The Rape of Dinah

Well, good morning. For weeks now, we have been going chapter by chapter through the book of Genesis.

Last week, we covered chapters 32 and 33.

And so today we arrive at Genesis chapter 34.

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

Last week, I warned you all that this was a difficult passage. Okay.

Were you here? Yes, I warned you it was a difficult passage.

I have never heard a sermon on this chapter in my life, and I've heard a lot of sermons.

It's a very sensitive subject matter. In fact, I picked the title that I did

for today because I wanted to make it very clear from the very beginning of

the message, like what the subject matter was, just so you would know.

If you would like to step out now, that is fine with me. If you weren't here

last week and you didn't get the warning and now you know and you need to go, that's fine.

Trinity Baptist is less than a mile from here.

I went on their website and looked. I think they were preaching on Daniel chapter

Daniel 11 · chapter mention

11 this morning, okay? Which is not about rape. So if you want to, go for it.

So I'd never heard a sermon on this chapter before. It's a very sensitive subject matter.

And it's not obvious what the application is. At least at first,

it wasn't to me when I read it.

I was like, what are we going to do with this? So originally,

I had considered skipping it.

However, the more that I... Did somebody go, ooh?

Did I hear that? It's not a sin to like skip a chapter.

So anyway, the more that I read it and the more that I thought about it,

the more I realized I do have a sermon worth of stuff to say about it.

And so we're going to do it. All right. You ready?

Genesis chapter 34. I'm going to read to you the whole chapter, verses 1 through 31.

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

Here we go. Genesis 34, starting in verse 1. Dinah, Leah's daughter,

whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

When Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, a prince of the region,

saw her, he took her and raped her.

He became infatuated with Dinah, daughter of Jacob.

He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her.

Get me this girl as a wife, he told his father Hamor.

Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons

were where with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

Meanwhile, Shechem's father, Hamor, came to speak with Jacob.

Jacob's sons returned from the field, and when they heard about the incident,

and were deeply, they were, sorry, they heard about the incident,

and were deeply grieved and angry.

For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob's daughter,

and such a thing should not be done.

Hamor said to Jacob's sons, My son Shechem is strongly attracted to your daughter.

Please give her to him as a wife. Intermarry with us.

Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.

Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here. Move about and acquire property in it.

Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, Grant me this favor and I

will give you whatever you say.

Demand of me a high compensation and gift and I'll give you whatever you ask

me. Just give the girl to be my wife.

But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he

had defiled their sister Dinah.

We cannot do this thing, they said

to him, giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.

We will agree with you only on this condition if all your males are circumcised

as we are. Then we will give... That's coming up later.

Then we will...

Then we will give you to our daughters. This is already going better than I imagined.

All right. Then we will give you to our daughters, take your daughters for ourselves,

live with you and become one people.

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

Their words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

The young man did not delay in doing this because he was delighted with Jacob's

daughter. Now he was the most important in all his father's house.

So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men there.

These men are peaceful toward us, they said. Let them live in our land and move

about in it, for indeed the region is large enough for them.

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

But the men will agree to live with us and be one people only on this condition

if all our men are circumcised as they are.

Won't their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours?

Only let us agree with them and they will live with us. All the able-bodied

men listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the able-bodied men were circumcised.

On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons,

Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and went into the unsuspecting

city and killed every male.

They killed Hamor and his son

Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem's house, and went away.

Jacob's other sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their

sister had been defiled.

They took their sheep, cattle, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in

the field. They captured all their possessions, children, and wives,

and plundered everything in the houses.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me,

making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, and the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

We are few in number. If they unite against me and attack me,

I and my household will be destroyed.

But they answered, should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?

And that's the passage this morning. There's a lot in there and there's a lot

of like mature stuff in there, right?

So what we're going to do is we're just going to go through it little by little

bit, explain the story and how I think it applies to our life.

Let's start with the very first verse.

It begins with Dinah, Leah's daughter, whom she bore to Jacob.

So for those of you who have been here the past several weeks,

you know Jacob is sort of our main character in the story right now as we've

been going through Genesis, right? Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob.

Jacob had four wives and had multiple kids with them. I think 11 boys up at

this point and at least one daughter, maybe more.

