Alderwood Community Church December 1, The Horrible Consequences of Sin Genesis 34

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1 1 Alderwood Community Church December 1, 2013 The Horrible Consequences of Sin Genesis 34 Intro: Summary Chart of the Book of Genesis Genesis is the book of beginnings and genealogies, which supplies the historical basis for God s covenant with His people. This can be traced through the entire Pentateuch, for, as Moses Segal states, The real theme of the Pentateuch is the selection of Israel from the nations and its consecration to the service of God and His Laws in a divinely appointed land. The central event in the development of this theme is the divine covenant with Abraham and its...promise to make his offspring into the people of God and to bless the whole world through his offspring, and the ultimate blessing is that our Savior Jesus Christ, an offspring of Abraham, would die for the sins of all mankind and reconcile man and God. Genesis begins with an account of God s creation of the universe, of our world, and of mankind. God reveals his desire to have a relationship with mankind, but unfortunately mankind rebelled and severed our relationship with God. Throughout Genesis, the rest of the entire Bible and through human history, we see two dual themes: We see the rebellion, corruption, vice and evil of mankind and the devastating consequences of man s choices, and we see the gracious intervention of God who offers mercy and grace through forgiveness and restoration that ultimately is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. This section in Genesis, and the episode we will be reading today in chapter 34 initiates a disturbing moral decline in Jacob s sons. In this chapter we will see the mass murder committed by Jacob s sons, Simeon and Levi, in chapter 35 we read how Jacob s oldest son, Reuben sleeps with Jacob s concubine Bilhah, in chapter 37, after Jacob foolishly shows his favoritism toward Joseph, Jacob s sons literally sell their brother into the slave trade market and report to their father that he was killed by a wild animal, and in chapter 38 we read how Jacob s son, Judah, sleeps with his daughter in law, Tamar, thinking that he was sleeping with a prostitute! There is nothing commendable in our chapter this morning, it begins with seduction and rape, it is riddled with deception, it reveals out of control passions and ends in mass murder, kidnapping and the pillaging of an entire community. *Read Genesis 34:1-31 (4 min) The first thing I want us to see in this passage is Jacob s passivity as the leader of his home. 1. Man up! Courageously lead your family by your example and instruction. A. Jacob s poor example - throughout his lifetime, but especially with Esau in ch. 33

2 2 No doubt his children observed their Father s fear of meeting Esau, which was a result of his lack of faith in God s promise of protection. They also observed his deception of Esau when he promised to follow him to Seir, but went the other direction to Succoth. B. Jacob s passive leadership 1. Why did Jacob let his teenage daughter go into the pagan city of Shechem without supervision? Did he instruct her and caution her how to act among unbelievers who do not share their same values and faith in God almighty? (vrs. 1) 2. Jacob kept quiet when he first learned about his daughter being raped. (vrs. 5) 3. Jacob let his sons do all the talking and negotiating with Hamor and Shechem when they asked if Dinah would be given to Shechem in marriage and they as two people groups would develop commercial and family partnerships. (vrs. 6-17) 4. Jacob never corrected his sons, he said absolutely nothing, he didn t warn his sons about the dangers of associations and intermarriage with pagan Canaanites. He knew better, his father Isaac had warned him not to marry a Canaanite woman (Genesis 28:1) 5. Nowhere in our text is Jacob incensed about this sin against his daughter, and after Simeon and Levi slaughtered all the men of Shechem, his only words were his concern about himself and his reputation. Let us learn from Jacob s abdication of his leadership in his home: Man up! Courageously lead your family by your example and instruction. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 I firmly believe we, as men, have a significant role in the lives of our children by virtue of our example and our instruction, and we must take responsibility for what we do. With that said, you can instruct your children in the ways of the Lord and you can live a life above reproach and your kids can still rebel against God and do things that grieve your heart as a parent. We are not responsible for our children s choices. They are accountable to God for their choices and will reap the consequences of their words and actions. But if we provide Godly instruction and live out our faith and obedience to Christ before them, we will be obedient to God for our role as parents and increase the likelihood that they too will want to follow Jesus Christ as you do. Everything rises and falls on leadership!

