Unbridled Vengeance

 Read Genesis 34

And so, we come to one of the landmark precursors to an eye for an eye.  Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, was out and about talking with the local gals when she was taken and raped by the local ruler’s son.

Shechem, the son of the local ruler, Hamor had violated the only daughter of Jacob who was named among his offspring.  Perhaps there were more, but she was named with the sons, possibly because of what happened to her.

Now this was not just a one-and-done deal for Shechem.  He wanted Dinah as his wife.  He was taken with her and convinced his dad that he couldn’t live without her.  Their rather truncated courtship notwithstanding, this was going to be the love of Shechem’s life.

OBTW—Dinah remained in Shechem’s household while the rest of the story unfolded.

Dad, I need you to get this girl for me.

Dad gave it a shot and talked with Jacob.  He and his son tried to make this the deal of the century for Jacob.  Just ask whatever you want for a dowery.  We will pay it.

Besides, we are neighbors now.  Your sons are going to need brides someday.  Having our two peoples become one would be advantageous for both of us.

Jacob had been known as the deceiver before God renamed him Israel.  Some of those deceptive traits might have been passed on to his offspring.  Consider this thirteenth verse from today’s chapter.

Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.

They noted that they had this whole circumcision thing going on.  It was from God’s covenant with Father Abraham.  It was a sign in the flesh.  It was a big deal.

All of those things were true, but not the motivation of the brothers.  We are told that there was deceit in what Dinah’s brothers ask of the Hivites.  Every single one of your males must be circumcised.

Shechem and his father discussed this.  It seemed like a good deal for them.  Jacob wasn’t just some yahoo camped out in the backyard.  He was a man of substance.  That substance could be absorbed into the Hivite community. This whole circumcision deal seemed reasonable considering what they stood to gain other than the girl.

Perhaps, there was a little deceptive motivation in Hamor and Shechem going along with this request.  What we don’t see is the reaction of all the men in the country.  Really!  We are going to have to do this just so you get the girl?

This gives a whole new meaning to taking one for the team.

There is also the question never asked but which was answered in the course of the story.  C’mon, the old Marine officer here knows to trust but inspect.  I remember the Reagan years and dealing with the Soviets—trust but verify.

Who was going to inspect?  Who was going to verify?  I’m pretty sure that duty was going to fall to the youngest brother.  C’mon, who wants to get stuck with circumcision inspection duty?

We don’t see any inspection but evidently, all the males did what was required by their leader.  They were circumcised.  They were in pain.

And on the third day, two of Dinah’s brothers attacked these men and killed them all, including Shechem and his father—the ruler of the Hivites.  Only 2 of Jacob’s sons took to the sword, but the Hivites were no match in their present condition.

The rest of the brothers joined in the looting.  Back in the day, if you defeated somebody in combat, you took anything of value as the spoils of war.

The brothers also rescued their sister from Shechem’s household.

Jacob was in shock.  What if the other pagan peoples now banded together against him?  This could really be his undoing.

The sons of Jacob asked him, “What! We should have let them treat our sister as a prostitute.”  I think that they all had tee shirts made up that said, DON’T MESS WITH MY SISTER!

Jacob seemed to have forgotten that God was with him.  In all of his deceptiveness and even in the deceptiveness and ruthlessness of his sons, God was with him.

It seems that he also forgot one more thing. Maybe it just wasn’t included in the text. After victory in battle, Abraham made a tithe to Melchizedek. At the place he named Bethel, Jacob promised to tithe to God.

Just as a side note, it seems that Jacob’s dad is still alive at this point.  We don’t have a record of any visits by Jacob or Esau but just file that one away for later.

For this morning, let’s return to where we began. And so we come to one of the landmark precursors to an eye for an eye. 

What is an eye for an eye?  It is the law of retaliation established by God.  It was not in effect at this time.  So, when Dinah’s brothers discovered that their sister had been raped, they didn’t go rape some Hivite girls in retaliation.  They killed all of the men.

They killed all of them!

