__________________________________________________ GENESIS INTRODUCTION • Last time we left you on a cliff hanger • Dinah is mentioned as the first time someone is violated which means she was made morally impure by having sexual relations without the covenant of marriage • This is the beginning of the concept of fornication • The word defile means to become unclean • To understand the concept of uncleanness, certain animals and foods were considered unclean or clean by their nature • People are made unclean through giving birth, menstruation, bodily emissions, leprosy, sexual relations, sexual immorality or contact with death... anything that touches blood or death • For instance, pigs are clean because they each dead material... they eat their own faeces, drink their own urine, they dead rotting vegetables, maggots, even the dead rotting flesh of other animals • It has nothing to do with the diseases the pigs carried... it has to do with their nature, they are unclean by nature • According to the law, an unclean person could not enter the sanctuary, could not eat of the sacrifice, had to be sent outside the camp • Thus, for Dinah to be defiled • The Canaanites were known for sexually immorality... having sexual relations with women without the covenant of marriage (fornication) • For the woman, this creates a problem because no honorable man would marry a woman who was sexually immoral and thus they were destined for a life of prostitution • It is this devaluation of women, to be used as sexual objects without the commitment or protection of a marriage covenant that the law was designed to protect... because God values women Deuteronomy 23:17 (NKJV) 17 “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel. • Now Prince Shechem, after he violates Dinah, feels strongly attracted to her and wants to marry her • In vs. 3 it says “His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah” THROUGH THE BIBLE / GENESIS © 2019 Holland Davis __________________________________________________ GENESIS • He had a strong emotional attachment to Dinah... what it doesn’t say is he loved Dinah because if he did he would have committed to her by making a covenant of marriage • Thus, this act by Prince Shechem is considered disgraceful, inappropriate and outrageous by the sons and cannot go unpunished • Hamor, Shechem’s father meets with Jacob and negotiates the marriage of Dinah and his son which also means their families would be united • Thus, Hamor is also negotiating a peace agreement with Jacob • We will marry each other, do business together and we will all profit • So Hamor asks... what kind of a dowry will they accept to make this transaction? • The Sons of Jacob wanting to put them in a position of weakness tells them... there is only one condition... you must be circumcised Genesis 34:18–24 (NKJV) 18 And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. 19 So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father. 20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 21 “These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 Will not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” 24 And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son; every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. • Hamor and Shechem agree and all the men are circumcised • Notice vs. 19... it says Shechem was more honorable than all the household of his father • You can have honorable unbelievers... but they are still unbelievers and believers are not to marry unbelievers Genesis 34:25–31 (NKJV) 25 Now it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword THROUGH THE BIBLE / GENESIS © 2019 Holland Davis __________________________________________________ GENESIS and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. 26 And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went out. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what was in the city and what was in the field, 29 and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that was in the houses. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.” 31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a harlot?” • Notice... Jacob did not support their actions • He said you’ve brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious • The word obnoxious means to stink, to offend because of your body odor • We’ve all been in situations where someone is just reeking and you don’t want to be around them because they stink so bad... that’s obnoxious • This is also where you get the saying... “smells like trouble” • Jacob is now aware that just his presence will incite people to hate him, want to kill him and destroy his household no matter where he lives • But the sons don’t care... he deserved to be punished after treating Dinah like a prostitute Genesis 35:1–4 (NKJV) 35 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” 2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem. THROUGH THE BIBLE / GENESIS © 2019 Holland Davis __________________________________________________ GENESIS • Jacob panics after his sons massacre the Schechemites and as he is crying out to the Lord... the Lord directs him to go up to Bethel • He is instructed to make an altar to God (El which is God in the singular form) • Why build an altar? For 2 reasons • First, it is a rejection of the false gods of the region to build an altar to God • Second, it is a reminder of the vow Jacob made to God in Genesis 28:20-22 (in Genesis 31:13 God reveals Himself to Jacob by saying I am the God “El” of Bethel “Beit El”) • In Genesis 28 Jacob vowed the LORD shall be my God and I will give 10% of all I have • Thus before they leave for Bethel, Jacob instructs his household to get rid of the idols, purify themselves (wash the death off them from killing the men of Shechem) and change their clothes • Vs. 4 we see the first crack in the story... they give Jacob their idols and earrings (which had pagan symbols on them) and he buried them under the terebinth tree by Shechem • Deuteronomy 7 says they were to destroy them, but Jacob buries them Genesis 35:5–7 (NKJV) 5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. • Notice vs. 5... Jacob’s fears were irrational... the terror of God was upon the neighboring cities and they were afraid of Jacob • Jacob was afraid of the neighboring cities taking revenge, but they were afraid of him • When he arrives at Luz (which he named Bethel where God first appeared to him), he does what God instructs him to do... he builds an altar and lives there Genesis 35:8 (NKJV) THROUGH THE BIBLE / GENESIS © 2019 Holland Davis __________________________________________________ GENESIS 8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth. Three deaths are recorded in this chapter • Deborah, Rachel and Isaac • Rachel we understand as the one Jacob loved • Isaac we understand as the second patriarch • But why Deborah? • Deborah was Rebekah’s nurse and as her nurse, she would have been the one to deliver Jacob and care for Jacob from the time he was born • The fact that she is with Jacob is proof that Rebekah (his mother) was dead With the death of Rebekah, Deborah’s services were no longer needed in Isaac’s home and it would be natural for Jacob to bring him into him home to care for her • I believe she is mentioned because she would have been the closest thing to a mother for Jacob and a grandmother to Jacob’s kids and thus it would have been a tremendous loss for Jacob..