Faithful Then, Faithful Now | The Cost of Unforgiveness - Genesis 34(June 4) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you, church.

Pressure's on now to preach a good sermon, eh?

I just want to let you know, I think that song maybe summarizes my feelings right now.

I'm so thankful one of the greatest privileges of my life has been to see God's faithfulness in the midst of this church.

And to have a front row seat of that as the lead pastor of this church has been such a privilege to see God working in our midst.

I truly believe that because of the church's effort, I don't, this is not a one-man show, and it would fail uh very quickly, incredibly quickly if it was, but because of the church's effort, to the commission that Christ has given us, because of our obsession with this great commission to make disciples, I truly believe that in our midst we're seeing lost people saved, saved people matured, and mature people multiplied.

And my overriding, overwhelming passion of life, I know it's yours too, is to see God glorified.

And that's what brings glory to God.

So I praise God for the work he's doing in our midst.

Incredibly thankful for you, church.

I want you to know I love you.

You are my family.

Uh, being your pastor is such an incredible joy and privilege to me.

Now it's uh interesting that on our first year, maybe I'm opening up to one of the most difficult passages that we've dealt with since we've been working through Genesis.

If you have your Bibles with you, I hope that you do.

Whether in paper copy or the maybe inferior electronic copy is fine too.

You can open up to Genesis chapter 34.

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

We as a church, if you're new with us, have been working through the book of Genesis, and we believe in something at this church called expositional preaching.

That's just a word that I hope you know helps me sound a little smart, but it means something pretty simple.

It just means that we preach from God's word.

I say it often, this is not like my 40-minute TED talk, sometimes hour-long TED talk, some of you have experienced recently.

This is us preaching God's word.

We come here because we want to hear God speak.

And so we preach God's word expositionally, which means we preach book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

And because of that, at times we run into difficult passages where the temptation may be to maybe skip it.

Maybe this presents some material that's challenging to us.

Maybe we would originally read this and find it difficult to pull maybe some practical application from it.

And yet, because we believe what the Apostle Paul said to a young pastor named Timothy, that all of God's word is breathed out by God and profitable, we're gonna find that as we dig into this difficult passage, we're gonna be rewarded.

And so I want to read this with you this morning.

Genesis 34.

It says, Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born 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 in his life 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 us your daughters, 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 favour in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.

Ask me for as sorry, ask me for as great a bride price and a gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me.

Only give me the young woman to be my wife.

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and the father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

They said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

Only on this condition will we agree with you, that you will become as we are, by every male among you being circumcised.

Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people.

But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.

Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor's son Shechem, and the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter.

Now he was the most honored of all his father's house.

So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, These men are at peace with us.

Let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them.

Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters.

Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people, when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised.

Will not their livestock, their properties, and all be their beasts be ours?

Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.

And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons, Jacob, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure, and killed all the males.

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away.

The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.

Then Jacob said to Simeon, Simeon, and Levi, You have brought trouble upon me, by making me stink in the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.

But they said, Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?

Now we come upon this passage and we find maybe some difficult subject matter, and there are two temptations that we might feel, maybe when we're reading through this personally, but also when we're working through this as a church as a church.

Temptation we might feel is to skip over this.

And yet I want to point out two things that are important for us as we come to a difficult passage like this.

One is that, as I mentioned earlier, Paul promises us that all scripture is profitable.

And we need to make sure that we live in our lives, both individually and as a church, we believe that promise.

That if God wrote it, he could have written whatever he wanted, but he chose to give us this book with all the words that are in it, and he promised us that every word is profitable.

That means that the second thing I want us to address before we get into this passage is that when we come to a difficult passage, it requires that we work hard at interpreting it.

See, I think part of the problem we have with God's word is that we aren't willing to work hard to understand what it's all about.

And I truly believe that what we have in God's Word, especially as we've been seeing through Genesis, it's a literary masterpiece.

And you know that when it comes to literature, in order to really understand it in its fullness, it takes work, it takes study.

And so I want to encourage us to press into this difficult passage, trusting this promise that everything is profitable.

See, the context of this passage really tells us everything.

If you were with us last week, you were with us in really the height of Jacob's life so far.

You'll remember last week when Jacob was finally delivered from really slavery under Laban to exile to the Promised Land, where he met with an angel who was really God and he wrestled with God and secured God's blessing for himself.

It was there that Jacob was told that he would be renamed Israel.

And it was kind of like this transformation experience for Jacob, wasn't it?

As we look at the life of Jacob, like this is the first time that we really saw Jacob starting to get the gospel.

He started to believe the promise of God and he started to lead his family along the way of the Lord.