3 3 If you are a single mom, my heart goes out to you. You have a doubly difficult job. These principles apply to you as well. In the absence of a father in the home, they will only see your example of faith. I would encourage you to pray and seek out other godly men in the church to become positive male influences in your children s lives. And men, we need to look for opportunities to help out these single moms and their kids. 2. Carefully choose the company you keep. When I ask the question, why was this chapter preserved for us in the sacred Bible? What was God s intention for inspiring Moses to write Genesis 34, as bleak and ugly as it is. I can t help but think that a primary reason it is included in Scripture is to warn Israel of the dangers of relationships, partnerships and inter-marriage with the Canaanites. So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Genesis 28:1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. Deuteronomy 7:1, 3-4 Do not be mislead: Bad company corrupts good character. 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul warned the Corinthians that they should not be deceived about the danger of bad company. Homilia (company) basically means an association of people, but also can have the connotation of a lecture or sermon. It seems possible, therefore, that the Corinthians were both listening to some wrong teaching and associating with some evil people. Whether the teaching was in formal messages or not, it was bad and corrupting. People who think wrongly invariably behave wrongly. Wrong behavior comes from wrong thinking, from wrong beliefs and wrong standards. It is impossible to associate regularly with wicked people without being contaminated both by their ideas and by their habits. The context implies that the bad company was teaching the heretical theology that there is no resurrection of the dead, and that bad theology had corrupted good morals. Just as hoping in the resurrection is an incentive to obedience and holiness, so disbelief of it is an incentive to disobedience and immorality. As Paul has just pointed out, if there is no resurrection, we might as well eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If death is the end, what great difference does it make what we do? Some in the Corinthian congregation had no knowledge of God, and therefore no knowledge of His truth. Their bad theology was leading to bad behavior, especially because they denied the resurrection.

4 4 The Greek historian Thucydides reported that when a deadly plague came to Athens, People committed every shameful crime and eagerly snatched at every lustful pleasure. They believed life was short and there was no resurrection, so they would have to pay no price for their vice. The NT also warns about partnerships and marriages with unbelievers, Paul writes Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness. 2 Corinthians 6:14 This certainly warns believers about the level of relationships we have with unbelievers. Historically, this verse is used as a warning and even a command that forbids believers from marrying unbelievers. It seems pretty clear from this, if marriage is forbidden, and for good reason, between believers and unbelievers, dating an unbeliever should be out of the question. You should not even go there, lest you build an emotional attraction that would lead to romantic involvement that would lead to marriage. However, in general, we do need to spend time with unbelievers, and we can have friendships with unbelievers for the purpose of loving them to Christ, and sharing the good news of the gospel with them. But we must be very careful, not to let any sinful attitudes or behaviors of theirs rub off on us, rather we are to prayerfully seek to be a sanctifying influence on them. 3. Beware of the horrible consequences of sin. In this chapter, we clearly see the consequences of a father s passive leadership and the harm that came to his family. We see how the sinful, unrestrained sexual passion of a man devastated a woman s life, stole her virginity, causing her to be defiled and publically shamed. Let alone the relentless retaliation it brought upon himself, his father, and his entire family and village. We see the shameful practice of deceit by both parties in our story, and its consequences. We see the unrestrained anger of the brothers, that unleashed a violent murderous rampage for the purpose of retaliation. The consequences of this action, not only endangered Jacob and his entire family, but Simeon and Levi lost out on the blessing of their father. Then Jacob called for his sons and said, Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come Simeon and Levi are brothers their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed is their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Genesis 49:1, 5-7

5 5 But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Galatians 6: Confess your sins to God. Notice, there is no confession of sin by Shechem, after raping Dinah, nor from his father, nor from Simeon and Levi after murdering an entire village of unarmed and innocent men. Whether our failure has been passive leadership as fathers, deceitful speech, unrestrained sexual passion or unrestrained anger and retaliation, we can be forgiven, in Christ! We can t change the past, but we can be forgiven, and be given another chance. We can begin today to take responsibility for our leadership, for our relationships, for our sexual passions, our anger and our truth telling. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Psalm 32:5 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from all my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Psalm 51: God is faithful and will forgive you all of your sins. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Psalm 51:7, 9 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

6 6 6. God is faithful and will keep His promises and fulfill His purposes in spite of our failures. We see in the next chapter of Genesis Then God said to Jacob, Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said to him, Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. So he named him, Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The Land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you. Genesis 35:1, 9-12 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23 The Lord Almighty has sworn, Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand. Isaiah 14:2