And her name's Dinah. So Dinah is Jacob's daughter. And then the story,

this story has, you know, she's like sort of the star of the first part of the story.

So Dinah, Leah's daughter, whom

she bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

So I guess I'll just point out right now, Dinah was not looking for a man, right?

The story makes that clear. She went out into the city or out into wherever the area was.

And it specifically says she was looking to see some of the young women.

She was not looking for a man. She was looking for young women.

And a man found her. Verse two, when Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite,

a prince of the region, saw her, he took her.

Now, I don't know if a prince of the region refers to Hamor,

his father, or Shechem. I think it's probably Hamor.

But either way, they're a prominent family in the region.

And it says, he saw her, and he took her, and he raped her.

Now, the word rape here is, it's the Hebrew word that is translated,

rape here, is not, it's not like our English word rape.

Our English word rape means something very specific, and it pretty much always means that thing.

That is not how the Hebrew word is. The Hebrew word that's translated here,

rape, is actually just a word that simply refers to lying down.

A person lies down. And it is the context that determines actually what kind of lying down it is.

And so whether it's being used in a sexual way or not has to do with the context,

the other words that are in the sentence.

This is something we do in English also. That's not like unique to Hebrew.

Like, let me give you some sentences in English. So imagine someone says,

my husband slept eight hours last night. Okay.

Don't imagine me saying it. Imagine a woman who said it. Okay.

My husband slept eight hours last night. If you heard that sentence,

you would know exactly what was meant by the word slept.

But if she said, my husband slept with another woman.

You would know that she means something completely different by the word slept,

even though it's the same word in both sentences.

My husband slept eight hours last night, and my husband slept with another woman.

It's literally the same word, spelt the same way in English,

and it means something completely different.

It's the words around the word that help us know what it means.

So the translators went with the word rapier, I think for several reasons.

This is my understanding of it. As best as I can tell, first of all,

the laying down that he did seems to be done to her rather than with her.

There are times in the Bible where this verb is used with the word with.

So the person lied or laid with someone, but the word with is not here.

It seems that what was done to her was done to her rather than with her.

Also, it is preceded by the word took. There's actually three verbs here.

He's a prince of the region and he saw her and he took her and raped her.

And that word took shows up later on in the same passage.

If you skip toward the end of the story and go to verse 28, you will see that

this is after they killed all the people, and then the brothers came and plundered

the city, and it says they, what's the word?

They took their sheep and their cattle and their donkeys.

The donkeys did not choose to have new owners, right? They did not consent.

They just got taken. The sheep just got taken. Whatever's in the city got taken.

So it's obviously a word that can mean like seized against your will.

So it can mean that, and it's the word that comes just before it.

So if you go back to verse 2, you see that same word there. He's a prince of the region.

He saw her, or he took her and he raped her. So that is why they go with the word.

The thing that makes this difficult is the very next verse. If you look at verse three, it says...

He became infatuated with Dinah, daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl

and spoke tenderly to her.

It sounds like he didn't want to harm her in this verse. And so people have

wondered if rape is the correct word to use here.

I'm going to go ahead and tell you why I think that that word is close enough to correct.

I think it's close enough to write, especially considering their culture and

what was true at their time and our culture and the way that we use that word.

So let me explain theirs. Back then, women were treated more like property than they are now, okay?

Not everybody and not every time, but a lot of times women were treated more like property.

When I say not everybody, I mean, earlier in the book of Genesis,

there's a time where God is speaking to Abraham and he says,

listen to the voice of your wife, okay?

He's telling her, like, there was a specific issue that he was saying,

do what your wife says to do, okay?

So in that case, God is not treating her, like, I can't imagine God saying that

about a donkey or about a bar of silver, right?

He's not treating Sarah like property. God is treating Sarah like she's a person.

But not everybody did that. That was not always the case in this culture.

In fact, if you remember two sermons ago, remember how Jacob got Leah and Rachel

as his wives? Do you remember?

He worked seven years, and then he worked seven more years. I mean,

if you think, I didn't use this word at the time, but he kind of bought them, right?

So that's the culture they're in. The reason I'm bringing this up is what Shechem

does here, this would have been wrong for him to do, regardless of how enthusiastic

Dinah was, because Dinah wasn't his.

Now, before you say, oh, that is so archaic and backwards and barbaric and it

belongs to someone else.

