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Genesis 34
34:1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 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. 3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”
5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, 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.
8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your1 daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. 9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.” 11 Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 Ask me for as great a bride-price2 and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. 16 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. 17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”
18 Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21 “These men are at peace with us; 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. 22 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. 23 Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.” 24 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.
25 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. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29 All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” 31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good morning, Redeemer Community Church. Welcome to week 2 of live streaming. Last week, I got to preach to 6 people. This morning, I get to preach to 5. So our church attendance is declining.
Joel Brooks:This is actually year 12 of us as a church. This past week, we celebrated our 12 year anniversary, and we've never gone 2 weeks without meeting together in the 12 years. So we're we are in uncharted territory, but such is the time that we are now living in. Yesterday, we actually did a wedding at the church. And by wedding, I mean the bride and groom were out on the front steps, while those who were attending stayed parked in their in their cars parked across the street.
Joel Brooks:And then there was a parade of guests who went by honking their horns and waving. So it's it's just a surreal time that we are in. In just the last 10 days, we have moved from being able to give one another hugs or handshakes to having to give fist bumps, to then it moved to the elbow bumps, to now it is the 6 foot distance from one another to now. We only see one another through a video and, or through live streaming. But it's the best that we could do once again.
Joel Brooks:And some people, they've asked if we would maybe step up our live streaming quality and we actually thought about that for just maybe a millisecond and then decided we didn't wanna do that because this is not something we actually want you to get used to, church. Instead, we want you to long for the time where you come back and get to gather together with your brothers and sisters. We're not sure when that's going to be. So just keep following our emails, read our newsletter, and But we will let you know the next time we can gather together. And that will be a joyful time.
Joel Brooks:There is one plus to this. I only have to preach once on a Sunday instead of preaching 4 times. And that's a pretty significant plus. So I'm planning for, instead of preaching at 11 o'clock, I'm going to organize my closet. And then come 4 o'clock, I think I'm going to maybe scrape the home some, work on some painting.
Joel Brooks:I do have a puzzle I've been working on that's of a Christmas scene. Maybe I could finish that. At 6 o'clock, I'll be wearing my pajamas. I'm not really sure what I'll be doing at that point. I know I won't be watching TV because the last time I turned on the TV, they were replaying the 2,007 Big 10 championship game for men's basketball.
Joel Brooks:That's that's how bad things have come. We are at that point. Actually, this is how bad things have come. Yesterday, my daughters, since we're all cooped up in the house, they're listening to a lot of music, a lot of dance parties going on, and they've decided they like Nickelback. So so I'm spending my days at home watching my girls dance and sing to Nickelback.
Joel Brooks:So, Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come or at least allow us to gather together again in this room soon. I don't know where you're watching this from, but just to keep things normal, I'd like you to take a moment to now stand and to greet those around you. And, and this now takes, you know, 2, 3 seconds. You may be seated, and we'll begin our time together, with the reading of scripture and prayer. So actually, I do wanna begin our time together with just a word of prayer and then we'll read scripture actually a little bit later.
Joel Brooks:So if you would pray with me, church, wherever you are. Father, we thank you for your church, the gift you have given us through your church, And we miss being with our church family. It just feels wrong. And, Lord, I pray that you would be especially present with us during this time as we cannot be physically present with one another. I pray you would bless our time together this morning.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray you would open up your word to us. Give us responsive hearts and spirits. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I thought everybody at this point would be craving just something normal. So I thought we would just jump right back into our study in Genesis. And if you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Genesis chapter 34. Genesis 34.
Joel Brooks:But before we go and we read this text, I do want to remind you of a few things. A couple of weeks ago, Jeff preached on Jacob wrestling with God. Jeff's actually here in the balcony. Good to see you this morning, Jeff. Jeff preached a a great sermon on Jacob wrestling with the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And if you remember, this story, Jacob was obeying the Lord by going back home. So out of faith, he he trusted in God and he was going back home, even though he knew that he would have to meet Esau again. The night before he was gonna meet Esau, he went off to be by himself, to be alone, to pray. And it was at this time a stranger approached him. He didn't know who it was at this time, and they began wrestling in the dark.
Joel Brooks:And they wrestled all through the night. And as the sun was about to come up, is when we realized it was God who he was wrestling with. Because the Lord just ever so faintly decides to touch his hip at that point. And with the slightest touch of God, his hip is blown out of socket, bringing the wrestling match to a quick end. And it's at this point Jacob realizes that he's wrestling with God.
