Dads and brothers -
this message is for you. What would you do if someone raped your little girl, or your sister? The other day, Rob said to me, “Did you hear the story of the father who killed a man who raped and murdered his daughter and then put him in his trunk?” I said, “No, I have not.” Then my husband said, “If that happened to me, I would have done the same thing.” My first response was, “No you would not. To be a true Christian, we must turn the other cheek.” My first instinct was to extend forgiveness, but my husbands instinct was to seek justice. It made me think of how God’s character is both grace and wrath. But then I thought, what if there were no police? Where would we be if justice did not exist? What would happen if people got away with doing all kinds of violent things? What if men could take a woman or a child and sexually violate them to their hearts content? What if there was no judge or jury to convict people who rape and murder? What would happen if all of these people were walking our streets? What would we do? Remember Leah, the mother of Judah? Well, she had a daughter named Dinah who was minding her own business, and visiting her friends. Then this man named Shechem, son of Hamor who was the ruler in the land, saw Dinah and took her and raped her.” The scripture says, “His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father, “Get me this girl as my wife.” Now I don’t know about you - but in my mind, rape does not equate to love at all! In fact, rape is the complete opposite. Rape is about power and control - Using threat or force against another person’s will. Now if you had been Jacob or Leah, and Shechem did this to your daughter, what would you have done? How would you have acted in response to such an attack? Remember, at that time, they were living in a foreign land. They were living in the land of Canaan, a land filled with giants and pagans. There were no police to arrest Shechem. There were no courts to judge him. In fact he was the law of the land. “When Jacob heard that his daughter had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.” Genesis 34:5 Then, “when Jacob’s sons came in from the fields - as soon as they heard what had happened - They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter - a thing that should not be done.” Genesis 34:7 I can’t tell - but it sounds like they were more mad that Shechem defiled Dinah because she was a child of God - a woman who had been set apart to be with a man of circumcision, rather than the fact that she was violated. What is your opinion? And then, Shechem’s stupid father, Hamor caved in! Instead of punishing Shechem for this horrible violation, he went out to talk with Jacob and said, “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.” Can you imagine confusing “love” and using it as an excuse to rape? What a horrific sin! Then Shechem, who was apparently with Hamor, 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. Only give me the young woman as my wife.” Can you imagine his boldness? He didn’t even think what he did was wrong! The scripture says, “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 enter into an agreement with 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.” It sounds like they were pretty honest to me. Why do you think the scripture says they acted deceitfully? Hamor and his son Shechem approved of the proposal. The scripture says, “The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, 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 the men of their city. They announced “These men are friendly toward us, 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 agree 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 agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.” Genesis 34:18-23 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. This is where the deceit comes in - “Three days later (3 days seems to be a completion timeline) while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, 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.” Genesis 34:25-29 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious 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 34:30-31 You don’t know it yet - but God certainly does step in. Genesis 35 will address what God said to Jacob. But for now, what do you think? Do you think Simeon and Levi should be condemned or were they justified? It seems to me only God is righteous in our eyes!
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