Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
34. Genesis 34 is one of the more
difficult chapters in the Bible in that it records the rape of
Dinah, Jacob's daughter. It says in verse 1, and Dinah,
the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob. There seems
to be a disconnect there between Jacob and Dinah. Well, she went
out to see the daughters of the land. It's believed that Dinah
was no more than 16 years old and probably more like 13 or
14 years of age. She would have been just a little
older than Joseph at this time. Verse two, 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. Whether or not Dinah resisted
him or not, it doesn't say, but it's right. It's rape. This man
had no business touching her. She was not his wife. He had
no business doing this to her, and he defiled her of her virginity. He took that away and the purity
that's associated with that. Now, this is a great tragedy
that has happened. This is emphasized multiple times
in this chapter, that this is a tragedy which has befallen
this young girl and the family of Jacob. And it's horrible. It's an awful thing that this
man has done. It ought not to be done. It's
an awful thing which he's done. Now this man, Shechem, tries
to make amends for his wicked crime. He does this by taking
steps to marry Dinah. He tries to, he wants to marry
Dinah to cover the great offense. And it says in verses three and
four, his soul clave unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he
loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. This love is
would have been at this time a superficial love, just a superficial
love that he felt for her. And Shechem spake unto his father
Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. Now, whatever he says
or does at this point, the crime's being committed. The offense
has already been done at this point, and it's a horrible offense. It's a tragic offense. It really
negatively hits this family really hard. You can imagine how awful
this was. And as we go through this chapter,
you'll notice this chapter is full of sin. It brings out all manner of sin
in man. It addresses lots of sin, awful,
awful sins, the most horrible of sins. There's examples of
bad parenting. Where were Leah and Jacob when
she decided to go off? Where were they in this? What
was she thinking? Then there's rape. Then there's
a use of religion, which is a gross misuse of religion. It's used
in a deceitful way. It's used in a wrong way, an
idolatrous way. And then there's mass murder.
Mass murder, a lot of people put to death. Now our Lord tells
us that the scriptures testify of Christ. Christ says that himself. He says, you search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. John 539, they testify of me,
and ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. Now,
some scriptures are readily apparent to be speaking of Christ. Even
the most liberal of scholars will admit in certain passages
that this is speaking of the Messiah. Other passages, it's
more hidden. It's not so apparent or clear
that it speaks of Christ. Well, this is the mystery of
the gospel. It's the mystery of the gospel.
Anyone can take up the Bible and read the Bible and see, I'm
a sinner, and I am condemned because of my sin. Because of
my sin, I am under the wrath of God. Anyone can see that when
just reading the Bible. You can get that, that I'm a
sinner and condemned for my sin, under the wrath. But this mystery. God's grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ was hidden. The prophets prophesied of Christ.
They spoke of him, but it was not well understood what the
people were seeing in the types and shadows and pictures of the
scripture. It's a mystery of Christ and
his church, of Christ and his church. And so what we want to
know as the people of God who confessed Christ is, what is
the mystery here, Lord? What does all this mean? I remember
when I was in college and began to speak of Christ, and when
I was in college as a young man, around 19, 20 years old, and
I remember distinctly one girl saying, if there is a God, why
is there such sin? Why is this world so horrible? So horrible. And so we want to
know why is there sin? Why are we such sinners? Why
are things so messed up? Well the scriptures address that
saying in Galatians 3.22 that the scripture hath concluded
all under sin. The scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. Therefore, in light of that,
how are we to understand the details of this scripture, of
this horrible thing that has taken place? What is the gospel? Where is the gospel? Where is
Christ in this? Well, in this chapter we are
faced with the sinful nature that is in me. We are sinners. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. This nature in Shechem is my
nature. It's in me. I'm a vile, wretched
sinner. I'm a great offense to the true
and living God. And then we'll see in this chapter
that there is the law. There's the application of the
law. We see the law is perfect, and the law is strict in its
justice. The law is strict in its justice. And we'll look at these things
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be received
by them that trust Christ, that by them that believe Him, that
it might be given to us. Now first of all, the scriptures
are showing us that by nature we are sinners. And that is seen
here in the intensity of this horrific sin. This is a horrible
sin. This is a horrible thing which
has happened to Dinah, and we're not making light of it in any
way. This is horrible here, what's
happened here, and it captures just how awful our sin is against
God. This captures what awful things