Joel Brooks:And here we see Jacob at his finest. This is where he is at his absolute finest. I want you to try to picture the scene from Genesis 32 there. Jacob has just had his hip blown out by this man, and so the fight is over. And so the man is getting up to leave, but there Jacob doesn't let him go.
Joel Brooks:Picture the scene though. The the the fights over. If if you blow out a person's hip, you are not now underneath Jacob. You are now on top of Jacob and now you are leaving. And so when it says that Jacob reached out to hold on to him, what is Jacob likely holding on to?
Joel Brooks:He's likely holding on to his heel. And I believe it's at this point that the Lord turns and looks at Jacob, and he says, what is your name? And Jacob says, I'm the heel grabber. As he's literally grabbing the heel of God, not letting go, Jacob says, I'm the heel grabber. God says, yes, your name is Jacob, but from now on your name will be Israel, which means one who wrestles with God.
Joel Brooks:And then Jacob is blessed. And basically, what God is doing at this time is he's redefining Jacob's name. Yes. Jacob the heel grabber has a bad meaning. It can mean deceiver as a heel grabber, but but God is pointing out it can also mean something good as you're grabbing onto my heel and you're not letting go.
Joel Brooks:You're one who who wrestles and strives with God himself. And so from this point on, as you move through the Bible, Jacob's gonna both go as, by the name Jacob and as Israel. And there's actually only 4 names in the Bible that God renamed somebody. He renames Abe, Abraham, Sarai, Sarah. Renames Jacob, Israel.
Joel Brooks:And he renames Simon, Peter. He actually doesn't rename Saul, Paul, if you read the story. He only renames 4 people. But then Jacob is the only person who actually goes by both names moving forward. And and one of the reasons I think we see that is is because God's actually redefined the name Jacob itself.
Joel Brooks:It doesn't have to mean deceiver. It can mean the one who is holding on to the heel of of, I believe, God himself, not letting go. And once again, that's when we see Jacob at his absolute finest. And this is the image that I want you to have of Jacob. Perhaps it's the image that you have of yourself and your relationship with God.
Joel Brooks:You're a horrible wretch of a man or a woman, But with as much faith as you have, you're you're holding on to God. You're not wanting him to leave until you are blessed. And, actually, what we will find out later and what we already know is all along, it hasn't been Jacob holding on to the heel of God. It's been God who's been holding on to him all of this time. God's gonna be the one who won't let him go.
Joel Brooks:And Jacob realizes this at the end of his life. But that's the image that I want you to keep is that good image of Jacob. Because what we are about to read is not Jacob at his finest, but it will be Jacob at his worst. This is Jacob at his absolute worst. It is the lowest that he will go.
Joel Brooks:The story that we're about to read this morning in Genesis 34 is just rough. It's about deception, rape, horrible injustice, vengeance, a father's indifference to the suffering of his daughter, and God is not mentioned. He's mentioned right at the end of chapter 33, and he's mentioned right at the beginning of chapter 35, but he's not mentioned in chapter 34. He doesn't seem to be anywhere. When you read this text, you should be angry.
Joel Brooks:Anger is an appropriate response. I actually thought many times about using the coronavirus as somehow as an excuse not to preach on this text. I mean, it is a ready made excuse given by God, I think, that I could have used, to just have jumped over this text. But ultimately, I knew it would be wrong. All of God's scripture is God breathed, and is useful for us.
Joel Brooks:And so we want to read this. So Genesis 34, and I'm going to read the entire chapters, 31 verses. Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the he the Hivite, the prince of the land saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.
Joel Brooks:He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor saying, get me this girl for my wife. Now, Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor, the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.
Joel Brooks:The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it. 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. But Hamor spoke with them saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us.
Joel Brooks:Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it and get property in it. Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes and whatever you say to me, I will give it. Ask for me as great a bride price and gift as you will and I will give whatever you say to me.
Joel Brooks:Only give me the young woman to be my wife. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to him, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you, 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.
Joel Brooks:But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone. Their 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. Now he was 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.
Joel Brooks: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 our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and become one people, when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised? Will not their livestock, their property, and all their beasts be ours?
Joel Brooks:Only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of the city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem And every male was circumcised. All who went out of the gate of his city. On the 3rd day, when they were sore, 2 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. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away.
Joel Brooks:The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 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. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land. The Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Joel Brooks:My numbers are few. And if they gather themselves together against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household. But they said, should he treat our sister like a prostitute? And this is the word of the Lord. Let's be honest.
Joel Brooks:This is a horrible story. If you guys had been there or been here, I wonder how many of you would have actually said, and thanks be to God after I had read and said, this is the word of the Lord. If you had said it, maybe you would have said it quietly or maybe mumble through it. Not sure if you could really mean those words or not. Thanks be to God for this story.
