Well we’re at a point in the story of Jacob where everything’s going great for him. He’s gained a family and riches, he’s been reconciled to his brother Esau, and he’s settled down in the city of Succoth for a few years.
He then decides to move a little further into the promised land and settles amongst the Canaanites there in a city called Shechem.
[Read Genesis 33:18-20.]
He buys himself a piece of land and builds an altar there. God had shown Himself faithful to him so he builds an altar to worship God at and calls it El-Elohe-Israel which means “Almighty God is the God of Israel”.
Life is good for Jacob – but then the unthinkable happens – his only daughter, who’s only 14 or 15 years old at this time, is raped.
Now at no time in the history was this ever an acceptable thing to do. Just about every culture thinks this is especially hanus. In Jacob’s day, not only would this have been emotionally disastrous for the victim, but once the word got out the victim would probably never be desired for marriage. This was, and sometimes still is, a crime that ruins a person’s life. What a tragedy.
You know, whenever we hear of something like this happening, something goes off inside of us. It’s like a switch is flipped in our minds and we find ourselves thinking about how we can make that person pay for what they’ve done. We want revenge! That’s a totally natural response to something like this.
But is that really God’s way for us to handle injustice? Let’s read the story and find out.
I. Shechem’s unconscionable sin
[Read Genesis 34:1-3.]
Again, this is something that simply brings up horrible images and a sick feeling in our stomachs. Dinah is only 14 or 15 years old at this time. She’s simply out trying to make some friends in this new land for her. And the prince of the land, of whom the city is named, decides he wants her and he wants her now. So he takes her and rapes her.
Shechem is the spoiled son of Hamor who is a powerful ruler of the region. A ruler amongst the pagan Caananites. No doubt he had spoiled his son by his power and favor and we’ll see a continuation of that as the story progresses. So Shechem simply took what he wanted. But what he took was so sacred. This was one depraved man.
So Shechem sees a woman that he wants, he rapes her, and then takes her into his house and won’t let her leave. He wants her to be his wife and maybe even love him back, but I don’t think Dinah wanted that. That’s probably why Shechem’s “speaking tenderly” to her. He’s trying to win her affection. But it isn’t working.
So what does any spoiled brat do when they can’t get what they want? “Mommy, Daddy, I want that. Get it for me now!”
And how does any over-indulgent parent react? “Right away son. Your wish is my command.” (Man do we have too much of that in our society today.) But obviously it isn’t something new because Shechem’s dad steps in to clean up his son’s mess.
II. Hamor’s attempted cover up
[Read Genesis 34:4-12.]
You know as you’re reading this you get the mental image that Hamor’s out in front trying to fix everything while his weasly son’s standing behind him the whole time. Hamor should have held him accountable. Hamor should have made him pay for what he had done. Instead he tries to work out a deal with Jacob and his sons that would almost justify his son’s disgraceful act.
He says, “Why don’t we simply swap daughters? You marry our daughters and we’ll marry your daughters and everything will be fine.”
Hamor also says that once they start intermarrying then the land will open up to Jacob in a business sense and he’ll profit financially from the arrangement. And Shechem even speaks up and says he’ll pay him anything if he can marry Dinah.
Hamor and Shechem are trying to make it seem like what happened to Dinah can turn out to be a good thing! Again, these men are simply godless and depraved.
Now one thing that we do notice here is that Jacob is extremely quiet during these discussions. When he first found out about what had happened he waited until his sons came in from work to tell them. Probably several hours went by from the time he heard the news until the time he shared it with his family. What was he doing?
We really don’t have the answer to that. But we do know that he’s the only one thinking rationally here. He didn’t fly off the handle in a blind rage and make things worse. Maybe he cried, maybe he prayed, maybe he even screamed at the heavens. But somehow he had gotten to a place within himself where he could think clearly before he told the family and before he had to face the one who caused his daughter so much pain.
[President Bush learning of 911 story.]
His sons, on the other hand, didn’t do so well with this. They were angry and wanted blood. Now there anger was justified. And their rage is even understandable. But they took it to the next level by coming up with a diabolical plan to punish the entire city for what had happened to their sister.
III. Simeon and Levi’s unbridled revenge
Their revenge comes in two parts. First the deception and then the destruction.