we do in rebellion against God by nature. It's testifying of
us, of our sinful nature here. And it testifies just how devastating
it was when Adam took a bite of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And it just gets worse and worse
and worse. And it just compounds upon itself. So this mess that Shechem causes
here in defiling Dinah, it's catastrophic. And his actions
demand death. the man's death, and that death
spreads not only to him, but to all his family, to everyone
in him. They all die with him. And it
pictures what is so of us in Adam. When Adam sinned, it didn't
just kill him. It destroyed us. It slew us as
well. We died when Adam died. That's what Romans 5.12 says. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so. Death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. We all sinned in Adam
and this passage is but a small picture of the destruction and
the horror of sin. It pictures, it captures what
our nature is, just how destroyed, how corrupt we are. And there's
no simple solution to this, right? It's out of the box. It's there. And there's no simple, peaceful
way to just soothe it and to make it go away. There's nothing
simple about it. And you can see how troubling
this is as we read. Let's pick up in verse five now.
And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons
were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until
they were come. And Hamor, the father of Shechem,
went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob
came out of the field when they heard it, so it spread him. And
the men were grieved, and they were very wroth. Rightly so, they were angry about
this, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with
Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. See, it's
emphasizing, this should not happen. This should not be done. And Hamor communed with them,
saying, the soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter. I
pray you, give her him to wife. And make ye marriages with us.
Let's make good out of this. Let's take these lemons and make
lemonade. Give your daughters unto us,
and take our daughters unto you. Ye shall dwell with us, and the
land shall be before you. Dwell, and trade ye therein,
and get you possessions therein. We can work this out. We'll all
be rich, and we'll laugh about this in a few years from now
together. Well, a marriage isn't that simple. It's just not that
simple because the yoking of Shechem and Dinah would be sin. This is yoking together an unbeliever
with a believer. All not to happen. Paul says,
2 Corinthians 6, 14, be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial, the man of wickedness? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. So this marriage proposal between
Shechem and Dinah, no, it's not that simple. It's not good. It's not going to resolve the
core of sin, for one thing, And he's an unbeliever. He's an unbeliever. And so you're seeing here, this
is messy. This is messy. How is this resolved
here? How is this fixed? And it's meant
to be tragic. It's meant to say, this is messed
up. There's folly wrought here, and
this is a tragedy. This is messed up. And every
remedy that they would seek to do, it just compounds and makes
it worse and worse and worse and worse, just like what happened
when Adam took a bite of that fruit that he was forbidden to
take. And so that's the picture here
of our nature in Adam. That's what the Lord's showing
us here for one thing. Now, the next thing is we see
the application of the law. The law is brought in here. And
the lesson is that the law cannot justify the sinner. The law does
not cover sin. The law exposes sin. The law shows what we are. You cannot make yourselves righteous
by the law. You cannot fix your sin condition
by the law. It exposes and judges it. Romans
3.20 By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. It exposes sin. So with that
in mind, let's read verse 11 and 12. And Shechem said unto
her father and unto her brethren, let me find grace in your eyes. Let me find grace in your eyes. And, whoa, he should have stopped
right there. He should have stopped right
there. Let me find grace in your eyes. Boom, that should have
been it. Well, he goes on. And what ye
shall say unto me, I will give. He asks for grace and then promises
to work for that grace. Well, which is it? Grace or works? grace or works and if by grace
then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if
it be of works then it's no more grace otherwise work is no more
work there's no mixing of the two he wanted grace and And he
wanted to work for it. And that just cannot be so. That's not the gospel. Shechem
continues, verse 12, ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I
will give according as ye shall say unto me. But give me the
damsel to wife. This man thinks he's able to
do whatever it takes to make right his wrong. He thinks he's
going to work to right his wrong. And in the end, he thinks, I'll
get the bride that I seek. I'm going to get the blessing
here that I seek by making right the wrong that I've done. Well,
in reality, it's going to prove to be very costly. It's going
to cost him his life and the life of all his people in him. Now, the scriptures give us a
picture of the law. And they show us the law by way
of circumcision being brought in. This is how the law is brought
in. And it uses circumcision, the
picture of circumcision, to show the law. And the law is now being
applied to rectify the problem of an unequal yoking. by which
this man thinks his sin will be covered over and put away
and he'll receive the blessing and all will be good after this.