Joel Brooks:So why is this story in the Bible? That's actually a question I've been asking myself for weeks now as I've looked at this story. When I was making the preaching schedule and I was mapping things out and this fell on me, and then after I heard Jeff preach on Jacob wrestling with the with, the Lord, I realized I made a tragic mistake. And I should have got Jeff to preach this week. And I should have preached on Jacob wrestling with the Lord.
Joel Brooks:But I am I am glad that this story is here. I'm glad that it's here. I certainly don't want to read it every day. I I don't wanna begin my quiet times reading this story, but I am thankful that it is here for a few reasons. First is this, it lets us know that God sees and he hears the dinas of the world.
Joel Brooks:I'm not sure if you noticed this as I was reading through the story, but Dinah never once speaks. We never know what Dinah feels at any point of this. She doesn't say one word. So she was silenced then. But God saw fit to give her a voice, and to record her story so that we would know her story.
Joel Brooks:And and we are still listening to the story 39 100 years later. And that's why last week after I I decided not to preach on Dinah, I knew I just couldn't skip it because I couldn't deny Dinah her voice. I couldn't deny her voice once again. And so here we are to listen to her. God has not forgotten the dinas of the world, and neither should we.
Joel Brooks:God has stored her tears in a bottle, and they have a purpose. The second reason I'm glad this story is here is because it's letting those of you who have been victims, who become victims of sexual assault, sexual abuse, or rape, that you are not alone. You are not alone. What kind of Bible would we have if it didn't address the deep dark things of the world? The actual real real hurts, and pains, and sorrows that we experience.
Joel Brooks:There is not a circumstance that can happen in your life that the Bible does not somehow address. And as you have noticed, God is not gonna sugarcoat the story when he addresses it. The author of Genesis here, he he didn't have to put this story in at all. It's probably a story I would not have recorded. I would have skipped over.
Joel Brooks:He certainly didn't have to put this story here. But not only does he include it, he doesn't sugarcoat it. He doesn't camouflage it. He doesn't try to hide it or to put a spin on it in any way. He just puts it out there and he leaves it out there and exposes it and all of its ugliness for us to read.
Joel Brooks:And I can't help but contrast this with the number of the sexual abuse crimes that have happened in churches over the years, that churches have sought to cover up, or largely ignored. Certainly not giving the victims a voice. And I've heard all the excuses as to why churches have done this. I've heard people say they didn't wanna bring shame to the name of Jesus. They didn't want people to lose their faith, dishonor the church.
Joel Brooks:But this stands in stark contrast to what we see here. Here, God doesn't cover up the evil, but he exposes it for everyone to see. And He gives Dinah the voice that she was denied by the men in power over her. Jesus is glorified when these things are exposed. We bring shame to His name when we try to cover these things up or we ignore them.
Joel Brooks:God will not allow that to happen. And let me give you just one final reason why I'm glad that this story is here for us. Because this story speaks to us of the truthfulness of scripture. Because who would ever make up this story? If you were going to create a religion about the one true God and you were writing about the founding fathers of that religion, would you ever create this story?
Joel Brooks:No. You you you would you would exaggerate the goods of the the patriarchs of the founding fathers. And you would talk about their great acts of faith, and maybe how they fought for all the injustice against the injustices of the world, or how they healed people, or different things like that, you would not paint them in such a light. But the fact that this story is actually recorded for us testifies to the truthfulness of scripture, and that we have a Bible that we can trust. Okay.
Joel Brooks:So let's walk through this story. I'll try to be brief because, I think a story like this with content like this, we really should be in a family gathering where I could look you in the eye and we can interact with one another. There's a lot of ways I could walk through this. But, I think one of the best ways to do it is just to look at each character in the story and to just say a few words about them. And so let's first look at Dinah.
Joel Brooks:Dinah is the daughter of Leah. That's not insignificant. Because if you remember, Leah is the one who has been ignored by Jacob. Leah is the one who doesn't have her husband's affection. And although she has borne her husband many children at this point, at this point, 6 sons and one daughter, Leah still doesn't have the affection of her husband.
Joel Brooks:And that seems to have carried on to Dinah. Just as Jacob doesn't really love Leah, he doesn't seem to love Dinah. At the time of this story, Dinah would have been about 14 or 15 years old. We're told at the start of the story that she she went out to see the women of the land. We're not entirely sure why she decided to do this, perhaps she was just you know a curious teenager and she wanted to see how people outside of her immediate culture lived.
