No Way to Die, No Way to Live

  • Matt Marino
  • Feb 14, 2010
  • Series: Genesis
  • Passage: Genesis 34

 2-14-10

No Way to Die, No Way to Live

GENESIS 34

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Anyone who makes fun of my sermon today can preach next week! Even the commentaries didn’t know what to do with this text. But if we remember how Jacob was just traveling with his family and why, a clear theme begins to emerge. 

 

COMPROMISED CALLING

COMPROMISED PURITY

COMPROMISED REPUTATION 

 

The Big Idea is that the moment we settle for less than God’s manifest presence for our family, we are lowered to the ugly standards of the world. 

 

Your first thoughts about this chapter may be geared toward the shocking and humiliating way that Jacob’s sons carried out their vigilante justice; but by the time we’re done, I hope you can see the bigger picture of Israel’s failure to obtain God’s best as the cause of external compromise and I hope you are convicted to apply that truth to every compromised area of your life.

 

DOCTRINE

 

COMPROMISED CALLING

Called to a Place

Why Bethel if the whole land was to be theirs?

The previous chapter closes with his compromise (and covering?)

[33:18-20, TURN] He bought from Shechem, then built an altar as a pious-sounding act, calling it El-Elohe-Israel (God is the God of Israel).

 

He was told to go back in the same fashion as his fathers and with more revelation!

[32:13] “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.”

 

“Shechem offered Jacob the attractions of compromise. His summons was to Bethel; but Shechem, about a day’s journey short of it, stood attractively at the crossroads of trade.”

DEREK KIDNER, Genesis

 

How do we reconcile location with the heart?

Or, didn’t Jesus overturn “externals-based-worship” in the New?

[Jn. 4:21] “…the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”

 

Yes—external based, not external-flowing or external-relevant!

 

Your heart is always located (and always confused by that location); and this father’s failure to lead his son’s to God’s presence at a location led them to another location. 

 

Called to a Pilgrimage

Israel was not to be unequally yoked at any level.

[2 Cor. 6:14-16] “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.”

 

Dinah went out into the land (doesn’t matter why)

[Deut. 7:3-4] “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.”

 

Place and pilgrimage matter because your freedom to lead people and experience God matters. If that doesn’t matter to you, Christ doesn’t matter to you!

 

COMPROMISED PURITY

The Unsuspecting Rape of the Daughters of God

The victim is oblivious to this violence!

 

The perpetrator is oblivious to this violence!

Shechem was “prince of the land,” and so was probably used to having his way, even with people. 

Shechem thought that his own father (King Hamor) was the person to go to in order to obtain Dinah.

Shechem though it perfectly natural to love her following this act.

 

[Jer. 6:14-15] “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,’ says the LORD.”

 

The protector is oblivious to this violence!

Jacob’s passivity (non-response) was already a trend.

 

The Deliberate Rape of the Daughters of God

The world acts according to its desires, and desires according to its worldly thoughts.

[Mat. 7:15] “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

[2 Tim. 3:6-7] “For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

 

The believer should know this and deconstruct those thoughts and desires for our own. 

 

COMPROMISED REPUTATION 

What is the Ultimate Cause of this Compromise?

Notice that Hamor offers to Israel an alternative to God’s covenant!

The land inheritance with all of its goods (10-11)

 

The unlimited inheritance: “whatever…whatever…” (11, 12)

[Mat. 4:8-9] “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

 

The Son’s Righteous Indignation compared to Jacob’s apathy.

 

“Amidst their fury, Jacob’s sons responded properly to the demeaning of Israel as well as of Dinah. They understood that because Jacob had become Israel at Peniel, the rape of his daughter was a crime against Israel as a people, seeing that the relationship of Israel to God had been ignored and abused. Tragically, their father Jacob had neither stood up for his father or his God!”     R. KENT HUGHES, Genesis

And yet, no one comes away righteous here:

[Gen. 49:5-7] “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.”

 

[Rom. 3:9-18, TURN] The evil of God’s people is not fundamentally different than the evil of the world. 

 

Genocide Explained—not Excused!

God’s story versus man’s vengeance.

[Ps. 5:6] “You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”

 

The difference lies in resting in God’s hidden will while following his revealed will. The two are related. If you are comfortable with God’s will in general, then you are free to obey his revealed will. 

 

[Ps. 55:23] “…men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.”

[Rom. 12:19] “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

 

When is it vengeance and when is it civil justice?

 

There is such a thing as making yourself an illegitimate stench.

[1 Pet. 2:20] “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

[Rom. 2:24] “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

 

[Ps. 28:3] “Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.”

 

Who spoke peace with their neighbors while evil was in their hearts? The sons? The people of Shechem? Or, did not Jacob start this mess by doing exactly that—making peace with his secular neighbors, while evil was in his heart? This will be the continuing story of Israel.

 

APPLICATION

 

To the Skeptic – The Bible is not a shy book. Since God’s word is supposed to bring us to maturity, you will notice that it never stops short of any gruesome or taboo area of life. It exposes every dark place in human existence and in doing so reminds us that all of these dark places only prove the biblical worldview. Only the biblical doctrine of sin adequately explains such levels of depravity. No other view even has an explanation of what such evil is, or could be. Other views simply lash out blindly at evil in the dark. 

 

To the Saint – It is not enough to ask “What compromise are you making peace with?” That’s too privatized! We can all give a softball answer. If Jacob’s first showdown was with God (not the world), as we saw last week, then Jacob’s first compromise was with God (not the world). You and I are no different. The reason we have made peace with a whole list of compromises is that we have first shrugged off the presence of God. What are we doing in our lives to make our top priority for ourselves and our family, the biggest sight of God? How can we structure our lives—both at home during the week and together as a church body—so that the presence of God is expected and longed for? Anything less is the mother of all compromises. 

 

To the Sinner – The Bible is not a book of heroes that you’re supposed to be like. Its characters are honestly portrayed as wretched sinners. They’re just like you.