I'm excited to be back with you guys, and today
we're going to be in Genesis chapter 34, talking
about the danger of assimilation. Now, as a fantasy
and sci -fi nerd, I grew up loving all the different
sci -fi shows, and there was one particular show
that many of you are probably familiar with.
It's called Star Trek. And I was always more
of a Star Wars fan, but we're not going to get
into that fandom rivalry, right? except to say
that Star Wars is better. But in the Star Trek
story and narrative, one of the biggest enemies
that the humans fought against was this enemy
called the Borg. They were this... race of half
human, half machines that would, like, go into
a star system and they would assimilate everybody.
They would absorb everybody into their collective
and consequently wipe out all trace of the race
and culture that they assimilated. And, you know,
that is one of the greatest dangers to God's
people in our world today. You know, the greatest
danger, I think, is not persecution or even temptation,
but assimilation. Now, not by the Borg, because
they're not here yet, but by the world, right?
The biggest tactic of the enemy, I think, at
least outright here in America, is not an outright
assault on us for being Christians, which is
increasing more and more. But it's a very subtle,
very gradual weakening of our convictions. It's
a very subtle and gradual fostering of passivity
in our lives as Christians, specifically in how
we live in obedience to God and stand against
unrighteousness and ungodliness in the world.
And there's two things that I think really contribute
to... these dangers in the Christian life, and
one of them is halfway obedience, and the other
one is passive leadership, whether it's leadership
in the churches, leadership in our homes, our
ministries, even passive leadership in our politics.
However, our glorious God is relentless in exposing
our lacking obedience and passivity through what
I like to call his very fierce grace. And God
is always working to call us as his people. back
to Bethel, back to what is the house of God,
back to his will and his way in our life. And
this morning, that's what we're gonna be looking
at in the story of Jacob. Now, the chapter we're
looking at this morning is a really, it's a really
gross and disturbing chapter, if I'm gonna be
honest. This is a chapter that is full of lust
and rape and anger and deception and greed and
murder. and theft and family conflict. It's a
really bad chapter, and sometimes we say, well,
why do we teach through chapters like this? Well,
the first answer is because it's what's next,
right? We go verse by verse, chapter by chapter
through the entire Bible. But really, the reason
this chapter is here, I believe, is God allows
it to be here to teach us a number of things
about being passive as Christians and what happens
to us when we walk in halfway obedience to him.
But also, I appreciate the brutal honesty that
this chapter tells us about a man, Jacob, that
we might call one of the heroes of the faith,
right? You know, Israel would say, you know,
is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right?
He's this big, towering hero of the Bible. And
yet, we see these terrible, horrible things about
him that paint him in a very terrible light.
To me, that's one of the greatest proofs that
the Bible is true because it does not hold back
about its heroes, about those people that we
would call towering heroes of the faith. And
if you look into other religions and stuff, people
don't often write. about the gross failures and
sins of the founding heroes of their faith the
way the Bible does. And so, really, that's what
we're going to see about Jacob today. But there
was an American writer in the early 1900s named
Flannery O 'Connor, and she said this, to the
hard of hearing, you must shout. To the almost
blind, you must draw large and startling images.
Well, Genesis chapter 34 is one of Scripture's
large and startling images. It's a really disturbing
picture meant to wake us up, meant to call us
back to full obedience. And so that's what we'll
be going through today. But first, we're going
to praise God. Because anytime we come before
him as a congregation together, we want to just...
Sing our praises to him, to lift his name on
high, to start everything with expressing to
him the gratitude we have for who he is and what
he's done, to celebrate just the reality of his
presence in our lives, and really to thank him
in advance for what he's about to share with
us and teach us through his word. And so let's
pray, and then we'll get into that worship. Father,
we love you. We thank you, God, so much for who
you are and what you've done. Lord, you are so
beyond our comprehension. You are too amazing
for us to even fathom. And yet, God, you've revealed
yourself to us in your word that we would know
you. And so, God, we're so grateful for that,
that we can know you. And in that, Lord, you
also reveal to us who we are. And God, it's in
those lessons that we really learn what you want
for us. Lord, most importantly, the salvation
you have for us, the hope. that is found in Jesus
Christ because we are hopeless as a people. But
God, at the same time, we see over and over the
grace and the mercy and the patience that you
have for us, Lord, through our sins and our struggles
and our stumbles, God. And Lord, you include
chapters that we're studying today, Lord, in
your word that we would see that very thing,
Lord. That nobody on this earth, doesn't matter
who they are, except for Jesus Christ. is a perfect
person. And yet, God, it's through your grace
and your promises that you've made, God, that
you work in and through our lives. But Lord,
today, we learn a very strong lesson about how
you allow, you allow us to experience the consequences
of the decisions we make, Lord. And even in that,
it is a grace that we would learn to turn back
to you. to get up and move from the place where
we've settled, Lord, to be in the place that
you've called us to be. So God, we thank you,
Lord, for all of that, God. Encourage us today,
Lord. Help us to know you better. Lord, our life
is about Jesus Christ. And Lord, we ask that
you would just shine brightly through your church
this morning. We love you and we thank you. It's
in Jesus' name we pray, amen. We are in Genesis
chapter 34. You know, the danger of halfway obedience,
I think, is far greater than we realize, or far
greater than we'd like to admit, because it's
halfway obedience that leads to our assimilation
into the world, you know, where we slowly drift
from what is a total radical commitment to God
and to godliness, and then we drift into passive
acceptance of worldly things. Where instead of
being shocked, taken aback, offended by ungodliness,
we're just like, well, you know, it's not affecting
me and I'm good. You know, but God in his fierce
grace, fierce grace, will let the outworking
of our own decisions play out in our lives. Have
any of you ever been the victim of your own stupidity?