Joel Brooks:We really don't know, we do know that wasn't the wisest decision, for such a young woman to go out by herself into such a strange culture that she didn't know. But she doesn't seem to be doing anything wrong here. She seems to be completely innocent, but she has placed herself in a vulnerable position by being all alone. And the prince takes advantage of that. He sees her all alone and so he forces himself on her.
Joel Brooks:And it's pretty clear that what we have being described here is rape. Let's look at Shechem. Shechem might be the prince of the land, but really all he is is a thug. He abuses his power both as a male, and as a prince of the land. He has absolutely no self control whatsoever.
Joel Brooks:And he does whatever he wants. Whatever he wants to have, he just goes and he gets it. He is not thinking of any consequences because none will come to him. Not by his father or by his friends. There's no excuse for what he did.
Joel Brooks:It's absolutely heinous. After he forces himself upon Dinah, he then tries to speak tenderly to her. And, basically, he convinces her, hey, I know what I did was wrong, but I'm really a great guy, and I really do love you. We should get together. He he tries to convince her that he actually has love for her.
Joel Brooks:And once again, we don't know how Dinah is feeling during any of this, or what she's thinking. We can only imagine how repulsed she has to be during all of this, Yet also powerless. There's nothing she can do about it. Shechem's dad, Hamor, is the next character we look at. Shechem immediately runs to daddy to let him know what happened.
Joel Brooks:And the first thing daddy thinks is how can I cover this up? What do I have to pay to make all of this go away? Notice that he doesn't apologize for his son's behavior. He doesn't acknowledge that there's been anything that has been done wrong. There is no punishment.
Joel Brooks:There's no form of discipline whatsoever. His only response is, how can we move past this? How much is this going to cost me? And what we see here is a complete failure in fatherhood. He raises a spoiled entitled brat.
Joel Brooks:Refusing to discipline him, refusing to let this kid, suffer any consequences for his behavior. So he fails completely as a father. But perhaps the biggest picture of failed fatherhood we get here is from Jacob. Once again, this is Jacob at his absolute worst. After Jacob heard about how his daughter was defiled, Look how he reacted.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 5 again. We read, now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock in the field. So Jacob held his peace until they came. So Jacob, he hears that his his precious daughter, his daughter has just been raped, and his response was this, nothing. He does absolutely nothing.
Joel Brooks:He literally has no response whatsoever. It says he just holds his peace until the brothers return, but actually he holds his peace the entire time. He never he never says anything here. As a dad of 3 daughters, I find this incomprehensible his reaction here. He doesn't run to Dinah to comfort her, to make her feel safe and secure.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't run to Shechem and demand justice, demand a punishment. He doesn't run to the Lord in prayer and ask for wisdom as to how he should proceed forward. He literally does absolutely nothing here. And the reason he doesn't do anything is because he just doesn't want to rock the boat. He doesn't wanna cause a commotion.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't want to risk becoming an enemy with a prince. And he doesn't wanna take the financial hit that will hit him if he has these relationships ruined. Jacob realizes that standing up for the oppressed is gonna cost him, and he's not willing to pay that cost. As long as he's passive, as long as he does nothing, as long as he just kinda maybe allows this thing to blow over, then he might be able to actually financially prosper from this. And, of course, this is a story that we've seen played out many times throughout human history, where those in power have chosen to do absolutely nothing when they have seen the injustices of this world.
Joel Brooks:They've chosen actually to look the other way in order that they might keep their power, or actually perhaps even profit from the situation. And church, this is not what God has called us to be when he's called us to be salt and light into this world. Called us to be a blessing to this world. Instead of doing right, the right yet hard thing, Jacob does nothing. And poor Dinah in all of this.
Joel Brooks:Instead of her father coming to her and speaking words of comfort, the only person who speaks tenderly to her in this story is the person who raped her. Can you imagine how horrible that would be? Let's look at the brothers Levi and Simeon. They have the exact opposite reaction of their father. When they hear how their little sister had been defiled, they they become furious, and they immediately make their plans to seek out, revenge.
Joel Brooks:And I I've got to say this at the start. What they did was morally wrong. But from a military strategic point of view, it was brilliant. It was actually a brilliant strategy that they used on getting these these Shechemites to circumcise themselves. Basically, they got them to first injure themselves willingly, and then they just got to come in 3 days later and to finish the job.
Joel Brooks:So from a strategy point of view, brilliant, genius even, but morally reprehensible. What they did here was every bit as heinous as actually what Shechem did. Because they did not just seek vengeance on Shechem, the man who raped their sister. They killed every man in the entire city, no matter if the man was involved at all or not. And not only that, it says that they captured the wives and the children.
