the guy that has the best reading in terms of Genesis 34 of the commentators I have. And then that brings us to the rebuke by the sons, and I think it's a twofold rebuke. I don't think it only goes in the direction of Shechem, but I think it goes in the direction of Jacob as well.
Notice what he says or what they say in verse 31. They said, should he treat our sister like a harlot? Now certainly Shechem is the target for that ultimately because Shechem was the one who saw her, who took her, who raped her, who violated her, and then offered to pay a dowry and a gift so that he could then acquire her as wife. But was Jacob going to receive that dowry?
Was Jacob going to receive that gift? If these sons of Jacob hadn't gone out and killed all the men of the city, if the sons of Jacob had kept to the treaty or to the contract that had been made, would Jacob just have received this gift? for the rape of his daughter? Perhaps they have a two-pronged sword with reference, or a double-edged sword with reference to this statement. It goes toward Shechem, but it also, to a degree, goes toward Jacob, because he wasn't fighting for his girl's honor.
He wasn't fighting for his girl's life. He wasn't fighting for her protection and for her dignity. So that may be what they mean there, not just with reference to Shechem, but as well with reference to Jacob. And again, this family is dysfunctional.
And it's one of the reasons how or why we see God's providence work in the midst of this. There's serious rift. When we get to the Joseph narratives, it's the sons of Leah versus the sons of Joseph, essentially, is what you have. I guess the text is telling us it's never a good idea to try and combine wives or multiply wives and have a multitude of family, because it's going to go awry when you deviate from God's order.
The Ethics of the Situation
Now, in terms of the ethics of the situation, I do have an extended quote that I think gets at what's happening here. This is from a fellow by the name of Sternberg, and it was a quote by Wenham. He says, the Hivites have largely brought down that violence. Now, again, what I mean by the ethics of the situation, what are we supposed to think?
How do we process this? Do we say those were bloodthirsty savages and the sons of Jacob, that we should never do anything like that? Or do we say, wow, look at what they did and how they did it. We might do it a bit differently, but they were certainly fighting for rights.
They were doing, in terms of the end game, their motivation, and even the path they took was right, ultimately. This fellow says, the Hivites have largely brought down that violence on themselves by seeking to impose their will on Jacob's family. That's what they're doing. They have Dinah, remember?
When you have Dinah, you've got the hostage, you're in a position to call shots that you wouldn't normally have. He goes on to say, with Dinah in Shechem's hands, the option of polite declining is closed to her guardians. So when the sons, when Hamor and when Shechem come out with this treaty or this desire or this idea to try to bring together the two peoples, you see what he's saying? They've got Dinah.
You're not in a position to politely decline at this point. They're holding the cards. He goes on to say, and once the brothers refused to submit to the Hivite version of a shotgun wedding, they were left no avenue to the retrieval of their sister except force, hence also the need for deceit. Considering the numerical superiority of the troops behind the prince of the land, two of Jacob's sons faced a whole city.
No wonder the brothers resorted to trickery to make odds more even." We're not told the rest of the sons of Jacob helped them kill everybody. We're told that the sons of Jacob plundered everything. But as far as we know, it was Simeon and Levi that took out the men of the city. And thus, as this fellow points out, you see why they resorted to trickery to make odds more even.
He goes on to say, and the order of presentation supports the reading of the slaughter as an act enforced and purposive rather than expressing blind fury. First comes the attack on the townsmen, next the killing of Hamor and Shechem, and only then the extrication of Dinah. To rescue their sister, this orderly movement implies they had to deal with all possible resistance, let alone future retaliation. I think understood in that light, I think that's the way the text presents itself.
So before we start to get all judgmental and Monday morning quarterbacky and say, well, I can't believe those sons of Jacob did what they did. Well, their daughter, their sister rather, was raped and basically being held hostage. What would you have suggested that they do at that particular point? Just submit to the demands of Shechem and Hamor?
Just engage in this intermarriage with pagans? This does foreshadow the holy war that's coming. This foreshadows Deuteronomy chapter 7, where they are prohibited from having marriages, social contracts, with the people in the land. They will be told that they are to go in and utterly dispossess the land of the Canaanites, and this does foreshadow that in a great way.
And then when it comes to the ups and downs of Jacob, as I said last week in 32 and 33, he prays, he wrestles and prevails with God, and he makes peace with Esau. You think, well, there's no stopping him. I mean, his devotional life is good. He's a prayer warrior.
He wrestles with God. He's a peacemaker with Esau. I mean, he has dealt with the Laban situation. Everything is going his way.
