The Calamity of Taking Things Into Your Own Hands Genesis 34

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When I was in high school, my track coach showed our team the movie The Jericho Mile. This was a fictional story of a world -class runner named
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Larry Murphy, who is in prison on a life sentence. As the movie details his time in prison, it is revealed that he is serving a life sentence because he murdered his father out of revenge for sexually assaulting his step -sister.
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But while Murphy spends time in prison, he occupies his time by running.
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Each day as the prisoners get time outside in the yard, he runs laps around. It's not long before he gets the attention of a few of the prison employees who notice how fast he is, and they time him.
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When the warden discovers his speed, he gets a college track and field coach to come out and he brings a few of his best runners with him.
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Murphy races these runners and defeats them, and from this point forward, this track coach trains
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Murphy for the Olympic Trials. In order for this to happen, there needed to be a track built in the prison yard, and the fellow inmates would build this.
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One of the top milers in America was brought in to race Murphy. In this race, Murphy clocked a time that qualified him for the
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Olympic Trials, and in the process, he defeated this top American runner. But after he ran the qualifying time, he met with the
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Olympic Board that told him that no convicted murderer would be able to compete in the
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Olympic Trials. The Olympic Board was hostile toward Murphy, asking him if he was sorry for what he did to his father.
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But Murphy tells them, point blank, that he would do it all over again, given the same circumstances.
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Murphy handled this great injustice in his family by taking the life of his father out of revenge.
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Now, I bring this movie up because we are going to see a similar story in Genesis 34 this morning.
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What we are going to see is a great injustice occurs in Jacob's family, and Jacob's sons are going to take things into their own hands.
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What we are going to learn is that Scripture teaches us not to do what Murphy did in the movie,
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The Jericho Mile. And we are not to do what we are going to see Jacob's sons do in response to a great injustice in their family.
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So I encourage you to turn with me to Genesis 34. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 33 and 34.
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This sermon is titled, The Calamity of Taking Things into Your Own Hands.
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The Calamity of Taking Things into Your Own Hands. And our big idea, our proposition, is that we must take satisfaction in knowing that every egregious sin will be dealt with.
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We must take satisfaction in knowing that every egregious sin will be dealt with.
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And we'll see two vital truths that we must understand. The first vital truth is there truly is great injustice in this fallen world.
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Verses 1 -12. Last week, God gave us an excellent challenge from James 3.
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We were instructed to strive to be mature believers who tame the tongue. Two Sundays ago, we were in Genesis 33.
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We looked at the narrative between Jacob and Esau. Jacob had just had the intimate encounter between him and the
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Lord. In that encounter, Jacob wrestled with the Lord who took on a human body. This was the point where Jacob surrendered himself fully to God.
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This was his transformation. So the Lord gave Jacob a new name,
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Israel. This encounter with the Lord filled Jacob with confidence. He needed confidence because his supposed eventual brother
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Esau was approaching with 400 men. The reader of this account expected there to be a big showdown between these brothers.
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Since over 20 years earlier, Esau plotted to kill Jacob. But the
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Lord did something in Esau superficially to make Esau view Jacob with favor.
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They had a remarkable reunion where they hugged, wept, and kissed each other. The Lord was fulfilling his promise to Jacob that he and his offspring would be preserved and they would be led to the land of Canaan.
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This whole account was a story of God's grace toward Jacob. He did not deserve this wonderful treatment from Esau.
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Jacob deserved bad things to happen to him for cheating Esau out of his birthright and blessing. But the
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Lord was kind to Jacob by sparing him from his brother who once plotted to kill him.
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And remember, he spared him by superficially changing Esau's character.
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The application for us is that we must realize the incredible position we are in as God's people. We saw two remarkable truths.
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The first is that we are always recipients of God's grace. And secondly, we are able to call
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God our God. He's not only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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He's the God of each one of us. This leads us to our text today. After meeting with Esau east of the land of Canaan, Jacob, his family, and everyone with him are now heading west toward the promised land.
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And as they head west, they eventually settle in Shechem as the end of chapter 33 told us.
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Shechem is named after the dominant figure that lived in this region.
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Remember, Jacob bought a piece of land from Shechem's father Hamor. And this note at the end of chapter 33 previews that Shechem is a central character in our narrative today in chapter 34.
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He's going to do something very bad to the people of Israel. So let us let's see what that is in verses one through four.
