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. 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. 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. 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. 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 that brings us to the retaliation of Jacob's sons in verses 25
to 31. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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.