That's crazy. Then I just want to remind you that we have a version of this still to this day.

We have a law on the books here in Florida.

The crime is called statutory rape. And I think probably most of you have heard of it.

Adults are not supposed to sleep with minors, even if the minor says that they want to.

Because the kid cannot consent. Right?

Why? Why can this kid not consent? Here's why. Because they still belong to their parents.

Their parents still own them, right?

They are under the authority of their legal guardian. Therefore,

they cannot consent. In fact, that dynamic might even be in play in this story.

Dinah is called a young woman or a girl in this story. I think it's very possible

that she's a teenager. I do not know how old Shechem is.

But that could be what's going on here as well. So anyway, my point in bringing

all this up is, What is happening in this passage is a little bit unclear,

but it seems to me it is either forcible rape or something like statutory rape.

And it was considered an outrage to the Israelites.

Not to mention that just regular old fornication is a sin.

So verse four, get me this girl as a wife, he told his father.

Hamor, Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah.

So imagine you're the dad, you hear this.

But since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

So Shechem wants to marry her. And what does Jacob do when he hears the news?

At first he does nothing.

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned how passive Jacob seems

to me when I read through the book of Genesis?

That's in this story too.

So Jacob's there. He hears what happens. He doesn't do anything at first.

He waits till the sons come in from the field. And I don't know how long that

is. I don't know if that's hours or days, because sometimes,

you know, they were way out in the field.

So I don't know how long he waits, but eventually the sons come back.

In the meantime, the father and the son, rapist and rapist father,

show up, and they go over to Jacob's house to ask for Dinah's hand in marriage.

Jacob's sons, Dinah's brothers, hear about this, and they come and they join

the conversation. Now, look at verse 8. This is really interesting.

Hamor said to Jacob's sons, My son Shechem is strongly attracted to your daughter.

Please give her to him as a wife.

Who is Hamor asking for permission to marry this girl?

Yeah, her brothers. Now, the story said earlier that Hamor showed up to talk to Jacob.

But then at some point in the midst of the conversation, Hamor decides to ask

the question to Dinah's brothers.

Why? Don't know for sure. I think it's because Hamor, at this point of the conversation,

had already figured out who cares the most about Dinah and this situation.

They're there to ask Jacob, and then Jacob, I mean, at least the way the story's

written, sounds like he's saying nothing.

The brothers sure seem to be very interested, and so at some point,

Hamor asks the brothers for permission, and it is the brothers because he says,

my son Shechem is strongly attracted to, and that word right there,

your, I looked it up, or saw it, you can find this stuff.

She's strongly attracted to your daughter. Your is plural in Hebrew.

In other words, they said, my son is strongly attracted to y'all's daughter,

as if Dinah belonged to all of them.

And he's asking for, he's saying, can we have her?

And it looks like Jacob's not saying anything, and the brothers are the ones

who are taking charge of this situation.

Verse 13. But Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father deceitfully because

he had defiled their sister Dinah.

We cannot do this thing, they said to them. Giving our sister to an uncircumcised

man is a disgrace to us. So this is interesting.

Again, Hamor and Shechem showed up to ask Jacob for their hand in marriage.

They asked the question, and who answers the question? Not Jacob.

Jacob's sons answered the question.

And so what do they say? They say, well, you know we can't we couldn't do it

if you're not circumcised you'd have to be circumcised now what is circumcision

if you're here and you're young and you've never heard of that circumcision

is a surgical cut that is done to remove skin from a man's private part and it is painful,

The first 15, they say, we will agree with you only on this condition if all

of your males are circumcised as we are. Okay.

I think whoever went who earlier was thinking the same thing I was thinking,

which is it could very well be that the brothers were thinking this was sort of a way of saying no.

Okay. Because Shechem had just said, I will pay any price, name anything.

I will do anything for her to be my wife.

And so they say, well, are you willing to do that? Were you willing to cut yourself?

Right? And not just that. I mean, that'd be kind of a big deal,

but not just you, you and your dad, and not just you and your dad, the whole village.

You got to convince every guy you know to do it.

So I could be wrong, but this might have been an attempt of them just being

able to say no and sending them away.

Maybe they planned all of the events that happened as this chapter unfolded, but I'm not sure.