Yes. And that is a grace of God. Because sometimes
that's the only way we could learn. And he allows
that so that we learn that it's absurd to resist
the will of the Lord. It's just absurd. Whether
it's specific things or in general. God is perfect.
His word is perfect. His ways are perfect. So
it would make sense to say that his way of doing
things is always the perfect right way. And yet,
even as believers, even as his children, we often
find ourselves going, halfway in obedience in
what he commands us to do. We justify that, well,
we kind of did most of it, or we're mostly in
the right place. but we still try and justify
our not totally giving ourselves over to what
God is calling us to do. And really, we need
to learn over and over again, sadly, that the
consequences of that are great. And so our story
here in Genesis 34 actually starts in Genesis
33, 18, where it tells us this. After Jacob came
from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at Shechem
in the land of Canaan and camped in front of
the city. Now, the land of Canaan is the promised
land. That is the land that God had promised
to Abraham in the covenant that this will go
to Abraham and his people. And so this is the
land that God had called Jacob to come back to
after his 20 years in this land of Paddan Aram
with his uncle Laban. And in that call back,
Jacob had vowed to return to Bethel. That was
the place God was calling him back to, that place
that God originally had met Jacob. When he left
his homeland to go to Paddan Aram, God had met
him there because Jacob was running for his life.
And God said, hey, bro, this is the Nathan translation.
I'm with you. You don't need to freak out. I'm
here with you. I'm conducting business on your
behalf. So just trust me. Stop trying to do things
your own way. Well, Jacob then went on to, you
know, continue to learn that lesson. And so God
finally got to the point and said, come home.
Come back to the promised land. We know according
to Scripture, specifically, he was like, come
back to Bethel, that place where I met you, that
place where I reminded you that I'm your God,
that I'm with you, that place that I reiterated
the promises so that you just knew you could
trust in those things. So he comes back as he's
traveling home. Jacob has a whole bunch of encounters
where God continued to refine his character,
continued to show his power, his favor, really
his own glory, God's own glory on Jacob's behalf.
And yet, instead of total and complete obedience
and a return to Bethel, which is, that word means
the house of God, Jacob settles in Shechem, which
is in the promised land. And it's only a mere
20 miles north of Bethel. So close, Jacob. You're
so close to doing what God said to do. You're
so close to being where God wants you to be,
but not quite. The reason he settled in Shechem
there, and there's a lot of valid reasons, or
you would think are valid reasons, that Shechem
was a city that looked safe. It was a place that
was of strategic location. It was a prosperous
place. And so there was a lot of reason to kind
of settle down here, right? This would be good
for the family, good for business. But it wasn't
where God told him to go. And it doesn't matter
how good a place looks. And I say place, that
could be physical location, that could be a place
in ministry or service, you know, just where
God has you. If a place just looks good, that's
not necessarily the place where God wants you.
And so he settled in Shechem, and his halfway
obedience would have a destructive influence
on his family. And, you know, I just want to
start out by encouraging and reminding us, please
understand, halfway obedience places everyone
you love in danger. Everyone. You see, we never
sin alone. And a lot of us might think, well,
of course we sin alone. There's things I do that
nobody knows about but God. Things I do in the
dark, in secret, right? Things I think or say
or partake in. But you never sin alone. Please
understand. The corrosive nature of sin is pervasive.
And it always will spill out and affect those
around you. Think of Jonah, right? Jonah's sin
was disobedience to God. Who did it affect? Only
Jonah? No, the whole crew of that ship was affected
because of his disobedience. And our disobedience
is going to affect those around us, our friends,
our families, our spouses. And so here's the
reality, and I've said this before, but halfway
obedience is disobedience, period. There's obedience.
and disobedience. There's no halfway point, right?
If you're not being obedient to what God has
told you to do, in its entirety, you are being
disobedient. And God sees through our sad justifications.
And so as we get into this chapter, one of the
big red flags that you'll notice that we'll see
in this chapter is that God's name does not appear
in this chapter one single time. Throughout all
these stories we've been reading about Jacob
and Isaac, God's name pops up pretty regularly
as God is reminding or talking or working. But
in this chapter, God's name doesn't appear a
single time. And the reason is this chapter is
a picture of what happens when we walk in partial
obedience to God's will. This story is a picture
of the consequences of partial obedience. And
so it's this setting. of Jacob being settled
with his family at Shechem that Jacob's only
daughter Dinah walks into the story, a curious
young woman who we find is unsupervised and unprotected.
So read with me in Genesis 34, starting in verse
one. It says, Leah's daughter Dinah, whom Leah
aborted Jacob, went out to see some of the young
women of the area. When Shechem, son of Hamor
the Hivite, or Hittite, those are interchangeable,
who was the region's chieftain, saw her, he took
her and he raped her. He became infatuated with
Jacob's daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl
and spoke tenderly to her. Get me this girl as
a wife, he told his father. Jacob heard that
Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since
his sons were with the livestock in the field,
he remained silent until they returned. Meanwhile,
Shechem's father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.
Jacob's sons returned from the field when they
heard about the incident. They were deeply grieved
and very angry for Shechem had committed an outrage
against Israel by raping Jacob's daughter, and
such a thing should not be done. Wow, this is
a heavy scene here, a heavy moment. They're settled
in Shechem, and then it tells us that Dinah goes
out to see some of the young women of the area.
This could be that she has friends in the area
now, and so she's going out to her friend's house.
Hey, I'm going to my girlfriend's house. It could
be that. It could be that this was her just going
out to meet people because they lived in the
area. It doesn't tell us specifically, but the
idea is that as she goes out, this horrible,
horrible thing happens to her. Shechem, who is
the prince of the city, sexually assaults her.
