So here's a British actor and presenter of the TV quiz show QI, which many of you I'm sure will watch, Stephen Fry, speaking about why he doesn't believe in the God of the Bible.
He says this, I wonder if this is where you're at today.
He said, in an interview with an Irish TV channel, why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?
Now that is a philosophically valid and an emotionally honest question.
And it's one we're going to be thinking about today as we get into this chapter of the Bible.
Now this chapter, if you scan your eyes over it, it is 31 verses long.
But I guarantee that every single one of us within two verses of reading this together are going to have the same question in mind.
And it's this.
What on earth is something like this doing in the Bible?
Because this is a horrendous story of the rape of a young woman.
And flowing from that, the harrowing account of revenge and bloodshed.
Now if the British Board of Film Classification were tasked with rating this, they would, without shadow of a doubt, go for 18 plus.
So here's the question I've been asking myself for the last number of weeks knowing that this is coming.
And asking myself as I've been prepping this series in Genesis.
Why don't we just skip it?
Now two reasons why we go towards this.
And here's number one.
It's a conviction.
It's a conviction that all scripture is God breathed.
Right?
We are a church that loves its 316s.
We love John 316.
How God desires all people to be saved.
We love 1 Timothy, sorry 2 Timothy 316.
That all scripture is God breathed.
We're a church who loves its 316s.
Meaning that with chapter 34, it's not like the Bible translators dropped the ball with this one.
No, every single verse in the Bible is there because God wanted it there.
The first one is a conviction.
The second one is an experience.
Having done this, worked in this church for 11 years, here's what I know to be true.
That so often God does the deepest work in our hearts when we go to what we wrestle with the hardest parts of his word.
Now some of us will read this as it were and we will read this from the armchair.
Right?
We will be thinking exactly what Stephen Fry was saying.
And if that's you here today, if you're wondering, and surely this just proves the invalidity of the Christian faith,
then here's the question I want to ask you to think about as we read this together in just a few minutes time.
Do you recognize the world of Genesis 34?
And the answer is, it's our world.
Right?
It's our world where it was discovered this week that Andrew Tate's been running a WhatsApp group aimed at grooming women.
It's our world where as of this week I now find myself in a street WhatsApp group because one of our neighbors just up the road was broken into and everyone was kind of rallying together to see if we could get some CCTV of what footage of what actually went on.
This is our world.
But here's where Christians respectfully disagree.
And I'll just put it up there again with the comments of Stephen Fry.
Yes, God created the world.
But Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 tell us that God created a perfect world.
In fact, it's only as Adam and Eve defy their creator, something that human beings have done ever since,
that from Genesis 3 onward as sin enters and spoils God's perfect world,
that we begin to get words in the human story.
We begin to get words like shame and we begin to get words like death and we begin to get words like murder.
And the thing is to see that those words were not on the scene in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
Here is life as we know it.
And this is a Bible phrase that people use worth thinking about.
Here is life as we know it, east of Eden.
East in the Bible is symbolic of just moving away from God.
So in our passage today, if you come with me to chapter 34, right, we meet this young girl called Dina.
And we are quickly introduced to the man who violated her at verse 2.
His name is Shechem.
Now notice what we're told about him.
We are told, do you notice, and none of this is wasted, that he's a young prince of the land.
Now what we have to understand is that in this guy's world, might is right.
He gets what he wants.
And what he wants in this moment is that he thinks he has a right to Dina's body.
Hear it in his verse at verse 4, right?
What does he say?
Dad, and hear him speak.
Get me this girl to be my wife.
And this is par for the course in Canaan.
We've got to understand that this crime is not making the headlines on the Canaan 6 o'clock news.
As far as Canaan is concerned, this is nothing.
But here is the God of perfect justice saying about this young woman,
this human being who he made wonderfully in his image.
Here is he here declaring that I see you.
And I see what happened.
And it's worth parking that thought for where we're going to end this morning.
God is declaring here that I see you.
Nothing escapes the attention of the three times holy, all-seeing God.
Others of us will be reading this, not so much from the armchair,
but I am so aware we will be heartbreakingly reading this from the hospital bed.
Sexual crime, revenge, this is a raw part of your life story.
And hear me say that I am so deeply sorry
that that's been your experience.
And I desperately want you to hold on
and see the tender heart of Jesus for you.
So what on earth is something that they're doing in the Bible?
Well, here's the key, I think, that unlocks the purpose of this chapter.
Okay?
See in chapter 34 who isn't mentioned.
Scan your eye over it.
Who is not mentioned in this chapter?
God's not mentioned in this chapter.
Yeah?
Not once in 31 verses.