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Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land.
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And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.
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And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.
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So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor saying, get me this girl for my wife.
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Up to this point in Genesis, Dinah is the only daughter recorded. Her birth is recorded in chapter 30 verse 21.
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The other 11 children that Jacob had were all sons. Verse one records that Dinah went out alone to see the women of the land.
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And it's worth noting here that young women going out alone in a dangerous place is never a good idea, especially at this point in history.
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As I already mentioned, Shechem is from the family that Jacob purchased the piece of land. So Shechem is a local powerful man who's looking for an opportunity with a foreign woman.
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The text says that he seized her. He laid with her. So he had relations with her.
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The last verb says that he humiliated her. It's clear what is happening here. Shechem assaulted
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Dinah against her will. This is obviously very sad and it leads one to be rightly angry.
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But things like this happen in a sinful world. These things happen then, they happen now, and they will happen until Christ returns and this sinful world comes to an end and God's pure reign here begins.
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After humiliating Dinah, the text says that Shechem was drawn to her. He smooth talked her as well.
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The verse says that Dinah was a young woman. So we get the impression that Dinah was probably a teenager and Shechem a grown man.
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So after Shechem took advantage of Dinah, he told his father, make this woman my wife.
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His sinful heart wants what he wants and no one is going to stop him from satisfying his lustful desire.
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You can anticipate that there are going to be fireworks. Dinah is the only girl in the family and she has 11 brothers.
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In a family, you typically see a good dad and brothers protecting their sisters from men who are dangerous.
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Well, let's see how the family responds to the defiling of Dinah. Verse 5, now
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Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock in the field.
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So Jacob held his peace until they came. So Jacob hears that his daughter was severely violated by Shechem.
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And what we see here is that Jacob shows self -control, which is the right response. Quick vengeance would not have been a good idea.
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We have been with Jacob a long time and we know that he has grown. The old Jacob would not have been so self -controlled.
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The text says that he held his peace until his sons came back from the field as they were working with their livestock.
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Now, after Shechem asked his father Hamor to get Dinah to be his wife, Hamor approaches
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Jacob with this purpose. Verse 6, and Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.
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Let's pause for a second here. As Hamor is speaking with Jacob, Jacob's sons, Dinah's brothers, come in.
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And as you might expect, they are very angry. So we're going to see this in verse 7. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it.
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And the men were indignant and very angry because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing must not be done.
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So as Jacob's sons are out in the field, word reaches them of what Shechem had done to Dinah. We don't know if there were witnesses or if Dinah had reported to her family what had happened to her, but word reaches her brothers.
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Verse 7 says that they were indignant. What this word means in Hebrew is they were grieved or hurt by what happened to Dinah.
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Verse 7 also says that they were very angry. Now there are two types of angers.
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There's righteous anger, and then there's sinful anger. An example of sinful anger would be when we don't get what we want.
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My old pastor has said it this way. We sin to get what we want, and we sin when we don't get what we want.
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Because then we end up sinning out of anger. But this is a case where this righteous anger for Dinah's brother is taking place.
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Her brothers are furious, and they should be, that this outrageous act that Shechem did to their beloved sister.
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You will notice at the end of verse 7 that the text says that he had done an outrageous thing in Israel. This is the first time the name
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Israel is not just attached to Jacob, but to the people, the people that would come from Jacob.
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And from this point forward, we would see this title Israel. And we see it throughout the
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Old Testament. Jacob and his descendants especially knew, as Israelites and as ones who worship the one true
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God, they especially knew what was right and wrong. God is the one who wrote the moral code.
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Morality is the same for everyone, everywhere, at all times. True morality is set in stone because it reflects the unchanging character of God.
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What Shechem did violating Dinah is a clear evil immoral act. Now, Jacob's sons come in from the field, and they are in the presence of their father
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Jacob and Hamor. Shechem's father. And as you might expect, they're not happy, but they're not going to show their anger because they're planning something.
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But we'll see that down the road here. But this is what Hamor says to them in verses 8 through 12, as they are all gathered together.
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But Hamor spoke with them saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter.
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Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.
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You shall dwell with us and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it and get property in it.
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Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes. And whatever you say me,
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I will give. Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will. And I will give whatever you say to me.
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Only give me the young woman to be my wife. We know that Hamor is speaking to Jacob and his sons since the plural pronoun they is used.
