Scripture: Genesis 34:1–35:8

I. Sex and marriage can bring danger to your relationship with God.

A. How did Jacob’s daughter Dinah do wrong? Verse 1 says she went out to see the women of the land of Shechem. Dinah was probably a teenager. She was naïve. But what were Canaanite women like? Not righteous. See Genesis 26:35. And the men of Shechem were even worse. Shechem raped Dinah (vs. 2). He had defiled her and made her dirty (vs. 5, 13, 27). This rape was a moral outrage of the vilest sort, and it cried out for justice to be done for Dinah (vs. 7).

B. Seeking marriage from a godless Canaanite and friendship with godless Canaanites brought not only physical danger to Dinah. It also brought spiritual danger. Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Marriage comes first. And then sex. Shechem perverted this order. Sex before or outside of marriage can be forgiven by God, but it must be confessed and repented of.

II. Love for the world can bring danger to your relationship with God.

A. Jacob and his sons loved the world. What does Jacob do when he hears about Dinah’s rape?  Absolutely nothing (vs. 5). Where’s the moral outrage? Where’s the grief? Jacob just wanted to live at peace with his Canaanite neighbors so he could enjoy his livestock and wealth. He was afraid that the Canaanites would take everything away from him (vs. 30). Jacob’s love for peace, riches and security in this world brought danger to his relationship with the holy God.

B. Simeon and Levi told the people of Shechem that all their males also had to be circumcised if Shechem wanted to marry Dinah. That way God’s chosen people could be one with the people of Shechem (vs. 15). But Simeon and Levi had no intention of letting Shechem marry Dinah. They put all the men of the town to the sword. Verse 27 says they plundered the city. They wanted loot. They wanted all that this town and this world had to offer. And they took it.

III. Idolatry brings danger to your relationship with God.

A. In Genesis 35:1, God says to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.” When Jacob was running for his life from Esau, he had made a vow to God in Bethel in Genesis 28:20-22: “If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go… so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house.” After 10 years in Canaan, Jacob finally keeps his vow to God. He buries his idols (Genesis 35:1) and re-commits himself to God (Genesis 35:3).

Application:
Turn away from your idols, and re-commit yourself to God.

Sources:
The Bible
Commentaries by Allen P. Ross, Bruce Waltke and Dale Ralph Davis.

Sermon Discussion Questions

1) Who should have protected Dinah from the people of Shechem? How is the covenant faithfulness of marriage a picture of God’s faithful love for us?

2) How do all of the characters in Genesis 34 and 35 show a love for the world that is greater than their love for God? How does the world tempt you away from God?

3) When we recognize we have an idol, what should we do with it? What would a re-commitment to God look like for you?