Following this chapter that we just read, and the incredible evil of this chapter, in chapter 36, we're gonna find another, sorry, chapter 35, we're gonna find another height of Jacob's life where he is renamed, and the children of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel, are given to Jacob and named, and the covenant is reaffirmed with Jacob.

And so in Genesis 33, you have this height of Jacob's real transformation.

It's like almost like salvation.

And in Genesis 35, you have this reaffirmation of God's covenant love for Jacob, but then sandwiched in the middle of those two mountains of Jacob's life, you have this incredible evil in chapter 34.

And I truly believe that in the context alone, we discover God's very heart for us this morning.

God wants us to recognize this morning that if your faith has been placed in Jesus Christ, you need to understand this: that evil still persists.

Even though your faith is in Christ, even though, from the view of salvation, you are perfect in Him, you're saved for eternity.

Your salvation is sure, your sanctification, Scripture says, is complete.

Even though that's true in one sense, on the other sense, evil still persists.

And we find from just our own experience that we still wage war against the flesh.

On the one hand, we have this heart that longs to glorify God, that longs to desire Him and live for Him.

But then in a moment, doesn't it seem like evil can just overwhelm us and overtake us, and the flesh can begin to win?

We find ourselves in an age where the power of sin is still active within us.

And what we read this morning is that this has been so for God's people since the fall.

That God has made a way for redemption.

And yet in this age, we still battle the power of sin.

As covenant children of God, who God has promised through faith to save, evil is still pervasive in us.

And so the question then is as we read Jacob's incredible failure, as we read the pervasive evil that is in Jacob, and really everyone in the story's life, the question for us is this: how do we deal with the pervasive evil in our life?

How do we deal with the lingering sin?

Yes, our faith is in the Lord.

Yes, our faith has been dealt with.

Yes, we are children of God, but what do we do with this sin that still lingers, with this evil that is still present?

How do we deal with it?

Well, I want you to see two things this morning.

We're really going to spend most of our time in point one this morning, but the first thing I want you to see is this that we deal with this pervasive sin by seeking freedom from the power of sin.

We seek freedom from the power of sin.

Now notice what happens in verse 1 of chapter 34.

It says, now Dina, who you'll remember from Jacob and Leah, when Leah and Rachel were having children, it says, now Dina, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land.

Jacob and his family find themselves back in the land that God had promised would one day be theirs.

This was the land of the Canaanites.

And out of curiosity, and I think what we soon discover in the story, really an affection for things that dishonor God, when Dinah gets there, she longs to see the women of this land.

She longs to learn about them, to discover them.

And yet what we discover is that this is not the first time that God's people have gotten into trouble because of what they have seen or how they have been seen.

You remember in Genesis chapter 6, another incredibly difficult passage that we worked through many months ago.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

And it said there in Genesis 6, verse 2, that when the man began, men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, it said, the sons of God, which were fallen angels, saw that the daughters of man were attractive.

Genesis 6:2

You see that there?

They saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose.

See, here you have these fallen angels seeing the people of God, seeing the children of God, and intermarrying with them, and ruining God's plan for his people to be fruitful and multiply.

And here you see the very same mistake happening again, where Dina is going out to see the women of the land, and what we find is that when Dinah goes out to see the women of the land, it is Shechem who in verse 2 saw her.

And again, God's mission is at peril.

This is a danger to God's plan.

Remember that all throughout Genesis, the people of Canaan have been no good.

If you're raising your child in Israel, and your child is playing with a Canaanite friend, you are running out to the playground and taking your child away from that Canaanite troublemaker.

This is why Abraham twice and Isaac tell the sister fib, isn't it?

They find themselves among the Canaanite people, and they know these people are dangerous.

And so, out of fear for their own lives, even though it was wrong, but but you understand the danger that they're in, they lie about their wives so that something like this might not happen.

These are dangerous people, not to mention the fact that the mission of God all throughout Genesis has required that the people of God marry within their own family.

This is why Abraham went to such lengths to ensure that his servant found for his son Isaac a wife from his lineage.

This is why Jacob himself made the same journey that Abraham's servant did in order to find for him Leah and Rachel a wife that was not a Canaanite, but one of God's own people.

And now all of these concerns for God's mission and God's warning to stay away from the Canaanites, all of these concerns have been thrown out the window.

And in verses 2 and 3, we see the atrocious act of Shechem take a place where he sees her and seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.

And while the words aren't here, surely this describes rape.

Now we want to learn from this.

We want to learn from this.

What went wrong in God's mission?

What went wrong in the plan?

See, in Genesis 33, we're at such a high height.

Now in Genesis 34, we're at such a low low.