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What we will see in verse 11 is that Shechem is present as well. Hamor pleads with them that they give
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Dinah to Shechem to be his wife. Not only this, but he also wants Jacob and his people to coexist with Hamor's people.
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He says, you can have our daughters and we will have your daughters. And as they intermarry, they can also work and live in the land.
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After Hamor speaks with them, Shechem asked that he would find favor in their eyes. Now, as we look at this here, what
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Shechem does here is way out of line, which is consistent with his character. You don't ask for favor unless you earn someone's trust.
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You can't trust someone who has proved untrustworthy. Forgiving someone and showing trust are two different things.
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We should always be those who forgive since we have been forgiven so much in Christ. However, you trust someone only if he or she is trustworthy.
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In this case, Shechem desires that they entrust their sister to him. This is a ridiculous request since he had just severely violated her.
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So when he asked for their favor, this is what he's asking. The text appears to indicate that Shechem thought that Dinah's family did not know what he did.
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Furthermore, in order to win them over, Shechem tells them that he will give them whatever they want if they will give him
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Dinah to marry. To say that Shechem's desire for Dinah is strong would be an understatement.
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And Shechem is the last person that Jacob's sons want Dinah with. But we see here that a great injustice has happened.
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Shechem has taken advantage of Dinah in an unspeakable way. Things like this happen in a sinful world all the time, the world we live in.
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And as you look at your own life, someone may have committed an egregious sin against you.
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We must acknowledge that in a sinful world this happens every day.
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And as we look at egregious sins, we should be rightly outraged. Even those who don't believe in God look at the
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Holocaust event, what Hitler and the Nazi Party did in World War II to the Jews.
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People look on. You don't even need to be a believer to see this. People look on and say,
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Injustice. Horrible what they did. Unspeakable what they did.
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Righteous anger. That's appropriate. Great evil happens all the time in this world.
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And we know why this is so from what the Bible tells us. This goes all the way back to the
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Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. We live in a world marred by sin because sin came into the world through one man.
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Now this point has focused on the reality that there is great evil. There is great injustice and we saw it done by Shechem to Dinah.
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Our second point will focus on how do we process this evil? And what is the solution to it?
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Our tendency will be to take things into our own hands, but we must not do that as we will see.
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We must take satisfaction in knowing that every egregious sin will be dealt with. And the first vital truth that we must understand is there truly is great injustice in this fallen world.
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The second vital truth that we must understand is there is a much better way than revenge.
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We'll see this in verses 13 through 31. As you might expect, Jacob's sons are not going to give
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Dinah over to Shechem. However, they are going to make Shechem think that they are. I alluded to that earlier.
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What we are about to see is that Jacob's sons are going to pull a page from their old father's playbook before he became a believer.
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And that is they are going to deceive Shechem in order to get back to him, back at him.
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Verses 13 through 17. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father
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Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised.
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That would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you.
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That you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters to ourselves and we will dwell with you and become one people.
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But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone.
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You will notice that it is the sons of Jacob and not Jacob who answers
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Shechem. Jacob may have been thinking about what to do, but Jacob's sons know what they are going to do.
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They are making a quick knee -jerk decision that flows out of their anger towards Shechem.
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Yes, their anger is appropriate, but what they are about to do is very sinful and not condoned by God.
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What they tell Shechem is that we can only give you Dinah if you and your people are circumcised.
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It's funny that we are doing this narrative earlier this week. Little Isaiah, our little baby boy, had this very operation.
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Probably a little too much information, but why not? But anyway, circumcision in ancient times was a distinct
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Jewish practice. In Genesis 17, the Lord told Abraham that he and his descendants were to be circumcised.
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Circumcision was a physical sign to show that the Israelites were to be a people set apart from the nations.
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This physical sign was a spiritual symbol of the holiness that Israel was to represent.
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They were to be different from the impure nations that surrounded them. So what Jacob's sons are saying to Shechem is that if we are going to intermarry, then you need to be like us.
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Now, Shechem and his people are Canaanites, the very people the Lord would later drive out from the land.
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God would later prohibit Israel from intermarrying with the
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Canaanites once they entered the land, as Deuteronomy 7, 1 -5 describes. Shechem and his people were
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Canaanites, but there were nations that would intermarry with Israel, and it was totally fine.
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For example, Ruth was a Moabite, but other male non -Israelites who were not
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Canaanites could intermarry as long as they were circumcised and submitted to the teachings of Torah.