I'll just do what you say. I'll be circumcised. I'll just
enter into the law here. Verse 13, And the sons of Jacob
answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said,
Because he had defiled thine of their sister. Now the law
is not a deceitful thing. The law's not deceiving you.
That's not what's deceiving here. The deceit is in these boys.
And the deceit is in Shechem's heart, the folly of his own heart,
thinking this is going to make right all my wrong here. And he doesn't understand what
he's doing. He doesn't understand what he's
entering into, that he's slipping his neck under the yoke of the
law and coming under the curse of it. curse of it. And they said unto him, we cannot
do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised,
for that were a reproach unto us. But in this we will consent
unto you, if ye will be as we be, that every male of you be
circumcised. Then will we give our daughters
unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will
dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if ye will not
hearken unto us to be circumcised, then will we take our daughter,
and we will be gone." Now the way in which circumcision is
being used here by Jacob's sons, it exposes, it reveals our sin. It shows the weakness of our
sin nature. That the problem isn't the law,
the problem is us. We're the sinners. We're sinners. We cannot fulfill the law. We'll never satisfy the righteousness
of the law by our works. Therefore, we're going to die
under the curse of it. If that's how we try to come
to God, we're going to die under the curse of the law. As Romans
7 says, sin, taking occasion by the commandment, sin, not
the commandment, but sin taking occasion by the commandment,
deceived me. and by it slew me. Just like these boys, they deceived
Shechem. Shechem's own heart deceived
him in thinking this would do it. It deceived me. Wherefore,
the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then
that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin,
that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. And so the circumcision wasn't
the sinful part. It's the motives of our heart
that's exposed here. And there's deceit there by which
we're gonna die in trying to come to God or please God or
cover our sin by the law. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I'm carnal, sold under sin. So here's the question for us.
Can circumcision or anything I do cover my sin? Can I be made righteous by the
law? Can I save myself and put away
my offenses by the law? Well, not according to the mystery
of the gospel, we can. Not according to the gospel,
that's not how we are saved. The scriptures show us that the
outward covenant of circumcision was an entrance into the covenant
of works. It was an entrance to that yoking
of the law, meaning we would come under the strict justice
of the law because we're sinners and so Paul said it this way
in Galatians 5 to behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised
Christ shall profit you nothing For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye are fallen from grace. And that's what Shechem
departed from grace. As soon as he said, and, he departed
from grace. Let me find grace in your eyes.
And. Well, the grace just was no more then. You just went under
the yoke of the law. And there's no grace in the law. And he's going to find out that
the works of the law cannot atone for his sin in defiling Dinah. Genesis 34, verse 18. And their words pleased Hamor
and Shechem, Hamor's son, and the young man deferred not to
do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's daughter. And he was
more honorable than all the house of his father." Now, we begin
to see a few reasonings here of man's motives, what he thinks
in coming to the law with regards to his sin and offenses in coming
to the law. The first evil motive that's
brought out here is thinking that our willingness and our
sincerity and our good intentions are going to be enough, that
that's what's going to put it over, that's going to tip the
scales in our favor in trying our best in doing the law and
to cover our sin. What the Lord's teaching us here
is that if any would come to God in the law of Moses, even
if you mean well, even if you're sincere in it, even if you're
better than everybody else around you, it's not going to put away
your sin. It's not going to do it, no matter
how sincere or how good you are at keeping the law. You're either
perfect before the law, or you're not perfect at all, and you must
come under the judgment of it. That's just how it is. You're
going to die by the penalty of it. Let's go on. Verse 20, and
Hamor and Shechem, his son, came unto the gate of their city and
communed with the men of their city, saying, these men are peaceable
with us. Therefore, let them dwell in
the land and trade therein. For the land, behold, it's large
enough for them. Let us take their daughters to
us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only herein
will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us to be one
people. if every male among us be circumcised
as they are circumcised. Now here's the second false motive
why men turn to the law. He says, shall not their cattle
and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only
let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us. And
unto Hamor and Shechem his son they hearken." They said, yep,
that sounds great. And that's the second false motive.
