9TH January Morning
Genesis 33-34
We covered chapter 33 and am not going to exhaust the lessons in there. Let us just visit this horrible chapter with a painful story about one of the daughters of Jacob. Pastor Keith once put it this way: “Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.” Dinah is in her early teens and she is Jacob’s only daughter (30:21). You would think she would be spoiled and pampered by her dad. However, the narrative reminds us that Dinah is “the daughter of Leah” —the “unloved” wife of Jacob (29:31, 33).
Therefore, it is likely that Jacob paid little attention to Dinah. This apparently led her to explore other avenues for attention and affection. This is supported by the fact that 34:1 is written in a matter-of-fact way, giving the indication that this is not Dinah’s first trip into the city. Most likely, Dinah hang out with the daughters of the land and their male counterparts. Yet, in biblical times, girls of marriageable age were not permitted to leave the tents of their people to go about visiting without a chaperone.
Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated “went out” (yatsa) also bears a sense of impropriety. Like many teenage daughters down throughout time, it would appear that Dinah went out on the town behind her parents’ back. Without judging the parents, I think the first thing we need to underscore is that parents need to take charge of the responsibility of their children most especially the most vulnerable ones among their children. Leah and Jacob might have been mistaken in this matter or perhaps routine failures in the business of parenting. n 34:5-6. We will see the reactions of Jacob and his sons to the rape of Dinah. “Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept silent until they came in. Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.”
These verses kill me because they show the passivity of Jacob. The natural and expected response would be anger or rage but Jacob “kept silent.” He appears too indifferent or confused to act decisively. Why isn’t Jacob more outraged? Why doesn’t he act on behalf of his daughter? Again, he is guilty of the sin of favoritism (James 2:1, warned all of us about partiality). Consider his passionate love for Joseph and Benjamin and his distress at their misfortunes. If it had been Rachel’s daughter who had been violated, he would have acted differently.
Today we live in our world where parents spend a day or two without asking where child so and so is. Children commit fatal mistakes and parents are silent about the whole thing. It is a free world, and we have given our children freedom of speech, of movement and of association. Our children move freely out of our homes and come back freely at any time. The ancient conservative parenting has declined and we have raised wayward children. As a parent, I know what it means to raise a child and I can both condemn and sympathize with Mr. and Mrs. Jacob the parents to this Dinah girl.
My fellow Pastor Keith argued:
In keeping silent, Jacob was the precursor for another biblical character. When King David’s daughter, Tamar, was raped, David was furious. However, like Jacob he also did nothing (2Samuel 13:20-21). Consequently, his son Absalom took matters into his own hands and inappropriately poured out his wrath (2Samuel 13:22). Likewise, instead of taking control of a dangerous situation, Jacob let Dinah’s brothers handle things. Jacob’s refusal to do what was right in this situation not only allowed evil to triumph, but also created an enormous leadership vacuum in the family, which was immediately and sinfully filled by his angry sons. Edmond Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We should not leave such serious matters in the hands of housemaids, or even evil men.
This chapter is about lust, rape, anger, deception, greed, murder, and family conflict. The Shechemites were friendly toward Jacob. Although the young man for whom the town was named violated Jacob’s daughter, he wanted to make things right. And it seemed late. Sometimes lust can make us break unamendable things. He wanted to fix it but the equally lust-filled and angry boys on the side of Jacob were not that patient. Sometimes it is too late. He said he loved her and wanted to marry her. He was willing to pay a handsome dowry. He and his father offered to form a friendly alliance, intermarrying with Jacob’s people and letting them trade and own property (34:9‑10). The appeal was for Jacob to “become one people” with them (34:16, 22). All these were an attempt to put things right but not to do things right.
Listen to me my friend; in my many years of making mistakes I have learned that the difference of putting things back to order and keeping things in order is huge. I wish they had begun with this. I hope am speaking to someone. Do not wait to correct things, start with doing it right. The story teaches us again the importance of corporate responsibility.What we see here is a one man’s lust, his choice, and just raping one girl overturned the entire country. (Genesis 34:27-29). The individual sins will eventually affect even the innocent ones, I will discuss this on the issue of Achan.
After Jacob had spent a long time relieved from his own responsibility and left things in the hands of the boys, we now see him lamenting in verse 30 by saying: 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.” One wonders why he had not done and took charge of his family matters in the first place.
In our communities we have parents like Jacob, who unleash their wayward and uncontrolled kids into the neighborhood, and when people report they do nothing until they destroy their very own parents. At least the boys of Jacob did something well it might not have been the right or even the best option but they did something about the situation.
I used to work for a grain milling company as their procurement manager and one day I failed to purchase stuff because my cheques were not signed. When the general manager came later and found no activity in the factory, he asked me why, I said my cheques were not signed, and then he asked; “so when your cheques were not signed what did you do about it?” I said “NOTHING“. He looked into my eyes and said: “Isaiah-White never and I repeat never, as long as you work with me, never tell me you did NOTHING. You rather do something poorly and we correct it than standing there and witness the collapse of production while you do nothing.” I will never forget the Lesson that Mr. Malamba taught me that day. We must always do something about whatever situation. If we do not, then the situation will always do something about us. If you want to believe me; ask Jacob who always did nothing until his boys started sleeping with their step-mothers (Genesis 35:12).
9th January Evening
Genesis 35-36
What we see in 35 is a family revival. We see a man who has always been weak spiritually rising up to his responsibility and doing the right thing finally. He led his family to God and called all of them to dessert and throw away all the gods of the place in which he had raised them. He rebuked the gods of their mothers since all of them were born by women who believed in various gods. Jacob becomes the priestly father who intercedes for his family before God to be forgiven of the national inhumane sin they had committed in killing and robbing an entire country in disguise of revenge. Sometimes Christian father
Sometimes Christian fathers need to do a spiritual general cleaning to their household and evaluate the instigation of the devil in their families. Fathers need to sit down with their grown up children and audit their belief in God. When Jacob did, what he found was that his entire family had already been sold off to the heathen belief system. Fathers, we must understand that to be a father means being the not only the provider (one who sustains and gives all), the protector (one in whom the safety of the family lies), the prophet (one who is the vision bearer), the preacher (one who guides all and speaks into the lives of all), but you also need to be the priest (one who reconciles his family to the right God).
What we see here is Jacob doing his high priestly role as the head of the family. Fathers should lead the entire household to worship; if they do not then they ought to have trained some members to do that. Jacob did, you and I need to. When Jacob did this, he restored the religion and the belief system of Abraham and Isaac. It was this worship of the God of Abraham and Isaac that designated Jacob and his children from not only other people (Genesis 35:5) but also from his family members like Esau and the rest. Chapter 37 is filled with the genealogy of the arch-nemesis of the Israelites in the future. The children of Edom, who is none other than Esau from whom the inheritance was stolen.
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 