Havoc in Jacob's Home

If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to the book of Genesis, the 34th chapter. Book of Genesis, the 34th chapter. As you're turning, I want to remind you of two verses. The first is 2 Timothy 3.16.

It says that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable. It doesn't say that some of Scripture is profitable. It says that all of Scripture is profitable. And then Romans 15 verse number 4 tells us that the things were written beforehand. Were written for our instruction that through perseverance and encouragement we might have hope. The Bible is very clear that the Word of God is profitable. The Bible is very clear that what's in the Word of God is instructive for us in order that we might persevere, in order that we might receive encouragement, in order that we ourselves might have hope.

You need to keep those two verses in mind as we read Genesis chapter 34 this morning. Because we're going to read about rape. We're gonna read about child abuse. We're gonna read about theft and we're gonna read about murder. You'd think it would be the 21st century. Something you read out of the LA Times or the US News and World Report. But instead, it's recorded in Genesis chapter 34. And because all Scripture is profitable, there's something very profitable for here for for you and me this morning.

Because it's instructive, there's something that we need to learn from Genesis chapter 34 this morning. I like what James Montgomery Boyce has stated in his commentary on Genesis. How could this chapter get included in Genesis if Genesis were merely a human composition? Human writers would have suppressed these events just as commentators sometimes seem compelled to suppress them today. The only way these events could have come to be included is that the ultimate author of this book and of all other canonical books is God who speaks the truth regardless of how it reflects on people.

That's true. We're gonna study Genesis chapter 34 this morning because it speaks of havoc in Jacob's family. You have havoc in your home? You have tragedy in your home? You're gonna find out a lot this morning about how some of those things develop and what you need to do about it in order to get right with Almighty God. Genesis chapter 34, verse number 1, So Jacob kept silent until they came in. Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it and the men were grieved and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter for such a thing ought not to be done.

But Hamor spoke with them saying the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage and intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and take your daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us and the land shall be open before you. Live and trade in it and acquire property in it. Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers if I find favor in your sight then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much. Bridal payment and gift and I will give according as you say to me, but give me the girl in marriage.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit and spoke to them because he had defiled Dinah their 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 disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you if you will become like us and that every male of you be circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters for ourselves and we will live with you and become one people.

But if you will not listen to us to be circumcised then we will take our daughter and go. Now their words seemed reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father. 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 friendly with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it.

For behold the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them. Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us to become one people that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them and they will live with us. And all who went out of the gate of the city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem and every male was circumcised all who went out of the gate of the city.

Now it came about on the third day when they were in pain that two of Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took a sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male.

And they killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and went forth. Jacob's sons came upon the slain and looted the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys and that which was in the city and that which was in the field and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives even all that was in the houses. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi you have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land among the Canaanites and Perizzites and my men being few in number they will gather together against me and attack me and I shall be destroyed I and my household.

But they said should he treat our sister as a harlot? Amazing story is it not? A tremendous account about Jacob's family. There's tragedy in his home so we want to talk about that this morning. Look at five things with you today.

One is the foolishness of a father. Number two is the defilement of Dinah. Number three is the proposal by the prince.

Number four is a circumcision of the citizens and number five is the brutality by the boys. From this chapter we will learn a lot about what God has for you and me as we seek to follow his will. First thing you need to notice is the foolishness of a father.

Father of course is Jacob. His new name is Israel. Two things I want you to notice. Number one is his settling in Shechem because we talked last week about the very fact that his responsibility was to fulfill the will of God.

He was to go back to Canaan. He was specifically to go to Bethel. We know that because in chapter 31 verse number 13 God told him that he was a god of Bethel. In chapter 28 we read where he set up a pillar there in Bethel and made a vow to God that he would give them a tenth of all that he had. He consecrated that place as a place being the house of God and in chapter 35 verse number 1 God says get up Jacob and now I want you to go to Bethel.

That's where Jacob was supposed to be but instead he pitched his tent outside of a wicked city. He did not go to the place God wanted him to be and therefore he delayed his obedience and whenever you delay obedience you demonstrate foolishness. But because of his disobedience, because of his delayed obedience settling in Shechem was the ultimate compromise for Jacob. Foolishness of a father because he would not fully obey the Word of God and follow the will of God it cost him tragedy in his family.