Some men use religion, even true religion, to get earthly blessings
and earthly gains. They think that by joining this
religion or doing things this way, they will be blessed in
the earth, whether it's money or preeminence or influence or
stature in the world. And these men were appealed to
on the promise of carnal blessings. All their cattle will be ours.
It's all going to work out great for us. I remember in Pennsylvania
when I used to live there, I met a fellow who was born in Russia,
and he was a Jew by birth. But he was baptized, and he converted
to Greek Orthodoxy and was baptized as a Greek Orthodox because it
would help his business. He was a jeweler, and he wanted
to sell jewelry. And so he converted to Greek
orthodoxy to gain. He could care less about God
or what they preached. It didn't matter to him. He just
wanted earthly gain. And that's what men do. And then
the third thing I'll say here why men turn to religion, even
true religion, is they think that what they do will please
God. They think that by turning to
the law that they will be good and acceptable unto God. And
what the Lord is showing us here is that if we think that this
is our acceptance with God, you got another thing coming. Because
it's not. It's going to be the death of
you. You're not going to attain The bride, the blessings that
you seek, you will come short of it in the law. That's not
why the law was given. It will not cover our sin. Shechem sought the bride and
all the blessings of the family of God with that circumcision. and he fell he falls short of
it he comes short of that and he dies in his sins and everyone
in him dies the same way verse 25 it came to pass on the third
day they were circumcised and on the third day And when they
were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's
brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly,
and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor, and Shechem
his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of
Shechem's house, and went out. The sons of Jacob came upon the
slain and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.
They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that
which was in the city, and that which was in the field, and all
their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they
captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house. Everything
that Shechem and his family had, all their riches all everything
they had was taken gone what they thought they had or thought
they would gain was all lost and if if we will come to God
in the law We're going to lose everything. It's devastating. You will lose your life. You'll
lose everything you think you have. Everything will be gone
and taken from you in trying to come to God in the law, even
if you're more honorable. Like Shechem, he was an honorable
man, it says, at least in certain regard. And he lost everything,
everything. What happened here? Well, when
Shechem began practicing the law, he was already condemned. He had already sinned. And the
circumcision couldn't cover his sin. He was already condemned
for defiling Dinah. It was already done. The sin
was already committed. And so he must satisfy justice. He must satisfy the justice of
that law there with his life. And that's what the Lord is showing
us. We're already sinners in Adam. Even if you could, not
that we can, but even if you could turn it around and live
the rest of your days perfectly under the law, the fact is we've
already committed the offense. We're already guilty of death.
We've already offended God and broken every law and therefore
coming under the law will not save us. We can't fix it. We can't correct it. We can't
cover our sin by the works of the law. You either are righteous
or you're not. The law doesn't change the heart.
The law doesn't give a new heart. The law doesn't make you better,
righteous, or improve this nature in any sense. It just shows what
we are by nature. But the stain of sin cannot remove. Now, when Jacob saw what his
sons did, here's a picture of when we see the sin of our own
works, when we are brought to see what we have done and the
plague of sin in us and how it's destruction to us. He said in
verse 30, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ye have troubled me
to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land. Among
the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being few in number, they
shall gather themselves together against me and slay me. And I
shall be destroyed, I and my house." And it's a picture. When we see the truth, when God
shows us what we are, and when we look at the law and we see
my sin, the fruit of my own body, my works, is my destruction,
it's my death. I'm coming into, I'm condemned
to die, and it makes me stink before all my works. My fruit,
right, his sons, his boys, his fruit, just like my fruit of
my works, makes me to stink before all. I'm corrupt, I'm dead. I'm
a sinner in Adam by my own actions, my thoughts, my words, my deeds.