As if the writer is saying,
here is what the anti-God,
we will do what we think is right,
human heart is capable of.
And also see who is mentioned in this chapter.
And there's a lot of people mentioned,
but the camera zones in on one,
is Jacob.
And as we'll see as we read this through now,
this man called Jacob is pathetically passive.
See if, here's the challenge as we read it through.
See if you can spot the ways
that Jacob so terribly fails in this chapter.
Come and read this with me and let's see
and hear from our God this morning.
Verse one.
Now Dina, the daughter Leah had born to Jacob,
went out to visit the woman of the land.
When Shechem, son of Hamor, the Hivite,
the ruler of that area,
saw her,
he took her and raped her.
His heart was drawn to Dina, daughter of Jacob.
He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.
And Shechem said to his father,
Hamor, get me this girl as my wife.
When Jacob heard that his daughter Dina had been defiled,
his sons were in the fields with his livestock.
So he did nothing about it until they came home.
Then Shechem's father, Hamor,
went out to talk with Jacob.
Meanwhile, Jacob's sons had come in from the fields
as soon as they'd heard what had happened.
They were shocked and furious
because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel
by sleeping with Jacob's daughter,
a thing that should not be done.
But Hamor said to them,
my son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter.
Please give her to him as his wife.
Intermarry with us,
give us your daughters
and take our daughters for yourselves.
You can settle among us.
The land is open to you.
Live in it, trade in it
and acquire property in it.
Then Shechem said to Dina's father and brothers,
let me find favor in your eyes
and I will give you whatever you ask.
Make the price for the bride
and the gift I am to bring as great as you like
and I'll pay whatever you ask me.
Only give me the young woman as my wife.
Because their sister Dina had been defiled,
Jacob's sons replied deceitfully
as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.
They said to them,
we can't do such a thing.
We can't give our sister to a man
who's not circumcised.
That would be a disgrace to us.
We will enter into an agreement with you
on one condition only,
that you become like us
by circumcising all your males.
Then we will give you our daughters
and take your daughters for ourselves.
We'll settle among you
and become one people with you.
But if you will not agree to be circumcised,
we'll take our sister and go.
Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
The young man who was the most honoured
of all his father's family
lost no time in doing what they said
because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.
So Hamor and his son Shechem
went to the gate of their city
to speak to the men of their city.
These men are friendly toward us, they said.
Let them live in our land and trade in it.
The land is plenty of room for them.
We can marry their daughters
and they can marry ours.
But the men will agree to live with us
as one people only in the condition
that our males be circumcised
as they themselves are.
Won't their livestock, their property
and all their other animals become ours?
So let us agree to their terms
and they will settle among us.
All the men who went out of the city gate
agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem
and every male in the city was circumcised.
Three days later, while all of them were still in pain,
two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi,
Dina's brothers,
took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city,
killing every male.
They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword
and took Dina from Shechem's house and left.
The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies
and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.
They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys
and everything else of theirs in the city
and out in the fields.
They carried off all their wealth
and all their women and children,
taking as plunder everything in their houses.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi,
you've brought trouble on me
by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites
and the Perizzites, the people living in this land.
We are few in number
and if they join forces against me and attack me,
I and my household will be destroyed.
But they replied,
should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?
Now friends, we're going to rattle through
four ways that Jacob fails here.
Here's the first of these.
Did you notice his lack of love for his daughter?
Now, when Dina, daughter of Leah,
was introduced to us,
back at verse 21 of chapter 30,
you get the sense
that she is simply an inconvenient footnote
in Jacob's life.
Right, what is she doing at verse one?
She is innocently wandering the streets
of this strange new place
where the family have found themselves called Canaan
and she's trying to see,
you see it at verse one,
the woman of the land.
Now, this is kind of like my girl Chloe
getting on the 37 bus outside our house
and making her way into town on Saturday night
because all her friends are talking about
how much fun there is to be had
and she wants to see what all the fuss is about
and all the time I'm sitting there in the armchair
watching her go, not caring.
So rather than nurturing and protecting her
and raising her to know, love and serve the Lord
who has protected him
and led him so graciously,
Jacob lets Dina just walk straight out into danger.
At best he didn't know,
at worst he didn't care.
He horrendously fails to protect his daughter
in this situation.
Here's the second one.
It's his lack of response to the tragedy.
See verse five.
He hears about what's happened
and rather than weeping and mourning,
which is fully what we would expect him to do,
what does he do?
He holds his peace.
Which you've got to say is really strange, is it not?
In fact, it's Hamor, the father of Shechem,
who comes toward Jacob and initiates the dialogue here.
And the author seems to be shocked
that this is Jacob's response.
I think that's why we're told that his sons get angry.
I think it's why we're told that such a thing
should not be done in Israel.
The author's trying to tell us,
Jacob, what are you doing?
The third way he fails is his lack of leadership
in the aftermath.
Not only does he entertain the speech from Hamor
from verse eight about intermarrying,
a thing that God has told his people not to do,
the heart behind that being that because
if you intertwine your lives with theirs,
worshiping the gods of the Canaanites,
you will gradually drift to just becoming just like them.
And I think that's one of the big lessons
for the original readers here.
Jacob lets his son hatch this deceitful plan
to do them over.
In fact, do you notice how they weaponize
the one thing that God has said
was physically meant to show that they were God's people
set apart for him,
distinct, loved, chosen.
What do they manipulate?
Circumcision.
And this only goes to show just how far from the Lord
they have wandered in their own hearts.
And I think that's the tragedy here.
This is God's people who are in the frame here.
Now, if there's anyone who knows
the catastrophic effects of lying and deceit
and how it will always come back to haunt you,
it's Jacob.
And yet, do you see how he, as a father,
he fails to say absolutely anything
to firstly his daughter
and then secondly his sons.
Fourth way he fails is in his lack of rebuke
for the revenge.
Right?
So Simeon and Levi,
notice that those guys are named there.
They are Dina's brothers.
Leah's their mother.
They are set in revenge.
And I think verses 25 to 29
are written to show us that what they do,
and did you pick this up as we read it through,
what they do goes so far beyond
what we might possibly understand
as being justice.
They just go so over the top
in terms of what they do.
And I think this is maybe just understanding
the Bible story,
that God had enshrined in Israelite society
this law,
that it was an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.
Now, I'd imagine most people in our world,
because we use that phrase,
have heard of that concept.
And I remember for years thinking to myself,
well, surely that just encourages things like this.
Does that not encourage you to take matters
into your own hands?
And then I suddenly read it in the context.
And it's written to ensure that justice is done
in the society,
particularly for the oppressed
who cannot get justice on their own.
But more than that,
as well as that,
it caps it.
As if to say,
justice will be done,
but it will be done
on equal terms.
And it means that vendettas like this
that go so far above
the thing that's being capped
just should not happen
in Israelite society.
But rather than scolding his sons
for their utter wrong,
do you see how Jacob is thinking primarily
about the impact
that this is going to have on them?
Did you pick that up
as we read it through?
Notice the repetition there
at the end
of the word I
or me.
Do you see it?
You've brought trouble on me.
You've made me stink
in the sight of my neighbours.
You're going to bring trouble
on my family.
I'm worried that they will attack me.
It's me.
Me, me, me.
All the way through here.
Who's he thinking about
all the way through?
He's thinking about himself.
And you bring those four things
all together
and do you see
how in this account
Jacob is pathetically passive?
Now you think back
to what we learned last week
as we were in chapter 33
and you've got to see
I kind of skipped out of here
last week thinking
this is really good.
In the context of Genesis
maybe you were optimistically
thinking that maybe
Jacob is the saviour
that God said
he'd send
to save us
to save his people
from their
east of Eden lives.
The promised serpent crusher
of Genesis 3
maybe it's Jacob.
Well that dream collapses
like a house of cards
in this chapter.
But more than that
who is Jacob
in this chapter
in actual fact
like?
I've never seen this before
until studying it this week.
Who does he remind you of?
He's not the serpent crusher
is he?
No we see
we see him
failing to care
as a father
and I think
this really should be
a lesson to us dads
in here.
We see him
sitting silently
in the background
failing to lead.
presumably he's an earshot
of all these conversations.
We see him
blaming others
failing to take responsibility.
We can almost hear him
say at the end there
our God
is these sons
who you've given me
who are the problem.
Who does he remind you of?
He's just like
Adam.
Isn't he?
He is just
like
Adam.
He is not
the serpent crusher
and so you've got to ask yourselves
let's come back to this question
what on earth
is something like this
doing
in the Bible?
As we see this man
who fails in so many ways
and who is
pathetically passive
I take it
partly
that one of the reasons
is that we would read this
and it would make us long
for someone to come
from Jacob's line
who would save us
by being everything
that Jacob
and every single character
in this
is not.
If Jacob is
pathetically passive
dear friends
we have to see
that our longing here
is that someone would come
who is so attractively active
to save us
and step into that
Genesis longing
comes Jesus.
Now contrast him
with every single character
in this chapter
as it were
every male
in this chapter
contrast Shechem
the prince of the land
who abused
his position
to get what he wanted
contrast him
with Jesus
and how is he described?
