Genesis 34

God is also concerned about the environment of the individual. We see this, especially in the life of Jacob. He has a big family. Not only were there twelve sons but there were daughters as well. We’re given the record of only this one daughter because she features in this very sad chapter.

There’s something else that’s important to the understanding of Genesis also. That is that there’s trouble in the families. Have you noticed that there was strife and trouble in the family of Abraham? There was strife and trouble in the family of Isaac as well. Esau was Isaac’s favourite, and Rebekah’s favourite was Jacob, and that caused a lot of trouble in the family. Now we’ll see that there was a lot of trouble in the family of Jacob.

Jacob stops off for a while in Shalem, and it’s going to cause much sorrow to him.

Quite frankly, chapter 34 is a sad, sordid chapter, and these events must have been a heartbreak to old Jacob at this time.

Jacob (or Israel, as we should call him now) has built an altar, and he’s now giving testimony to the living and true God. There’s been a change in his life, but his spiritual growth is slow. It’s a work in progress. This should be a lesson for us today.

Don’t expect that, as a Christian, you’re going to become fully grown overnight. God adopts us as full–grown sons into the family where we’re able to understand divine truth because the Holy Spirit is our Teacher. But our spiritual growth and our progress are very slow. We may learn truths in the Bible, but we’ll find that in our lives we’re very much like Simon Peter, stumbling here and falling down there.

Thank God that Simon Peter kept getting up and brushing himself off, and there came a day when he had a very close walk with the Lord.

In fact, he walked to a cross just like our Lord did. You and I should recognise that in our own lives, spiritual growth is slow, and therefore the growth in others will be slow as well.

Sometimes we expect too much of new Christians. Let’s not expect too much of other folk, but let’s at the same time expect a great deal of ourselves.

There are three chapters in the Book of Genesis that are not pretty, and they all concern the children of Leah, the elder daughter of Laban who was given to Jacob.

This is good evidence that God doesn’t approve of polygamus marriages. The fact that it was forced on Jacob didn’t make it right but Jacob at least went along with it.

We find in this section that the children of Leah are all involved in sin. She had four boys but in this chapter it’s Simeon and Levi who are the problem. In chapter 35 we come to another of the sons, Reuben, the firstborn. In chapter 38 it’ll be Judah. Every one of Leah’s sons turned out rather badly, and there was flagrant sin in their lives.

We’ve already noted that there was strife in all of these families, but now another element has entered in. There’s a sordidness and a shoddiness that’s leaked into the family of Jacob that wasn’t in Abraham or Isaac’s families. They had their difficulties and a heap of problems, but nothing like we see in Jacob’s family. Again, God wanted to get Jacob and his family out of the home of Laban, out from that atmosphere, because the very atmosphere gave the background for these awful sins that are mentioned here.

Jacob’s stopped here at this town of Shalem and he’s bought himself a nice little place out in the suburban area of town. He’s attempting to sort of fit himself into the culture of that day. Well, it wasn’t a good place, and God wants to get him out of this area also. God directed him to return to Bethel,  and after you read this chapter you’ll come to the conclusion that God’s right!

Let’s open up at Genesis chapter 34:1,

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 

Dinah went out visiting some of the women in this town of Shalem.

Dinah’s desire to do this was understandable but it was also unwise. Jacob should have made sure she was properly supervised. To allow unsupervised socialising in a pagan town was a failure of responsibility on the part of both Jacob and Leah. Unattached young women were considered fair game in these cities of that time, and promiscuity was not only common but, part of the religious system.

This illustrates the low moral standard among the Canaanites.

Any unattended female could be raped, and in the transactions that resulted neither father nor son felt the need of apologising for or excusing what had been committed.

Verse 2,

And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her.

Jacob’s lack of attention and protection was partially at fault in this tragedy. His own compromise made him less able to stand up to his own children and guide them as he should.

Jacob’s sons knew he told his brother Esau he would go south with him, but Jacob went north instead. They picked up on this and other areas of compromise and used them to justify their own compromise.

Now to verses 3 and 4,

His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. 

So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.” 

As for this young man named Shechem, his soul was strongly attracted to Dinah and he even spoke kindly to her. Yet you can’t say he loved her, because he violated her.

It was a lust that Shechem had for Dinah, not a spiritual, godly, or good kind of love. He loved her for what she could be for him and give to him, not for what he could be and give to her.

His heart was shown in the words “Get me this young woman as a wife.” It was a soulish “get me” kind of love.

It’s possible for a man to be attracted to a woman and to show kindness to her for reasons having nothing or little to do with real love. So often, in a desire to connect romantically with a man, a woman may willingly overlook this and hope for the best.

We’re in Genesis 34:5-7 now,

And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob held his peace until they came. 

Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 

And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing which ought not to be done. 

This was a vile act especially when we look at it through the eyes of today’s society.

