November 9, 2025: Violation and Vengeance - Genesis 34

As we continue in our series in Genesis title, Legacy of

blessing and see that we're in a difficult text this morning,

we're asking of Genesis these questions, these basic questions

to human existence. What am I, who am I and why am I

here? That's middle question, the

question of identity. Who am I?

Families have all kinds of identity markers.

And in the Old Testament, the sign of the covenant, the sign

of entrance into the covenant family, is the sign of

circumcision. That's going to be at play in

our text this morning. So we were looking for that.

In the New Testament, the sign of the covenant shifts over from

circumcision over to baptism. And so we will celebrate this

morning this beautiful sign of initiation, the sign of the new

covenant, as we see our baptizees go into the water,

understanding a little bit more about their identity as a

Christian in the community with faith.

Talk about how Genesis, the promises of God deliver promises

in these categories, land, nation and blessing or place,

place to live, a people or a family to whom we belong and

blessing, a purpose, work to do in the world.

We also have seen how sin wreaks havoc in these categories.

We see people sent from their homes as a result of their sin

to exile from the Garden of Eden.

Jacob is having to flee out of Canaan.

We also see instead of family and love, we see murder or

potential murder, sometimes in the closest of relationships, as

Cain kills Abel and as Esau breathes threats against his

brother Jacob. But we also see sin forth, the

purposes to bless the nation's Instead of blessing the people

around us, the unbelievers, curses happen instead.

And last week we hit this beautiful resolution in chapter

33 as Esau and Jacob, that we were expecting violence or

potential violence, this beautiful reconciliation, this

warm passage in chapter 33. We're blessed because Jacob was

finally out of exile back in Canaan and living at peace with

his brother, though in separate places.

Now we're hopeful as he buys land from Shechem that there

will be a peaceful relationship with the Gentiles in this place.

You kind of expect the end credits to roll up the screen,

you know, Beautiful happy ending.

But sadly, Jacob is not Jesus and the human sin problem is not

resolved and everything goes off the rails in chapter 34 and all

three areas are are threatened as we will see.

How can they live in this place? How can they bless these people?

How can they have the appropriate purpose when such

atrocities are committed? So this is a hard text and we

have a great need that is addressed by this text, our

great need for justice and mercy.

We need justice and mercy, and if you're following along in

your bulletin, I'm giving you an outline.

And our first point as we go along with the text is taken

directly from the Bible. Christians are called to act

justly and love mercy. Both of these go haywire in

chapter 34. 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 Hibite, 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 Haymore, saying, get me this

girl for my wife. Couple of things we need to

note. Dinah is the daughter of Leah,

the wife that Jacob didn't love, and the rivalry that exists in

his family is going to spill down to the next generation as

the brothers of Dinah. Sorry, the brothers of Dinah and

the sons of Leah have rivalry against the sons of Rachel,

Joseph, and Benjamin. We're going to also see that

Dinah's name is mentioned over and over and over again by this

text, but not by the perpetrators who see her as an

object, sexual sin, an object of lust, something to steal.

Tiny is the daughter of Leah, the full sister to Reuben,

Simeon and Levi and Judah. And we're going to see a

horrible situation in this text. It's she's probably a very young

girl, marriageable age, maybe as young as 12 years old to 14,

very vulnerable, accosted by this Shechem, a Prince whose

father has all the power in this city.

We move on in the text, verse 5. Now Jacob heard that he had

defiled his daughter Dynam, but his sons were with his

livestocks in the fields. So Jacob held his peace until

they came, and Haymore, the father 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 Haymore spoke with them,

saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter,

Please give her to him to be his wife.

Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take

our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the

land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it and get

property in it. Shechem also said to her father

and to your brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and

whatever you say to me I will give.

Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and

I will give whatever you say to me.

Only give me the young woman to be my wife.

Well notes that there is no repentance in this attempt to

gain Dinah as a wife. We can also note very carefully

that Dinah is still in their custody.

At least two of the sons are enraged by this.

Jacob is probably too quiet. They negotiate for Dinah.

Sounds a little bit like they're trying to buy her.

Better to be thinking this. In ancient customs of

negotiating gifts for arranged marriages, they offer a lot of

money but they never address the crime and this adds insults to

the injury in the eyes of the brothers.

So in verse 13, the plot thickens.

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father

deceitfully because he had to file 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 your 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. They're weaponizing their most

precious sign of the covenant. Now, appropriately, the sign of

circumcision is the sign of conversion into the family.

They're not to intermingle marriages with those who are not

Jewish. So the offer is to say become

Jewish and we can combine our tribes.

But it's all under deceit. They're weaponizing their

religion. And then it continues to descend

down, down, down. Their words, please.

Haymore and Haymore's son Shechem.

And the young man did not delay to do the thing to himself,

because he delighted in Jacob's daughter.

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

So Haymore and his son Shechem came to this, the gate of their

city, and spoke to the men of their city, saying, imagine

trying to get people to go along with this just for a second.

This is a crazy, crazy deal. Verse 21 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, well, not their livestock.

They're going to make an economic appeal here, will not

their livestock, their property and all their beasts.

BRS, only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us

again. They're completely, completely

hiding and ignoring the atrocity that they committed and

attempting to get the town to go along with the plan.

Verse 24 And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to

Haymore and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised.

All who went out of the gate of his city.

Verse 25. On the third day, when they were

sore, 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 Haymore and his son Shechem with a 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, and

all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the

houses they captured and plundered.

They rained down vengeance upon Shechem, his father, and the

citizens of this city. The brothers join in and plunder

their wealth and kidnap the families.

There's a lot going on here that we don't have time to unpack,

but everybody agrees that this response to this heinous crime

against Dinah is disproportionate and unjust.