How many people do you know and maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're a father here today and there's been great tragedy, great havoc in your home because you have delayed your obedience to God, because you have compromised in some degree the Word of God and you're gonna see at the end of our message exactly what prompted Jacob to stay in Shechem and you will not like what you hear because it will remind you of you. The first thing you need to see is that he settled in Shechem.

That was disobedience to God. Number two I want you to notice the absence of adoration. There is something glaringly missing in Genesis chapter 34. You read about it in the last verse of chapter 33 and you read about it in the first verse of chapter 35 but you read nothing about it in chapter 34 and what is that?

God. His name is nowhere mentioned. There is no calling upon the name of God. There is no prayer to God. There is no worship of God. You see Jacob doing that? He don't do you. There's the absence of adoration. There is no commitment to worship. There is no commitment to honoring God. There is no commitment to thinking about God. There is no commitment to bringing the family around God. All you see is the carnal nature of man exemplifying itself throughout Genesis chapter 34. Mark it down. You can take it to the bank.

You can deposit it and draw tremendous interest on it. The absence of adoration, a desire not to honor God in all things, to seek his face, to worship him, to live for him, to bring the family around him, to lead our family spiritually, to help them understand the face of God. That absence will wreak havoc in your home. Fellas, listen, you need to understand this. Keep God as essential focus of your family. Keep God the central focus of your life. So the foolishness of a father, could it be that if he'd have been completely obedient to his God, none of this would have taken place?

But it did and therefore we have it for our instruction, don't we? It's profitable for us to learn from this that we don't follow in Jacob's sandals. The second thing I want you to see is the defilement of Dinah, the rape and the rage.

Now I need to let you know something here that a lot of commentators miss. But all Jewish rabbis agree on that Dinah was under the age of 12. She was a child. She was not a young teenage girl nor was she a girl in her 20s. How do we know that? Follow through with me if you would. When Jacob worked for Laban, he worked 14 years, 20 all together. But the first seven years he worked for Rachel, right?

And then he got Leah and then Rachel at that time. So in the first seven years, there are no children.

It's the second seven years that Jacob has 11 children. Dinah comes after Leah has six boys. You do the math. If you carry each child the term, that's nine months, okay, that takes you well into that seven year period. If you carry Dinah the term, that's another nine months. That takes you almost to the end of that seven year period when Dinah is born. Okay, you follow with me so far? So then you have the next six years that Jacob takes care of Laban's flocks. And then he leaves to go back to Canaan.

And then he settles down on Succoth. How long is that? A year? Two years? Maybe three years? That's the case. That makes Dinah somewhere between the ages of 9 and 11 years of age. We know from archaeological records that the Canaanites were into exploiting children's lives. They were into child abuse, sexual abuse. That was a part of their lifestyle. So Dinah is a child. So not only do we have rape, which is against the law of God, you have a child who is being defiled, a young girl. And the Bible says in verse number one that she went into the city.

And people say, well, she shouldn't have been going there. That's not what she should have done. She should know better. Maybe. But remember in those days, children roamed all over the place. They did all kinds of stuff like that. Doesn't make it right, but that's what they did. Maybe, maybe dad, maybe mom should have put better boundaries around their tent outside of Shechem. They lived in a place that was wicked. They associated with people who were wicked. Maybe mom and dad should have put better boundaries around their children so they wouldn't do stuff like that.

That's also debatable. We don't know for certain. All we know is what the text tells us and the Bible says very clearly that she went out to visit the daughters of the land.

If she's anywhere between 9 and 11 years of age, which I think she is, she's a very young girl. She's curious. She wants to know what's going on with the other ladies or the other girls in the land in the city of Shechem. So she makes a journey and there Shechem sees her. Interesting scenario. The son of Hamer defiles her. He lays with her and takes her by force. It was a despicable thing, the boys say, what happened to their sister Dinah. Notice that Jacob doesn't do anything after he finds out about it.

He keeps silent. That troubles me. Here's a man who gets word that his daughter has been raped and keeps silent about it. He waits for his boys to come back in from the field. Why is that? Why didn't he take the leadership? The Bible doesn't tell us. The Bible says that Shechem was attracted to her, that he loved her.

Really? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is not rude, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity.