And then he becomes obsessed with her. You see
that one word there when it says after he raped
her, he became infatuated and he loved her. And
that's one of those things where I'm like, are
you kidding me? Bible? Loved her? But that word
loved, it means in the Hebrew that he was obsessed,
infatuated, right? He had that kind of possessive.
jealous, kind of like, she's mine, I have to
be with her. But this isn't love. This isn't
love as in love and respect and care and concern.
This is him trying to take what he wants even
more so. And so then it says he speaks kindly
to her, right? I just, I want to punch a guy
in the face already, you know, because... This
is a common thing that happens in domestic violence
situations, right? They call it the honeymoon
cycle, where like in a domestic violence situation,
there's typically an increase of tension and
tension and tension and tension until the perpetrator
snaps and he abuses, physically abuses his partner.
It happens with women too, but predominantly
with men. And then right after he... beats her
up or something, it's immediately the, oh my
gosh, I'm so sorry. I love you. I'll never do
it again. This is the speaking kindly type of
thing. It's the pattern of abuse that we see
here in Scripture. And so his obsession, dad,
get her as a wife for me. And I'm just like,
bro, you're kind of going about this whole thing
backwards, right? And he's just this terrible
dude. But culturally, we just need to understand
kind of... what's going on here because a young
woman of marrying age at this time in the culture
was really required to be supervised at all times
for a number of reasons. But her being able to
leave and go, you know, seek out the women of
the area, what that tells us... is that she was
not supervised by mom and dad, that she was not
being taken care of in that regard, that there
was a negligence on behalf of her parents. This
could mean a lot of things, but what we know
about Jacob and his family is that it's likely
that Dinah just simply didn't mean very much
to Jacob. Culturally, she was a daughter, and
so daughters were less valuable than sons because
daughters didn't carry on the family name. They
were typically married off to another family
and that type of thing. But we know that she's
a daughter of Leah, and Leah was the least favorite
wife that Jacob had, right? He was the one that
was the... the consolation prize, right? He didn't
want her. He didn't want to marry her. But since
he was tricked by Laban, that's who he ended
up with. And he ended up having, you know, a
bunch of kids with her. But even though he had
six sons with her, Leah, least favorite wife,
Dinah being a girl, was probably just kind of
least favorite of the whole family. And so, and
then we see this kind of in his response where
it says, since his sons were out with the livestock,
he remained silent until they returned. I'm like,
bro, your daughter just got raped, and the news
came to you, right? Like, the man in me is like,
right that moment, kill the messenger, get the
army, raise the town, right? It's like this is
such a horrible injustice, and yet he's like,
okay, I'll just wait for the kids to get back
from work. Just this appalling lack of urgency
considering the crime, and so. And then he's
waiting for his sons to get back. Like he doesn't
even want to deal with it himself. I'll let the
boys handle it. I mean, it just shows us this
really sad picture of how he views his daughter
here. Now, Dinah, she was around six years old
when they left Padana Ram, and we know that a
bunch of time has passed at this point, so it's
very likely that she's in her teens or very close
to her teens. But in the culture of the time,
An unattached woman was fair game in the major
cities. In the big cities, the pagan worship
and stuff was often connected with promiscuity
and prostitutes and stuff. And so if there was
an unconnected woman in the city, it was very
typical for the men to pray on them. And that
was why women needed to be supervised and stuff,
you know, specifically when they were unmarried
or unattached. But sadly, she's not. She's not
supervised. She goes out. She gets raped. Now,
our big brothers hear about this, and they rightly
become outraged and very angry, and outrage is
right and appropriate. You know, sexual assault
is a terrible, horrible crime. But what they
end up doing about it is wrong, and that's kind
of what we're going to see through this. So verse
8, Hamor said to Jacob's sons, My son Shechem
has his heart set on your daughter. Please give
her to him as a wife. Intermarry with us. Give
your daughters to us. Take our daughters for
yourselves. Live with us. The land is before
you. Settle here. Move about and acquire property
in it. Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and
brothers, grant me this favor and I will give
you whatever you say. Demand of me a high compensation
and gift. I'll give you whatever you ask of me.
Just give the girl to be my wife. It's terrible.
Dinah gets raped and now her rapist wants her
to be his wife. Now, if we could zoom out without
minimizing what has happened to Dinah, what is
Satan trying to do here through all of this?
What does Satan try to accomplish? Now, we start
with understanding that Jacob's halfway obedience
is what caused him to justify settling in Shechem
instead of going all the way to Bethel. His kind
of, you know, well, I'm in the promised land,
right? That's what God wanted me to do is go
back to the promised land. No, he wanted you
to go back to Bethel, but Jacob's justifying,
you know, staying here. And it's that disobedience
that sets the stage for this horrible thing to
happen to his daughter. Dads, you're responsible
for your kids. Your disobedience will affect
your family. And you have to be aware of that.
You're responsible. Jacob was the father, the
patriarch of this family, and he's the one responsible
for everything that happens to his family, and
yet he's being so passive here where it's like,
well, you know, not really that big of a deal.
And then you have this proposal, right, this
disgusting proposal. Let's make this right. My
son will marry your daughter. And culturally,
there was that type of thing where if a woman
was assaulted, there was law that you had to
marry the woman, right? She had to become a part
of the family that you were going to take care
of now, as weird as that sounds. But then he
goes on to say, let's make this right. Let's
intermarry. Let's share land. Let's trade freely.