[Read Genesis 34:13-24.]
Now the first question we have here is, “Who would agree to this?” Can you see the expressions on the faces of the men of the city as Hamor is explaining the procedure they had to go through? Who would agree to that?
But remember this, Hamor was a very powerful ruler in the land. And, he gave them the impression that eventually they’ll be able to take all of Jacob’s possessions for themselves.
[Read Genesis 34:23.]
So the men of the city agreed and were circumcised. They figured that a few days pain was worth a lifetime of riches. But little did they know that part 2 of the revenge was coming.
[Read Genesis 34:25-29.]
Talk about over the top. I mean these guys went nuts! They killed all the men, took all the women and children, and even looted the city. Their rage was out of control and the pain that they caused others was so much more than the pain that Shechem caused Dinah. And you know what, I’ll bet that this even caused more pain and more guilt in the heart of Dinah. She might have been thinking, “This was all my fault. If I would just have stayed home that day none of this would have never happened.”
Revenge never fixes things. It only makes it worse. That’s why God says that revenge is His responsibility – not ours! We humans will always try and hurt the other person worse than they hurt us. Look at how Jacob responds to what his sons have done.
IV. Jacob’s condemnation of his son’s vengeance
[Read Genesis 34:30-31.]
Jacob is simply saying to his sons that they have now made matters worse. It’s not that he doesn’t care about his daughter. It’s actually that he does care about his daughter and all of his family. He knows that now that they’ve virtually wiped out a city, they were now targets of revenge. Their lives were on the line and rightly so! Simeon and Levi had no right to do what they had done t that city. Punish Shechem? Yes. Kill everyone and take their stuff? No!
[Rodney King riots comparison.]
What they had done was wrong and they would have to pay for it later.
[Read Genesis 49:5-7.]
And in the years to come we see this play out as neither tribe ever really possessed their own lands. This senseless act of revenge would cost them for generations to come.
So what we have here is a great example of how not to handle injustice. So what is God’s way of handling injustice? What do we do in these drastic situations?
Well, there’s a couple routes we can go that should all lead to reconciliation.
- Confrontation and accountability, (especially when dealing with Christians).
[Confronting abusive husband story.]
- Judicial system
[Lisette’s job’s purpose.]
- Forgiveness
This is the hard part. This is the one that takes an act of God in our lives. But revenge isn’t the way to reconcile what’s happened in your or your loved one’s life. Revenge kicks off a cycle of revenge that doesn’t end until some says, “I forgive you.”
[Read Romans 12:17-21.]
That is one powerful passage. Especially when you think about it within the context of your daughter being raped. Especially when you think about it within the context of you yourself being a victim of a horrible injustice.
How do you forgive someone like that? How do you decide to not hold a person’s sins over their head any more. Not that you forget what happened, but that you choose to not condemn them any more. How do you do that?
Perspective – “Jesus forgave me, I’ll forgive them.”
Faith – “Lords, strengthen me.”
Love – “Lord, help them get saved.”
Not that it would be easy or quick. But that’s it’s the right thing to do in Jesus’ eyes.
On February 9, 1960, Adolph Coors III, millionaire head of Coors Company, was kidnapped and held for ransom. Seven months later his body was found on a remote hillside. He had been shot to death. Adolph Coors IV was then fifteen years old. He lost not only his father, but also his best friend. For years Adolph Coors IV hated Joseph Corbett, the man who was sentenced to life for the slaying of his father. In 1975, almost 15 years later, Adolph Coors IV became a Christian. Yet, his hatred for Corbett, the murderer of his Dad, still consumed him. Adolph Coors knew he needed to forgive Corbett as Jesus Christ forgave him. So he visited the maximum-security unit of Colorado’s Canon City penitentiary to talk with Joseph Corbett. Corbett refused to see him. So Coors left Corbett a Bible with the following inscription: "I’m here to see you today, and I’m sorry that we could not meet. As a Christian I am summoned by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to forgive. I do forgive you, and I ask you to forgive me for the hatred I’ve held in my heart for you." Later Coors confessed, "I have a love for that man that only Jesus Christ could have put in my heart."
Forgiveness is God’s way of handling injustice. And if He wants us to forgive others, He will enable us to do so!