Understand when we get to the Law given to Moses and to the law of retaliation, this is an improvement to the law of unbridled vengeance. It is an improvement to the hate and vengeance that resides in the human heart.

While there was some sense of justice outside of God’s people; even God’s people were subject to the darkness that is within every heart.  Sin didn’t just make a brief stopover in Genesis.  It survived the Garden of Eden, It survived the Land of Nod, and it survived the flood.

Sin resides in every human heart. Sometimes, it is unleashed and it feels right to us. Sometimes the thought, kill them all and let God sort ‘em out, sounds like sound reasoning, especially when we let sin in the driver’s seat.

We know that human anger cannot bring about the righteous life that God desires. We know this but we also know that we still contend with anger.

It appears that Jacob survived this outburst of human anger, though his offspring would spend over 4 centuries as Egyptian slaves.  God told Abraham that this would happen long before Jacob walked the earth and that slavery does not seem related to the massacre of the Hivites.  In any case, the massing of pagan forces against Jacob did not occur.

Much later, Jesus would teach that an eye for an eye was not the longstanding law that God desired.  God desired his children to love one another and forgive one another.

We know the desire of God’s heart.  We know the darkness within our own hearts.  We have seen the mitigation strategy of Lex Talionis. Lex Talionis reduced the effects of hatred in the human heart.

Jesus came to make our hearts more like his Father’s.

What about us?  Where do we stand?  Do we also have love as our first nature?

We are still at war with God’s heart and our own.  Our own desires sometimes win out over the divine love that we should emulate. We are, in fact, very much of the earth.

We are made in God’s image but we are made of the humus of the earth. We struggle.

But we must remember that God has good plans for us.  We must never stop seeking to please God.  Our salvation resides 100% in our belief in Jesus Christ and the One who sent him, but our lives that should be lived in loving response to God’s love are a struggle.

Why do we struggle?  We don’t trust God enough.

We love God’s forgiveness for ourselves but we long for him to exact justice from others. Will the judge of the earth not do what is right?

Of course he will, but it may not match up to our worldly model.  He may forgive the unforgivable—at least the unforgivable in our eyes.  But we are called to have eyes to see.

See what?

The divine love of our heavenly Father.  The mercy and grace of God in heaven that we know in Christ Jesus. The Way, the Truth, and the Life of God the Father that we know in Christ Jesus.

Vengeance is mine says the Lord. We are counseled against our anger but sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that our anger is righteous anger.  Only God is entitled to righteous anger.

But I’m on God’s side in this!  I deserve to share in God’s righteous anger.  There is a theological term for that sort of thinking—horse hockey, and I am not talking about equines on ice.

God said that vengeance belongs to him.  We must trust that the Lord of all the earth will do what is right.  God is sovereign and it is not our prerogative to preempt his sovereignty.

We must trust that God will do what is right.  It might be judgment and punishment.  It might be forgiveness.  It might be totally beyond our comprehension.

We know God’s heart.  God has revealed his heart to us. He desires none to perish. He desires all to come to him in repentance and belief in Christ Jesus, but our part is to trust him and take his love and good news to the world.

That’s a tall order if our heart seeks vengeance.  That’s impossible if we can’t bring ourselves to forgive. It is hypocrisy if we say we love God but can’t forgive our brothers and sisters.

Had I been a brother to Simeon and Levi, I probably would have picked up a sword as well. It’s our human nature, but today, we know better. Given only to my human nature, I would have done some sword swinging too.

We long to be known as Christ’s disciples by our love.

It’s a struggle.  It’s a challenge. It is exactly what we are called to do. It is contrary to our human nature that wants more vengeance than an eye for an eye.  That was mitigation.  We want our vengeance to hurt and hurt badly.

So, where does that leave us?

Learn the history. Live the lesson. 

That lesson is that we who have been saved by the mercy and grace of God are to be known as Christ’s disciples by our love.

We are to be known by the divine heart of God that is within us.

Let God’s heart overtake and overwhelm your own and live a life of love.

Amen.