"Greetings Everyone in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"
Today's Blog Title: "The Dinah Incident"
Today's Scripture Reading: Genesis 34:1-31
Today's Key Verse: Genesis 34:25 "Now is 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 into the city and killed all the males."
As this Chapter opens, we see that Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. You may remember from Genesis 30:21, that Dinah was the born to Leah, and was the only daughter of Jacob, and since she didn't have any any sisters to hang around and talk with, it would been have been natural for her to seek the companionship of other women.
Shechem the son of Hamor, the Hivite, who was the prince of the country, noticed Dinah, and forced her to have intercourse (he raped her). But despite what he did, he loved Dinah. He "spoke to her heart". He then appeals to his father to speak to Jacob, because it must have been the practice in those days that marriages were arranged by the parents.
When Jacob heard about what had happened, he must have been enraged. His daughter had been defiled (made unclean). His sons were in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they came in from the field. When they were told they were angry that this had happened to there sister, and this act shouldn't have been done. Hamor, the father of Shechem, spoke to them and asked that they permit Dinah to marry his son.
The sons of Jacob, deceitfully tell Hamor and Shechem that they cannot allow this marriage because they were uncircumcised. They then said, that if all the men were to become circumcised, then they would give there daughters to them, and you your daughters to us. We see here that the sons of Jacob, were taking the symbol of their holy faith (circumcision), and using it as a weapon against their foes.
In verse 18 we see that Shechem loved Dinah very much and he was willing to have a circumcision as an adult. Shechem and Hamor then go to the city and tell the males what they must do. They then do as they were instructed, and have all the males in the city circumcised.
It was now the third day of the circumcision, and the males were in pain, and we see that the sons of Jacob, will take revenge for the rape of there sister. They take up swords, and "boldly" went into the city, and let righteous anger over sin turn into unrighteous, unforgiving vengeance, and killed all the males in the city. They then took all the animals that were in the city, looted their houses, took there wealth, and took the women and children captive. They took Dinah from Shechem's house, and then headed back home.
When they return home, Jacob rebukes his sons for there terrible behavior. Instead of making the family a blessing to others, they were making the family "obnoxious" (to stink) and because of this act, Jacob's family became an embarrassing odor to their neighbors, and he was afraid that since he was few in number, that they would gather together and raise against him, and destroy his family.
In the close of this Chapter, it is sad to note that Jacob's sons did not repent, but instead they protested their fathers rebuke.
Closing Question and Comment: " When someone does you wrong, is your anger so great that you plan revenge? We saw today that what Shechem did to Dinah was wrong. We saw that Shechem was indeed in love with Dinah and he and his father went to Jacob to ask that they be married. Jacob's sons tell Hamor and Shechem that this will be OK, but they would have to circumcise all the males in the city. Then while they were in great pain from this act they went into the city and killed all the males and plundered and looted the city. Jacob rebuked his sons for the deceitful act. It it interesting to note here, that now the sons of Jacob were as deceitful as there father had been with Esau. So we have seen Jacob deceiving Isaac, Laban deceiving Jacob and now the sons of Jacob deceiving Hamor and Shechem. We as Christians are not to judge other people but to forgive them.
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, that I might serve You
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, that I may be renewed
So fill me and heal me, and bring me back to You
Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, that I might Serve You
Heavenly Father, Help us a humans, to realized that you are the Judge and to remind us that we are for forgive those that sin against us. We are to turn the other cheek so that in doing so, people will see the love of Christ shining within us.
Amen
Have a God Filled and Spirit Led Day. Go in Peace and Serve the Lord with Gladness. Love God More Today and remember a spiritual defeat yells "I Can't" but God whispers "BUT I CAN"
Yours in Christ,
Cindi
No comments:
Post a Comment