The Sin of Sexual Assault
Genesis 34
Introduction
At Calvary, we feel a strong conviction to preach systematically through the whole Bible. One of the reasons for doing so is that it forces us to preach through topics and texts that we might not otherwise. All Scripture is God-breathed and all of it is profitable for us to study, and God speaks through all of it. As I said at the beginning, we will be talking today about sexual assault. While this is a sad and ugly story, I am grateful that God does not shy away from addressing the truly horrific topics, because these are the things that we go through. If we can’t turn to God in the midst of a world that perpetrates such horrors, what hope do we have?
So this morning as we look through the story, we are going to be talking to victims of sexual assault, which can include men, women, and children, as well as perpetrators and those of us who are given the opportunity to respond to people who have experienced such horrors. At first glance, when we look at this story, we will see that there are no heroes in it. But a deeper look will allow us to see how God is at work both in this story and today.
Retelling the story
Our story is found in Genesis 34, so please turn there as I recount for us what happened. To this point in his life, Jacob has been blessed by God with eleven sons and one daughter, Dinah. Dinah was out with the women of the land when she was spotted by a man named Shechem. Shechem sees Dinah and decides that he wants Dinah and so he exerts his power, takes her, and rapes her. After doing so, he decides he wants to marry her, so he tells his father to go and get her for him. Shechem’s father, Hamor, arranges a meeting with Jacob who knew Dinah was raped but didn’t do anything about it. Two of Dinah’s full-brothers, Levi and Simeon find out what has happened and they are furious. They join the negotiations and tell Hamor that they will give Dinah in marriage to Shechem if Shechem, Hamor and their whole clan agree to be circumcised. But this was all a deception and a trap to get revenge for the way their sister was treated. When the Hivites, the people led by Shechem and Hamor, agree, the men are all circumcised. While they are still weak and incapacitated from the surgeries, Levi and Simeon break into the city, kill all of the men and carry off the women, children, and possessions as plunder. When Jacob hears what the two boys have done, he is terrified and yells at them, telling them that they have put a bullseye on his family. The two brothers reply with the closing line of the story, arguing back, “should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
It is a grim story full of terrible examples of what not to do. So let’s start with the perpetrator and then talk through the responses of Hamor, Jacob, and Simeon and Levi, before we close by hearing something about Dinah.
The Perpetrator
All this tragedy begins with Shechem’s sin. Verse 2 says, “When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her.” This rape is a crime of power. Shechem is the son of the ruler and is used to getting his way. He sees something he wants and so he exercises power to take it. Much of sexual assault is an abuse of power. Dinah is not a person to Shechem. She is something to be conquered, pillaged and plundered.
But after he sexually assaults her, something happens that might seem unexpected. Verse 3 says “his heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.” There is another major sexual abuse story later in the Bible with Amnon and Tamar. In that story the opposite happens. After Amnon assaults Tamar, he begins to hate her. Shechem does the opposite. After assaulting her, he finds his heart drawn to her.
Although Shechem’s response is the opposite of Amnon’s it is more similar than you might think. So please don’t mistake this as godly love. Sexual assault can and does happen in the context of dating or marriage relationships where there is genuine attraction and even affection. But don’t miss the fact that Shechem’s heart is not fully right. Look at the next verse. “And Shechem said to his father Hamor, get me that girl as my wife.” This is not Biblical love. Shechem is approaching marriage the same way that he approached sex – taking by force the thing that he wants.
Which is the warning to those who perpetrate sexual crimes. You may think that you are exercising power, you may think that you are getting what you want, but you are only enslaving yourselves to the power of sin and it will only lead to one place: death. Shechem uses rape to try to make himself feel powerful. He wants to use marriage to do the same thing. But these things will not fill that void. These will not bring him the peace and love that he longs for. So I say in all seriousness to those who want to take sex by force or approach marriage as an exercise in getting what you want, do not walk down that path. But if you already have, fear the Lord, turn from this evil and let God rescue you from the destructive path you have set yourself on. Death is waiting for Shechem in this story and death is waiting for you unless you repent and turn to God.
