Lust & Blood

Well, good morning, I’m Pastor Ben, and it is my privilege to share from God’s Word with you this morning a special welcome to anyone that is a guest. happy you’re here. and I would welcome to those that are joining us online as well. as you just saw, we’re going through the book of Genesis. we’re in part four. In series four, as we’re working through Genesis, we have one more week in part four, we’re going to then take a break and then move into the Christmas season before in January, jumping back into Genesis, going into part five. And we don’t skip anything. As you just heard, we go through chapter by chapter, verse by verse, word by word. And so one last reminder, you already heard it. but we do strongly encourage all kids, that if you are of the age of six grade and under that we do have kids ministry for you, that’s up to the parents discretion whether they hang into the service or not. but we just want to put that out there.

So you kind of aware of where we’re going to be going today. So before jumping into our text for the day, just by way of catching you up, I want to remind everybody our main character so far has been Jacob here in Genesis part four. Jacob is not a great guy, yet he is one of the fathers of faith that we have Abraham, we have Isaac, and now we’re on to Jacob. And Jacob is a liar and a deceiver. And despite his lying and despite his deception, he in these last few chapters has started to find some reconciliation. He had lied to his father, deceived him, and he reconciled. Before leaving town. He was deceived by and also deceived Laban, his father in law, who he lived with for 20 years, and they reconciled just a few chapters ago. He wrestled with God at a riverbank, and they were reconciled. And then we just heard last week that his brother, who he had sinned against, he would lied to twice and stolen a blessing and a birthright from. And he is now seen, for the first time in 20 years that the two of them had been reconciled. We saw it in Genesis 33 when it said this.

And Esau, the brother who was sinned against, ran to meet Jacob, embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they wept. And not only were they reconciled, but. But Jacob offered even more than that, that he saw the wrong of his ways. And Esau forgives Jacob. Esau receives presents of restitution from Jacob. Esau even wanted to stay with Jacob in his family, and when Jacob turn that down, he saw offer to send some men with him. But Jacob turned him down, and Jacob finally said that they were going to part ways. And so Esau went back to his homeland, and Jacob went to a new homeland, where we heard last week he purchased some land, and they’re living there now. Some some time has passed since that. And if you look at within the text of Genesis, that now probably a decade or so have passed and he’s in this land and it picks up in 34, as you just heard, like this. Now, Dina, the daughter of Leah, had born to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. There’s a couple interesting things there as it starting off into this chapter. Number one. Now all of a sudden we see Dana, we haven’t seen since chapter 30. And he’s also making sure to mention here that this is the daughter of Leah. And to remind everyone again, Jacob doesn’t have one wife. He has two wives and some other concubines that he has children with.

But Leah is the lesser, Leah is the lesser loved sister and lesser loved wife. And so now we find Dana, Leah’s daughter, in the land. And again, I mentioned just by looking at the context of Genesis, we can estimate that Dana’s age is somewhere between 12 and 16. And here’s what follows when she becomes one of whom are the. Have I, the ruler of the area saw her. He took her. And raped her. There’s some difficult text in scripture, and anytime you read any of scripture, you have to ask the question, what is this here for? And what I see in Genesis 34, and what we’re going to look at here together, is that this is a unique chapter in the fact that in the whole of the chapter, the name of God isn’t mentioned once. It is a dark chapter of Genesis. When we we don’t hear God’s voice, we don’t see his face, and we don’t see his hand at work, but we see the depth of sin. And as I mentioned, this is a PG 13 message and pulling no punches that what the text points to is that Deena, this young girl was raped, recorded in the pages of Scripture. And what I recognize is that that heinous sin. Is not something that’s exclusive to 4000 years ago, that the unfortunate reality is that type of heinous sin against another human being is still alive and well in our world, and still alive and well in our society. And I recognize this too, given the amount of sexual assault and rape and things of that nature that still persist in our society today, that I know full well that there is likely those that know someone who has suffered in this way, or you yourself have it.