Joel Brooks:So they literally treated these women and children as objects, making this making the same sin as Shechem had just done. Taking them back to their home to be property. Reprehensible what Levi and Simeon did. But isn't this often what we see, when justice is denied? When justice is denied, people often take matters into their own hands.
Joel Brooks:And they hit back way harder than they were hit. Justice denied leads to uncontrollable anger and rage. And it leads to acts of vengeance. So what are we supposed to make with all of this? This whole story, what, what are we supposed to take away from this?
Joel Brooks:Well, first is this. We see 2 horrible ways here of dealing with injustice. Jacob dealt with injustice by doing nothing. He chose to ignore it. Chose to look the other way, which is wrong.
Joel Brooks:And his sin here led to his sons dealing with injustice the exact opposite way, by seeking out vengeance. Not just on the one who had violated their sister, but on everyone who even resembled Shechem. They were filled with such hatred, and this only continued the cycle of violence. Jacob should have done the hard thing at the start. The loving, but hard thing at the start.
Joel Brooks:And he should've stood up for his daughter. Yes. It would have been ugly. It would have been hard. It would have been dangerous.
Joel Brooks:But actually, this is the road that God has called his people to walk, in which we fight against the injustices of the world. We stand up for the oppressed. That's what true love and action looks like. It is how we become a light into a dark world. It's how we become a blessing to this world.
Joel Brooks:We are neither passive towards injustice, nor are we filled with hate. But out of love, we do the hard thing, and we stand up for what is right. Second thing we can make of this is that we should be reminded that there is no hero in the bible other than Jesus. Don't you just long for Jesus to return after you read this story? I mean, I know I did.
Joel Brooks:I long for his return after reading this. I long for a righteous judge to come and to rule this world into peace, To put away all the injustices and put away all the evils. And so this story here reminds me of Jesus, both my longing for him to return and the fact that Jesus is the only hero we have. He's the only one who was fully righteous, fully loving. The final point we could take away from this is that we have a God who does understand.
Joel Brooks:For those of you who have suffered horrible injustice in your life, have had some form of deep pain inflicted on you, you need to know that you have a God who knows this and a God who understands the pain that you're going in, going through. Jesus understood the dinas of the world in a way that no one else can. Because Jesus, He too was the victim of horrible injustice. When Jesus was beaten, whipped, when he was being crucified, not one person came to His aid. No one stood by His side, not even his own father.
Joel Brooks:His father didn't come rushing to his aid. Just like Dinah, Jesus felt the abandonment of his father. Jesus had to suffer all alone and in silence. So Jesus understands the dinas of this world, And Jesus endured all of this so that whatever pains, whatever injustices we go through in this life will just be temporary. They will not define us and they will not last forever.
Joel Brooks:We might have to endure through horrible moments in this life, but in light of what is to come, we're to see these as a brief light momentary affliction. On the cross, Jesus has forever dealt with the evil and injustices of the world. And we now live in hope of that, knowing that a new world is coming in which those evils done against us will be just a distant memory. One of the reasons that this story had to be written down for us, one of the reasons that Genesis 34 exists is because a day is coming, in which unless those things were not written down for us, we will not remember them, because we will never again experience them. They all belong to a distant past.
Joel Brooks:Until then, we live in the hope of what Jesus has now brought us in the gospel. And ultimately, that's what this story points us to, is the hope we have in the gospel. That Jesus has dealt with the evils and injustices of the world. He dealt with them on the cross. And those things do not have a place in our future, which is a glorious and joyful future in Christ.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me, church. Father, we thank you for your word, How it always leads us back to you, Jesus. I pray that you would make us the people that you have called us to be. That we would not be passive towards the injustices of the world, nor will we be filled with, hatred and uncontrollable rage. But, lord, we would do the loving thing, often the very hard and painful thing.
Joel Brooks:But we would stand up and fight against injustice, and we would stand up for the oppressed. That we would give the people like Dinah a voice. And father, as I read this story, I am so thankful. All of us are thankful that we do not have a father like Jacob. But we have you as our heavenly father who deeply loves and cares for us all our days and for all eternity.
Joel Brooks:And it's in You whom we have placed our hope, and we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. And now for our benediction, I actually had a couple of people ask if I would sing the doxology, for a benediction. That's not going to happen. I won't sing the doxology, but I will give a doxology.
Joel Brooks:So if you would receive these words. Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, May He comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Amen. Go in peace.