Let's do all this stuff. And essentially, what
is happening here is Satan is using this situation
with Dinah and Shechem. To say, Jacob, let's
become one people. The people in Shechem were
Canaanites. They were Perizzites, we're going
to see later. They were pagans. They weren't
God's people. The entire reason God called Jacob
away from Laban to come back home is he was setting
them apart. He's like, you're going to become
Israel. You're going to become my people, the
one who the promise and the covenant is going
to come through. And now Jacob's like, well,
yeah, I'm in the promised land. This is close
enough. And right there is the temptation. to
be assimilated into the world, to become one
of us. Satan was offering Jacob a shortcut to
the promised land, a shortcut to the prosperity
that God had promised him, but it was a shortcut
to those things without full obedience to the
Lord. And that is always what Satan will do.
Satan will always offer the shortcut without
the path of obedience. Okay, okay, fine. God's
going to do this. God made these promises to
you, and you're God's child, and you're a Christian,
and okay, whatever, fine. But get it this way.
That's what Satan did to Jesus in the wilderness,
right? Oh, you're the son of God. Okay, fine.
Command these stones to become bread. Takes them
on the temple. Look, I'll give you everything.
You're God. You're the ruler of the universe.
Sure, I'll give it to you. But do it this way.
Worship me instead. You have to be careful. Because
it's in our partial obedience, it's in our halfway
obedience, which is disobedience, that Satan
will come along and go, hey, man, you're doing
great. Oh, you're doing what God told you to
do. Look how obedient you're being. Wow. You
know, by the way. How about you let a little
of this into your life? How about you kind of
co -mingle with the world here? You can be a
Christian. That's fine. Just don't say anything
about that, and you don't have to stand up for
righteousness, and you don't need to toe the
line there. No, it's okay. Look, you're a Christian.
They're Muslim. You're the same. And Christians
who are living in halfway obedience will hear
these things and go, hmm, that kind of makes
sense. The danger here is the world is tricky.
The devil is tricky. Shechem sweetens the deal
with a blank check, right? Please, ask for anything.
I will give you anything. Blank check, name your
price. And the idea here is what he's saying
is look like, my personal sacrifice to you will
wash away this sin, right? And that's another
way halfway obedient Christians live. God says,
I want you to do this. And the halfway obedient
Christian goes, well, I did most of it. And it's
okay, God, because look what I gave to you. Look
what I sacrificed. And we all know that scripture,
right? God says, I desire obedience, not sacrifice.
And yet in our delusions from our halfway obedience,
we all think our sacrifice makes up for the lack
of our obedience. And these might even be good
things. God, I increased my tithe. God, I served
extra today. God, I didn't even want to go to
the Halloween maze, but I did. Now, those may
be all good things. God's like, I don't care
about your sacrifice. You didn't do what I told
you to do. You didn't obey me. And these things
don't make up the difference. We try to offer
sacrifice to offset our half obedience. It doesn't
work. Now, the danger here, if Jacob accepted,
as I said, is that Israel would have been assimilated
into Canaanite life. Their call to be a separate
and distinct people would cease to be. And it's
a very serious danger with young people, especially
with this with dating, right? I'm not supposed
to be unequally yoked. But man, she's beautiful.
She's heard of the name Jesus. That's close enough,
right? I will date her into the kingdom. Missionary
dating. I'm a missionary into that person's life.
That guy, he's so handsome. Wow. He makes me
feel so loved and so respected. Doesn't know
the Lord. That's okay. I'll change him. Nobody's
ever successfully changed anybody. And then you
find yourself in a very difficult situation.
This is why the Bible is very, very clear on
these things. Now, I'm not talking about situations
where like a couple got married and then one
of them got saved. And, you know, the Bible talks
about that in a specifically different way. But
this idea is you don't compromise. You don't
compromise to, you know, well, I'm mostly obeying
God. I can't tell you how many times I've heard
this. Yeah, I'm having these problems with this
person and I'm dating and this and that. I'm
like, great. Well, you know, are they saved?
Well, they go to church with me. That's not what
I asked, but it sounds like a justification,
doesn't it? So, the most lethal enemy to our
faith, it's not always an army. It's the friendly
offer that erases the boundaries. It's the friendly
invitation to fellowship that muddies the waters
of separation between us and the world. So just
like Lot, who is near Sodom, Jacob is near Bethel,
geographically but far spiritually. So verse
13. Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father
Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their
sister Dinah. We cannot do this thing, they said
to him. Giving our sister to an uncircumcised
man is a disgrace to us. We will agree with you
only on this condition. If all of your males
are circumcised as we are, then we will give
you our daughters, take your daughters for ourselves,
live with you and become one people. But if you
will not listen to us and be circumcised, then
we will take our daughter and go. And so they're
referring to Dinah as their daughter, their little
sister. There was a very serious sense of all
the men in the family were to protect the women
here. But the first thing I want to notice is
Jacob, the father, says nothing. It's Jacob's
sons who answered. He just passively sat back,
didn't respond, didn't want to deal with it.
Why? This is speculation on my part, but I've
experienced in my own life, and I've talked to
enough Christians to have seen this, is when
a Christian is living in halfway obedience, and
the Holy Spirit is convicting them of that, and
they're trying to ignore that, they find it very
difficult to stand up for righteousness and stand
up for things and say, no, you shouldn't be doing
that, because they know they're in sin. And so
what the devil does is, nobody knows my sin,
and I'm in halfway obedience, but I'm going to
stand up and say, you shouldn't be doing that.
That's wrong. And then the devil goes, hypocrite.
And you go, oh. And you don't want to say anything.
Now, if that happens in your life, the answer
is not to not say anything. The answer is to
stop being a hypocrite. Okay? That's the answer.
And yet we wrestle with that because our sin
wants sin. Our sin nature wants sin. And so if
I could keep doing my sin and all I have to do
is stop pointing out sin, and I'm not talking
in that belligerent way. I'm talking that place
where we're sharpening each other, you know,
as the Bible says, and holding each other accountable.
