Genesis 34
We have met Jacob and know about his 12 sons. We have read about his 2 wife’s Rachel and Leah and we also know about the other women he had. Jacob, his wives, children and grand children were all 66 people in total. That makes this a very big family; you get the whole family tree in Gen 46.
We sometimes look at our children and get disappointed, with all their teenager stages. Sometimes we wonder where our children get all these moods and things. Their attitudes are sometimes very unacceptable and unsocial or too much outspoken. That makes me think of the scripture that says, nothing is new, everything that is has been and things that have been it. Reading the story of Dinah is precisely what the Bible says.
We read about a young girl of about 13-16 years. Maybe she felt that her parents were too strict with her, and they didn’t give her any breathing space. Maybe she didn’t like the discipline they enforced. In a big family like theirs there must have been lots of people to talk to and to share her time with, but like the young people we know today, she wanted friends. This young girl Dinah decided that she was going to the nearby town to look for friends. She didn’t consult her parents or family about it and just sneaked of. It is not acceptable for a girl to wonder off and that without a chaperon especially in the times they lived. But Dinah was looking for friends of her own age, and a social life. Did she really think of what could happen if she didn’t look out and be careful? Did she realize that she actually played with fire to wonder of to that town where she knew nobody all by herself?
But Dinah was not happy to be at home and to keep her busy with the things she had to learn to become a good wife some day. They didn’t have the technology we have today, and she would have had to learn to sow, cook, doing the washing and all the normal tasks of a woman. She rebelled against all that, and that reminds me of our children or young people today.
Gen 34:1 “went out to see the daughters of the land.” We read here that Dinah went off by herself she didn’t take anybody with and she didn’t tell anybody where she was going. Gen 34:2-4 “And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife.”
We read about 2 young people, Shechem and Dinah, they slept together. The defile the Bible speaks of here is that Dinah was robbed of her virginity, she was unclean. The 2 young people started a relationship and they fell in love with one another. When we look at the way this incident is described it is not violent with which we associate a rape with.
This could be any one of our children. What Shechem and Dinah did is exactly what our youngster is doing. They are always on the lookout for friends and a social life, and they don’t want to be bound by their parents. Most of the young people today don’t worry about living a moral life, and they don’t want to learn to live a pure and moral life. The young people come under the influences of their friends and because of peer pressure; they will do anything to be accepted.
These are the problems we have, and it is exactly what the people did in the day of Noah. If we keep on teasing the Lord, how long will it be before He will send judgment on us as he did with the people living in the day of Noah? This problem is not restricted to one town or country; it has become a worldwide phenomenon. We have TV shows, the Internet, Airplanes and pleasure boats and all these things and so many more shrinked the world so that we can know what is happening on the other end of the world with the press of a button.
Shechem thought he could right the wrong that he did by marrying Dinah. That would be the responsible thing to do... He asked his dad to speak to Dinah’s dad as their customs was. Jacob decided not to make any decisions until he spoke to his sons, who were in the fields attending their flocks. When word got to Dinah’s brothers they came home, to sort out the problem.
The end of this story is that Simeon and Levi decided to take matters into their own hands to sort out this town. They didn’t attend to the young man and his family, they attached the whole town. This rage that had was because their sister had been defiled, and it was a very big scandal that came upon their whole family. The thing is in situations like this, the attention is always drawn to the girl, but what about the boy involved. He is as guilty as she is.
Will our children realize what the values of their bodies are? We got the responsibility from the Lord to pray, when we see our brother at fault, so that he will turn from his wicked ways. 1 John 5:16 “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. “
Let us pray for our youth, so that they will not act on the lusts of their bodies like Shechem and Dinah did. If your reading this blog today is in a relationship like that, turn from your wrong ways and seek God.
He that is the beginning and end and everything of what we believe in. He knows you, He knows your needs and He will provide...
We have met Jacob and know about his 12 sons. We have read about his 2 wife’s Rachel and Leah and we also know about the other women he had. Jacob, his wives, children and grand children were all 66 people in total. That makes this a very big family; you get the whole family tree in Gen 46.
We sometimes look at our children and get disappointed, with all their teenager stages. Sometimes we wonder where our children get all these moods and things. Their attitudes are sometimes very unacceptable and unsocial or too much outspoken. That makes me think of the scripture that says, nothing is new, everything that is has been and things that have been it. Reading the story of Dinah is precisely what the Bible says.
We read about a young girl of about 13-16 years. Maybe she felt that her parents were too strict with her, and they didn’t give her any breathing space. Maybe she didn’t like the discipline they enforced. In a big family like theirs there must have been lots of people to talk to and to share her time with, but like the young people we know today, she wanted friends. This young girl Dinah decided that she was going to the nearby town to look for friends. She didn’t consult her parents or family about it and just sneaked of. It is not acceptable for a girl to wonder off and that without a chaperon especially in the times they lived. But Dinah was looking for friends of her own age, and a social life. Did she really think of what could happen if she didn’t look out and be careful? Did she realize that she actually played with fire to wonder of to that town where she knew nobody all by herself?
But Dinah was not happy to be at home and to keep her busy with the things she had to learn to become a good wife some day. They didn’t have the technology we have today, and she would have had to learn to sow, cook, doing the washing and all the normal tasks of a woman. She rebelled against all that, and that reminds me of our children or young people today.
Gen 34:1 “went out to see the daughters of the land.” We read here that Dinah went off by herself she didn’t take anybody with and she didn’t tell anybody where she was going. Gen 34:2-4 “And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife.”
We read about 2 young people, Shechem and Dinah, they slept together. The defile the Bible speaks of here is that Dinah was robbed of her virginity, she was unclean. The 2 young people started a relationship and they fell in love with one another. When we look at the way this incident is described it is not violent with which we associate a rape with.
This could be any one of our children. What Shechem and Dinah did is exactly what our youngster is doing. They are always on the lookout for friends and a social life, and they don’t want to be bound by their parents. Most of the young people today don’t worry about living a moral life, and they don’t want to learn to live a pure and moral life. The young people come under the influences of their friends and because of peer pressure; they will do anything to be accepted.
These are the problems we have, and it is exactly what the people did in the day of Noah. If we keep on teasing the Lord, how long will it be before He will send judgment on us as he did with the people living in the day of Noah? This problem is not restricted to one town or country; it has become a worldwide phenomenon. We have TV shows, the Internet, Airplanes and pleasure boats and all these things and so many more shrinked the world so that we can know what is happening on the other end of the world with the press of a button.
Shechem thought he could right the wrong that he did by marrying Dinah. That would be the responsible thing to do... He asked his dad to speak to Dinah’s dad as their customs was. Jacob decided not to make any decisions until he spoke to his sons, who were in the fields attending their flocks. When word got to Dinah’s brothers they came home, to sort out the problem.
The end of this story is that Simeon and Levi decided to take matters into their own hands to sort out this town. They didn’t attend to the young man and his family, they attached the whole town. This rage that had was because their sister had been defiled, and it was a very big scandal that came upon their whole family. The thing is in situations like this, the attention is always drawn to the girl, but what about the boy involved. He is as guilty as she is.
Will our children realize what the values of their bodies are? We got the responsibility from the Lord to pray, when we see our brother at fault, so that he will turn from his wicked ways. 1 John 5:16 “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. “
Let us pray for our youth, so that they will not act on the lusts of their bodies like Shechem and Dinah did. If your reading this blog today is in a relationship like that, turn from your wrong ways and seek God.
He that is the beginning and end and everything of what we believe in. He knows you, He knows your needs and He will provide...
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