And I need you to hear this morning before we go any further, is that God sees you? Amen. He knows you. And he loves you. And that we as a church, that we see you, that we want to know you and we love you as well. And that if this, this type of sin has been committed against you and you’ve not uttered those words that you’ve not shared with another soul, what has been committed against you, I encourage you to reach out to us, talk to us, let us pray with you and for you. We want to be with you even in the darkest places. Like I mentioned, it’s still alive and well today. I mean, these are the stats folks. 1 in 3 women, 1 in 6 men, 1 in 9 girls, 1 in 20 boys under the age of 18 have suffered some type of sexual abuse. And what we recognize, too, is that these are not even an accurate representation, because these are those that have come forward and self-reported. And in all likelihood, it’s far worse. And again, that’s not just in the world, but here in our own country, where we are so advanced in so many ways that it just over every minute, every 68 seconds here on American soil, that there is a sexual assault. And then even worse than that, that only 25 out of every 1000 rapists will end up in prison. Which, as we look into this text, it raises the question not only in the text, but it raises the question for us here today where is God and where is justice? And I hope, as we dig into this text, that we’re going to be able to find that there is justice to be found even in the darkest places.

It goes forward and says, shaken, his heart was drawn to Dinah. He loved the young woman. He spoke tenderly to her, and she said to his father, the king of the area, hey, Ma, get this girl. Is my wife. No remorse, no regret, no admittance of any type of sin whatsoever. He just tells his dad I want to marry her. Jacob hears about this, the father of Dinah, that his daughter had been defiled. I mean, it’s clear she had been raped. She had been sinned against sexually, and his sons were in the fields and livestock. So he did nothing about it until they came home. I want you to take note of this right here, because it’s not the only spot within this chapter that we see Jacob being quite passive, because here in this one verse, it looks like, okay, he waited until his sons came home and then he’s going to do something about it. We have to recognize if you’re seeking justice, the first question is then who’s the judge? And what I would propose is that Jacob, being the father of Dinah, is the rightful judge in this situation. But we’re going to see how this plays out. So she becomes father. Hey, Ma. He went out to talk to Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the field, and as soon as they heard what had happened, they were shocked and furious because of what he had done. What chicken had done was outrageous by raping their sister. And I think we could all agree that if they heard of such a horrible sin being committed against their little sister, that they are right in being shocked and furious because there is such a thing as righteous anger.

They heard about it. Now there’s this meeting, face to face, eyeball to eyeball. The father of the perpetrator and the victim’s family. and hammer, that is, the father of Shechem. So my son Shaka has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her as your wife. They want to intermarry. Give us your daughters, and then we can settle. We can live and trade and acquire property here again. Now the father of the rapist. No mention of sin, no mention of regret, no sense of remorse whatsoever. Rather, they’re just talking about the economic opportunities of the two of them being married. And in the case of check. And the rightful judge would have been his own father, too. His own father doesn’t see the sin in his son’s ways. And then the son speaks up Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, let me find favor in your eyes. I will give you whatever you ask. Name the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring. As great as you like, I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me this young woman as my wife. So now I want you to have this in mind. Shechem the perpetrator. Shechem the rapist. Check them. The man who seized a girl that was between the age of 12 and 16, and slept with her by force, is now eyeball to eyeball with her father. And he has the audacity to say, name your price. He is able to stand before him and say, tell me. Tell me whatever it is, tell me, because I want to buy her. Because essentially what he’s saying is that she is an object. She is a piece of property. And I would like for her to be my own again. No remorse, no admittance of sin, no regret expressed whatsoever.