And my question is this: what went wrong?

Because I want to see what went wrong in chapter 34, and I want to learn from it myself.

I want to see the evil that took such a great hold and rooted so deeply within Jacob and his children's hearts, and I want to make sure that I avoid that evil.

Well, I want you to understand this first thing.

Maybe this, I want this to be really practical for us this morning as we battle the sin that wages war within us.

And the first thing I want you to understand is this that if we want to deal with the sin that's pervasive in our life, that we need to do this.

If we're seeking freedom from the power of sin, we need to stay in the safe place.

We stay in the safe place.

I want you to know this morning that I'm not blaming Dina for what happened.

In every way I blame her father, Jacob.

I think that again, as Jacob is so apt to do, he has dropped the ball magnificently in Genesis 34.

See, the reality is that when Dina got to the land of Canaan, she should not have had to go out to see the women of the land in order to know what they were all about.

Because from her very childhood, if Jacob was doing his job faithfully, she would have been hearing about them.

And Jacob needed to be teaching his children that as children of God, the way that we interpret the world is not by what we see, but by what we hear.

The way that we understand what is going on in this world is not by what we see of the world, but by it's what it's by what God tells us of this world.

It was like that in the garden, wasn't it?

How were Adam and Eve to understand how they were to live in the garden?

Well, they were to listen to God's word.

God had told them not to eat of the fruit of that tree, and it wasn't until, remember that when Eve came and she saw that the tree was good, and she saw that the tree was delightful to the eyes, and she thought this is good food.

It wasn't until she saw the tree and she started to interpret things on her own that she ran into trouble.

We have any every indication in this passage that Jacob really does not care for Dinah.

See, they clearly knew Canaan was a dangerous place.

They clearly knew it was dangerous to the plan of God to intermarry.

My question is this: where did Jacob go?

Don't you read this passage and kind of think like this isn't like the Jacob we've been dealing with for the past several weeks?

Jacob throughout his life has been so proactive.

Like Jacob has been a man of initiative.

Remember when he shows up to the well and the shepherds are there and they say there are, oh, there's a rock blocking this well, and we can't feed our sheep, and Jacob's like, well, just move it, and he moves it.

Remember when God said that Jacob would have the blessing over Esau?

And what does Jacob do?

He doesn't wait for God to secure that plan.

Jacob says, I'm gonna do it myself.

I'll deal with this right now.

And yet then we come to Genesis 34, and my question is, where's Jacob gone?

Jacob's gone.

He's left Dinah to her own.

It's clear that Jacob doesn't really care about Dinah.

You see this in verse 5.

It says, Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter, Dinah.

What does he do?

But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace till they came after.

As a father, that should break your heart.

That the depth of human evil is so great that a father could look at his daughter to such a horrible thing when such a horrible thing has happened and be completely indifferent.

The first real rage is when the sons come in, and it's not Jacob ever who is angry about what happens, it's the sons.

See, Jacob does to Dino the same mistake that Isaac had made with Jacob.

You remember Isaac was told by God that Jacob would be blessed and Esau?

Jacob would be given Esau's blessing.

And then what does Isaac do?

Do you remember?

Isaac doesn't love Jacob.

Isaac rejects God's word, that the blessing would be with Jacob, and instead, you remember, Isaac loves Esau.

He wouldn't hear God's word.

God had said one thing, and yet Isaac lived another way.

And here is Jacob doing the exact same thing, not teaching his daughter the word of God.

And it's a reminder for us that if we want to escape the pervasive evil in our lives, we need to be where God's word is.

We need to hear God's word.

That's why we do this thing called preaching.

You ever thought about that?

Like, why does the church get together and open up God's word and preach God's word?

Couldn't we just read it alone?

Do we really need this?

It's because the constant testimony of Scripture is yes, we do.

It's built into our DNA.

We're hardwired to this.

We need to be in the place where we're hearing God's word constantly.

And so that happens on a Sunday morning when we come into church.

But I also want to ask you this question: Are you in relationships right now where regularly people are preaching God's word to you?

Think about your marriage relationship.

How often do you have God's word open?

Sharing with each other the things that God has shown to you?

Think about your friendships.

How often do you do you have a friend right now that, as I say this, is coming to your mind that you guys constantly preach the word to each other?

You constantly encourage each other with God's word and the things that you are learning.

You need to stay in the safe place, and the safe place is where God's word is preached.

But I also want you to recognize that the safe place is where we're safe from taking opportunities.

To sin.

We know this very practically, don't we, about sin.