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So specifically, the Canaanites were the ones who were targeted. So the Lord would not have approved of what they're doing here, saying, yeah, we'll intermarry with you.
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These were not people the Lord wanted them to intermarry with. These were the very wicked people the
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Lord would later have them drive out in order to purify the land that was promised to Abraham. But Jacob's sons make this proposal to Shechem with no intention of keeping it.
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We know this because verse 13 says that they answered Shechem deceitfully. They did this to harm
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Shechem and his people, as we will see in just a little bit. But first, let's get
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Shechem's response. He likes this deal, because it means that he will get the woman that he longed after,
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Dinah. Let's look at verses 18 through 24. Their words,
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Jacob's son's words, pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he delighted in Jacob's daughter.
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Now, he was the most honored of all his father's house. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city saying, these men are at peace with us.
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Let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters.
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Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people. When every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised.
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Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us.
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And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem. And every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
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So Hamor and Shechem both wanted Dinah and the family. So they gladly go along with this.
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They go to the gate of the city. This would have been the central social gathering area.
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And there Shechem tells the people the proposal from Jacob's sons. Shechem pitches this as good for the town.
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He tells them in verse 23. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours?
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Only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us. Shechem just wants Dinah. But he needs to convince the people in the town.
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So he tells them you will be more prosperous with Jacob's family among us. His sales pitch worked as verse 24 tells us.
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That every male went out from the gate of the city and was circumcised. Now in Shechem's mind, he's happy.
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He did what Jacob's sons told him to do. And now he believes he's going to take the woman he desires.
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It goes without saying that Shechem's desire for Dinah is a lustful one. He does not want to enter into marriage with her because he truly loves her.
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The way that God would want him to love her. Rather, his sinful flesh desires her because of her physical appearance.
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It is good. This is a side note here. It is good to be attracted physically to your spouse.
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But marriage is about so much more than that. Scripture teaches us that marriage is about loving your spouse through thick and thin.
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Over the long haul. Ephesians 5, 22 and 23 explains this. This is not how
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Shechem viewed marriage. He views it as getting what he wants. So Shechem and his people are circumcised.
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Now we will see the plan that Jacob's sons had from the outset. Their plan of revenge.
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Verses 25 through 29. On the third day when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.
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They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away.
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The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister.
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They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.
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So what we see is that out of their fierce anger, they killed
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Hamor. And not only Hamor, they killed Shechem and all the males who were circumcised while they were arresting from the operation.
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This is cruel. Verse 26 tells us that they took Dinah out of Shechem's house to safety.
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You will notice that Simeon and Levi are the brothers who carried out this act. We don't know for sure who the other brothers were.
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We weren't sure if they knew what was going on here. Verse 13 tells us that this was the plan of the sons of Jacob, but only two carried it out.
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What Simeon and Levi did is precisely what God condemns. They took justice into their own hands.
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And I will show you this in a bit. Now, it is true that what Shechem did was horrible.
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He did something so very evil and he deserved great punishment for what he did. But to kill someone in cold blood for what they did was wrong for Simeon and Levi.
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Later in Israel, God set up a legal system where someone could be convicted and punished if the testimony of the crime was deemed to be authentic.
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God is a God of justice. God often brings people to justice in this life through human authorities.
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Romans 13 .4 tells us that human authorities are the servant of God. An avenger carries out
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God's wrath on the wrongdoer. However, people do get away with crimes that break the rule of law in this nation or in other nations.
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Truthfully, everyone who has broken God's law by sinning against Him, and He will bring every sin into account.
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But what we need to address here is what you do if someone commits an egregious sin against you. Your sinful flesh is going to want to seek revenge.
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You are going to want to repay the offender for what he or she has done to you. We hear about revenge crimes all the time where someone takes justice into his or her own hands.
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What Simeon and Levi did here. However, this is not God's way.
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And Jacob knows this and he's not pleased with his two sons. This is what he says in verses 30 and 31.
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Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land.
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The Canaanites and the Perizzites, my numbers are few. And if they gather themselves against me and attack me,
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I shall be destroyed, both I and my household. But they said, Simeon and Levi, should he treat our sister like a prostitute?
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They're right in one sense that what he did was horrible. But the way that they responded to it, that's where the wrong happens for Simeon and Levi.
