City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.” Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done. But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.” Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me for as great a bride-price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”

Genesis 34:1-12

Reflection

The Bible doesn’t shy away from portraying how sinful humanity is and today we are reading one of the very difficult parts of the Bible – the rape of Dinah. 

In these verses, we’ve zoomed in on a particular event in the story of the family of Jacob. As we zoom out, we’re in the story of God’s promise to use Abraham’s family to restore humanity to Himself. When we zoom out further we’re also in the story of God’s promise to send the Messiah to reverse humanity’s rebellion against Him, the source of all the violence that destroys God’s good world that He gave to humans in His generosity.

In Genesis, there is a literary device that is used to depict the sequence of events of humans rebelling against God: 

• First humans see something that God commands as off limits or designed to be accessed in ways in keeping with His wisdom (Genesis 3:6, 34:2)
• Next, they see desire it outside of God’s approved bounds (Genesis 3:6-7, 34:2)
• Then, they seize or take what they desire in defiance of God’s command leading to a spiraling cycle of violence (Genesis 3:7, 34:2)

Humans have repeated this pattern since the garden of Eden and Shechem is just one in a long line of ongoing human rebellion. Shechem has done “a thing that ought not be done,” the opposite of God’s wisdom – “a folly (nevalah) against Israel” (Genesis 34:7 TOJB) – by violating and humiliating Dinah, who is just still a yeldah, a girl. This violation is extremely grievous and demands justice. At the different resolutions of the narrative, the tensions we face in this tragedy are: how will justice be carried out for Dinah? How will this family, set apart by God’s promise to bless all families, seek and enact justice? And how will God ultimately bring justice to His fallen world?

Her father Jacob restrained himself and did not act righteously as he should have, but instead entered into a covenant with Hamor and Schechem. The lack of justice made Dinah’s brothers really angry, and in the rest of the story we’ll learn that her brothers chose to right this wrong not according to God’s wisdom but according to what was right in their own eyes.

Application

Human atrocities haven’t stopped, in fact it seems like we keep coming up with ways to hurt each other and many times justice gets miscarried. The good news is that God chose not to leave us without hope. God’s promise to set things right through His promised Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus who God, through the prophet Isaiah, spoke of and said:

Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.

Isaiah 42:1-4 NLT

Jesus faced the ultimate miscarriage of justice in order to set us right with God. He enacted God’s justice on all human wrongdoing by sacrificially taking the punishment for all our sins on Himself, even though He was sinless. As followers of Jesus, in the face of our own pain and in the middle of the injustice we experience, our hope lies in His life, death, and resurrection as the way that God’s justice can now come for all who have been wronged.

Prayer

Dear Father, thank You for pursuing justice for Your world and thank You for doing so by sacrificing Your only Son, Jesus. When I face injustice, please help me by the power of Your Spirit, to trust that You are dedicated to righting every wrong and to work for justice on behalf of those who have been wronged, amen.