Genesis 33:18–34:31

Genesis 33:18–34:31

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Jacob Comes to Canaan

18 Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padan Aram; and he pitched his tent before the city. 19 And he bought the parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent, from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. 20 Then he erected an altar there and called it El Elohe Israel.

The Dinah Incident

1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 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. 3 His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”

5 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. 6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 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. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. 10 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.”

11 Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 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.”

13 But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 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. 15 But on this condition we will consent to you: If you will become as we are, if every male of you is circumcised, 16 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. 17 But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone.”

18 And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father.

20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 21 “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. 22 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. 23 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.” 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.

25 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. 26 And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went out. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, 29 and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that was in the houses.

30 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.”

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

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 33:18–34:31

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. Let me jump on the computer here. Make sure everybody's able to join us live. Give me one moment, making sure everybody's able to join us live. Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and of oceans as we're every weekday morning you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word. You didn't hear none of that. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every weekday morning you and I we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow and I love the Lord together. And this year 2023 Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Genesis to Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. We have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the blessing. It is to have in a language we can understand. Thank you for waking our eyes up this morning. After giving us sight that we could read it, years that we could hear it. Lord, we pray that as we go through your word Father, please be our teacher. Let us understand these things in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we are at Genesis chapter 33. beginning at verse 18, just a couple of verses left in Genesis chapter 33. But it's gonna give us the context of chapter 34, which is kind of the heart of the passage what we're doing today. So Genesis, chapter 33, beginning of verse 18. Then Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is the land of Canaan, when he came from Pradhan, Orem, and he pitched his tent before the city and he brought the end he bought the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent from the children of Hey more shekels Father, for 100 pieces of money. Then he erected an altar there and called it L L. O he is that I am now and Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land, and when check them the son of him or the HIV ight the prince of the country saw her. He took her and lay with her and violated her. His soul was strongly attack 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 Hey more saying get me this young woman as a wife. 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 a more 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 lining with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done by him or spoke with them saying the soul of my son, check them longs for your daughter, please give him to you. Please give her to him as a wife and make marriages with us. Give us your daughters give your daughters to us and take our daughters to yourselves. So you shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you dwell and trade in it and acquire possessions for yourselves and then check them said to her father and her brothers, let me find favor in your eyes and whatever you say to me, I will give asked me whatever 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, but the sons of Jacob answered check them and Hamer, his father and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah his sister, 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. But on this condition, we will consent to you. If you become as we are if every male of you as circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters to awesome we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not heed us and be circumcised and we will take our daughter and be gone. And their words pleased. Hey Morgan, check them Hey, more son. So the young man did not delay to do the thing because he delighted and Jacob's daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father. And he more and checkup 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, 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 as circumcised as they are circumcised, will not their livestock, their property and their animal and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us and all who went out of the gate of his city he did he more and check them his son, every male was circumcised, all who went out of the city if his gate, the gate of his city. Now it came to pass on the third day when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob Simon and Levi Dinah's brothers each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males and they killed him more and and check them with his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Chicago's house and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plunder the city, because their sister had been defiled. 