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So Jacob tells them they acted foolishly. And he's saying, we don't have very many people. The Canaanites have lots of people and they're going to come to us.
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And later on in Genesis 49, before Jacob dies, he gives blessings and curses to his sons.
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And these blessings and curses are prophecies because what he says is going to happen to them. And this is what he says to Simeon and Levi.
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He says, you are brothers, weapons of violence. He says,
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Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel,
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O my glory. Be not joined to their company, for in their anger they killed men and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
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Curse be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
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So this is the curse that they receive. And you might ask, well, what is that curse?
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Well, the tribe of Simeon would have a small inheritance within the land of the tribe of Judah. And the Levites wouldn't have an inheritance.
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They would only have cities. So there's consequences to your actions.
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And their ancestors would pay part of the price for this.
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And Levi and Judah would pay the price too. But the Lord teaches us not to do this.
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And you might say, well, I don't do physical revenge. And that's true. You may not. You may not do physical harm to another.
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But do you do other things? Revenge can be verbal retaliation.
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It can be holding bitterness over another and refusing to forgive. It can be refusing to do good things to another.
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If people sin against us, we must not sin against them in this way. But we must pursue a better way.
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This is what the Lord teaches us in Romans 12, 17 through 20. He says,
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.
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If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
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For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.
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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Our tendency is to desire to repay evil with evil.
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Someone does something bad to us and we want to do something bad to him or her.
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And not only should we not seek revenge, but Romans 12 tells us that we should do good to those who may have hurt us in some way.
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Jesus tells us in John 5, 44, that we should love those who would seek to cause us harm.
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And he says specifically that you should pray for those people. We should do all of this realizing that there will be justice in the future.
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What we must understand is that, yes, people have wronged every one of us in our lives. But what we must understand is that we have wronged others as well.
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And most of all, we've wronged God. God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay for our sins.
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That we have sinned against him. So we shouldn't come away from the sermon seeing ourselves solely as victims of what others have done to us.
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Rather, we are the perpetrators and God offers us forgiveness in Christ.
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But while I need to know that, that's not the point of our sermon, the point of the text here. The point of this text is that there is injustice, but we need to let
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God take care of it. Romans 12, 19, as I just read, the
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Lord said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. This temptation for revenge is common for every one of us.
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1 Corinthians 10, 13 says that temptations are not unique to you. They're common to everyone.
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And we can seek revenge without ever touching another person. We can seek it in another way.
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And the beauty of injustice, as I mentioned, is that every wrong will be righted. We live in a world where God sees everything and he will let no wrong go unpunished.
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He is big enough and powerful enough to take care of it all. So we must leave that to him.
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And instead of seeking revenge, we should do something that is counterintuitive to our culture. To our sinful world.
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And that is to seek to do good to those who have wronged us in some way. If you do that, you will stand out.
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So we must take satisfaction in knowing that every egregious sin will be dealt with.
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And the second vital truth that we have seen in this text is that we must understand there is a much better way than revenge.
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So as we wrap up this sermon today, let me summarize. We must take satisfaction in knowing that every egregious sin will be dealt with.
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And we've seen two vital truths that we must apply to our lives. The first is that we will see great injustice in this world.
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And the Bible tells us. It tells us why there is great injustice in this world. And the second vital truth is that there's a much better way than revenge.
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The Bible is full of wisdom for our lives to show us the way to go and the way not to go.
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And you might think that this does not apply to you because you don't want to do physical harm to someone who has wronged you.
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But as I mentioned, you can harm people without ever raising a fist.
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You can have revenge towards someone in your thoughts or in your lips or through your actions.
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The Bible teaches us not to do that, but rather to return evil with good. To do good to those.
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Who have wronged you in a small or a serious way. Now next week, we are going to see
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Jacob have another close encounter with the Lord. We've already seen them have close encounters with the
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Lord. He's going to have another one. And so I look forward to looking at that with you. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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And what it spoke to us in this text. Genesis 34, the defiling of Dinah.
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Lord, we saw that there is great injustice in this world. And we experience it every day.
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We see it all over the place. And we even have experienced it in our own lives.
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And we may have done something to someone too in a very serious way.
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But what we must understand, Lord, is that you are going to right every wrong.
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And if we have been wronged, we should not seek revenge. The way that Simeon and Levi did.
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But rather, we should leave it to you. Lord, you are going to make everything right. And I pray that everyone here, everyone who hears my voice, would understand this.