And then on the other side of it, that Jacob. The father, Jacob, the one who is called to provide and protect for his family, including Dina, is now standing face to face with a man who has slept with his daughter, who is raped, his daughter, and we get to see his response. In verse 13, because of their sister had been defiled, Jacob’s. Sons. Replied deceitfully as they spoke to him, and hammers, while violent Jacob remained silent. It it’s not recorded. He doesn’t say a word in this whole interaction, but rather what we understand is that that her full blood brothers, not her half brothers, but her full blood brothers, are now interceding for her, and they are speaking to them, and they have a plan because they want revenge. Yet Jacob remained silent. This is part of the problem. When we’re looking for justice and we don’t have good judges. When we’re looking for justice, we’re more looking to be vindicated. When we’re looking for someone to make things right. And those that sit in that seat, like Jacob was sitting in that seat, head of the household, father of Dina, and he doesn’t utter a single word. Being silent in the face of evil is also evil. His brothers step in, and they they concoct a plan right out of the very beginning. They have something in mind. They insisted that all the men of the land had to be circumcised, and this seemed good to the king Hamar, and to the perpetrator Shechem. And not only did it seem good to them, but we heard in our text that Hagar the King and his son, the Prince Jacob, they went to the city of the city’s gate.

They went to talk to all the men. And what they said there was not that some horrible sin has been committed. Now we’re trying to get them married. No, what they share is you see all the livestock. Do you see how wealthy Jacob is? If we just are all circumcised, then we can all be wealthy. So if we just if we just go forward with this, then then we can have all of their things. We can have all their livestock. And because of the greed in their own hearts, they move forward in it. And it says this in 34 verse 24, all the men who went out of the city gate to the city gate agreed with him and his son, and every male in the city was circumcised. It’s hard for us to relate what’s going on here, but let me just try to frame it in this way. If we go back, circumcision is a gift. It is a gift given to Abraham and then all of his descendants to mark them as God’s chosen people that are now covered in God’s promise. They are God’s chosen people. Covenant his promise to be fruitful and multiply, that the whole world is going to be blessed, and that’s God’s chosen people on earth, that he wants to dwell with them. It’s a gift. And what Jacob’s sons are doing here with the gift of God is they are misusing and abusing it to deceive others. It would be like drowning someone in baptismal waters. It would be the same thing as poisoning someone with Holy Communion, taking the good gifts of God to thwart your enemy. Because they knew what was going to follow. And what followed was that three days later, when they’re in the greatest pain because for an adult man to go through circumcision, they’re not incapacitated for a number of days, but potentially a number of weeks.

And on the third day, when the pain is the greatest, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, full brothers, not half brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. And I know, even as I read that there’s a little piece of us, isn’t there? There’s a little piece of you that’s like, well, yeah. I mean, something horrible, horrible happened to their sisters, so this seems right. It seems right for them to respond in this way, doesn’t it? There’s a few issues with this, though, is that they’re not in the judgment seat. Number one. Number two, it is in our nature as human judges. Being sinful and flawed is that we do not give fair verdicts. And in this they have overcorrected. Shechem is the one who sinned. Shechem is the one who sinned against Dinah, shook them, is the one who should have to face the consequence of his own sin. But now here Simeon and Levi are using their righteous anger in an unrighteous way to commit essentially genocide of an entire city, to kill every single male within that city. A bit of an overcorrection. And when you and I are sinned against, I believe that we can have the propensity to do the same when we’re not patient, when we don’t wait on the Lord, when we don’t trust the processes that are in place for justice to be poured out, and that we ourselves want to avenge ourselves, that we want to be the righteous judges that we oftentimes can overcorrect.

How many of us have heard of of a story of someone getting cut off in traffic, and then, lo and behold, something horrible happens down the road that there’s a car wreck. That that all of a sudden, when anger is kindled inside of us, that we lose our senses and we act out in a rage rather than a calculated judgment. That’s what we see taking place here. And then the other brothers step in. They see that there’s this opportunity to seize all of the goods of the land. And so they go in and they plunder, because now there’s no fathers. They they take all the women, all the children, all the livestock, and they take it for their own wealth. It raises this question, like I proposed at the beginning, why is this in the Bible? Why would God allow these things to happen? Well, I believe they’re in the Bible because of this, because these things do still happen, because we do overcorrect when there’s injustice and we take vengeance for ourselves because there still is heinous and secret and horrible sin committed against God’s children here in this world, which then has to raise this question. So if it’s in the text, so it’s supposed to speak to us here today, then why do these things still happen today? If anyone has faced something so horrible, I believe the next natural question often is. Where’s God? Like I mentioned in Genesis 34, there is no mention of God. There are books of the Bible that won’t say the name of God. And what we have to understand is. That there are times. In sin against us, or when we sin against others, when there’s brokenness here in this world, that it feels as if our God is hidden, where we can’t see him, where we don’t know where he’s moving, we don’t know why he’s allowing these things.

