The Story through the Bible Gen 34-35

Gen 34 Dinah, Deception, and Death

I’m going to quickly sumarize chapter 34 as the backdrop to chapter 35 but I should mention that this chapter has no redemptive quality shown in the sons of Jacob. It’s not an endorsement of their actions by any means. I think when I was younger I would have said YEAH way to go boys! show ‘em for messing with your sister! Some of me still resonates with that but it isn’t the model for how we should behave. Okay I’m talking about something we haven’t even covered yet lets jump in.

Genesis 34:1–4 ESV

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 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. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. 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 from here Jacob finds out but keeps quiet about it until the boys get back in from the field. Hamor comes and wants permission to have Dinah to be Schechem’s wife. Now, the deception of a king from the line of Abraham continues, but unlike Abraham and Isaac who deceived for self preservation we get the outraged, indignant and very angry sons of Jacob who are deceptive for the purpose of vengeance and murder.

Genesis 34:13–15 ESV

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 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. Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised.

Schechem is eager to get this done right away, he goes back and convinces everyone in the town to do likewise. He’s telling them all sorts of things, their daughters will be our wives, look how much stuff they have won’t it be ours after this? Every male gets circumcised. Then we read this in 25

Genesis 34:25–29 ESV

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. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 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.

Now Jacob was not happy with this happening.

Genesis 34:30–31 ESV

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

Simeon and Levi show absolutely no remorse, this entire chapter has no prayer, no mention of God, and they distort a sacred religious right of circumcision for their own deceitful purposes.

Why again are we here in Schechem? It’s been a while since our last study in this series so I’ll remind you that Jacob came back, got through a reunion with his brother and seems to be reconciled but he still didn’t dare go all the way home with him and kind of went off the other way. And landed here where he bought some land and stayed… at least until this.

Genesis 35:1–15 ESV

God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth. God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

In chapter 35 we get the repeat of promises the solidifying of the name Israel re-affirmed.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Which of your sins were yet to be commited when Christ died for you to wash away those sins?

1 John 1:8–9 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Sin, even serious sin is not the end. God calls us continually to repenatance.