Jacob Part 21: Jacob's Silence

Jacob’s Silence

We've pondered how the story began. Highly disturbing. We have Shechem, the son of Hamor, who abuses his exalted position to see, take, and rape one of the daughters of a migrant family that just came into the area and bought new property.

So we took a long time, and rightfully so, to ponder the significance of that kind of story in the Bible. 

The story unfolds in two more parts, the aftermath from it. 

We already saw how Yaaqov's response was reprehensible, his silence, and then we also saw the anger of the brothers. And so this raises this question of, who's gonna do something? 

And so what we're gonna see is that the sons of Yaaqov imitate the ways of their father. So that, going all the way back to the snake, to people who imitate the snake, like God's chosen ones through every generation, we're watching the baton get passed, so to speak here. And the results are a curse upon the nations that brings death. And so this is like the bottom of the dark well, the pit from multiple angles in terms of gender dynamics and the sexual abuse that we saw in the last session and then here, with total perversion of Israel's purpose among the nations. And again, it's a tragic portrait, and there's value in it because it points out things that are true about the role that God's people have played and still can play in the world. And so it's a warning in that sense. 

So that's where we're going. Genesis 34, we're gonna dive in with the response of the brothers in verse 8.

So recall that the brothers come in from the field when they hear about it. We're not told how they hear about it, but they do. So they come in, and they are hot with anger and grieved.

Genesis 34:8–24 CJB

8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Sh’khem’s heart is set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife; 9 and intermarry with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You will live with us, and the land will be available to you—you’ll live, do business and acquire possessions here.” 11 Then Sh’khem said to her father and brothers, “Only accept me, and I will give whatever you tell me. 12 Ask as large a bride-price as you like, I’ll pay whatever you tell me. Just let me marry the girl.” 13 The sons of Ya‘akov answered Sh’khem and Hamor his father deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do it, because it would be a disgrace to give our sister to someone who hasn’t been circumcised. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to what you are asking: that you become like us by having every male among you get circumcised. 16 Then we’ll give our daughters to you, and we’ll take your daughters for ourselves, and we’ll live with you and become one people. 17 But if you won’t do as we say and get circumcised, then we’ll take our daughter and go away.” 18 What they said seemed fair to Hamor and Sh’khem the son of Hamor, 19 and the young man did not put off doing what was asked of him, even though he was the most respected member of his father’s family, because he so much wanted Ya‘akov’ s daughter. 20 Hamor and Sh’khem his son came to the entrance of their city and spoke with its leading men: 21 “These people are peaceful toward us; therefore let them live in the land and do business in it; for, as you can see, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives for ourselves, and we’ll give them our daughters. 22 But the people will consent to live with us and become one people only on this condition: that every male among us gets circumcised, as they themselves are circumcised. 23 Won’t their cattle, their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s consent to do what they ask, and then they will live with us.” 24 Everyone going out the city’s gate listened to Hamor and Sh’khem his son; so every male was circumcised, every one that went out the gate of the city.

Genesis 34:25–31 CSB

25 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. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away. 27 Jacob’s sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29 They captured all their possessions, dependents, and wives and plundered everything in the houses. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” 31 But they answered, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

So Hamor, the father, yeah? Of the perpetrator. "Hamor spoke with them, saying, 'My son Shechem has a deep affection for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. Become in-laws with us. Give us your daughters. You can take our daughters for yourselves. Dwell with us. The land will be before you. Dwell, trade in it, take possession of it.'"

And then, Shechem speaks up to her father and her brothers. These are his first words since the incident. "'May I find favor in your eyes. Whatever you tell me, I will give it. Make the bride price and the gift much for me, I will give it according to what you tell me. And give to me the young woman as a wife.' And the sons of Yaaqov responded with deception." Mirmah.  