Like if you were maybe counseling, you had the opportunity to counsel someone who's an alcoholic, I would imagine that one of the first things that you would say to someone who struggles with alcohol is, hey, listen, for the time being, until you know you're walking on a bit firmer legs, don't go to a bar.

Because there, there are going to be opportunities that arise that really tempt you to sin.

So don't go there, okay?

Stay away from there.

Maybe there'll be a day where you'll be able to do something like that, but do not go there.

And we can think about that in the extreme example, but can I can I ask you something?

In the sin that you're struggling with, are you giving Satan a foothold in any way?

What about in gossip?

See, if you struggle with partaking in gossiping and loving to hear that, you know, that piece of information that you should not know about that person that you do not really like, if you struggle with that, and there are a group of friends, maybe on the lunch hour, or just a group of friends that you regularly hang out with that gossip, well, one of the things that you need to do is make sure that you don't get yourself in a situation where gossip is going to be present.

If you don't have the power to say, no, I'm shutting this down, then you need to make sure you stay in the safe place.

If you get angry with people that are around you, when you sleep less than seven hours, well, you need to prioritize sleep.

You need to stay in the safe place.

You need to do everything you can to live wisely in order that you may not allow sin to have the opportunity to overtake you.

I love how Joseph will be such a powerful example of this in the weeks to come.

Remember when Joseph, the wife of Potiphar, tries to seduce Joseph?

What does Joseph do?

It's really powerful.

He just runs away.

He runs away.

He doesn't just say, hey, no, I'm not going to deal with this right now.

He doesn't just say, hey, hey, no, listen, I'm going to go in the other room.

He leaves and he runs away naked, to his great shame, and yet it shows this picture of, I don't want to be in the place of temptation.

I want to be in the safe place.

Well, the second thing we see from this story is that we also need to walk with the right people.

If we want to escape the powerful temptation of sin, if we want to escape the pervasive evil in our life, we need to walk with the right people.

This is how we find freedom from the power of sin.

See, notice throughout this story that nobody supports Dinah for the glory of God.

Jacob is passive, and her brothers seek their own revenge, but nobody cares for the heart of Dinah.

And the reason why she's allowed to go down such a terrible path is because she does not have a community around her that loves her and cares for her spiritually.

And as a human being, what we're going to discover is that you and I aren't meant to walk alone.

We cannot.

We are hardwired to walk in deep relationship with others, and we cannot do this life alone.

You cannot live a life to the glory of God without the community of believers pouring into you.

The people around Dinah, they clearly knew how dangerous it was for her to go to Canaan.

They clearly knew the danger it presented to the plan of God, and yet there was nobody to speak to her in that time.

There was nobody to stop her from doing that sin and to protect her from this sin.

And there was even nobody after this grievous sin.

There was nobody to support her.

And I hope in this moment you really feel the sadness of the story.

Like, where is the help for Dinah?

It's an incredibly tragic story.

Her life is ruined.

And yet there's no one speaking to her.

There's no one helping her.

There's no one showering her with gospel forgiveness, pointing her to God.

It's a reminder to us that you and I need to make every effort to plug into gospel community.

We know this about life, don't we?

There are certain tasks.

There are certain tasks that require two people.

Maybe you're doing reno's on the house, and you know there are things you can plug away with with one person, and yet you get to a point, don't you, where maybe you just need help with something.

And what God wants to press into us, he cannot press this in enough, is that the Christian life is one of those tasks.

You cannot do it alone.

That's why I love in Ephesians 4, which is really like the keystone passage for this theology that we can't do it alone.

But in Ephesians 4, you know what Paul says?

He says, uh, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

And when I say that, what do you think of?

Well, we think of we better do our Bible reading, we better make sure that we get it to church and listen to the sermon and worship God ourselves.

And our answer, I think, naturally, partly because of the culture we live in, is so individualistic.

But you know what Paul says?

He says, walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, and the first thing he says is, bear with one another in love.

So as to say this: you can't walk in a manner worthy of the gospel unless you are so deep in relationships in the church that you have to bear with other people.

What a deep, what what a practical application this is for us.

Listen, if there are not people in this church that you have to bear with, you are not deep enough in relationships in this church.

We get so we plug in so deeply into relationship that there are people that we work to love.

And one of the ways that we know that we're kind of like surface engaged and participating in church in an individualistic way is that we just find it easy.

We can just ignore the people we don't want to talk to.

We come in, we sit hang out here for five minutes and we leave.

Scripture presents time and time again that this is not the Christian, the way that the Christian thrives in life.

The Christian life is deeply and comprehensively a community project.

Doesn't Jesus model this?

Doesn't Jesus model this?

What is Jesus' model for ministry and for growth in the Christian life?