That's true love, according to 1 Corinthians 13, 5 and 6. But Shechem had to think evil in order to do an evil deed. And so you have the rape and then you have the rage. The text tells us that the boys were grieved and the text also says that they were very angry. It's a word that deals with a vengeful spirit. They were more concerned about being vindictive than being virtuous in the situation. They were upset and you know what? They had every right to be angry. But they did not have every right to take matters into their own hands.

And that's what they did. They were enraged. They were fuming on the inside that someone would do this to their sister. Their sister had been defiled. That same word is used over in Leviticus chapter 18 verses 24 to 30. And if we had time we we would read through that because it talks about how a nation is defiled. It talks about homosexuality, it talks about immorality, it talks about adultery, it talks about bestiality, and it talks about every nation that encourages and does these things is a defiled nation and God says I will destroy that nation.

And folks, that's America. That's America. We don't want to say God bless America and God saying no, I'm sorry. I'm going to destroy your nation because what you have done is you have engaged in elements of defilement. What you have done is gone against the law of God and I will destroy you. And that's why America is nowhere in the book of Revelation because we're not going to be here. We're going to be gone. God will deal with America because of its defilement and its commitment to immorality, its commitment to living a lifestyle that is totally against the word of God.

And this girl was defiled. Her brothers knew it and her brothers became angry. The third thing I want you to see is a proposal from the prince.

He makes a proposal and the first is that he wants, there's a request to marry. I want to marry your daughter. Now instead of coming and apologizing, instead of coming and confessing his sin, instead of coming and trying to get things right with Jacob, he kind of candy coats it and says listen, I'll tell you what we can do here. You let my son marry Dinah and we'll let you marry some of our people. That's a good deal. We can switch off. We can intermarry. Now that's against the law of God. Genesis chapter 24 and Genesis 28 both speak of the fact that you're not supposed to marry the Canaanite people, the people of the world, the pagan people.

God made that very clear. Don't do that. And so his proposal to marry was one that would get them to intermarry one with another and that would go against the law of God. But notice verse number 23.

As Hamel goes before the city, he says, will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? He's lying to Jacob. He's deceiving Jacob. He wants what they had. And so he says you come, we'll intermarry. You can trade with us and you can have our stuff. But he goes back and tells the people of the city all their stuff is now going to be ours. If you'll be circumcised, all what they have, all their possessions are now going to be ours. There's the request to marry and then there's the requirement of the men that they all be circumcised.

Listen to what the text says. Verse number 13. But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamar with deceit, like father, like son, or in this case like sons, plural, answered with deceit and spoke to them because he had defiled Dinah their sister. But we can't do this thing. Unless of course you want to be like us. You have to be circumcised. And then if you're circumcised, we'll intermarry with you. Really? They're going to go against the law of God. No. Oh, they had a plan. It was a shrewd plan.

You be circumcised and guess what? We'll fulfill your request. Which is the point number four, the circumcision of the citizens. What happens? They're all circumcised. Because of two things. Number one, a girl.

And number two, their greed. A girl. Shechem was taken with Dinah. He wanted her for himself. He had been smitten by this young girl. And all he could think about was having Dinah in his chambers. That's all he could think about. And so this girl would cause him to do whatever was requested of him because he wanted her so badly. Number two, it was their greed to be able to have all that they had.

They wanted what Jacob had. They wanted those animals. They wanted those women. They wanted everything that Jacob had. And it was their greed that would cause them to go through such physical pain. Why would you as an adult want to be circumcised in those kinds of methods and in those kinds of days? Which leads us to the fifth point, the brutality by the boys. The brutality by the boys. Text tells us, number one, that they got their revenge.

It says it came about on the third day when they were in pain. And history tells us that it's the third day in those days that was the worst day for the man.

If he went through circumcision, that was the most painful day. It wasn't day one. It wasn't day two. It wasn't day four. It was day three. They knew this. They had a deceitful plan. When they were in the greatest amount of pain, what did they do? They went in and killed every man. Not just Shechem and Hamor, but every man. They just didn't get back and get even. They got ahead. They destroyed them all. They wiped them out. That was their revenge. Vengeance was theirs. They would repay. Now, they were angry.

They had every right to be angry. They wanted to protect their sister. They should have every right to protect their sister, but to take the law of God into their own hands, that would be wrong. The Bible is very clear in Romans chapter 12. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. That's his responsibility. But they took upon themselves God's responsibility to do what they thought would be the right thing to do. There was no gathering together of the family. There was no prayer over the situation.

