So our reading today is in Genesis
chapter 34 and we're going to read the whole of the chapter. Let me just say before I begin
reading that I have wrestled quite a bit this week concerning
speaking from this chapter in what is, after all, a children's
lesson. The subject is raw, it's shameful,
it's adult in many ways and it's quite shocking. But I decided
that I would employ the chapter despite this. And while I won't
dwell too much on the story beyond reading what the Bible actually
says, it will be my plan to make a couple of applications as to
what this passage teaches us. And I guess just those of you
who are parents perhaps with children or if children are listening
then a degree of sensitivity is perhaps in order. So we're
going to be reading Genesis chapter 34 and verse 1. And Dinah the daughter of Leah,
which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the
land. 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. 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 Hamer 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, And the men were grieved,
and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel
by lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. And Hamer 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,
and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto
you. And ye shall dwell with us, and
the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade ye therein, and
get you possessions therein. And Shechem said unto her father
and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes,
and what ye shall say unto me I will give. 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. And the sons of Jacob
answered Shechem and Hamer his father deceitfully, and said,
Because he had defiled Dinah their sister. And they said unto
them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that
is uncircumcised, for that were a reproach unto us. But in this
will we 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. And their words pleased Hamer,
and Shechem, Hamer's son. And the young man deferred not
to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter,
and he was more honourable than all the house of his father.
and Hamer, 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 is 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. 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 Hamer and unto
Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of
his city, and every male was circumcised, all that went out
of the gate of his city. And it came to pass on the third
day, 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. And 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 among 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 they said, should he deal
with our sister as with an harlot? Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word and it is really quite notable that
these passages and these accounts are given to us in the word of
God and we are left under no illusion as to the true nature
of man and indeed the true nature even of these children of Jacob. I want to just draw a couple
of lessons from this rather solemn and sober passage that we have. And I want to make just a couple
of points that these verses must stress to us. And the first one
is this, that sin lurks in every heart and it ruins every life. no matter who we are. Now we can find reason to condemn
Shechem in this story and perhaps even grounds for criticising
Dinah. But the deceit and the violence
of these sons of Jacob is appalling and horrific and indefensible. Yet we're not surprised. Perhaps
this, in all the world, is the most blessed family that we could
imagine. They had been protected by God. They had been preserved from
their enemies. They had been provided for with
all kinds of good things. Yet the outrage and the fury
exhibited by these two, Simeon and Levi, together with their
brothers, shows that no matter how much the Lord is honoured
in a family, the children are subject to the same total depravity
as much as anyone else. Jacob was concerned that his
son's actions had made him stink amongst the inhabitants of the
land. Well might he be concerned, because
most certainly it did. It could do no less. These bigoted
boys used their religion to deceive and to destroy their unsuspecting
neighbours. The nature of sin is to hurt,
deceive and destroy, and that is exactly what it does unless
the Lord restrains and intervenes to stop it. We shall all perish
according to the wages of sin, but for God's grace towards us. The Apostle James writes in verse
15 of chapter one, then when sin, I'm sorry, then when lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. So the first thing that I wanted
for us to notice is that sin lurks in every heart and it ruins
every life. And here's the second thing,
that our outward religion is no safeguard against vile atrocities. Wickedness committed in the name
of religion abounds the world over. And it really doesn't matter
where you look Anywhere where there is man-made religion, we
find that there is persecution and there is egregious victimization
and suffering and torture imposed by it. It always has been and it always
will be. Vain religion is just another
tool that Satan uses to disguise sin. And you can be as religious
as you like, unless you have God's grace, you're no better
than anyone else. And you are as capable of the
most vile atrocities as anyone else. We speak about the phrase
total depravity, and that's what we see at work in the life of
these young men. And I'm pointing these things
out to you. And if you are younger, and if
you have parents who love and care for you, who look after
your body and who look after your soul, then they will teach
you God's word also. But never think that that learning
is in and of itself going to make you better than anyone else. You are still a sinner in your
heart and in your nature until God makes you one of his people,
until God makes us sinners that have been saved by grace. And here's the third point that
I want to leave with you. Such incidents demonstrate and
prove our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. This man, Jacob, had been the
one who carried the blessing of God And here the people find that
the way in which his teaching of the boys, the way in which
his raising of the boys had made no change in their lives. God's blessing in our life, whether
it's a blessed mother and father, whether it's a religious family,
whether it's the evidence of God's goodness, That is not going
to safeguard us from the effects and consequences of sin. God's promised saviour is the
only hope for a fallen world and the only hope for sinful
individuals like you and me. Here is a chapter in the Bible
in which not just the reputation of Israel but everything about
it smells bad, because it is bad. For all the Lord had promised
to bless Jacob, the man spent the rest of his life with this
barbarous event on his conscience. These were his boys, raised in
his house, taught about his faith at his knee. And when I look
at the world, and when I look at my own life, I can only thank
God that he is a righteous judge who knows all things, and who
judges all things right, and he will condemn with utter justice. But he is also a gracious and
loving deliverer from sin, who has found a way of escape for
guilty sinners like you and like me. for the Shechem's and the Simeon's
and the Levi's of this world. Because there's a Shechem and
a Simeon and a Levi in all our hearts. But there is forgiveness
and salvation to be found in Jesus Christ. May the Lord give
us grace to trust in the cleansing power of Christ's blood and the
perfect righteousness which God alone can give. to deliver us
from the power of sin and death. Amen.