But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to
call out sin in the world. I'm not going to say
that's wrong and that shouldn't be done because
I don't want to have to give up what I'm doing
wrong. This is what I think is happening with
Jacob here. He knows he's not where God called
him to be. But the sons answer, and we see that
the apple hasn't fallen very far from the tree,
right? Jacob, the deceiver, his sons answer deceitfully.
They learned that from their dad. How to not
tell the truth, how to twist things, how to not
say what needs to be said, and so they go into
this whole, you know, oh, we can't do that. That's
a disgrace. You're uncircumcised. And so they
justify their sin of lying, probably because,
well, he did this thing, so therefore I'm justified.
Another person's sin never justifies our sin,
ever. Well, they did. Who cares? You are accountable
to God for righteousness and godliness and obedience
and disobedience. You're not accountable to them.
They're not accountable to you. It's a part of
what Christianity teaches in the body of Christ
where we forgive one another and we recognize
that we're each working out our own salvation
and we don't try and compare ourselves and say,
well, my sin's okay because their sin was worse.
All sin nailed Jesus to the cross. And so never
let another person's sin justify your own. And
so they're gonna... lie and they're going to
take this revenge into their own hands, and that's
the other part of this whole thing that's wrong.
Romans 12, 19 tells us, friends, do not avenge
yourselves. Instead, leave room for God's wrath
because it is written, vengeance belongs to me,
I will repay, says the Lord. This is a hard verse,
especially looking at things like sexual assault,
right? When someone is victimized in this way,
it is a very, very difficult thing to come to,
to not want revenge, to not want vengeance, to
not want to make someone pay the ultimate price
for what they have done. But we have to understand
as believers, we are not the arbiters of justice.
Now, there is justice in our world, right? We
have courts. We have all this stuff that's in
place. But we are not the arbiters of justice.
Our God is. He is the one that's going to mete
out vengeance. And we know it's going to come.
But we have to be able to take a step back and
go, vengeance belongs to the Lord. It is not
my calling, my job to mete out that vengeance.
This is exactly what Jacob's sons do, though.
They take it into their own hands, and then they
do something that's doubly dishonoring is they
take the sign of the covenant, which was meant
to be a sign of faith. It was meant to be the
sign that I belong to God. I am God's child.
I follow his will. I follow his way. I do what
he wants. I live differently than the rest of
the world. That's what this sign means, and they
use it as a means to deceive and act worse than
the world. It's ironic, they say giving our sister
to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.
And then they use the sign of the covenant and
disgrace God. Disgrace all that that sign is
supposed to communicate. They use it as a tool
of deception and vengeance and that's just an
abuse of what is holy. And so verse 18, their
words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
The young man did not delay in doing this because
he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he
was the most important in all his father's family.
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate,
the gate of their city, and spoke to the men
of the city. These men are peaceful towards us,
they said. Let them live in our land and move
about in it, for indeed the region is large enough
for them. Let's take their daughters as our wives
and give our daughters to them. But the men will
agree to live with us and be one people only
on this condition, if all of our men are circumcised
just as they are. Won't their livestock and their
possessions and all their animals become ours?
Only let's agree with them and they will live
with us. All the men who had come to the city
gates listened to Hamor and his son Shechem and
all those men were circumcised. And so they agree
to the terms here. Right? Why? Well, Shechem,
it was just lustful passion. It was just... this
obsessive need for control and possession. But
for his dad, Hamor, it's economic greed. He's
thinking, oh, sweet, let's become one people
because then all their land and all their animals
and all their possessions will become ours anyway.
Now, worldly pursuits, worldly desires, they're
always going to lead us into making bad decisions.
And this is a terrible decision for Hamor and
Shechem, right? Not that they're off the hook,
not that there's... You know, they're good guys
in any way, but this is going to result in something
very terrible for them. And they're not, they
are the world, but even in our lives as Christians,
you know, when we're pursuing worldly selfish
things, it's always going to lead to misery and
pain. And we're going to see that now. Verse
25, the moment that this whole scheme was designed
to come to, it comes to pass on the third day.
When they were still in pain, two of Jacob's
sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took
their swords, went into the unsuspecting city
and killed every male. They killed Hamor and
his son Shechem with their swords. They took
Dinah from Shechem's house and went away. Jacob's
sons came to the slaughter and plundered the
city because their sister had been defiled. They
took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever
was in the city and in the field. They captured
all their possessions, dependents, and wives
and plundered everything in the houses. Now,
I'm not going to lie. As a man, I'm going, yeah,
they got what they deserved. But did they? As
bad as the crime was to Dinah, this is an egregious
over -response. Shechem was the one who committed
the crime, not all the men of the city. Shechem
needed to be held accountable, absolutely. But
does rape justify murder? That's a tough question
for us to ask. On the outside, we might be able
to go, well, no, but what if it was one of our
loved ones that was assaulted? And yet we still
have to be able to step back as God's people
and say vengeance belongs to the Lord. Now, It
seems that Dinah was being held by Shechem against
her will because they had to rescue her from
his house, maybe as leverage for the deal. But
here's the picture. It's like Simon and Levi
are like, look, you want to kill our family honor
and steal the innocence from our sister? Fine,
we'll do that back to you, but a hundredfold.
And again, we might say, well, yeah, but it's
disproportionate to the crime. it's an ungodly
response in both the crime, dying of being raped,
and all these murders. They're horrible, horrible
acts. Now, here's the problem. When we take vengeance,
we tend to be exponential in our vengeance. That's
why vengeance belongs to the Lord. Right? And
us as humans, right? You smack me in the face,
I'm going to knock you out. That's not equal.