Their desire for vengeance has spilled over the banks of

justice into murder and theft and kidnapping.

Text concludes with a couple of responses.

Verse 30 says. Then Jacob said to Simeon and

Levi, You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to 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.

On the face of it, Jacob has a legitimate complaint.

Y'all shouldn't have done that. That was unjust.

You committed an atrocity, That's a genocide.

But his response is also inadequate and surprisingly not

mentioning Dinah at all, and perhaps even a little bit

selfish. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi.

You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the

inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and

attacked me, I shall be destroyed.

Both I and my household. Legitimate check against the

sons, but totally inadequate for his own daughter.

To which the brothers respond and throw it right back in his

face in verse 31. But they said, should he treat

our sister like a prostitute? The text ends with his

resounding question. Can't she have justice?

Dad, this can't happen in Israel.

She is our sister. And the text reverberates with

this tension. How can Genesis continue?

How can human history continue if sin is this bad?

We need divine aid because there's no way we have the

wisdom to act justly and love mercy without God's

intervention. Dinah needs justice.

Shechem needs to pay for his crime.

But justice must be lawful, my friends with police and due

process and qualified righteous judges and juries and laws and

penal codes. Because if you don't have those

things, you know what happens? Revenge cycles.

That's why the Bible teaches U.S. law and teaches us that

vengeance belongs to the Lord alone.

Teaches believers to act justly and to love mercy.

But the only way we can do that, the only way we can possibly do

that, is if we walk humbly with God.

It's the only way this tension resolves is in God and in the

gift of his Son. So let's think about Jesus for a

few moments. The text makes us cry out for

Jesus. Jesus, who is no Shechem,

blustfully carrying out his desires on the women around him.

No, you read the story of the Gospels and his relationship

with women is beautifully chaste.

They are drawn to him. He is gentle, He is wise, He is

no taker. Now on the one hand, Simeon's

complaint and Levi's zeal for the law kind of understand,

can't you? And our Lord too has a zeal for

righteousness. Zeal, it says, for his house

consumed him, but his zeal never goes across the banks of justice

into revenge. He has a zeal for righteousness,

but he is not ever sinfully angry.

Jacob, perhaps in his love for mercy, his desire to keep the

peace, is passive. In this text.

He's not the one angry. He's not the one advocating.

Jesus is never passive and even now he is our advocate, the just

judge. Jesus is also a victim.

Isn't he the most innocent victim to ever walk the face of

the earth? And he walks through a horrible

Rd. of suffering through victimhood to to save and to

redeem all the victims whose very bodies and blood cry out.

How long, Lord, How long with Abel and with Dinah, and with

whomever you know who has experienced an atrocity.

He is a victim, but he is also the just and the justifier, the

Lamb of God, the righteous judge of all.

So though he's also he's a victim, he is also the judge of

all, and in him the cord. The discord will finally resolve

when he pays back and makes new everything.

What are our applications, friends?

We too must care deeply about justice and mercy as we

propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ and Word.

Indeed, Christians defend the vulnerable lawfully.

Defend the vulnerable lawfully. Victims of sexual crimes need

safety. They need advocates.

These crimes must be reported to the authorities.

Victims need professional care, crisis intervention, safe places

to live, legal support, medical aid, psycho emotional therapy,

financial resources and spiritual care, and the church

and Christians needs. They need to be involved in

every aspect of what I just said.

Perhaps some of you are studying to enter fields where you,

Christian, can be a defender of the vulnerable lawfully.

May God bless your work, but we also must learn to leave

vengeance to God patiently. You have to be careful because

you start talking about forgiveness and patience.

You start to seem to give power to perpetrators.

We just talked about defending the vulnerable with justice, but

we must leave vengeance to God patiently.

It may take a long time. William Wilberforce, the great

advocate for the enslaved, worked 40 years to change unjust

laws by a Christian principles to emancipate those who have

been enslaved. Leave vengeance to God

patiently. Do not be overcome by evil, but

overcome evil with good. Finally, we need the humility

because how can we do these things?

How are we up for this task of acting justly in loving mercy?

We have to walk humbly with our Lord, patiently and reverently.

This reverence comes from understanding our place in the

world as recipients of divine favor and divine grace, Divine

healing. And as we transition into this

baptism ceremony, we can think about this too being our sign of

initiation, our sign of initiation into a covenant

community, our sign of initiation that is a multi

sensory experience, an illustration of the gospel

itself. So no matter whether we've been

victimized or whether we've been perpetrators, whatever guilt

that we have carried, whatever memories that we need heal.

The Bible says that there is forgiveness and grace for us.

There is healing and washing for us.

It's kind of like a bath. Though our skins are as scarlet,

we come out white as snow. This does not save us, but it

pictures a washing. It's also a picture of the

gospel as the candidate goes under the water and comes back

up again. It looks like death, burial and

resurrection so that they are initiated to the family of God

to walk in newness of life. That may, they may join the

church, acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly as

those who bear His mark reverently.

And so to conclude, friends, the Bible clearly teaches that sin

is a thief. It steals.

Sometimes it steals even the most precious things in life.

But God and the gospel transforms treacherous takers

into wise and generous givers who act justly, love mercy, and

walk humbly with God. Let us pray.

Father in Heaven, sin is exceedingly great, but there is

a grace that is greater than all of our sin.

So we commit ourselves into your care and keeping.

And I pray for healing for our congregation by the gospel that

we can encourage and support those who are going into the

water today, that they may walk in newness of life.

Bless us as we respond to you and initiate these beautiful

believers. In Jesus name we pray, and by

the Spirit one God forevermore, Amen.