I think it's possible that they would have imagined that there's no way that

they would have agreed to this, especially when you add not just to do it,

but to add the whole village has to do it.

Can you just think what a big ask that would be to go back to the city and say.

My son, he really likes this girl, so will you all?

Hamor and Shechem would have to be very influential to get them all to agree to that, and they were.

Now, earlier in the story, it had said that either Shechem or Hamor was a prince

of the region. So we know that they were an influential family,

so that probably helped.

But the other thing that helped is they didn't just say, hey,

I really like this girl, so could we all? They didn't say it.

The way they pitched it to the rest of the village was this way.

All of us intermarrying with them will cause us to absorb their wealth.

Look at all their sheep, all their livestock. In a generation or two, it'll all be ours.

And so the men of the village agreed to it on those terms I guess that's how greedy they were.

Now, here's the part that makes me think the brothers might have improvised

the plan rather than having it planned all along. Verse 25.

It says, on the third day, when they were still in pain. Okay.

So in other words, the thing that they do next does not happen on the first day, right?

They're all there. They're bleeding. It's awful. And they don't do anything

on day one. And they don't do anything on day two.

And then on day three, they make their move. And I was just thinking,

perhaps, it took a little while for it to dawn on them the situation that they were in.

All of the males of the village did this. I don't know if they saw that coming or not, but it happened.

So all of the males in this village, all at the same time, and I don't know

how many males are in this village, so I'm just going to make up a number,

okay? Let's say it was 50, okay?

So you got 50 guys that all get surgery on the same day, okay?

With no doctors and no scalpels,

just whatever knives they had i

know it would have been awful okay so they're bleeding and they're in pain and

they're recovering and at some point i don't know at which point at some point

sime and levi thought about it and i think they realized two guys could not

kill 50 guys out on the street but two guys could kill 50 guys in the hospital.

So for whatever reason, they didn't do it on the first day. They didn't do it

on the second day. And they go in on the third day and they kill every single one of them.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned this story. When I talked about Jacob and

his passivity, I talked about that later on, his sons become mass murderers.

And I referred to this and I said, they killed this guy and everybody ever met.

I said, they killed everyone in the village. I was incorrect.

When I went back and read the story, I realized I was wrong.

I forgot that they spared the women and the children. So they did not kill the

whole village. They killed all of the men in the village.

But nonetheless, it was a mass murder. I called it that, and it was correct.

Now, back to Jacob's passivity. Look at verse 30 and the way that he reacts to all of this.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me,

making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number.

If they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.

Isn't that interesting? was that what you'd say?

Like I just, it's seen, Jacob does not comment on the morality of the situation

at all, just how it affects him.

He doesn't make, he doesn't condemn the rape at any point in the story.

He doesn't condemn the murders at any point in the story.

He simply complains that this will affect him negatively. Oh,

people aren't going to like me now and we going to be unsafe in this region.

Jacob is very pragmatic and he seems unconcerned about ethics,

just about the practical.

At least the sons sort of do care about the moral dimension of this thing.

I think what they did was wrong, but at least they are thinking in terms of right and wrong.

When you get to verse 31 and it says, they answered, should he have treated

our sister like a prostitute?

You can see that at least they're saying like, aren't there some things that

are more important than our reputation?

Aren't there some things that are more important than our safety,

right? At least they're thinking in terms of justice and right and wrong.

I think they handled it very wrongly. But at least they're thinking about what

ought to be and what ought not be. Jacob is just thinking about what is.

Now, that's our story. Four months ago, when I was studying the book of Genesis

in preparation for this series, I was like, I studied Genesis during the daytime,

and then in the evening, I hung out with some of my friends that night.

And I was hanging out with Daniel Gilland and Jessica Gilland.

Daniel Gilland is one of the associate pastors here at our church,

and Jessica Gilland is his wife.

So, studied Genesis during the day, hanging out with them at night,

and they said to me as we were hanging out, hey, how is your study of Genesis

going? and I went, uh, I think I was probably right around this chapter at that point.

And I said, whoa, well, I think the rape of Dinah is going to be a difficult passage.

I mean, when it comes to preaching, I'm considering skipping it.

I don't even know what the application for that sermon would be.