Right? You steal something from mine, I'm going
to burn your house down. Like when I used to
live at the Belmont house back here with a bunch
of the young adult guys, you know, they would
think it was fun to play practical jokes. And
I don't like practical jokes because all they
do is keep escalating until something valuable
gets broken or somebody really gets hurt. And
so they played a joke on me one day and I was
like, hey, I'm just telling you right now. Like,
we're not going to do this escalating thing.
I'm going all the way to the end, and I'm going
to end this right now. What do you mean? I'm
like, well, you don't want to find out. And that
stopped the practical jokes, but the idea is
in our vengeance, we're like, oh, you did this
to me? I have to one -up it, ten -up it, a hundred
-up it. And that's not right. That's not justice.
That's vengeance. And so they go out and they
commit these horrible crimes. And what should
have happened, as hard as this is, the godly
example is to let God handle the justice and
be the people God is calling us to be. Think
of Charlie Kirk's wife. What did she do publicly
from stage? Her husband was murdered and she
forgave the killer. And we think that's impossible.
But as Christians, why is that impossible? What
have we done against God and he forgave us? How
have we sinned against the Lord and yet he forgave
us? Now again, this is not to minimize the devastation
that something like a rape and sexual assault
could cause in someone's life. But vengeance
is not the answer. Because you won't feel better.
And so, They go in the third day. All the men
in the city, they're still down from the pain
of being circumcised. And it says Simeon and
Levi went in. Out of all the brothers, it was
them two. They were seemingly the most offended,
the most filled with rage. And they go on this
bloody murder spree, just a wholesale slaughter,
wipe out every guy in the city who can't defend
himself. Now, you might think, why them? Why
did they do this? Why such violence on their
part? It's very possible that that's just kind
of who they were. They were violent. guys. Also,
if we consider that they were indeed full brothers
of Dinah, right, because they were all from Leah,
and they were from the part of the family that
was the least loved under the mom who was least
loved. And so it's possible that these two just
kind of, you know, after, you know, being the
unloved part of the family for their whole life,
and then they see their dad just passively not
doing anything to defend or to, you know, do
anything about the situation of Dinah, they just
lost it. And then so they go out and they just
kill everybody. And it's interesting. This is
something that Jacob never gets over because
later when Jacob dies, he gives a blessing to
all of his sons. And it was both a blessing and
a prophecy. And this is what he said to Simeon
and Levi. Genesis 49 verse 5. He says, Simeon
and Levi are brothers. Their knives are vicious
weapons. May I never enter their council. May
I never join their assembly. For in their anger
they kill men and on a whim they hamstring oxen.
Their anger is cursed, for it is strong, and
their fury, for it is cruel. I will disperse
them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout
Israel. So they got cursed. They didn't even
get a blessing, right? Their anger is cursed
and their fury is cruel. Now this is specifically
referring to this moment, but Jacob was never
okay with what they did. And then prophetically,
they were indeed dispersed. You see, we see something
interesting here. They're both cursed. But Simeon
vanishes and Levi ends up getting mercy. You
see, the tribe of Simeon ends up disappearing
and being absorbed into the tribe of Judah. There's
prophecy fulfilled. Simeon is gone, right? Levi...
never got any land. When they all came into the
promised land, all the tribes got land, Levi
got none. They were scattered throughout Israel,
but the reason they were scattered is because
they became the priestly tribe. They got no land
to settle because God said, that is the inheritance
for all the other tribes, but I am your inheritance.
It's interesting, God in his grace and mercy
takes what is probably the worst of the 12 tribes.
This murderous, hateful guy that would just go
slaughter people in vengeance. And he turns that
guy into his priest. Isn't that what God does
with us? He takes the vile and wicked sinners
and he turns us into a kingdom of priests. That's
just a beautiful thing God does. When I was in
Africa. And there's a whole bunch of us, all
different Calvary Chapel pastors, and it never
ceases to amaze me. Like, oh, what's your background?
Felon? Drug addict? Drug dealer? Womanizer? I'm
like, that's the qualification to be a Calvary
Chapel pastor. Some just terrible, terrible,
horrible, sinful background. But it's the same
with all of us. God saved you and made you his
priesthood. Think about that. What mercy, what
grace our God has. But in this moment here, both
of these brothers, they do this very terrible
thing and then it tells us that the rest of the
brothers come after and they just loot the entire
place. Steal everything, including the wives
and children of all the men they just killed.
They take them all. Again, this is highly disproportionate
to the crime. Shechem rightfully should have
been held accountable. But the rest of the city
and all of this that is taking place, no, it's
ungodly. But, you know, there's this thing, this
phrase that we get from the Bible. I think it's
Latin. It's called lex talionis. It means an
eye for an eye. You guys heard that before? An
eye for an eye, right? And, you know, we think
eye for an eye and it's like, yeah. And we go,
oh, God said eye for an eye? Jesus said that?
And he goes, no, you said. But this is what I'm
going to tell you to do. So the idea of an eye
for an eye is this idea that you get what you
get. You get what you deserve. And that's kind
of what we see in this story, right? That, oh,
they should have gotten this horrible retribution.
But the whole idea of an eye for an eye, it exists
to limit revenge, not extend it. And it's for
reasons we see in this story. It's because when
we're wronged, we react 10 times worse. And it's
like, no, no, no. The crime deserves the justice.
But the sons here, they're not executing justice.
They're committing genocide. Genocide was not
warranted. This theft and this looting was not
warranted and yet this is what we see in this
story. It's just, again, it's this gross, horrible
story of what the people of God are doing here
and misrepresenting him. But verse 30, with their
swords still wet with blood, they face their
father and Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you've
brought trouble on me, making me odious to the
inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the
Perizzites. We are few in number and if they
unite against me and attack me, I and my household
will be destroyed. But the answer is, should
he treat our sister like a prostitute? And, you
know, they get to the end of the chapter, and
I read this, and I'm like, really, Jacob? Like,
how about, how's Dinah? Is she okay? Is she safe?