For all of the deceptions that have been happening, there hasn't been a rich vocabulary of deception. It's just been people doing it, and then there's Yaaqov's name. Actually, the only other time that the word "deception" has occurred is Yaaqov accusing Lavan of deceiving me after the switching of Rachel and Leah. So now the sons of Yaaqov speak with deception to Shechem and to Hamor, his father. And they said, and why are they acting deceitfully? Because he had defiled Dinah, their sister. 

"They said to him, 'We are not able to do this thing. This getting married, the whole thing. We're not able to give our sister to a man who has a foreskin. That's a disgrace to us.

but maybe on this condition, we'll give consent to you if you become like us.

By circumcising for yourselves every male, then we'll give our daughters to you. We'll take your daughters for ourselves and we'll dwell with you. And we can become a unified people, one people.

If you don't listen to us to get circumcised, we'll take our daughter, then we'll go.'" So let's pause real quick here. 

So we know that this is deception. That's what the narrator said. So look at their pitch here. First of all, they name a true cultural difference here. We practice circumcision. Y'all don't. It's cultural taboo for us. So that's respectable. There are cultural taboos that matter, and And just some thinking through on the level of the narrative, all right, that's gonna be tough. But then they have this condition that through circumcision, you can become like us. So we won't become like you. You've gotta become like us.

Now, on one level, you know, circumcision is, we're gonna recall, this was what God told the covenant people to do as a result of what Avraham and Sarah did to Hagar. So it is true to enter the family, you do this thing, but they seem to have a different take on what it means. 

For them, this is about, "Well, you know, we are the chosen ones. You gotta become like us. And the way that we become one is by you giving up who you are to become like us." And on one level, that's true through circumcision, but it seems like they've got a different mindset for how significant this is.  

In other words, we're meditating on how is it that the many can become one? And right now, at this stage for Israel, it's through the outsiders becoming circumcised. But just something funny in the air here about their mindset, especially about themselves. 

So they say, "If you get circumcised, we can do this."

"And their words were good in the eyes of Hamor," the grown men who were thinking that this is a good idea. 

"And in the eyes of Shechem, son of Hamor. And the young man did not delay in doing this thing. He took pleasure in the daughter of Yaaqov. Yeah, now you should know, he had more honor than anyone else in the house of his father.

So they go, and they speak to the men of their city, and they say, 'Listen, these men want peace with us. They will dwell in the land. They'll trade in it.'"

Compare what they say. Okay, so now the sons of Yaaqov spoke with a deception. And now you have the father and the brother, excuse me, the father and the son who come and they have to persuade their whole city, all the men of the city, you know? 

So watch how they present and re-present the speech of the brothers. And it becomes clear that everyone has vested power interests here. 

"'So these men are peaceful. They will dwell in the land, and they will trade in it. And the land, look, it is wide of hand before them. We'll take their daughters for ourselves and give our daughters to them. Well, there's just this one condition that the men will consent to us to dwell with us, to become one people.

Every man has to be circumcised just like they are. But think about it, all their herds and all their possessions and all their cattle, it'll be ours. So shouldn't we consent to this so that they can dwell with us?'

And everybody listened to Hamor and to Shechem. Everybody going out of the gate of the city. Well, every male got circumcised, everybody going out of the gate of the city."

One thing that bothers me is how the voices of the women are like nowhere to be found in the story. Like Dinah, you don't hear what she has to say about what took place to her.

And the daughters and sisters and all, like, they don't have space to talk here. And that bothers me.

It's just these men like bargaining as if women are property. Like, that's bothersome. So here we go again, men with power dictating the future of women.

This is the third time. And the analogy that you noticed in the previous session between the behavior of all these men and how they're set on analogy to the rebellious sons of God in Genesis 6.

In other words, the behavior of these men is being set on analogy to the generation of the flood. The generation of the flood sets the narrative mold for, like, this is how bad it gets when humans are left to their own nature and devices.

So we explored that in the previous session, but it's now, it's not just a guy. It's like the men at the gate of the city can determine the future for all of the women of the land. And it's wrought in deception. This is all about how do the nations become one? And this is one way, and it's men determining the fate of women and then one tribe imposing its cultural practices on another in a way that's going to bring curse and death instead of the unified family of Adam, of humanity.