There was no asking of God what to do. There was just the natural, carnal, deceptive self that would engage in battle to win a victory in order to somehow save their daughter. That was their revenge. There's a part of us, the carnal side of us that says, yeah, get them, destroy them. That's part of all of our nature. But yet, where was God in all this? I told you a little while ago that I would tell you why Jacob was so foolish. Listen to what it says in verse number 30. Did you count the personal pronouns?

Eight. Eight personal pronouns. What's that tell you? Jacob is concerned about who? Self. He's not concerned about Dinah. He's not concerned about the boys. He's concerned about him. It's all about him. Listen, if you want to be a great father, it can't be about you. It's got to be about who? God. What about God? What about what's happened to their testimony in the city? The altar they set up outside the city. Whatever happened to that? Jacob was concerned about himself. That's why he was so foolish.

Fellows, don't be in that situation. Please don't be there. Don't develop the poor me attitude, the poor me mentality. Oh, poor me. It's not about you. It's about God almighty and God is not even mentioned. And God is so good that when you get into verse number one, what does God say?

Jacob, get back to Bethel. Get back to where you need to be, Jacob. If you're a father today, don't be foolish. Don't be foolish. Don't settle in a place that's wrong. Don't live in an environment that's not good for your family. Don't do that. Stand strong in the biblical principles and don't live a life that's absent of adoration that leaves God out of the picture. Live a life where God is completely the entire picture. So everybody sees the face of God. So everybody knows about God. So everybody can see God in your life.

That's where you need to live. That's where you need to be. That's what your family needs to see. That's what your boys need to see. Your children, your girls, they all need to see that my dad loves God and my dad's committed to God and my dad will stand for God no matter what. Even if I have to live at a lower income, my dad will stand for God. Because my dad's concerned more about God than he is my schooling or the place I live or the clothes I wear. He's concerned about honoring his God. That's the kind of fathers our children need.

That's the kind of examples that need to be set. Where you gather the family around and say, look, there's been some difficulty. We got to trust our God here. I want you to learn to trust God with me as a family, to live and glorify his name. Would you do that with me? That's where we need to be. The repercussions? Oh, the repercussions are great. They are. And Jacob had to live with them the rest of his life. And in Genesis chapter 49, that's a few months away yet, but in Genesis 49, as Israel gives his prophecy about his boys, he says this, Simeon and Levi are brothers.

Their swords are implements of violence. Let my soul not enter into their counsel. Let not my glory be united with their assembly. Because in their anger they slew men and in their self-will they lamed oxen. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Imagine being Simeon and Levi on your father's deathbed hearing those words. The last will and testament of Israel to his boys. You will be scattered throughout the land.

And sure enough, Simeon was the weakest of all the tribes. And Levi had no land. They had 48 cities, but they had no land because of the defilement of the men of Shechem and their violence and their wrath. The repercussions last a long time. Is there tragedy in your home? Is there heartbreak in your home? Is there difficulty in your family? If, and I say if, it began with you, Dad, you need to get things right. It's never too late to get things right. That's why God tells Jacob, go back to Bethel.

Get it right, Jacob. Get it right this time, Jacob. Make sure you do it right this time. Consecrate your life to me. Be cleansed. Live a life that honors me. Watch what Jacob does next week. It's a great chapter. Genesis 35. He gets it right. These things are written for our instruction that we might get it right without having to live through a Genesis 34 experience in our own lives, right? That beforehand we might do the right thing. Honor God, live for Him, serve Him with all of our hearts. See, God wasn't finished with Jacob yet.

God, God wasn't done with Jacob just like He's not done with you. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's not gonna throw Jacob away. He's not gonna throw you away either. It's just today. Today, get it right with me. It's never too late. It's never too late to get right with God. If you're not right with Him this morning, get right with Him. Give your life to Him. If you're not born again, may this be the day that you give your life to Christ. See, I don't know the Lord as my Savior.

Today could be the day. As you come and realize that He gave His life for you, He shed His blood for you, may today be that day. And follow Him with all of your heart. That's what God wants you to do. That's the lesson of Genesis 34. Don't compromise the Word of God. Don't delay your obedience to God. Promptly serve Him. Promptly follow Him. Promptly do what He says and begin today. Let's pray.