No. How about, you did what? You murdered the
entire city? That's ungodly. Not even an objection
like, you used the sign of the covenant to deceive
and murder? What a disgrace to God. No, none
of that. Just the very familiar self -preservation
that has plagued Jacob's entire life. I'm in
danger now because of what you did. I can't believe
you put me in danger. Now his sons, they seize
the moral high ground and they reject his self
-centered concerns and that's where the story
ends. You see, we get to the end of the story
and we're like, that's it? They just said, should
he treat our sister like a prostitute? All of
this is a response of Jacob's half -obedience.
All of this is a response of Jacob's decisions.
This is a gross, sad, shocking, startling story
in the biblical narrative of salvation. And as
a church, we have to say, what is this shouting
at us? What is this shouting at us? What is it
saying to us? Because I'm sure in every church,
but I'm sure there are some here that are numb
or are growing numb to the world around you.
One, I think the story of shouting that assimilation
is indeed our great danger. Shechem was... A
nice place, and it promised safety and friendship
and profit and acceptance and inclusion. But
it was a threat to the soul of Israel. A direct
threat. And in our modern world, we're not necessarily
seduced by lands and trade and all of that. But
I would say very pointedly, we are seduced by
screens. Pretty much every single one of you
has one in your pocket or your purse right now.
And we're constantly bombarded by those screens,
constantly bombarded with the message from the
world, become one of us, think like us, act like
us, adopt our values, adopt our humor, adopt
our sex ethics, adopt our money, our power, do
it our way. Assimilation is very subtle. You
see, Jacob's choice to stop in Shechem instead
of going all the way to Bethel, it might have
seemed like a no big deal. It's only 20 more
miles. And yet, that decision threatened to erode
the distinctiveness of Israel as a separate people
who lived under a different way following the
one true God. When it comes to what we ingest
in our lives, and I'm speaking to me here, I'm
right with you guys, okay? Hours and hours. Scrolling,
TV, social media of violence and lust and worldly
morality and off -color humor. Hours versus 10
minutes in the Word in the morning as we do our
daily devotion. Which discipler do you think
is going to have the greatest influence on you
and your family? You're being discipled. Don't
think you're not. Now again, I'm not saying that
you have to be in the Bible 24 hours a day and
you can't watch anything or you're going to hell.
That's not what I'm saying. But we do have to
think about what's having the greatest influence
on our lives. What's having the greatest influence
in our thinking and our decision making? People
spend billions of dollars to market. They study
psychology. They study the way we think. And
so every time you're flipping an ad, it's not
just an ad, it's... millions of dollars spent
to get you to think and feel a certain way. And
it's like, well, that's going to affect me. I
need to consume way more of this to be sensitive
to the difference, right? The Bible talks about
that. Whichever dog you feed is the one that's
going to win the fight. Assimilation happens
in everyday family life, not just big moments.
You know Dinah? Essentially, it was like, hey,
I'm going over to my friend's house, right? A
normal everyday choice. I know kids don't do
that much today, right? I'm going over to my
friend's house and they log on to Discord. But
I'm going to go hang out. I'm going to go here.
I'm going to go do this. And it was a normal
everyday choice that put her in harm's way. This
is a picture of parental passivity. It's very,
very costly. Parents, this is what the Bible
says to you. Parent. Parent. Don't be passive.
You are responsible for where your kids go. You're
responsible for what your kids watch. You're
responsible for what they do and how they behave.
Again, as they grow up, you're teaching them
to make their own decisions and stuff, but it's
heartbreaking in our world today. You see kids
at these young, young, young ages with a cell
phone in their hand. And it's like, okay, great,
you need to get a hold of this emergency stuff,
but we're watching our culture unravel as kids
are discipled by social media. One of the biggest
problems we had over the last few years in our
own youth ministry was when the kids would come
to youth ministry, we'd say, put your phones
in the basket. And the kids could not handle
not having their phones for an hour, and so they
stopped coming to youth ministry. That's a parent
problem. You are the gatekeeper for who shapes
your kid's life. Don't be passive. Don't think
that this is my own little sin. Jacob's like,
well, I struggle with deception, but that's not
going to affect my kids. Yes, it did, to the
point where they slaughtered an entire city.
Assimilation is aggressive. You see, the world
is actively evangelizing us every moment of every
day. Actively. Every billboard. Somebody was
telling me after first service, there was a billboard,
I think, on the side of the freeway. Big, giant
letters. Jesus is not God. You're being evangelized.
Now, you might see that and go, that's a lie.
That's wrong. But it's the little things, and
they all add up eventually. Well, it's not such
a big deal if I watch that. It doesn't stumble
me. It might not stumble you in that moment,
but it's definitely teaching you something. Passive
Christians, mothers, fathers, employees, bosses,
owners, leaders, your halfway obedience, your
passivity is going to injure you and the people
you care about. We have to be active and intentional.
in not remaining silent as Jacob did, right?
Hey, Jacob, your daughter was raped. All right,
we'll get to it. What? We have to be people who
stand for righteousness and hold the line of
righteousness, even if it makes us unpopular,
even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if we
have to give up liberties we have. And you know
what those things are. I think a lot of people
are like, well, I can do this and watch this
and all this, and I'm not affected. I have liberty
in the Lord in that. And okay, that may be the
case. But I'll suggest that maybe more than not,
when we say, I have liberty, that doesn't affect
me, you know it really is. And you're just trying
to justify. But you listen to the Lord on that.