It's not, hey, I'm gonna speak to hundreds of people, listen to me for an hour, and then go home.

What Jesus models is a life on the road.

That's the life that Jesus wants you plugged into.

Life on the road, it's discipleship, it's small group, it's getting into each other's life, it's getting into the mess of each other's life, it's being close to people.

And let me tell you, it's very possible to consider yourself a part of this church because you attend on a Sunday morning and yet not be plugged into the life of the church.

And so, can I just press you, as your pastor right now, do everything you can to plug into relationship in the church, to both have influence in other people, but also to have influence yourself.

It's possible to attend a church without being a part of the community.

Let me just ask you a few really practical questions that will maybe gauge, you know, if you're a part of a community of believers that are supporting you, the kind of support that the Christian life requires.

If you know some someone right now who's praying for you, like really practically knows the things that are happening in your life and is praying with you and lifting those things up to the Lord regularly.

Someone that is checking in on you to see that how how they can be praying more specifically for the things that are going on in your life.

Let me ask you this: is there someone who knows your weaknesses?

Who knows the way that you struggle, who knows like your specific sin battle?

And at times it's pretty embarrassing that you gotta share that you failed again, but there's this person who's a confidant that you you know you pour out your soul to, and they support you, they lift you up, they encourage you, they check in on you, they keep you accountable.

Is there someone who knows your gifts?

Is there someone who is able to walk alongside you and just say, Brother, sister, I I see that God has gifted you with this ability, and I just want to encourage you to use that to serve the Lord.

Listen, do are there people who know you so intimately like that?

If the answer is yes, let me tell you, I am excited for your growth because when you're plugged into relationships like that, you are set to thrive.

And if the answer is no, let me commend you to press deeply into the church.

We try to make it as easy as possible at this church.

That's why the first step, it's called step one.

We want it to be as easy as possible.

And the second step, it's called step two.

Because we just want we want desire for you to be engaged in the life of the church because this is where growth happens.

The third thing that needs to happen if you're seeking freedom from the power of sin is you need to focus on the heart's passion.

Focus on the heart's passion.

Now, maybe more surprising than the event of what happens with Dinah and Shechem is the response to it.

If this story had just been Shechem and Dinah, it would be a horrific story, but really the horror of it starts when they start trying to resolve the situation.

And what we find here is the passion of many of the characters of this story, the passion of their heart is exposed.

And we find that the passion of their heart is left wanting.

You'll notice here, and this is gonna be really important in a few moments, you'll notice that God is not mentioned once in this chapter.

Not once is he mentioned, and that's really, I think, indicative of uh of where the story is gonna go.

If God is not there, of course it's gonna go into disaster, of course it's gonna go into destruction.

And so before we kind of march through the rest of this text and look at the individual characters and see the passions of their heart at play and how it's leading them down this path of wickedness, I want us just really quickly to think about the heart for a moment.

Let's put on our theology caps for a moment and think about what the heart in Scripture does.

Well, the heart is our control center.

The heart, our human heart, is the thing that inclines us to one thing and pushes us away from another thing.

It's why we as human individuals are such different people.

Because each of us have a unique heart with unique loves and passions, is why the person beside you has some hobbies, probably, that you're like, I have no clue why you would ever do that.

I think about those of you who love to sit down and draw, and I just cannot get my mind around it.

Why would you ever want to do that?

Now, part of it's because I'm so horrible at it that you would think my daughter was drawing the drawings that I'm doing.

And yet we we start to understand this, don't we?

That each heart is different, that we're all different people, we're inclined to different things, and we're we're pushed away from other things.

And that's the role of our heart, really is the control center.

And so you need to understand that you can't deal with evil in your life unless you understand your heart.

This is what Jesus says.

He says, Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a person.

He says, For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

And these are to what defile a person.

See, what Jesus is teaching us this morning is this that the reason that evil is pervasive in us is because we have a wicked heart.

Our evil starts from the inside and comes out.

The problem is so often we try to deal with the outside before dealing with the inside.

And so we understand our evil behavior, we understand our evil attitudes, but we never deal with the heart.

This is why so often secular psychology and counseling can't actually deal with your issues because it only deals with outside behavior.

And so, just really practically, I've heard things like this before.

Do a person who struggles with anger.

Well, whenever you get angry, just start looking for everything in the room that's blue.

And I guarantee you, as a person who struggles with anger, I can find something in this room that's blue that makes me really angry, okay?

Like that mat over there.

That mat is just ugly and annoying, and it's making me really angry.

Okay?

It doesn't fix the problem.

And I was reminded of this this week.

We we uh recently moved into a new home, and one of my dreams, I don't know why since I was a kid, was to grow an apple tree.

