Does anyone do what is right? - Genesis 34

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Does anyone do what is right?
Genesis 34:1-31
20220102
Jesus is courageous in the face of danger administering jus?ce at the appropriate ?me
Introduc)on:
One of the most horriﬁc things a rancher might imagine is a ﬁre breaking out in the livestock barn. If the barn
is full of animals the terror of them perishing in the ﬂames is overwhelming. In movie scenes where barn ﬁres
are used as part of the story, the animals, I’m thinking par?cularly of horses, have their eyes covered as they
are brought out of the dangerous barn and led to safety (Black Beauty 1994). This type of rescue requires
courage, it requires ac?on, and it requires a willing and submissive horse. If an element is missing then the
result is destruc?on, the destruc?on of life, the destruc?on of property, the destruc?on of the ability to carry
on one’s livelihood as before, and even the destruc?on of one’s reputa?on.
Consider what you have the next day if you are the rancher that experienced such a ﬁre on your place: you
have whatever livestock you managed to rescue: Praise the Lord! You have the charred remains of your once
prized barn, the acrid smell of burned ﬂesh from the animals lost, the overwhelming feeling of what now, and
maybe even the scorn of some passersby that heartlessly states you should have been more careful with your
heat lamp over the chicks, or the moisture content of your hay, or whatever seems like a plausible reason for
your barn to have caught ﬁre.
Even in this brief descrip?on of the horrors of a barn ﬁre I hope you begin to see some similari?es to the
passage that was just read, the passage we will be working through. We will go through the verses in depth but
at the end of the passage: Dinah has s?ll been deﬁled, no possibility of her being made whole in her culture
was really available to her, the reputa?on of Jacob was in jeopardy, the wrongdoers and all their people were
slain, the wrong commi[ed in the name of retribu?on made nothing right. So, whatever remains at the end of
Genesis 34 is clearly damaged and the path of destruc?on is iden?ﬁable by all the li[ered remnants of what
was once there.
Even though we see destruc?on bege]ng more destruc?on in Genesis 34 that doesn’t veil the truth of what is
needed. What is needed is someone to be Courageous in the face of danger administering jus?ce at the
appropriate ?me.
Transi)on: I give you no pretense that the walk we will take through these verses will be cheery but this is the
text that we have, the Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit preserved throughout the ages never returns
void.
Impulsiveness Destroys Purity (vv1-5)
1. Two things to look at in our opening sec?on and they both have to do with the home life: 1) past pa[erns
of a family can be detected and 2) passive paren?ng reaps no rewards
a. Look at v1 “Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the
women of the land.”
i. We are immediately being reminded of Jacobs only daughter recorded up to this point (Gen
30:21).

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ii. We are supposed to remember Jacob had a daughter and it was through the wife that he did
not want. He had worked 7 years for Rachel and on his wedding night his father-in-law
Laban instead gave him the older sister Leah as his wife.
iii. Aeerward he also is given Rachel the Bible records that the Lord saw that Leah was hated.
iv. This is where we get to this ﬁrst aspect of a past pa[ern – the home Jacob grew up in
showed open par?ality. Rebekah loved Jacob and Isaac loved Esau. The past pa[ern of the
home life is before us. Jacob showed favori?sm towards Rachel and her oﬀspring over those
of Leah and those of the maidservants.
1. It should also be a warning to us to conform not only to the pa[erns from our own
homes where we grew up, but to conform ourselves to the word of God.
v. For here we have Dinah going out without what would normally be some sort of chaperon,
she is unprotected.
1. Giving us a picture of this second aspect of poten?ally passive paren?ng. Why was
she freely going about with the women of the land? As one set apart by the Lord this
is later unacceptable for the people of God.
vi. This sets up a bad situa?on: she is ul?mately sexually assaulted; she is raped by Shechem.
That is what happens in the next verse.
b. v2 “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.”
i. As we read this brutal account, I want to emphasize that even though issues were present in
Jacobs family that doesn’t give Shechem the right to do this evil thing. He sinned against
Dinah in the most heinous of ways.
ii. For anyone who has experienced sexual assault of any kind one of the most diﬃcult
challenges to overcome is the tendency to blame yourself for the assault. Let me clearly say,
it is never permissible for some one to force themselves upon another image bearer of God.
If this has happened to you, you were sinned against. Dinah was sinned against by Shechem.
c. vv3-4 “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.””
i. What we learn from our study of this passage is that Shechem had a past pa[ern in his
home too: he is described as the prince of the land (v2), in v4 he tells his dad to get this girl
for him (making a demand of his father), when he comes before Jacob and Dinah’s brothers,
he expresses no remorse. I can only speculate that this is what he is accustomed to. His dad
may have lived life this way and like father like son he is walking a similar path.
ii. The dad, Hamor, doesn’t step in and seek to bring jus?ce to bear, but rather goes along
passively with his youthful son’s desire. The impulsiveness of Shechem destroys the purity of
Dinah. He deﬁles her and demands more with the backing of his father’s clout.

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iii. What will Jacob do? Wrestled with God – called by God to be set apart. Striven with God
and with man – faced his fears of returning to the land of his kindred.
d. v5 “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 unFl they came.”
i. He heard about what had happened to his daughter. Fathers, Jacob heard what had
happened to his daughter – Bible scholars put her age at around 16. He held his peace. He
remained silent. It even appears later on in this chapter that he allowed Dinah to stay in
Shechem’s house un?l her brothers brought about her rescue through slaughter (v26).
ii. Passive paren?ng reaps no rewards here. I’m not sugges?ng he should have taken up the
sword himself. But he should have collected his daughter.
1. Cared for her, protected her, and assured her that all would be done within his
power to bring about jus?ce. Also, I believe he should have called out the injus?ce
and brought it before the elders of the land, at the gate of their city. We are
reminded by Paul in Romans 12:9 we are to “Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what
is good.”
a. This is what we would do here. Should something as horriﬁc as this take place
in our church body, Seth and I would provide pastoral care. Encouraging the
vic?m, providing everything we possibly could to support the family. While as
the same ?me we would go through with mandatory repor?ng.
b. Wan?ng to see jus?ce done through the legal system aﬀorded to us in this
land.
iii. In our passage, Jacob, by holding his peace, by remaining silent, by taking a passive
approach to this sinful deed he allows for others to take the ini?a?ve. In this case that
means the impulsiveness of others overpowers the man who strove all night in a wrestling
match with God.
Transi)on: Once a passive leader gives way to an impulsive and luslul youth it is almost inevitable the
downward spiral will con?nue, and it does here as now we will look at how:
Immoral Ac)on Destroys Proper Prac)ces (vv6-12)
1. As despicable as the deﬁling of Dinah was, I want you to consider the ?me in which this happened. Again,
not condoning the immoral act but helping us to recognize the addi?onal cultural implica?ons this would
have on Dinah. She has now been deﬁled by a man outside of marriage. Though the law has not yet been
given (Deut. 22:28-29) the purity of the sexual rela?onship between a man and a woman, as designed by
God, was understood. We previously saw other Canaanite peoples and the Egyp?ans as well recognizing
the need to respect another man’s wife.
2. When the law is given through Moses by God provisions are wri[en for making a situa?on like this right (as
best as possibly can). This is where it seems foreign to us. If a man raped one of our daughters, we would
likely never want anything to do with that man ever again. In the ?me of this ancient near-eastern people

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her ability to now be taken in marriage would have been severely hampered because she was no longer a
virgin.
a. So, when the law was given, because the people were sinful, the man who did such a thing was to
pay the bride price and he was never allowed to divorce the woman. Think about that not from the
emo?onal aspect of a commi[ed sexual assault such as we have here but rather from the
eﬀec?veness of the law on pu]ng the fear of such a prospect into a man burning with lust. He
would know the law – it would be an addi?onal barrier to him ac?ng out of his impulsiveness.
3. Clearly here we don’t know what the laws of the land were exactly at the ?me of this crime. But what we
do know is that immoral ac?ons destroy proper prac?ces.
a. v6 “And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.”
i. The wrong has been done. Hamor is going to now try to get this girl to be a wife for his son.
The nego?a?on for a bride has been set oﬀ in a completely wrong manner.
b. v7 “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.”
i. Do you see this collision? Jacob held his peace. Hamor didn’t seek to make the situa?on
right in a just manner.
ii. Now the two fathers are going to talk about what they clearly know is a horriﬁc event. And
the sons of Jacob come in from the ﬁeld – they seem to understand perfectly well how
heinous a crime this was that was commi[ed against Jacob’s daughter.
iii. They are angry, they are indignant, and they are now in?mately intertwined into this
discussion. In fact, we don’t even get a response to the proposal from Jacob for the brothers
of Dinah takeover the speaking role.
4. Hamor jumps right in with a proposal. No confession of wrong doing, no remorse, no regret is being
expressed – instead he seizes this as an opportunity to link the clans together through marriage. The
immoral ac?on of his son has destroyed proper prac?ces.
a. vv8-10 “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…””
i. His son is there with him and he follows suit. No confession of wrong doing, no remorse, no
regret is being expressed – just wants to throw an incen?ve of material goods at the
situa?on.
b. vv11-12 “Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers…”
i. Only give me the young woman to be my wife is his focus. If I were hearing this man talk in
this way about my sister or my daughter, I don’t think I would have received the request
favorably in the least bit.
ii. A major sin occurred. Immoral ac?on destroys proper prac?ces.

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Transi)on: This mee?ng is not primed for success. The whole reason they are gathered is not even being
addressed but is being overlayed with proposals to bring the peoples together. This combined with angry
youth present yields a predictable outcome.
Immaturity Destroys Peace (vv13-29)
1. Now we see that it was Shechem who was last speaking and now it is the sons of Jacob who respond. They
want nothing to do with this man. These are the same brothers who conspire to kill their brother Joseph
later – if this ma[er wasn’t right before Jacob and Hamor they may have just done the same to Shechem
right there. Instead, we see they have a bit of their old father in them.
a. v13 “The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceiLully, because he had deﬁled
their sister Dinah.”
i. Consider this my friends. These brothers of Dinah who are indignant and very angry are
having to listen to this proposal and cannot believe what they are hearing. So, they resort to
a deceilul answer.
ii. How they pulled oﬀ their answer in a convincing manner is uncertain but they proceed in
their immaturity to destroy peace as follows:
b. vv14-16 “They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give...”
i. First, they all of a sudden put forth the importance of the outward sign of circumcision with
making no men?on of how that iden?ﬁes them as God’s people.
1. Many Scriptures speak to circumcision being a ma[er of the heart by the Spirit (Rom
2:25, Deut 30:6, Jer 4:4) – that is completely absent here.
ii. This is an extremely dangerous understanding of any aspect of our iden?ty with God. If we
put more stock in a symbol, an ordinance, or part of our tradi?on than we do on a heart that
is submi[ed to the Lord we get close to doing the same thing.
1. I would oﬀer this as an area to be especially careful for the youth who are of that age
where marriage may be something you are considering. I’m personally aware of
situa?ons where someone’s religious aﬃlia?on or lack thereof was made into a
hurdle to marriage for young lovers.
2. Guess what? When you put such a hurdle between young lovers it makes it really
easy for certain individuals to move forward with accep?ng what is being asked of
them to obtain the prize that they really want. It is important to know how someone
is in their rela?onship with the Lord prior to ge]ng roman?cally involved with them.
iii. In the passage we have before us the sons of Jacob are making a show of religion.
1. As Chris?ans we must follow the instruc?ons set before us: “For to this you have
been called, because Christ also suﬀered for you, leaving you an example, so that you
might follow in his steps. He commiRed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suﬀered, he did not

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threaten, but conFnued entrusFng himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:21–
23)
c. In Genesis 34, we see a stark contrast. The immature and deceilul answer is placed before
Shechem with the destruc?on of peace clearly in mind. Do they really expect him to buy into the
request? It is unknown. It is a tall order to have all the men do such a thing. How much power do
Hamor and Shechem have? Unknown. So, they push the deal with the penalty of nonconformance.
d. v17 “But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will
be gone.””
i. Do what we have demanded – however unlikely – or we will take Dinah and be gone! Do it
our way or the young woman whom you have all your aﬀec?ons set upon will be taken from
you. Do it or the deal is oﬀ!
2. The immaturity of Jacob’s sons is seen almost as a mirror image in Shechem and his father which only aids
in the destruc?on of peace. Their own deceilulness is also put on display.
a. vv18-19 “Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem…”
i. This is a trap we can ﬁnd ourselves in. So focused on what we think we want we buy into lies
we don’t see the whole truth. Blindly rushing forward in impa?ence thinking the solu?on
that has been presented will surely bring about the best possible result.
ii. Blind, blind to the immature impulses that we might be led by that are having the eﬀect of
destroying peace. This is not to be characteris?c of us in our walk with the Lord.
iii. Paul urged those he wrote: “To walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have
been called, with all humility and gentleness, with paFence, bearing with one another in
love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1-3)
iv. However, this is not what we expect to see in Hamor and Shechem and in the next 5 verses
we read:
b. vv20-24 “So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate...”
i. The immature leadership of a young man who is burning with lust for Dinah and a father
who sees an opportunity to increase their property by taking that which belongs to Jacob
(v23) is compelling enough to convince their people to go through with circumcision.
1. This is a completely diﬀerent mo?va?on from when God called Abraham and his
whole house into covenant rela?onship with him – that act of circumcision was out
of covenant iden?ty and obedience to the Word of God.
ii. We are seeing a similar phenomenon happening around us. Accept some pain in your life,
give up your bodily autonomy, once we all conform it will be be[er for all of us.
1. Our iden?ty is to be in Christ and our obedience is to Him. Therefore, when we make
decisions they have to be well grounded and not made in fear.

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iii. In the Genesis passage, immature leaders are about to bring about the destruc?on of every
male, (even though they don’t know that) - by doing something in an eﬀort to gain
themselves possessions, women, and pres?ge.
3. This gives the angry and indignant sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, license to charge ahead with their
swords.
a. vv25-29 “On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons…”
b. They feigned the importance of a religious symbol of circumcision – scoﬃng the very word of God
in a sense to get what they wanted – vengeance. They end up destroying all semblance of peace
with their brash and immature ac?on. The men are wiped out, the women and children are taken
as cap?ves, instead of being set apart they in many ways have become the same.
Transi)on: The immature destruc?on of peace or even the poten?al for peace highlights how the inac?on of
Jacob and the inac?on of Hamor destroyed the natural protec?ons their genera?on would normally provide.
Inac)on Destroys Protec)ons (vv30-31)
1. It is aeer the fact that Jacob laments the outcome.
a. v30 “Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me sFnk to
the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they
gather themselves against me and aRack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.””
b. He chas?ses his sons. He never forgets what they have done and even as he approaches the end of
life, with his sons assembled before him he lets it be known for all ?me the following
pronouncement:
i. ““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 scaRer them in Israel.” (Genesis
49:5–7)
c. The inac?on that was occurring around them made them ﬁt to be ?ed and they end this passage
with the ques?on that was very much on their minds: v31 “But they said, “Should he treat our sister
like a prosFtute?””
d. The inac?on, the lack of oversight, brought about destruc?on. Protec?ons that should have been
present in the home, that should have been available in the society, they failed. This is the result of
sin in the world.
Conclusion
In a passage such as what we have in front of us it can be diﬃcult to see much good. Even Jacob and his sons at
the end seem dissa?sﬁed with the outcome. Jacob because he has lost out on combining his lot with those of
the people of the area, he has become a stench in the region, his fear in being destroyed is greatly elevated,
and the sons are incensed that their sister’s deﬁlement was being brushed oﬀ, that they engaged in such
savagery themselves had a searing eﬀect on their consciences. This whole passage is like the horriﬁc barn ﬁre I

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described earlier. No one who is lee standing at the end is unaﬀected. The carnage of what has taken place
and the destruc?on are clearly present like the burned-out barn.
What is a person to do in the face of such ugliness? Whether it is at the ﬁrst spark, in the middle of the blaze,
or aeer the damage has been done? You trust God and you trust his word. You trust God and you trust his
word. It is by his word coupled with the tes?mony of the Saints throughout the ages that we are introduced to
the one who has entered into the very deepest pit of despair. For all we have discussed and observed here is
brought about by sin. Therefore, the deepest pit of despair is the collec?on of all sin from everyone from all
?me. The Son of the living God, Jesus Christ did this. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin...” (2
Corinthians 5:21)
When you recognize you are in the middle of the carnage brought about by sin, the barn is on ﬁre, the smoke
is choking, the fear is overwhelming you have only one thing you can do. Call out for your rescuer! Jesus Christ
knows the pit, he went there to deal with your sin and mine, he went to the cross, he was cruciﬁed, his blood
ran and his body absorbed the blows that you and I deserved. He alone was Courageous in the face of danger
administering jus)ce at the appropriate )me. Do not fail to learn the hard lessons from our passage today
church. The path of destruc?on had all the warning signs: impulsiveness, immorali?es, immature ac?ons, and
even inac?on. If you missed the signs but are seeing the path of destruc?on iden?ﬁable by all the li[ered
remnants of what was once there. If you no longer have purity or if the proper prac?ces have been abandoned
and peace is nowhere to be found. It is clearly ?me to call out to your rescuer, the redeemer of mankind Jesus
Christ. He is the only one worthy of your call and he is the only one that will respond for he was courageous in
the face of danger and he can be trusted to administer jus)ce at the appropriate )me. “…he was pierced for
our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquiFes; upon him was the chasFsement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)


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