It should not and need not have been done, but it had been, and now the fellow wants to marry her.

When Jacob heard it, he waited for his boys to come in, and they had a war council.

This section gives the impression that Jacob’s sons were far more offended and outraged than their father Jacob was.

Upon hearing that Shechem had defiled Dinah his daughter, Jacob held his peace until his sons returned from the fields.

When Hamor, the father of Shechem, came out to him, it was obvious that he wanted to get the girl for his son’s wife.

Certainly, the way it was handled was not the best by any means, and God didn’t approve of it.

The sons of Jacob were grieved and very angry. Ancient Middle Eastern cultures had a strong sense of family honour, strong enough to use violence to defend this sense of honour. In this culture, the brothers had a greater responsibility to protect their sister than the father. Yet the sons of Jacob would go on to defend the family’s honour in unwise and sinful ways.

Verses 8 and 9,

But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 

And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. 

The Canaanite’s proposal to marry the daughter of Jacob was a dangerous challenge to Jacob’s family, the covenant family.

Irresponsible intermarriage with the Canaanites could prove especially harmful for this family with such an important destiny in God’s redemptive plan.

“Make marriages with us,” Hamor says; “give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves”

This was far more than a matter between a young Canaanite man and Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.

If they married, it would set the pattern for future marriages between Jacob’s family and the people of Canaan. The result would be the eventual and complete mixing of Jacob’s family into Canaanite culture and would have been against God.

Now let’s look at verses 10 to 12,

So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it.” 

Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, “Let me find favour in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 

Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.” 

Hamor and Shechem probably thought they were being generous, but their manner in this negotiation insulted Dinah and her family even more because they had a “just-name-your-price” attitude. To them, it was as if money and marriage could make her disgrace go away.

All this reveals that Jacob’s going to have to move on. This land is no place for him and mixing with these people is dangerous to the future of the nation.

To verse 13,

But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 

The sons of Jacob’s response to Shechem and Hamor was a planned, calculated deception.

Maybe Jacob should have taken much more leadership in his family over this matter. First of all, he should have prevented his sons from deceiving Shechem and Hamor.

Verse 14,

And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a reproach to us. 

The thing that’s disturbing here is that the rape of Dinah is almost ignored.

Nobody seems to mention that or drive home the gravity and the evil of the act.

Instead, they make the thing they disapprove of the fact that it would be a reproach to them to allow Dinah to marry an uncircumcised person since God had forbidden it.

However, this can be better understood when we see that from the outset, Simeon and Levi planned evil against Shechem and Hamor and their people and they covered their evil plan with spiritual words and used Dinah as a cover for their intended evil.

Now we’re at Genesis 34:15-17,

But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 

But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.” 

The thing that Jacob’s sons ask them to do is to go through the ritual of circumcision.

Hamor and Shechem agreed to such an extreme demand because circumcision wasn’t only practised among the Israelites, but some other ancient peoples also circumcised their males. Remember that Ishmael, Issac’s brother from whom the Arab nations came was circumcised.

Shechem and Hamor would have been well aware of the practice of the rituals of other nations.

Now, this should be to be a warning to many of us today. Rituals don’t change who we are.

Just to go through some sort of ceremony like joining a church, being baptised, or even saying we trust Christ doesn’t mean we have.

Faith doesn’t seem to mean very much today. Many think it’s enough just to nod your head in agreement with a message from a pulpit.

It’s a tremendous experience to trust Christ as our Savior. There’s nothing to compare to it in this world. When we trust Christ as Saviour, it does something to us. It changes us on the inside. We begin to see life in a different way. Gradually the things we once held as being important lose their shine. Our perspective changes. The things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His Glory and Grace.

Here the sons of Jacob are saying, “If you’ll go through the rite of circumcision, it’ll make everything all right.” It’s just like the ritual-driven people who think that if you join the church, smile sweetly and say nice stuff, it means we’re a Christian.

Learning “Church Speak” or the right way of speaking and quoting Bible verses here and there simply does not make us Christians. If we’ve trusted in Christ, something’s happened, and we’re a different person.

Now to verses 18 and 19,

And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 

So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was more honourable than all the household of his father. 

This boy’s doing the honourable thing at this point.

Despite the sacrifice involved, Hamor and Shechem were pleased with this plan.

Beyond the obviously deep attraction Shechem had for Dinah, they were also pleased to begin to marry into a family so large, wealthy, and influential as Jacob’s.

Among the Canaanites of his time and place, Shechem was more honourable than others. He sincerely delighted in Jacob’s daughter.

Now we come to Genesis 34:20-23,

And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 

“These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 

Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 

Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” 

The father and son (Hamor and Shechem) had to convince the men of their community to receive the painful and possibly dangerous procedure of circumcision.

They convinced them it was worth it because they could then take their daughters to us as wives and take their livestock, property, and every animal of theirs. Through intermarriage, these men expected to eventually own everything that Jacob had.