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 sow Simeon and Levi. You have troubled me, by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the parasites, and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. Shall I be destroyed my household and I? But they said, should he treat our sister like harlot? Oh, yeah, we come to a horrible story of sin. Dinah is out, minding her own business and she is sexually assaulted by men. We need to be very careful here to understand that dying Dinah in all of this is a victim of the aggression of these men of Canaan. And many people have even said, Rachel didn't Hollander is really helpful in understanding this. How many people have said well, she shouldn't have been out without her father and her brothers. No, she shouldn't have been violated. This is the point that she was taken advantage of. She was violated in Simeon and Levi understand that. And as they've just come into the Promised Land, Jacob buys this plot of land and immediately this is how the people of Canaan show their depravity. kind of find it again, in the book of Judges. We just saw it in Sodom and Gomorrah not too many chapters ago. This is a way in which you're able to see the depravity of a Landis and then sexual ethics and horrible and all of this deines treated like she's a bystander. And here we find the son of of Shechem comes I sorry anymore. There's two people here. Let's get everybody straight here. The sons of Jacob came and check them the son of him or the Hittite so check them Alright, check him is the one who has done this to Dinah. And hey, more. Is the hippo he's the one who actually controls this land. He will find he's done something atrocious. But he wants to marry her. No, this is not the way in which a marriage is ought ought to start. He desires for more we don't hear her voice in the story. But all we know is that Jacob waits for his boys to come in from the field and when his boys come in from the field, they're man, they're hot under the collar and they plot a plan. Right, their plan is weaken them. But here's the thing, right, Simeon and Levi are right. In being mad that their sister was treated this way. They are right in their anger that their sister was used with harlot. However, as we'll find out when Jacob is about to die, and he tells the children their blessings Simeon Levi or Passover goes to Judah, Rubin's Passover simians Passover, Levis Passover. Why are Simeon and Levi passed over because of this incident incident? Because see, what they did is they took the covenant sign of God's promises and mercy. They said you need to become like we are you need to be circumcised and if you're circumcised, then then you will be one of like us. Well in America with you. And what they are doing here is these people are saying okay, we're willing to convert for this. Human more goes and he's standing in the gates of a city and he's telling everyone Hey, they got a whole bunch of herds, they got a whole bunch of animals. The land is good enough for all of us. We're going to intermarry intermix and see all their wealth see all that God has blessed them with is all going to be ours too. And he convinces the whole town all the males to take the sign of the covenant to take the sign of circumcision upon themselves. But when the people are weak is a couple days later. Instead of Levi and Simeon wrapping their arms around them and saying we know that you did something wrong, but that you want to become one of us. They take their swords in the city and they go and they kill they murder every male and then they take the children and the women and all that's in the house and they take it to their own houses. Do you see the hypocrisy. They had made a treaty of peace. And then avenged 70 fold they had stolen other men's wives and children and all their household possessions. This is wicked, and this is wrong. This is why Jacob says you You too are fools. Do you see what you've done? We see as Jacob doesn't have the strength to stand up to his own boys. doesn't have the strength to discipline them. Justice is not being carried out here. So we find in this story. Victim after victim after victim and miscarriages of justice. Now just yesterday that children and I were reading through and Second Chronicles about Jehoshaphat reforms and from the king's mouth he talks about God's justice and he says with God there is no iniquity, no partiality and no bribing God will judge some day right? The truth of what's going on here is wrong. And we have to ask ourselves, why is this type of story in the Bible? Why is this in the Bible? I think this is once again showing us the sinfulness even of God's covenant people and that this is a horrible story. Yes, it is. But it's a true story. And it's a story of that God is leaving in the story of redemption. To show that even from Levi there are going to be priests to come by still leaves us wanting doesn't it? Wanting a son of Jacob who's going to be righteous wanting a son of Jacob who would be a better families that have a priest from there would be one who had come from the stock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Jesus Christ would come and he would be both circumcised himself. But then he would give us a covenant sign. A sign of baptism. A seal of His grace that would show us that He is the perfect high priest and the judge and in Him there is no iniquity there is no bribery there is no partiality. So in this type of story when we see injustice, we cry out for justice. When we cry out for justice, we're longing for Jesus, we're longing for the true judge. And that leaves us now longing for the resurrection. Longing for the Day of Judgment. Even the saints who are martyred in heaven say how long oh Lord until you judge. But he will judge. He will judge you will come again to judge the living in the den. And so what do we call to this morning hope in Jesus Christ long for his return for he does judge with equity. You're gonna let me know down in the comments what you think is the best verse. I just skipped over that but let's go ahead and pray. Father, we pray thanking you that you are a God of justice. And you do well you do Mark iniquity. My father, if you were to put all of the red ink of the debt of our sin upon a page, there's no way we could ever pay it back. Father the Son of Simeon leave Levi. Lord, that sin was marked. And it was only the blood of Jesus Christ that could possibly find them forgiveness before you because their debt was paid. Or do you pray that you might also remember the blood of your own son that you spilt for us? Even when we were yet sinners, Lord, please make us long. For the day of Jesus. In His name we pray, amen. Or you may you find comfort in the God of justice and the God of grace, that in Jesus Christ, your good shepherd, that justice and grace is found always. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai