January 14

Scripture and Observation:

Genesis 34-36

There is trouble in the new land.  Jacob has settled and found a home.  His daughter Dinah goes out visiting other girls.  The prince of the Hivites takes her to his home and has sex with her.  It says by force, but it also says he lovers her and spoke tenderly to her.  He and his father go to the family of Israel and plead to make friends, to intermarry.  They offer anything to keep Dinah as the prince’s wife.  The sons are pretty aggrieved, so they deceive the Hivites.  They say that they cannot accommodate the requests because the Hivites aren’t circumcised.  They tell the king and prince that if all the men will become circumcised, then they will indeed intermarry and give Dinah as wife to the prince.  They immediately agree and the prince uses his influence to convince all the other men of the land to get circumcised.  On the third day, when all the men were in pain, Simeon and Levi went in and killed every man of the land.  The  brothers followed and looted it clean.  Jacob is upset, but they are full of righteous indignation.

God tells Jacob to pack up and return to Bethel, the place where He had first spoken to him in a dream.  Jacob tells his household to bring all their idols and they bury them under a tree and leave.   Upon arriving at Bethel, Jacob again received the name Israel and is told to be fruitful and to multiply.  He will be a nation.  Jacob set up another pillar with offerings. Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and dies in labor. They bury her on the way to Ephrath, and the family settles in Eder.  The sons of Israel are listed and Isaac’s life is summarized.

Chapter 36 lists the establishment of Edom, the land Esau inhabits.  It lists the family line of both Esau and of the Horites, inhabiting the same land and intermarrying with some in the line of Esau.  It lists the down-line biologically, and then governmentally, listing the chiefs and kings of the land.

Luke 14

Again, Jesus heals on the Sabbath, showing the difference between man’s law and God’s.  He shames those who would condemn him.  He shares two parables, one of the guests at a dinner where they vie for seats of honor.  He tells them to not invite people to a feast who will invite them back in repayment. Instead invite those who cannot repay and we will be rewarded by God.  The second parable tells of a man who throws a dinner to which non of his invited guests attend.  The master of the house instead will invite anyone who will come.  The chapter is closed with Jesus telling a large crowd that anyone who follows must give up everything to do so.

Application and Prayer:

I read a novel about the incident with Dinah.  The author suggested that Dinah quite loved Shechem, the prince who took her to bed with him.  She is dismayed by the acts of her brothers, brokenhearted over the loss of her love.  It was a new idea to me to think she might be taken with her captor.  But as I read through the passage today, I see over and over Shechem acting with peace and earnestness.  We read nothing about Dinah herself—only what is done to and for her.  I know the Lord did not want the intermarrying of his people, but those commands were given to them through Moses.  So, as yet, there is not call for ‘racial’ purity.  Was it wrong for them to intermarry?  We see Esau vexing his parents for marrying Hittites, but was it because they were just annoying ladies, or something more principled?  Abraham didn’t wand Isaac to marry a local girl, so sent his servant back home to find Rebekah.  Rebekah sends Jacob back home (for other unrelated reasons) and he also marries ‘family girls.’  But they did have idols, so the purity wasn’t a spiritual one.  Was the indignation borne from the fact that the prince did things out of order?  Sex, then asking for her hand in marriage.  I can understand that, but do not have personal knowledge of the customs of either people group at this particular time.  I wonder where the heart Truth lies in this story.

Whatever the evaluation of the events surrounding Dinah’s disaster, the family must move on.  The surrounding people are a bit afraid of the family, so they let them go without pursuit.  We watch the family lose Rachel’s nurse, and then she soon dies as well, giving birth to her second son, Benjamin.  She names his son of my sorrow and Jacob renames him son of the right hand.   Then we see the sons of Israel listed. 

My grandpa died last March.  I never understood so well the desire to ‘take stock.’  I think everyone present at the funeral took a turn listing the sons and grands of this beloved man of God.  We have some drama and disasters of our own in the family tree, so there were some disputes in the final numbers.  An official accounting was probably needed.  Nevertheless, there is something …I don’t know if gratifying is the right word, but I know it is not complete … about this act of taking stock.  The list of children who can remember the lap of Grandpa, the song of Grandpa, the stories of Grandpa is really a list of mutual blessings.  As oft-separated cousins gathered to sing the ‘ba-da dee-didee’ of Grandpa’s standard lullaby, there was an undeniable bond.  We had been loved.  I pray to create a legacy of our own that is defined by love, no matter the disasters that may buffet my tree.

God’s family is thus: we may gather with strangers who call Him Lord and can share stories of blessings rained down, and we are bonded.  Love unites us and covers the sin and iniquity like no other thing.  Lord, I thank You for your Love.  I thank you for your Family.  I thank you for your Blessings.