So how do we remain distinct in this world? We
have to maintain proper separation from the world,
right? Don't get close. Don't stop halfway. When
it comes to relationships and dating, don't romanticize
mission as an excuse for compromise. I'm going
to get them saved. Well, just wait until they're
saved and then date, okay? Remove media and environments
and people. That inflame lust, inflame passions,
inflame worldly values that dull your conscience
against righteousness and they water down your
morality. Remove that stuff. Saturate your mind
in scripture. Again, if you read for 15 minutes
a day but you consume three hours of social media,
you are being instructed in faith and values
and morality. It's just not by Jesus Christ.
Dads. You got kids at home still? Open your Bibles
at home. Sit down and take time to read and lead
devotions with your family and pray together
with your kids and your wife and your spouse
and do that actively, regularly. Spend time talking
together and serving together. And then keep
a proper intention in our evangelization and
interaction with the world. What I mean by that,
last week, Cedric, he did a fantastic Bible study.
And one of the things he was talking about is
waiting on the Lord. You know, in the wake of
the Charlie Kirk shooting, a lot of conservatives,
specifically Christians and stuff, are like,
that's it. It's time for civil war. Arm up. Let's
go fight back. And we are not here to pass judgment
and execute judgment. We're not here to teach
the world a lesson. We are here to be a blessing
to this world. Our purpose here is witness, not
vengeance. Now, I'm not saying there's not times
where we say enough is enough and all that. That's
a whole different Bible study. But when we start
to say, you know, I got to knock them down because
they stubbed my toe, we need to be careful about
those types of things. And so, does this dark
chapter of Scripture have hope? Right? Well,
yeah, I believe it does for a number of reasons.
One, this is God's large startling image meant
to jolt Israel when they read it. It's meant
to jolt us out of passivity. What we see here
is God's fierce grace is allowing Jacob to experience
the appalling weight of his sin. God is allowing
Jacob to experience the consequences of his halfway
obedience, and they're terrible. They're terrible.
Why? So Jacob would finally return to Bethel.
And that's exactly what happens in the next chapter.
Jacob's own deceit bred the same in his sons.
His passivity fed their rage. And yet even in
that, we see Levi the butcher ultimately become
Levi the priest. That's hope. So halfway obedience,
it sets a trap for us. But if halfway obedience
sets the trap and leads us into assimilation,
then full obedience should set us free, right?
Leaders, parents, dads, moms, stop remaining
silent in your kids' lives. Lead in repentance.
Lead in protection and discipleship. Lead. Young
adults, teens, don't compromise what is right
for mission. Well, I'm going to reach that person
for Jesus, and all you end up doing is sinning
against the Lord. families this week, as I say,
host of family devotion time. Pick a verse, memorize
it as a family, put it on the fridge, have time
for confession, have time for service, something.
And then all of us, I think we need to audit
our inputs. We need to audit our inputs. Replace
shows and content and sites and social media
that presents and glorifies ungodly values and
just go, you know what, I really shouldn't watch
this. Replace those things with Scripture and
prayer and real fellowship. Identify the last
place or the last time, the last opportunity
where God told you to do something and you said,
well, I'll get there later, but now is good enough.
I've done this much. And then repent. Get up
and get back to Bethel. Go. Listen and obey.
So that your witness and your spiritual victory
and your leadership would remain strong. That
it would all shine. And instead of assimilation
and passivity, you would truly be set apart from
this world, holy as he is holy. Amen? Let's pray.
Father, we love you. And yet we could always
love you better. But we as your children, we
do love you and we are grateful. Lord, we're
grateful for blessing. We're grateful for salvation.
And Lord, I pray that we would be grateful for
discipline. That Lord, when we experience tragedies
in our lives, that we would respond to those
tragedies in a godly way. Because Lord, we know
you understand the hurt. You understand the pain.
You understand all of it, God. Lord, I pray even
now for those in this room that have been victims
of sexual assault. Lord, if they're still hurt
and harboring, I pray, Lord, you would bring
healing and peace. I pray, Lord, instead of vengeance
and a desire to To destroy, Lord, that they would,
Lord, supernaturally have an ability to forgive.
But God, I pray for those that are around them,
dads and families, Lord, that they would also
just be people who follow your way in all things,
Lord. We know that sin leads to sin and we know
that disobedience opens the door for us to be
passive against the things that would harm us.
And God, we could look at this story and see
that if Jacob had just gone all the way to Bethel
like he was supposed to, Dinah would not have
been in that situation. And so, Lord, I pray
for dads that they would lead and stand strong,
lovingly and caringly and compassionately, but
at the same time, God, that they would do what
they're called to do and not just let things
happen. Same for moms, parents, Lord, that they
would parent through the power of the Holy Spirit.
God, we are responsible. for the children you
place in our lives. God, all of us individually,
may we not be hypocrites, Lord, sinning in secret
and yet letting that cause us to not stand up
for righteousness, Lord. May we stop sinning
in secret so that we would not be hypocrites.
God, help us to audit our inputs, Lord. Just
to be real, Lord. There may be some music or
shows or whatever it may be, God, that we've
been just like, eh, it's not that big of a deal.
But maybe, God, right now you're saying it is
a big deal. And for whatever your reason may
be, you're calling us to say no more. No more
of that. Help us to listen, God, that we would
be blessed. That we would be in total obedience,
not halfway obedience. That, God, we'd be fully
in fellowship with you and not dancing with the
world while we're holding your hand. We thank
you for this chapter, Lord, and we thank you
that you include this in your word. Help us to
learn from it. Bless us, fill us with your spirit,
Lord, that we would glorify you in all things.
We love you so much. It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Well, God bless you guys. Let's worship.