A few thoughts on today’s reading…
The Whole Bible Project calls the rape and subsequent revenge of Diana one of the saddest incidents in Genesis. It reveals much about the character of Jacob’s sons. They are hot-headed and violent. The way they abused God’s covenant of circumcision was abhorable. They used it as tool to trap the men of Shechem and kill them. It would be as if we convinced people of the importance of Baptism, invited them into our church to receive it, and then killed them. We should not be surprised by the way they treat Joseph later on.
By failing to immediately act and rebuke Shechem, Jacob loses control of the situation and goes along with his sons’ plan for revenge. The Bible is full of examples of fathers who fail to control and discipline their sons – David and Eli come to mind. In all cases the results are tragic.
In spite of their shortcomings, God is patient and continues to bless Jacob and his sons.
Yeah, there is more to the account of "Dinah and the Men of Schechem" than I first realized. For example, it says "Dinah...went out to visit the women of the land." So Jacob's daughter is making friends with unbelieving locals, apparently okay by her parents. Then Shechem "violated her." I always thought this meant rape but it doesn't necessarily. It could mean he slept with her. Dinah may have been involved in the sin too. See 34:26--what was Dinah doing at Shechem's house? Then you have the killings by Levi and Simeon. THEN when God commands Jacob to go to Bethel, Jacob first has to clean his household of all foreign gods. Apparently things were getting pretty out of hand pretty quickly.
ReplyDelete