We don’t understand how good and right and powerful God would allow some horrible things to happen to his children here on earth. Any time that you are in a dark valley like that, where you are facing a hidden god and you can’t see where he’s at. You can’t keep staring into the darkness, but rather you have to go to where he’s revealed himself. And we’re going to see in just a moment how he reveals himself. Jumping back into our text, we see Jacob. Finally the father finally speak up. And he addresses Simeon, and Levi doesn’t address Shechem, doesn’t address Hamar. He talks to his own sons, and he says this. You have brought trouble on me, making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and parasites, the people living in the land. We are just few in number. And if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed. You begin to see the heart of Jacob, don’t you me, me, I, me, my stuff, my family, my possessions, my livestock. Don’t you guys realize what you’re doing? You killed all these men. I’m really concerned about myself. I’m really concerned about my finances. I’m really concerned about my own well-being and no regard for his daughter. Yet what we know is that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Because if you’ve been with us in Genesis that this sin hasn’t yet been committed, but it could have been with Abraham twice and with Isaac once. When they were in a foreign land, they went to the king of the land and said, she is not my wife, she is my sister.

And now do we see in a fuller light when those men of God said that their wife was their sister, that they were opening their wife up the same type of horrible sin to be committed against them. Because even God’s righteous men and patriarchs of the faith are sinful men. His concern was only for himself. They replied, should she have treated us? Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute? They still, as their father addressed them, couldn’t understand. What is he getting at? How does how does he not see that this sin that was committed against her, it had to be addressed. Yet he’s only concerned about himself. Part of the problem is there’s never a time that two wrongs have made a right that overcorrecting when someone has sinned against you in a horrible way, that if anyone goes and seeks vengeance, go ahead and ask them, do you really feel better when you pay them back twice for what they did to you once? Like, do you really feel better? Did that really solve the problem? And the reality is that it doesn’t. It doesn’t bring comfort. It doesn’t bring peace. Jacob doesn’t soon forget this sin that they committed to. He actually remembers it all the way to his deathbed. We’ll see later in Genesis part five that when he’s giving blessings, and in Genesis 48 he addresses both of them at once.

He’s going through blessing all of his children in order, and he gets to Simeon and Levi, and he tells them that you use your swords as weapons of violence, that he doesn’t want anything to do with them. They have killed in their anger. Cursed be their anger so fierce and their fury so cruel. I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Jacob doesn’t soon forget. That Simeon and Levi overcorrected. He doesn’t offer them the blessing yet again. Jacob should have been the person. Jacob should have been the one to to bring about some justice, some sort of conversation, some sort of push back on. Check him to make him pay. What about us? Where do we find justice? In deep dark sin and hidden sin and horrible sin, where is justice? Well, one of the first places scripture would point us to is in Romans chapter 13. Paul is telling them, as they’re living under Roman oppression. That rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but bad. For if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. He, being the government, he’s the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. On this side of eternity. God does work in sinful, broken people that are in established governments, and that when those governments are working well, that sinners will pay, that that victims will have some sense of safety, because sin has its earthly consequence.

But I know what you might be thinking. What about when a government doesn’t carry out justice? What about when an earthly judge isn’t fair? What about all those that we just heard about then? That only 25 of a thousand rapists, that they are still or that are convicted, and the rest are just walking free? Like, how is that justice? Is the government really doing what they’re called to do? But then if we look at Romans chapter 12, it’s clear as day what God has called us to. He says, 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. Amen. And these are words that we can trust, and these are words that you can find some source of solace in. If you’ve been sinned against in some sort of heinous or horrible way that there is payment for sin, that there is wrath from God, and that God’s justice will be served and is served in two places, two very distinct places. Because we see we understand that Jesus came right. We understand he came on, he put on flesh. He came humble and lowly and meek, and he came to serve. He came to seek and save the lost. That’s when Jesus first came. How many of us are familiar? When Jesus comes again? He’s seated on the throne at the right hand of the father. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. Here we also saw that he has fire in his eyes, that he will stand before all, and all will have to give an account.

