Dysfunction
Genesis 34
is a passage that is all about sin and dysfunction – although not in the sense
in which it is first apparent. Yes,
Shechem should not have had sex with Dinah outside of marriage. Certainly that is an error an evidence of
sin. Certainly that sets up the whole
scenario into which Jacob and his sons find themselves. This whole chapter is framed by the concept
of sex outside of marriage and how destructive that can be to a community.
However, also
recognize that Shechem truly cared for Dinah and was willing to be circumcised
for her and their shared love. Certainly
his act was wrong, but he (and even his people) seemed genuinely interested in
changing their lifestyle to be at peace with God’s lifestyle. Shechem does something wrong and commits sin,
but certainly we should not paint him in the light of an unrepentant serial
sinner.
Good on the Outside, Rotten to the Core
I’d like
to move deeper than that issue since it is so clearly black and white. Today I’m going to focus on Jacob’s sons’
response to the defilement. In order to
frame this response, first notice that God is nowhere mentioned in this
chapter. I think that fact alone speaks
immensely to the reality that this chapter is full of horrible accounts of
people acting against God’s ways in favor of their own human wisdom. When we do not focus on God, we cannot
rationally think that we will live up to God’s ways.
Notice
what Jacob’s sons do in this chapter.
They meet with Shechem and give the perception that everything is
alright so long as Shechem’s people are circumcised and so long as Shechem
marries Dinah. Do you see what they are
doing? They are scheming – just like
they have seen from their father! If
they were serious in their offer for peace, this would have been a noble act of
forgiveness and no doubt blessed by God!
If they were genuine, this would have been an incredibly mature and
godly response! It could have been a
great victory for God and true faith had Jacob’s sons been serious about their
words.
Instead,
Jacob’s sons defile the sacred act of circumcision when they convince Shechem
and his people that they are forgiven. The
sons of Jacob have no intention of forgiving them. What could have been a great example of
spiritual maturity instead becomes a story about how looks can be
deceiving. Just because someone does
something that looks right from the outside does not mean that righteousness
abides in their heart.
Focusing on Worldly Wealth, not on Spiritual Prosperity
All of
what I said above is true. But we also
see Jacob’s sons plunder the people of the land. They take the wives and children and make
them their own. They do the very thing
that they abhor being done to their sister Dinah!
In the
past, God has not looked very favorably upon the blending of people from
Abraham’s line with the people native to Canaan. Esau was criticized for doing so. Here we see Jacob’s sons taking a whole
Canaanite community and blending it into their own!
Don’t get
me wrong. I’m all in favor of the New
Testament idea of the Gentile mission. I
don’t think that Christian people do anyone any favors when we intentionally
don’t allow interaction with non-Christians.
After all, how can we tell others about God unless we are open to
talking to people who are not of the same faith as we are? I’m not saying that the Caananites aren’t
worthy of interaction at all. After all,
earlier I proclaimed that if the sons of Jacob had been serious about their
offer of forgiveness under the covenant of circumcision that it would have been
an incredibly mature step!
Rather, we
must understand that there is a complete difference between Gentile evangelism
and forced bondage. Here the sons of Jacob
take the women and children of this Canaanite community and force them to
become the spoils of war. That should never
be true of religious conversion. What
the sons of Jacob do is bondage and it is something I do not believe God was
all that pleased about.
Ethics
For me,
the horrible part of it all is the question that they ask at the end. “Should Dinah be treated like a
prostitute?” Well, no, certainly Dinah
should not be treated like a prostitute.
But neither is killing a community of men an appropriate response to
that act!
What we
are seeing here is generational sin being passed on down the line – even in
God’s holy line. Jacob’s selfishness and
deceitful nature is being passed on down to his sons. Of course, we know the ultimate fulfillment
of that statement. We’ll get to see that
begin to unfold in Genesis 37.
For now,
let us simply realize how dangerous and infectious sin is. None of us can avoid sin completely. But at the same time we must be vigilant in
our fight against it. When we ignore our
own sinfulness we only make it worse for the ones who come and follow in our
footsteps.
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