Now I hate plants, you know, and uh so I don't know why this was my dream, but I always wanted an apple tree, and so we went to Bradford Greenhouse, which uh we live way too close to to have a wife who loves plants, and so I'm worried.

But we went there and we picked up two apple trees and we planted them, and it's been four days, and I'm looking at this apple tree, and and some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow.

Now, part of the reason I share this is because I know that because of this illustration, some of you who are green thumbs are gonna come up to me after the service and tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong, and I invite that, I welcome it, I need it.

But could you imagine if you did that and I rejected you and said, no, no, no, don't worry about this.

I got this, okay?

I got this.

And then you came over to my house and you saw that I had stapled all sorts of like fully matured apples to the tree.

Well, you would look at me and say, like, okay, buddy, you don't know a single thing about how to produce a healthy tree.

The problem is not that the tree is producing, not producing mature fruit, the problem is with the roots.

The problem is with the plant itself, the problem is that the roots aren't growing deep, the tree isn't healthy.

And so it is with our own life.

The reason why evil is so pervasive in our life is because the inside isn't healthy.

And so what so many of us do is the equivalent to fruit taping.

We try to deal with our evil behaviors, our evil attitudes by just saying, I'm not gonna do it anymore.

We try to deal with the behavior.

And what Jesus is appointing our eyes to here is that you cannot overcome evil in your life unless your heart is dealt with.

We need to deal with the heart.

And all throughout this passage, we find people who are not dealing with their heart.

We find Hamor in verse 6, who comes, he's the father of Shechem, comes to speak with Jacob.

And I think Moses is showing us a little bit of humor here because Hamor's name, it means donkey.

And I think in this passage by the end of it, we're pretty convinced that the King James Version translation of donkey would be apt for Hamor in this story.

Some of you who grew up with the King James will get that joke.

Some of you guys gotta go home and look up any passage with the word donkey in it, and then you'll laugh at that joke, okay?

Well, Hamor comes, and what is his desire?

You see it in verse 8.

Hamor spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son, son Shechem longs for your daughter.

Please give her to him to be his wife.

How awkward is this?

Hamor's son Shechem has just defiled Dinah.

And now Hamor has the audacity to come to Jacob and say, Hey, listen, you know, my son and your daughter have a real nice romance going here.

Aren't they so cute together?

What why don't they just get married?

And it's absurd because Hamor, it's almost like he's tucking this defilement under the rug.

There's no repentance.

There's no sorrow.

And you see Hamor's passion here.

Hamor's passion is Shechem.

He's unwilling to deal with Shechem's sin.

In fact, what we find in verses 22 to 24 is that really he's willing to deceive all of his people in order to get Shechem what he wants.

He tells his people he doesn't tell his people anything in verses 22 to 24 about the reality that the reason why he's asking them all to be circumcised is that he wants his son to marry Jacob's daughter.

He just says, hey, we're all going to get rich.

And we see Hamor's deceit, he's willing to throw out everything for his son.

I think this is so relevant to some of us who are parents.

You see, passion.

Passion for something that is good, like even a child, if it is the primary passion of your life, it is the if it is the driving passion of your life, is idolatry.

And we live in a world where children so easily can take the altar of our worship.

And instead of worshiping the Lord, we worship our kids, we worship their schedule, we worship their future.

So easy to fall into Hamor's passion.

Well, look at Shechem's passion.

You really see it in verse 2, and this is familiar to those of us who have walked through the book of Genesis.

It says when Shechem saw when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and laid with her and humiliated her.

And here you see the same, it's really the same language that was used of Eve when she saw the fruit.

It says she saw it and she desired it and she took it.

And it's the same with Shechem.

He's overcome with this desire to satisfy his own passions.

And it's a warning to us that though we may not suffer with the degree of sin that Shechem suffers with, each of us do the same thing Shechem does.

There are things in this world that we think, if we just have it, will satisfy us.

And instead of having a passion for the glory of God, we have a passion for this thing.

Now look at Levi and Simeon.

Their passion is revenge.

You see that so clearly in verses 25 to 27.

So that when the Canaanites were sore, these two brothers came in with swords and killed all the men and plundered them.

And the way that Levi and Simeon respond to this horrible wrong is in a way that dishonors God's heart.

It dishonors God's heart.

How should have Jacob and his sons responded to this?

Well, I think that part of the reason why this story is included here is because we leave this story longing for someone.

Longing for someone who has a heart of forgiveness.

Longing for someone who can be wronged, but then forgive their enemy of the wrong.

And what we find that in a few weeks we're going to start the life of Joseph.