The potential gain of wealth made it worth it.

Verse 24,

And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son; every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 

The men of Shechem agreed and all received the painful and potentially dangerous operation of circumcision.

Performing the rite of circumcision on unbelievers was as big a sham as it could be. It’s like joining a church and you don’t believe God’s real.

The Apostle Paul addressed this in Romans 2:28 and I read from the ERV,  You are not a true Jew if you are only a Jew in your physical body. True circumcision is not only on the outside of the body.

A true Jew is one who is a Jew inside. True circumcision is done in the heart. It is done by the Spirit, not by the written law. And anyone who is circumcised in the heart by the Spirit gets praise from God, not from people.

Verse 25 now,

Now it 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 upon the city and killed all the males. 

This was real trickery.

Simeon and Levi were Dinah’s full brothers, and they wanted to get revenge. In their revenge, they go too far.

Circumcision could be quite paralysing and could disable a person, particularly after two or three days.

Simeon and Levi used this period to carry out their bold plan to massacre an entire community of men under the cover of their accepting the ritual of circumcision. This boldness with which they carried out their plan shows the hardness of their hearts.

It also disgraced God’s covenant of circumcision.

Neither the rape nor the fact that Hamor and his people intended to eventually transfer Jacob’s great wealth which he’d accumulated in Haran to themselves can in any way justify the brutal act of Simeon and Levi.

With this clever act of violent deception, Simeon and Levi showed themselves to be the children of Jacob from a bitter, competitive home environment.

What they’ve done is a terrible thing but it also reveals the impossible situation of dealing with the inhabitants of that land.

Let’s now look at verses 26 and 27,

And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went out. 

The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. 

The other sons joined in on this.

They completely plundered the city of Shechem, including taking the surviving women and children as slaves.

There was no sparing of the sword. The sons of Jacob justified this murder and theft by saying their sister and family had been dishonoured, but the punishment was clearly way out of proportion.

This reveals the greed underlying this family of Jacob. It’s a greed and hardness which they’d learned in the home of Laban.

Charles Spurgeon put it like this; “By way of making some amends for their sister’s defilement, with dastardly treachery they slay the whole of the Shechemites, and so bring the guilt of murder upon a family which ought to have been holiness unto the Lord.”

 

Genesis 34:28-30,

They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that was in the houses. 

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.” 

Do you notice what’s wrong here?

Jacob rebukes Simeon and Levi for giving him a bad name, but he doesn’t rebuke them for the sin that they have committed.

In response to this terrible massacre and plundering of Shechem, Jacob’s only concerned with himself and the danger of revenge against his family. He’s not concerned about right and wrong, for God’s righteousness, or the death and plunder of innocents. This was the old Jacob in action again, not the newly transformed Israel.

Once again, As a man sows so shall he reap. Jacob brought that trouble on himself by passing his own deceitful nature into his boys.

We can easily mimic Jacob ourselves when we refuse to call out that which we know is wrong.

Many of us, even in our churches won’t take a stand on certain issues because we’re scared that the little crowd we run with may not accept our stand and give us an unpleasant label and maybe even dissociate with us.

It’s often not what’s right or wrong that matters but whether it alienates us from the crowd.

Many of our churches today compromise to appease the world, and to be politically correct. Is it any wonder why there’s so many confused, frustrated and unhappy Christians today?

It is a brave but wonderful thing to stand for the truth.

Now poor old Jacob’s growing, but he hasn’t grown very far.

Then these boys, of course, attempt to defend themselves in Verse 31,

But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a harlot?” 

This was Simeon and Levi’s only reply and it’s probably a good question.

Maybe if they wanted to take judgment into their own hands, they should have heard this fellow out and let him marry their sister.

It certainly wouldn’t have been the right thing by any means and yet it would’ve been better than mass murder, enslaving women and children, and theft through plunder.

They should not have done the thing that they did under any situation but how are we as Christians in today’s world living under the New Testament handle such injustice done to us?

Paul tells us in Romans 12:19-21 and I’m reading,

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. 

Therefore “IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM; IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP COALS OF FIRE ON HIS HEAD. 

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The very moment that we attempt to take revenge or get vengeance, we’re no longer walking by faith.

We’re saying that we can’t trust God and His justice.

However, it’s doubtful that we could bring Jacob, and certainly not his sons, up to such a spiritual level at that particular time.

We can’t justify this terrible deed which they’ve committed but we can all understand that they acted their feelings and emotions for their sister and the shame which had been brought upon the family. How dangerous it is to make our big decisions in life purely from feelings and emotions.

Jacob’s beginning to see that a whole lot of chickens, not just a few, were coming home to roost.

Now after this experience, Jacob heads on back to Bethel because God calls him back there. Really, he’s not getting back there too soon. Well take this up in the next episode friends and until then may God keep you in his precious love and care.