And just as a future note, most of the really disturbing stories that repeat this gender imbalance are often moments that evoke the flood narrative. The most disturbing parts of the book of Judges, the ending of Judges, those narratives about the kidnapping of these women from one of the tribes and the forced marriages and all this, those narratives are riddled through with flood language just like this one is. And so it's the narrator's way of depicting this is how bad it gets when humans are left to their own devices. 

"When there was no king in Israel, everyone did what is right in their own eyes." That's the introduction to those stories in Judges.

Dinah.

Her name means Judgment, spelled with the same letters as what God said he was going to do with the generation of the flood. "My Spirit won't contend with humanity." And so here's where things get crazy is that we were wondering where is God? Remember? We were asking that question. In the flood, the outcry rose up to God, and the flood was his just response. In the story of Hagar, her cry rose up to God, and compassion and generosity and rescue is what he offered up. In this case, who was the first to hear of the outrage of this event?

Jacob. Yaaqov. He does nothing. And so he leaves this gap for the brothers to hear. And what do they do? What they're gonna do is unleash a flood of violence.

But in this case, it's all twisted now. So they're gonna use circumcision as a first step of violence to wound them, and then they're gonna pull out, not bows and not knives, they're gonna pull out swords, which will be mentioned many times in the story. And so all of a sudden, circumcision becomes not a sign of the future of the family, it becomes a weapon. The thing that God gave as a severe mercy is now being used as a deceptive weapon. Not to save anybody, but to bring curse and death upon the nations. 

Genesis 34:8–24 CJB

But the people will consent to live with us and become one people only on this condition: that every male among us gets circumcised, as they themselves are circumcised

It's a very rare word. It's not a common Hebrew word, and it's spelled with exactly the same letters as the Hebrew word "sign."

When you look at the word "consent" in Hebrew, you're looking at the same letters in the same order as the word sign. So this is like a nightmare version of these earlier repetitions of the story. And so the brothers are put in the position of God, but it's this perverted use of violence, which, God used violence to bring justice, but this is this distorted use of violence to bring not justice but just straight-up revenge.

Violence without God's mercy.

there's no remnant. The whole thing is they kill everybody. 

the whole point here is that the absence of God is actually, follows this chain from Yaaqov's silence and then the brothers taking God's justice into their own hands, in which case it becomes perverted and violent. 

Genesis 34:25–31 CSB

25 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. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away. 27 Jacob’s sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29 They captured all their possessions, dependents, and wives and plundered everything in the houses. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” 31 But they answered, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

Verse 25, "It came about on the third day while everyone was in pain that the sons of Yaaqov took up, that is Shimon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, each his own sword." Not a bow, not a knife, but a sword.

"And they came upon the peaceful city." Remember, Shechem and Hamor said, "Look, these men are men of peace." It's flipped. So in fact, the city, like just the people in the city, they're just caught up in these power games, yeah? "And so they murdered every male.

And Hamor and Shechem they murdered with the mouth of the sword." It's like eating. The sword starts eating everybody.

"Then they took Dinah from the house of Shechem, and they went out.

Then, the sons of Yaaqov," they don't just want revenge. "Then they go over all the slain bodies and then they start plundering, pulling off the necklaces and the rings and going in and getting the jewelry. And because they had defiled their sister, the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, anything in the city, anything in the field, they took it all, the wealth, the children, their wives, they took them captive and they plundered what was in the house." They get rich off of their deception.  Like sons, like father, like grandfather.

"Now Yaaqov said to Shimon and Levi, 'Oh, you guys, you have brought trouble upon me.

You know, you're making me stink among the dwellers of the land, you know, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And plus, I've just got just a few people here, and these nations are gonna gather against me and strike me, and I'll be destroyed, me and my house.' And they said, 'Man, should he just treat our sister like a prostitute?'" And that's the end of the story.