Jacob's sons kill a whole village of people and the text doesn't even make it clear that that's bad.

And then Jessica Gilland said something like this. She went,

oh, all of that comes back around later.

If you keep reading, you'll see that their actions in that story end up haunting them later on.

And she was right. I just had to keep reading.

So some of our pastor's wives around here are theologians, just so you know.

Let me show you what she was referring to. Fifteen chapters later,

she knew this off the top of her head.

15 chapters later in genesis chapter 49 this

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

happens i'm going to read to you this is at the end of jacob's life so years and

years have passed now so all the sons in this story who are i guess young

men at the time have now are older men and then jacob's really old he's about

to die now look at this genesis 49 verse 28 these are the 12 tribes of israel

Genesis 49:28

12 in all and this was what their father said to them he blessed them and he

blessed each one with a suitable blessing then he commanded them,

I am about to be gathered to my people.

Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

So this is at the end of Jacob's life. He somehow realizes that he is about to die.

And so he starts doing the things that people do just before they're about to

die. So he gives instructions about where he wants to be buried.

And he gives like a blessing or a prophecy about his son's life.

So at this point, he has 12 sons. And so they become the tribes of Israel.

And so he gives a blessing to each one. I want to read to you some of the positive

ones first. as he's giving them a blessing. This is Genesis 49, verse 20.

Genesis 49:20

One of his sons' name is Asher. And he says, Asher's food will be rich and he

will produce royal delicacies.

Another one of his sons is named Naphtali. He says, Naphtali is a doe set free

that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine beside a spring. Its branches climb over the wall.

Now, let me show you what he says to Simeon and Levi. This is verses,

I think it's four, yeah, five, six, and seven.

So just keep in mind, Asher's got food, and one of them's a doe, and Joseph's a vine.

Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their knives are vicious weapons.

May I never enter their council. May I never join their assembly.

For in their anger, they kill men. And on a whim, they hamstring oxen.

Their anger is cursed, for it is strong, and their fury, for it is cruel.

I will disperse them throughout Jacob and scatter them throughout Israel.

So he curses them just before he dies. It's just interesting.

I want you to think about the story.

Jacob, who at the time of the incident, the same guy who did almost nothing

at the time, just before he dies, curses his son. And then, right?

I mean, I just feel like that's so passive aggressive. Does nothing,

does nothing, does nothing. And then finally, as he's about to die,

I curse you and then he dies. And that's what happens.

I don't know if he literally died right after he said it. I'm just saying it was shortly after that.

What Simeon and Levi did in this story was wrong.

And you can tell even Jacob thought it was wrong. And he eventually said that

he thought it was wrong, right? Simeon and Levi, what they did was wrong.

And so I want to show you how this topic is handled in the New Testament.

It is often the case that the New Testament clarifies the Old Testament.

There are many times where we're reading in the Old Testament,

and you're like, what is that about? Why is that the way it is? Why would that be?

And then you get to the New Testament, and you go, oh, that's why.

Oh, that explains it. Oh, that's why that was.

So lots of times the New Testament clarifies the Old.

Let me go ahead and read to you from Romans chapter 12 on this topic.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Romans 12, starting in verse 17.

It says, do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Now, that's what Simeon and Levi did in this story, right? Evil was done to

their sister Dinah, so then they repaid evil for evil.

Do not repay evil, anyone evil for evil. Try to do what is honorable in everyone's eyes.

If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone, right?

That's like the exact opposite of kill everyone, right? Live at peace with everyone.

Verse 19, friends, do not avenge yourselves.

Instead, leave room for his wrath. Who's the his there?

And we'll keep reading the next sentence. For it is written,

vengeance belongs to me. I will repay, says the Lord.

But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For in doing so, you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.

Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

So he says the way that you handle evil is with good, right?

If you want to punish them, you want to heap fiery coals on their head,

then here's how you do it. Give them the food they need and give them the drink that they need.

Conquer evil with good. The New Testament teaches us to not take revenge.

The Old Testament teaches that as well. In fact, this passage quotes the Old Testament twice.

The phrase, vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord,

that's from Deuteronomy.

And if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. If your enemy is hungry,

feed him. That's from Proverbs.

So it's the Old Testament and the New Testament. But here we have the New Testament

quoting the Old Testament and then adding to it.