And those that don’t have him as their Savior, that we see these words in the book of revelation, chapter 21 verse eight, God said, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all the liars, they will be consigned to the lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. There is payment for sin. We don’t often talk about. Hell is a real place. Separation from God is a real thing. Judgment standing before the perfect and holy righteous judge. Jesus Christ is a real thing. And for those that are outside of him, they will have to call to account all the sin that they’ve committed. And for us here and now, I believe there is a sense of comfort knowing that while righteousness and justice are fully served on this side of eternity, that in eternity that they will pay for their sin, that there is a lake of fire, there is a bottomless pit, there is eternal torment, and that God’s justice will be served. And there is eternal consequence for sin. So in the case of someone that has committed a horrible sin like rape, sexually assaulted someone, harmed a child, murdered as Simeon and Levi did, for all those that are outside of Christ, they will remain outside of Christ for eternity. And for us here and now to seek some type of judgment, to some type of restitution. And we don’t find it within. We feel like they need to pay more. It is if almost to say hell isn’t enough. I can assure you, for the sins of this world, hell is enough. But I mentioned there are two places. There are two places. The scripture tells us that justice is seen where God’s wrath is poured out for those outside of Christ is through hell.

But for those that are in Christ, it’s in the cross. The first Timothy Paul writes this I think Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. He considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. A man who oversaw the execution of Christians who has blood on his hands. I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of the Lord Jesus was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. That Paul, the chief of sinners, that Paul, who is an adversary of Christ, who is an adversary of Christians who wanted to kill Christians, is now on mission and is being used as a great instrument to share the gospel with Gentiles, and has these words that we can continue to read that he says this here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full access to Christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me the worst of sinners, that Christ Jesus might display his immense patience. As an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Judgment is poured out on heinous, horrible sin in hell. Judgment is poured out on how horrible and heinous sin in the person of Jesus Christ, the perfect man, Son of God, nailed to a tree, nailed with the sins that you’ve committed and nailed with the sins that have been committed against you. And that if we fully want to accept the forgiveness and mercy and grace that he freely offers us, we have the uncomfortable truth.

That he offers that same forgiveness, that same grace, and that same mercy to the people who have hurt us and harmed us in the most unspeakable ways. That the depth of his love for each of us, the depth of his grace, the depth of his mercy is unsearchable. And that that we know full well that Paul, Paul is now in eternity in the presence of his father. And he’s there with Stephen, the one whom he murdered. And now we know that if horrible, heinous sin, that hell is enough for horrible, heinous sin, the cross is enough. And that now for us as believers, that we need to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to have the same patience the father has, because the father’s heart is that all would come to know him. And even people like him, even people that have committed horrible sins, that he is patient in his hiddenness when we don’t see where he’s working, where we don’t know how he’s working. In his revealed ness in Jesus Christ, he is being patient that those that are far off would turn and believe. And we also find hope in this, that it’s not only through the cross where sin has been nailed and the payment has been paid, and justice has been poured out, and God’s wrath has now been satisfied. But it’s also through that cross that there’s an empty tomb. And because of the empty tomb, that we have the hope of a resurrection because we want justice to be served, we want payment to be paid for. We also need, above all else, we need hope. Because on this side of eternity, there are scars and bruises, both physically and mentally, that each of us carry with us that pain the heart of our father.

But in eternity we know full well that there will be no more sickness. There will be no more dying, that every tear will be wiped away, and every pain of sin that you’ve committed. But every pain that’s been sin committed against you. It’s gone. We cling to that hope, a hope that we find in Jesus Christ, even in the dark chapters of Scripture, and even in the dark chapters of our own lives. Amen.