Sounds like a different man in verse 30 and 31. when he's afraid what the pagans are going to think of him if he doesn't agree with what his sons have done in terms of retributive justice inflicted upon a rapist in his community. He sounds pathetic and weak and a lack of trust in God to protect him from the pagans in the land. Again, Wenham says chapter 34 makes an interesting and instructive sequel to chapters 32 and 33. There we learned how the fearful and alienated Jacob was changed into the new Israel, who boldly returned to Canaan and made peace with his brother Esau, whom he had struggled with and cheated since birth.
But this story shows Jacob's old nature reasserting itself. A man whose moral principles are weak, who is fearful of standing up for right when it may cost him dearly, who doubts God's power to protect. So there really is this big contrast between 32 and 33 and what we have in 34. It's no accident that God tells him to go back to Bethel in chapter 35.
He needs to get a good dose of spiritual reality again, and it's obviously the Lord who protects the sons of Jacob from any of the cities around inflicting sort of retribution on them for their activity. But in the chapter, he does not favor Leah, and it doesn't seem like, no, maybe he was, but it doesn't seem like he's really fond of Dinah. There's nothing, no statement whatsoever of grief or pain. I mentioned with reference to Amnon and Tamar, 2 Samuel 13, 21, David is angry.
It's unfortunate he doesn't do anything, but he's nevertheless angry. When we see the sons of Jacob here about it, they're angry. That's the legitimate expression of somebody whose wife or whose daughter or whose sister has been raped or violated by someone else. But he doesn't seem to have that.
He does not prescribe a course of action for his sons, but remains passive. He's the spiritual head. He's the leader. He should have formulated a plan.
But he is passive. He's fallen back into that mode of passivity, and now the sons take the action, and the sons govern the situation, and the sons bring it to a bloody conclusion that he doesn't like. Well, he should have spoke up prior to, on the front end of that incursion, he should have spoken up and exercised some spiritual headship. Again, David is angry, but David doesn't do anything.
So what does that mean? That means that Absalom then kills Amnon. Absalom dispatches Amnon for having raped his sister Tamar. When we don't provide leadership, somebody's going to step in and they're going to engage in some retribution, and we see that in both instances.
Then as well, he is more concerned about his public standing than Dinah's honor. Remember who he's concerned about. I mean, this was the son of the prince of the land, and he's a rapist and a hostage taker. And he says, you have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
And since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I. Well, Dad, what do you think about Dinah? I mean, come on, there's nothing there.
Now, if it sounds like I'm picking on Jacob too much, let me just bring this to a conclusion. The ebbs and flows of the Christian life that we see here are the sorts of ebbs and flows that good men experience even today. You see it with David. You see it with Peter, the apostle, who ebbed and flowed.
He was willing to die for Jesus, but he denied Jesus to a servant girl. Well, I think that our Christian life can look like this as well. We have these Bethel experiences where we see the face of God, not literally, I'm speaking metaphorically, and then God gives us some vindication, or God gives us some deliverance, and God is present in our lives, and we're prayerful, and we prevail with God in terms of prayer lives, and we're peacemakers with Esau's, and then we end up doing something utterly foolish.
Grace Alone Sustains Jacob
But then ultimately, Jacob is a saved man. So who gets the glory and the salvation of Jacob? It ain't Jacob. Left to himself, he's going to snivel, he's going to whine, and he's going to be afraid of Hivites.
It is the grace of God, it is the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, it is faith in him alone that is the means by which we will ever enter into heaven. Jacob is at the marriage supper of the Lamb because of Jesus Christ, not because of Jacob. Jacob is there supping in the presence of the Savior because of the Savior who lived, the Savior who died, and the Savior who was raised the third day. So as we look at this, again, it sounds like if I'm being overly hard on Jacob, perhaps it's because the text does that.
I think that Moses is making a judgment call here for us to understand that what Jacob does here is not his finest hour. It's not his best moment. But nevertheless, God doesn't cut him off. Nevertheless, God keeps him.
And nevertheless, God ultimately brings him to the new Jerusalem. Well, let's close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for it, Your Word, and we confess that this is an unsavory chapter in Scripture. It does express the wickedness of man. Father, we pray that You would help us to think biblically, to think righteously, to think good ethically in terms of things like these as we study Scripture. And Father, help us as well to resist temptation in our own life, to not be a Jacob, and not to fall apart, and not to fret or fear, but to realize that You are our shield, our exceedingly great reward, and that the God who has saved us is the God who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.
May this encourage us, may this stabilize us, and may this help us to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we pray in His most blessed name. Amen.