What kind of prince is he?
He is the prince of peace
who stepped into our
east of Eden world
and who used his power
not to be served
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
Contrast Levi and Simeon here
brimming with anger and rage
going to do whatever it takes
to see that justice is done
and more
contrast them
with Jesus
who both said
and personified
a love
for
your
enemies
and contrast
Jacob
who failed his daughter
in so many ways
at this point
contrast him
with Jesus
who came
to win for himself
and make
sons and daughters
of the living God.
Now can I just take you
to one place
as we begin
to wrap this up
that I love
seeing Jesus
in action
and if you've got a Bible
turn with me here
and you will see him
in all his beauty.
Here he is in
Mark chapter 5.
Oh this is one of my
favorite stories
in the Bible
because you see
both the compassion
and the power of Jesus
on full display.
the context of the story
Mark chapter 5
as you're turning there
this man called
Jairus
has desperately
summoned Jesus
to come and heal
his dying
12 year old
daughter.
And as Jesus
is on the way
there
out of nowhere
into this scene
comes this
woman
and we're given
details about this
woman
right?
she's been bleeding
for 12 years.
She's been to doctor
after doctor
trying to get better
and in this day
we need to understand
that you'd get
as many good ones
as you would
bad ones
because witch doctors
and the likes
are prevalent
in that day
who make a living
from fleecing people.
Perhaps that's evidence
in the third fact
that we're given
about her
that she's spent
all that she has
trying to get better
all that she has
but she's only
gotten worse.
So step into
Jesus' world
this woman
who may well
have been
taken advantage of
who would
certainly be
accustomed to
humiliation
and because of
her condition
she would certainly
know what it is
to be
an outcast.
Here is a woman
on the canvas
of life
and in desperation
she reaches out
and touches
Jesus' robe
and I love that.
I love her desperation
but I love
what Jesus does.
What does Jesus do?
He doesn't just
walk on by.
He stops
as if to say
I see you.
I know.
And recognizing
her faith
he calls her
and I've always thought
this was really strange
he calls her
daughter.
Always thought
that was
really weird
as I read it through
but what if
and this has recurred
to me recently
what if Mark
has intertwined
these two accounts
of people
one a 12 year old
daughter
one a woman
who's been suffering
for 12 years
and he's intertwined
these accounts
to make to us
the point
that just
how
Jairus
feels
about
his daughter
how much
more then
and in the same
way
does Jesus
feel
and now
relates to
this woman
as daughter
you know
Sam Albury
I heard him
recently talk
about becoming
a Christian
he said
he came to
Christianity
for the
forgiveness
but he stayed
in Christianity
for Jesus
and this
account of him
here
it is
wonderful
and what makes
this more than
nice words
what makes this
better than
sentiments
is that Jesus
goes to the cross
to win
this woman
for himself
see the cross
is the only
place we can go
to make sense
of what is
happening here
with Dina
it is the place
where the justice
and the grace
of God
meet at their
apex
you see the cross
of Jesus
says to you
and it says
to Dina
that what
happened to
you is not
trivial
that what
happened to
you is
serious
so serious
in fact
that it required
the suffering
and death
of the son
of God
to pay
for it
we look
at the cross
and it doesn't
undermine
injustice
it underscores
it
hear Jesus
say
from the cross
that I know
what it is
to be humiliated
I know
what it is
to be wronged
and hear
Jesus say
right at the
end of the
Bible story
that one day
he will return
to make
all wrongs
right
and his
heart
right now
in heaven
for his
people
his heart
right now
for you
whoever you
are here
today
whatever has
happened
to you
is exactly
the same
as it is
as we see
here
and you know
knowledge
of that day
that he will
return to make
all wrongs
right
knowledge of
it means
that we
can leave
justice
to God
it is only
the grace
of Jesus
seen perfectly
at the cross
that makes
the long
long road
of forgiveness
and change
a possibility
and I've
seen it
in my own
life
when people
forgive
and I think
wow
it is only
possible
when Jesus
takes out
the heart
that longs
for revenge
and blood
and puts
in it
a knowledge
of who
he is
and what
he's done
for us
on the cross
to quote
Tim Keller
a God
who substitutes
himself for
you and
suffers so
that you
might go
free
is a God
that you
can fully
trust
so what on
earth is
something like
this doing
in the Bible
friends can I
just leave us
with two quick
words of
response I
think we
need to
make
here's the
first and
it's just
simply the
word tears
I think
what goes
on here
should break
our hearts
because we
see injustice
so often in
our world
don't we
that our
hearts can
so often
become numb
to the
plight of
everyday human
beings
do we care
about and are
we willing to
be a safe
place where
we walk
with and
welcome people
in our city
people in our
lives who
know this
pain
do you
know it
was the
church's
response to
the great
plagues of
the second
century as
people were
suffering left
right and
centre when
everyone else
was legging it