And I can't make it right by my works. Romans 7, 9, and 10. For I was alive without the law
once. But when the commandment came, when the circumcision came
in this case, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which
was ordained to life I found to be unto death. It slew me. But look at verse 31. And they
said, should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? Isn't
this the way it should be? He defiled their sister. And
that is the coldness of the law. Doesn't matter what seems right
or wrong to you and I, this man defiled their sister. No excuses,
no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He deserves to die. And that's
exactly what they did. They put him to death by the
law. He was circumcised, made sore,
couldn't fight back. That was it. He's dead. He's
dead. Understand this, we cannot be
saved by the law, but the gospel reveals that God never intended
for you or I to be saved by the law. He gave the law. He gives
us this picture, this awful, tragic event in the life of Dinah
and her family to show us the calamity, the destruction of
our sin and what we are in Adam and that we're not going to cover
it by our works under the law. Making that plain. I pray you
see that. I pray the Lord show you we cannot
be saved or make ourselves righteous and acceptable to God by the
law. Instead, God gave the law to
reveal our sin, that we would hear grace, that we would be
listening. Lord, is there something else?
Because I'm undone. I don't know how to make this
right. I can't make it right. That's
right, we can't. Christ made it right. Christ
did what we cannot do so that through grace our sin is put
away. The Father chose a people and
gave us to Christ, whom he sent, who came and worked, obtained
salvation, served to obtain a righteousness for us, and by his blood he covers
our sin. He's made us the bride who is
corrupt and sinful, the workers of iniquity by nature, but he
made us the bride of Christ and he covered us with the blood
of Christ and adorns us with his grace and his work in the
gospel and what Christ has done. When our Lord came, he wasn't
When we saw Shechem and Hamor, they were like, hey, we're going
to get wealthy off these people. That's not how Christ came. He
emptied himself and became poor to make us rich, to give to us
his riches and his glory and his blessings. so that when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. We received
the blessings of the family of God through the Son. Through
His love, through His mercy, He served. When He came, He didn't
do anything offensive to us. He didn't sin against us. He
didn't defile us. He didn't ruin us. He didn't
take advantage of us in any way. He was faithful, loving, kind,
gentle, Truthful, honest, He blessed us and blesses us in
every way. Every way. Laying down His life
on the cross, bearing the sins of His people to put them away
forever. That we might have life in Him. To give us life in Him. To give
us His Spirit. To give us understanding. To
cover our sins with His own blood. And just as we read there, it
came to pass on the third day. Well, it came to pass on the
third day. When our Savior was put to death
on the third day, when His disciples were sore with grief and sorrow,
He arose from the dead. having obtained eternal redemption
for us, declaring that he is justified and all who believe
him are justified from all things from which he could not be saved
by the law. He's removed the bride from the
house of the wicked one. He came and took us out of that
house of the strong man and brought us into his own house and brought
us into the riches and out of the riches of God, we're blessed
in him. And we know him and rejoice in
him. We're his inheritance and he's
our inheritance. And we share that inheritance
in him by his grace and mercy. And so we deserve what Shechem
got, but the mystery of the gospel reveals that we've been blessed
abundantly above all that we could ask or think in and by
the husband, the son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're sheikah by
nature, but Christ came and did what we cannot do and he saves
and delivers us. He redeemed us and willingly
sacrificed himself to pay the demanded price of justice that
we owed for our sins. And we have all the blessings
of God in him. And so Brethren, that's the gospel
picture that I see being taught in this passage here. The Lord
is showing us Christ and how that he makes us new creatures
in him. The scriptures say that neither
circumcision or uncircumcision availeth anything but a new creature. And we're made new creatures
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He did this work And I pray that
the Lord bless that word. And more than that, I pray that
he bless this life to you. And bring you under the blood
of Christ. And make you to rejoice in him always, brethren. Amen.