And Joseph is the epitome of this.

Joseph is wronged just like Dinah was.

He's thrown away to be killed.

And you know what Joseph's overwhelming desire is?

Is to forgive those who have wronged him.

Joseph, all throughout his life, has this perspective that just because a great evil has happened doesn't mean that I'm going to repay evil with evil.

And this is so relevant for us.

You see, you and I, we find ourselves just like Israel was in Canaan.

When Israel came to Canaan, they were foreigners, they were strangers.

Someday the land the land would be theirs, but at this point it wasn't.

And so they found themselves in this culture that increasingly was hostile to God.

Doesn't that sound kind of familiar?

If you are a Christian who believes the Bible, you find yourself in these days in a world that is only growing increasingly hostile to the things that you believe.

Issues such as marriage, issues such as gender, issues such as the way that we should raise our children, issues such as the freedom of religious rights.

All of these issues increasingly are hostile to Christian belief.

And yet, I want you to understand this that this is not a new problem that the church has faced.

In fact, the the relative freedom from these issues over the last 50 or so years is really rare in the life of the church.

The regular pattern of the church is to be so clearly a foreigner and a stranger in the land.

This is why, this is what Jacob and his sons experience.

This is why Peter, writing to the church, says this in chapter 2 of his letter of 1 Peter.

He says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles.

You're not in a place that's your home.

People are increasingly hostile to you.

Things for Peter's day are way worse.

Nero is persecuting and killing Christians.

It is not good.

The world is anti-Christian.

And he says, I urge you as sojourners in exile.

So what's the church says, Yeah, duh, this is not our home.

Like we gotta get out of here.

We do not belong here.

He says, I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh.

I think that would be insulting to some of the church.

Wait, wait, Peter, you're saying the problem's with me?

You're saying that in this world that's increasingly hostile to the gospel, you're saying that I need to worry about my flesh, that I need to worry about my own holiness, that the solution to this is to be devoted to the Lord?

Peter's saying yes, yes, yes.

In a world that's increasingly hostile to the mission of the church, to the mission of the God, God, what do we need to do?

We need to double down on the mission of God.

We need to double down on discipleship.

We need to double down on growth in the Lord.

Because look what happens, Peter says.

Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

He says, Keep your conduct honor among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

What Peter says to the church today.

Is you don't try to escape the suffering, you live in it, and when you suffer for doing good, for loving people too much that differ from you, when you suffer for that, then the church is seen in all of its glory.

Then unbelievers will glorify God.

And I'm reminded this is not the first time that we as God's people have been foreigners and strangers in a land that is increasingly hostile to all that God loves.

You see, that's the third practical thing.

We need to focus on the heart's passion.

But I want you to see here that the what this all should have led to was really repentance.

And again, our fourth practical point as we seek to freedom from sin is that we need to repent for the God-glorifying purpose.

And notice in this patch that God isn't mentioned.

All these evils and so much sadness, but not once does anyone turn to God, nor is there any forgiveness for anyone.

Instead, sin is heaped upon sin, upon sin, and there is increasing destruction because of their sin.

There's increasing wickedness that leads to life ruin.

And I think that begs the question, why?

Why?

And I think the answer to the question why is this, because Jacob can't be the savior of these people.

This story points us to a person who, though wronged, could forgive his enemies.

And in the short term, we're gonna in a few weeks turn to Joseph, who who is that man?

And the second thing I want you to see about this passage, really quickly as we close, is that we escape evil by seeking forgiveness and the payment for sin.

We escape evil by seeking forgiveness in the payment for sin.

See, this story is pointing us to something that is beyond Genesis 34.

And one of the most striking things Moses wants us to see in Genesis 34 is really what is not there.

We leave this story hungry for forgiveness.

What if we could just have a God-glorifying hero who, when this atrocious sin happened with Dinah, he stepped back and said, God, I'm gonna let you be the one who is the God of vengeance, and I'm gonna pursue your will in this.

We're left hungry, hungry for forgiveness.

And there are a few things that are clear from this story.

One is that the gospel has not transformed this people.

See, where the gospel transforms hearts, forgiveness for others is full and free.

Isn't that what Jesus says?

He says, He who has been forgiven much, forgives much.

Why?

Well, it's because he shares this illustration that if you've been forgiven of a debt that's$10 million, well, all of a sudden that debt you have that someone has against you that's a thousand dollars is like nothing in comparison to how much you've been forgiven.

So when you truly understand that the gospel, what Jesus is saying, is forgiveness flows out of you.

And you know, one of the realities of this church needs to be that there's this constant stream of forgiveness.

