In Genesis 34, Jacob's daughter Dinah is raped by a man of prominence in a nearby town called Shechem. This story has a lot to say to modern Christians and the modern church as it ministers to outsiders (unchurched), to the truly repentant and to abuse victims.
Interestingly, the rapist in this story is named after his hometown, Shechem. It is possible that Dinah and Shechem had met (Genesis 34:18-20). By the time Dinah visited Shechem to hang out with her girlfriends, she may have been developing feelings for the man Shechem. Shechem's tender feelings for Dinah are abundantly clear as they are mentioned five times in this account.
Dinah's brothers are incensed over this affair and they deceptively invite the people of Shechem to join Jacob's family and religion by submitting to circumcision. In their deception, the brothers go into the town while the men there are recovering from the painful procedure. They kill all of the male Shechemites and pillage their town.
Jacob rebukes his sons for this action as it will only cause trouble for him and his household in relation to his Canaanite neighbors.
The law (which comes later, Exodus 22:16-17; Deuteronomy 22:28-29) prescribes the proper way to treat rapists in that particular social context. Rapists were expected to take their victims as their wives and they were not permitted to divorce them. This law protected of the honor of the family of the rape victim and the honor of the rape victim herself. There would have been more damage to her honor if she remained in her father's house unmarried.
What we see in Shechem is full and sincere intention to do the right thing (his love for Dinah is mentioned five times). He is prepared to pay the bride price to Jacob even if the price is set ridiculously high. This man did not come to Jacob and his sons with artificial statements of "If I have done anything that has caused offense, I repent." He acknowledged his error and was ready to take all possible actions to make it right.
Dinah's brothers' suggestion that the two peoples become one people with one religion is the right response on their part... if they were not being deceptive! For Christians circumcision correlates to baptism.
Colossians 2:11-14 (NRSV)
In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
Christian baptism joins the believer into covenant relationship with God. In Jacob's family, that's what circumcision did. The people of Shechem were coming to God and, by covenant, God would have added the people of Shechem to the faith community (= Jacob's family).
But Jacob's sons did not treat the Shechemites as brothers. They double-crossed them.
This story invites readers to talk openly about rape and rape victims. How should the faith community minister to rape victims today? How should we minister to abusers when they offer half-baked repentance? How should we minister to abusers when they offer sincere repentance complete with acknowledgement of the pain they have cause and real invested action to try to repair the damage in any way they can?
How ought the faith community minister to outsiders who are very different from us but nevertheless seek sincere relationship with God? They are unchurched and they were not raised right like we were. Can we accept them into our church family?
As brothers Levi and Simeon were united against an outside enemy, their artificial unity led to strife between each other and their respective families (Genesis 49:5-7). Any unity we enjoy as we focus on the outside enemy eventually leads to internal disunity within our own ranks whether we be a nation, a church or a nuclear family. This thought will take a lot of attention to implement in Christian ministry.
Finally, notice that Jacob believed that his sons had placed fulfilment of God's promise in jeopardy (Genesis 28:13-15; c.f., Genesis 12:1-3)! Jacob fully believed that he needed to personally participate in the fulfilment of God's promised blessing and his sons needed to participate in the fullfilment of God's promise to Jacob's family. Failure to embrace God's promise results in failure to receive it. God's promise can be resisted. We must also participate in fulfilment of God's promise. Participation is exactly what we do when we submit to God's covenant terms as described in the New Testament.
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