out of the
cities but the
Christians stayed
behind the
historians reckon
is the reason
behind the
explosive growth
of Christianity
in the second
century as
people looked
on Christians
and thought
they really
care
you know we
want to be a
church family
and maybe
taking another
angle on this
where we treat
and view
particular members
of the opposite
sex radically
differently
you know three
of the world's
top 12 most
visited websites
in 2019
were porn
sites
the biggest
site in the
UK has an
average of 42
billion visits
per year
which works
itself out
is 1200 clicks
every second
maybe particularly
speaking to the
guys in the
room although I
recognise that
this is an issue
for girls as
well guys if
you're in those
zones right now
if you've found
yourself in those
circles you need
to do everything
that you can to
get out
we want to create
a safe space
where we can be
honest with one
another about our
struggles and if
this is you today
you have to see
that Jesus has
saved you out of
that everything
that you are doing
every view
every click is
funding a
institution that
is taking
advantage of
some of the
most violated
people in our
society
not to mention
the fact that
simply it's just
not the way that
we should be
viewing women
particularly our
sisters in
Christ
can I just say
as well not
just to go on
the defence but
to go on the
offence
guys we should
be the biggest
supporters of
the flourishing of
women's ministry
in this church
so here's what
we're going to
do if you're up
for this on
Wednesday night
when our
sisters meet
we are going to
meet on zoom
just for half an
hour to eight
and half eight
just to pray for
them because we
want them to know
that we love
them and we
see them and we
value everything
that they bring to
our church family
another angle in
this friends do we
see anger and
bitterness in our
hearts do you
see that longing
for revenge now
it might not
express itself to
the extent that it
does here but how
often is it the case
that we can destroy
people with our
words we can
destroy people with
posts we can
destroy people with
texts and this
calls us to be a
people who are
different with our
words and how we
treat other human
beings so that's the
first word tears
dear friends let's do
some soul searching
off the back of this
and I couldn't be
creative enough to
come up with another
word so we're just
going to go for
fears tears and
fears this should
move us really
simply as we close
to fear God more
fear the Lord come
back to him have
your eyes on him
the place just like
that woman that
says my only hope
is you Lord Jesus
you know just as we
closed you know the
earliest Christians
had this saying
that they always
said and it was
just the word
Maranatha
Maranatha is just
taken from one of
the very last words
of the Bible in
response to what
Jesus said Jesus
says there right at
the end he says
behold I'm coming
soon it's the very
last taste that we
get in the Bible of
what he says before
he comes that longing
that should be inside
his people's hearts
Lord Jesus come and
make it new so what
Maranatha means is
just simply come Lord
Jesus come and make
it right come and
put perfect justice on
full display and one
day he will and I
take it in the words
of the Narnians that
this will be true and
I love the way that
C.S. Lewis captures
this wrong will be
right when Aslan
comes in sight and
the sound of his
roar sorrows will be
no more when he
bears his teeth
winter meets its
death and when he
shakes his mane we
shall have spring
again and so it's to
him that we look
we're saying in just
a moment I want to
pray but particularly
if there's something
this morning that you
want to chat about or
pray about and we've
covered so much stuff
here today but we
want to create a
church culture where
we are serious about
carrying one another's
burdens and so if
that's you here today
any of the elders
Keita anyone else
who's been up front
here today it would be
our joy to pray and
chat to you if there's
not something you want
to do this morning our
email addresses are all
on the website you can
contact us through that
but friends let's feel the
weight of the challenge
and I hope the height of
the comfort that's come
to us as we've heard
God speak to us today
in his word let's pray
the words that Jesus
said there in Mark
chapter 5 daughter
rise your faith has
made you well
oh Lord thank you that
there is none that
compares with Jesus
thank you that we do
not need to second
guess what you are
like but thank you
that you have spoken
to us in your words
thank you that we see
you on full display
your heart your
purposes as we gaze
at Jesus and so
father I'm so conscious
that I have no idea
where this lands today
but father thank you
that your spirit is a
way better pastor than
I will ever be
and so Lord I pray
that as he works
through your words
that's gone forth
this morning that he
would be bringing
comfort
assurance
tenderness
challenge
and words
of rebuke
father may
we be a community
that shines
the light of Jesus
even more brightly
in our world
father we thank you
for your goodness
and we just pray
all of these things
knowing that you hear
us because we pray
in Jesus's worthy name
amen
blessings
for future
you