And the New Testament says, do not take revenge. But the thing I wanted to point

out to you is, notice the reason that the New Testament says to not take revenge.

It says, friends, do not avenge yourselves. Instead, leave room for his wrath,

for it is written, vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord.

What is the reason that you're not supposed to take revenge,

according to the New Testament? The reason is, because that's God's job.

The New Testament doesn't say, well, the thing that happened to you,

it's not really that bad.

Don't think of it as a bad thing. Don't think of it as anything that needs to

be done about it. That's not what the New Testament says.

The New Testament doesn't say,

you know, nothing is to be punished and injustice isn't really a thing.

No, the New Testament says, no, they did something wrong, but don't avenge yourselves.

Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay, says the Lord. The New Testament doesn't

say, what people do doesn't matter.

And the New Testament says the reason you are not to take vengeance is because

it's not your job. That's God's job.

Revenge is a kind of practical atheism.

Practical atheism is, I did not make it up. I think there's a Christian book

that has that title, Practical Atheism.

I did not read it. But the idea is this, that you can be a theist in your head

and the way you talk and still be an atheist in practice, right?

So an atheist is someone who believes there is no God, all right?

And a theist is someone who believes there is a God.

And the way you typically know this is by what they say. I would say most often,

I would say an atheist is someone who says there is no God, and the theist is

someone who says there is a God.

But you can be a theist and say there is a God and live your life like there's no God.

Let me give you an example of this. If you're someone who says you believe in

God and you don't ever pray, it seems to me that would be being a practical atheist.

That's being an atheist in practice. If you believe there is a God out there

and he can hear you and he cares and he listens and you don't speak to him,

it seems to me that's like being an atheist in practice.

Another example would be living for wealth. When you say, well,

I got to get all that I can in this world, as if there is no other world,

as if there is no eternity, as if this is the only life you got, right?

I mean, people do that. I got to get more and I got to make sure that I get

all this because you only live once.

Have you heard people say that? No, if you're a Christian, you only live twice.

But we got a lot of people going, no, you only live once. I got to do it now.

This is my one shot. It seems to me that's like being an atheist in practice.

And the third example I want to give you is the one from our passage this morning, revenge.

Revenge is say, I believe there's a God and I'm going to have to take care of

justice myself. There is no judge that's going to make things right.

It's my job to do that right now. No, it's not your job.

There is a God and vengeance belongs to him.

And as Christians we are tempted to do this. I spoke with someone here on a

Sunday morning earlier this year in that like in that aisle way it was just

before just after one of the services,

and the person told me a story someone that comes to church here regularly and

they told me a story of something they had done to someone else earlier that week,

and I had said something like you know that's not good I expressed some sort

of disapproval as to the story they told me what they did to the person I was

like that's not good and and then And they said to me, in the aisle way at church,

they said, but he did it to me first.

So, I mean, we can go to church every week and still be thinking that he did

it to me first, and so I had to do it in order to make justice happen.

Right? So, I'm having to explain, no, that's not what we do.

Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's justice.

If you've ever wondered, like, what is that story about? Why did he die?

He died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath.

Sin deserves God's wrath. That is what is just.

Jesus died on the cross in our place because the punishment needed to fall on

someone. God has real wrath. It's got to go somewhere.

So he sent his son and Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's justice.

And there will be a judgment day one day for the same reason,

because he's a God of justice.

And anyone who is not forgiven of their sins through Jesus Christ,

God's wrath will have to be satisfied. There will be a judgment day for the same reason.

So what are we to do? We are to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

We must believe that God exists and we must live as if God exists.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for this passage. I thank you for even the difficult portions of scripture.

I thank you for the New Testament, particularly for the parts of the New Testament

that helped clarify for us things in the old.

I thank you for your instruction on vengeance and how to treat other people.

I especially thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross in our place,

so that our sins could be dealt with without us being crushed,

without us being destroyed, without us being punished for all of eternity.

Let me pray if there's anybody here who does not know you yet,

that they would repent and turn to Jesus and be forgiven of their sins.

So we thank you for your justice and we thank you for your grace.

And as we go in to have Lord's Supper, we, goodness gracious,

Lord's Supper is about your justice and your grace all at the same time.

We love you and we worship you Amen.