I find myself talking to new people at this church who have maybe come out of a church that's hurt them, or maybe they've even come out of a religion that has hurt them.

And I find myself talking to them, like sometimes having to convince them, like, hey, listen, if you become part of this church, people are gonna hurt you, okay?

You're gonna get hurt.

If you get into relationships, it's gonna hurt.

Like if we if each of us could put up our hands and say how many of us have been hurt by someone in the church, I think probably all of us would put up our hands.

Well, why is that?

Because you get a hundred sinners in a room to try to do life together, and what's gonna happen?

Sin.

And if there's not this steady stream of forgiveness flowing in this community, well, we will just never get anywhere.

But I want you to notice something else in this story: that God, again, this is the grace and mercy of God.

He's continuing to accomplish his plan.

Like we should be reading through Joseph, our jaw is dropped.

How can such sinful people be blessed here at like the bottom of the wickedness of God's people?

Did you read what happened at the end?

It says they took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, and all that was in their houses, they captured and plundered.

The people of God act atrociously, sinfully, and they are, they leave, rewarded for it.

Same thing happened when Abraham lied about his wife.

God is continuing to bless his people.

Why?

Why would God bless a sinful people?

Because the blessing does not depend on their perfect righteousness, the blessing depends on his covenant with them.

God said he would bless them, and so he will do it, and he does it.

You notice also that the promise to Abraham was that those who bless Abraham will be blessed, and those who curse the family of Abraham will be cursed.

And what happens here to the Canaanites who curse the family of Abraham?

Well, even though it's not done in a God-glorifying way, you notice that they're cursed.

They're cursed because they stood against the people of God.

And we see throughout the story that God's promise, God will not abandon his promise, no matter how sinful his people.

Like we read through Genesis and we're like, okay, it can't get any worse, right?

It can't, it just can't get any worse.

Like we had we've had incest, we've had uh lying about our family, we've had murder, we've had stealing the blessing.

Like God's people have have been put on a display of a whole bunch of various different sins that you can participate yet.

And then yet we get to Genesis 34 and we see, well, we haven't had rape yet.

We haven't had the murder of a whole nation yet.

We haven't had deceit to this level yet, and yet the reminder is that God's mercy is still for these people.

It's still for these people.

The depth of their sin, and yet God is still merciful.

And my question is this: where are we in this story?

Where are we?

Who are we in this story?

You know what I think?

The answer to that I think it's pretty horrific.

But I think that in many ways we're kind of like the Canaanites.

You and I were outsiders.

You and I sinned against the true Israel, who is Jesus Christ.

We committed atrocious crimes against him and against his kingdom.

And yet, despite our sin, Jesus is the true Jacob who comes to us and instead of bringing judgment, you know what Jesus brings?

He brings forgiveness.

You know what's a really horrific story?

I mean, this story is horrific.

You know what's a really horrific story?

Is that a perfect man walked on this world and he had never sinned once.

And all that happened was his enemies hurled insults at him, his enemies betrayed him, his enemies sinned against him, assaulted his kingdom, and yet at the end of his life, Jesus Christ, he climbed on a cross and he prayed for his enemies.

And eventually he breathed his last for his enemies.

And you and I, we sit here this morning as those who, if your faith is in God, you were once an enemy of God.

The Bible says you're at enmity with him, and yet Jesus, all of your sin that you have committed against true Israel, against Jesus Himself, all of your sin, Jesus has climbed on the cross and said, God, you said that those who curse Israel will be cursed, but I want to take the curse.

God looked at you, all the sin that you had committed against him, he said, Their curse is mine.

Jesus said, On the cross, I'm taking their curse, I'm becoming the curse for them, so that instead of experiencing the curse that they deserve, instead of experiencing the death that is the only reward for the way that they have lived, I want them to experience blessing.

I want them to experience life.

See, you and I are the Canaanites who have lived in a way that only deserves curse, and yet Jesus has come to give us blessing.

And this is the way that we overcome evil by looking to the cross and by being near to the cross.

Let's pray.

Father, God, thank you for Jesus Christ.

And thank you for the mercy that has been so lavished over us and him.

And God, I pray that as we consider how great his mercy is to us, would you overwhelm us, Lord, with this love for your son Jesus Christ?

Overwhelm us with an affection for you that drives us to live for you.

Lord, as we dwell as strangers and exiles in this world, help us to live lives that are devoted to you.

Or that people may see our good works and glorify God who is in heaven.

God, we want to be used by you.

And so, Lord, we commit our lives to you.

And God, pray that you would give us this overwhelming understanding of the great mercy that you have shown us in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on the cross to become the curse for us.

So, God, we sing this to praise you.

And we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.