So disappointing

So what's the only thing Yaaqov can think about?

HimselfIt goes right back to his previous fears. 

They're defending all their actions with this here. So he mistreated our sister, he raped our sister.

So what would've been an adequate response of just, even revenge?

maybe going to kill the guy who did it, you know? 

But every man in the city, then taking all of their stuff and then like turning all of their children and wives into slaves,

Its like Lamek 7x7

So the whole point is like they're trying to justify, it's just greed.

It's lust for power. And they're trying to make it seem like

It's interesting. I mean, it's like I can understand a brother's anger to the point of wanting to kill someone that did that to their sister,

it doesn't address any of the actual harm that was done. Like there's no addressing Dinah and like her experience and what she's, like, dealing with as a result of it.

Her story has gotten submerged under the story of all these men. Still about like, "Well, I protected my property and my name. You're not gonna do that to me."

So before Yaaqov, they tried to make their cause look justifiable. And then back up to their deceptive speech, what they tried to justify is, "Hey, yeah, let's become one.

Let the brothers and the sisters become one." So there's a way to become one that leads to curse and it leads to death.

And the way that circumcision, all the stuff about the circumcision hyperlinks, the origin of the circumcision chapter in Genesis chapter 17 is about, This all connects. Genesis 17. When God comes to Avram after the Hagar incident, what he says is, "Walk before me and be tam." In the generation of the flood, Noah was righteous and tam. Avram, he has to be commanded to be tam in light of what just happened with Hagar. "I'm gonna make my covenant, I'm gonna make you fruitful and multiply." He changes his name because the many nations are gonna become one, yeah? "You'll become the father of the multitude of nations." This is about the many nations experiencing the blessing, being folded into the family. "I will make you very fruitful. Nations will come from you, kings will come from you." I mean, this is all about the unification of the nations in God's redemptive purpose.

Like there was a heartbeat of repentance. . And then what God says is, "And here's a knife and get to it, get to it."

Take your consequence.

Take your consequences. So all of these add additional, just additional shading and color, as it were, to the story. Because this is the nightmare version of God's purpose, this is what happens when, essentially, what the sons of Yaaqov become is they are just another version of the Canaanites. Like, you can't tell the Canaanites apart from any Israelites here. It's just all one thing. And so even the redemptive and noble purpose to unify the nations in the blessing of Avraham, it's all distorted and wrong now. 

So it was already a depressing story, and now it's blowing it up to a cosmic level. And again, this is the center of the third act of the Yaaqov story. What happened the moment that Yaaqov looked at his brother and said, "Seeing your face is like seeing the face of God," that's about as good as it gets in the Yaaqov- And that was a beautiful moment. 

But it's almost like the height of that moment is countered by the depth and depravity of this story. And that's, this is the last act of the Yaaqov story. There's a little bit more, but this is as bad as it gets. 

the book of Joshua they go through the waters, they go through the waters of the river, then they all get circumcised 'cause they were the generation that came out of Egypt. And so none of them got circumcised in the wilderness. And then, before Jericho happens, yeah, they get circumcised, and they do Passover.

And before they received the blessing of the land that they're being promised, they're going into the promised land.

So Passover is another flood, the 10 plagues are like an ultimate flood of de-creation, culminating in the, it's a set of three, a set of three, a set of three, culminating in the 10th, which is like the plus one to the one, two, three. And it's all about the firstborn and the substitution of the firstborn, right? And then there's the destroying thing that's happening out there, but if you're in the ark,the word "ark" is the Hebrew word "house" spelled backwards.

So when you get into the promised land, they go through the waters, and circumcision and Passover is what creates them as the remnant that survive through the waters. And then the Jericho moment is they march around seven times and it, it's like a new creation, but a de-creation. 

when you see where a story fits in the melody, it gives you tools to see what the narrator wants you to see. And in this case, seeing the analogies to the flood help you see how this is like a nightmare version of everything.

Jacob Returns to Bethel

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