The poor responses
Now let’s look at the poor responses to the rape of Dinah by those around her. The first person is Hamor. The response of any father to an act of violence by his son should be to repudiate that behavior, not to sign a woman up for more of the same in marriage. But Hamor is not trying to please God, he is trying to please his son and protect his own reputation and authority as king. And so he goes to the people that he rules to sell them on the plan to get circumcised. Watch how he sells it to them to see the character of his heart. Look at verse 20: “So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. ‘These men are friendly toward us, they said. Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. But the men will only agree to live with us as one people on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. Won’t their livestock, their property and all their others animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms and they will settle among us.”
Do you hear the selfish language of Hamor? Shechem’s selfish attitude comes from his father and his people. It’s been modeled for him. His father does not view Jacob and his family as people to be loved. They are people from whom the Hivites can take what they want. It is like Hamor wants to pillage and rape Jacob’s family, just like Shechem did to Dinah.
And the same is true in our culture. Why do so many people in power get away with sexual assault? Why do we ignore accusations of inappropriate behavior when coaches and doctors assault players or politicians assault staffers or business executives do the same to their employees? Because our society has the same attitude as Hamor and the men of Shechem. As long as the sports teams win, the politicians pass laws we want, and the business people keep the money flowing, we don’t care. The culture of sexual assault in America is birthed in the culture of greed, pride, and selfishness. We do not consider people as made in the image of God, we think of them as means to get what we want and to advance our own interests. Hamor and the men of the city turn a blind eye to a wicked evil because it is not in their best interests to do something about it.
How sad that this is even true in the Christian world. People in positions of leadership in churches and ministries sometimes do unspeakable things to and many Christians don’t want to believe that it is true, lest they lose a speaker or a leader that they like, or their job in a ministry, or be embarrassed that they have been such a fan of this person in the past. Yes, of course, there are false accusations. Joseph himself will be the victim of false accusations in just a few chapters. But for every Joseph there are many Dinah’s, yet the church does not want to believe that we have Shechems living and walking among us lest something is taken away from us.
The second responder we have to talk about is Jacob. When Jacob first hears, he does nothing. After his sons execute a plan to get revenge, Jacob is angry with them, instead of getting angry with the person who raped his daughter. The fact that he was willing to let his daughter marry this monster is appalling. We saw Jacob’s inactivity and passivity before when we saw how dysfunctional his family was. Here it is again. Notice the subtle clues left for us in the text about his attitude toward Dinah. Verse 1: “Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob.” It doesn’t say Jacob’s daughter because Jacob certainly doesn’t treat her like a daughter. Jacob didn’t love Leah, and he doesn’t love her offspring. Look at the last verse of the chapter. The brothers say, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” It does not say, “treated your daughter like a prostitute.” Later on, when something terrible happens to Joseph, Jacob is inconsolable. But when this happens to Dinah, he doesn’t want to do anything to endanger what he has.
Sadly today, some of us respond to sexual assault in the same way. We don’t want to confront those who might be doing such things. We tell victims to get over it, to learn to deal with it, to move on with their lives. This is Jacob’s response. Instead of confronting and acknowledging the sin committed against his daughter, he keeps quiet and refuses to engage, perhaps out of apathy, perhaps fear, or perhaps he’s immobilized by confusion.
The final responders in the story are the two brothers, Simeon and Levi. At first it might look like they did the right thing, standing up for their sister, but their actions are motivated by hatred, revenge, and rage. God is not for their deception, nor is God for the way they kill not only Shechem but all the men of the city.
This represents a third response that we are in danger of doing in the face of sexual assault: rage and revenge. God is the Judge and Jury. We are not. We can and should denounce evil, and we can should report such things to the authorities, but to take matters into our own hands or even to fantasize about harming the perpetrator is not from the Lord.
Dinah – for the victims
Despite all the failures in this passage, there is hope for Dinah. Despite so many people around her failing there is one person in this story whose response is fitting and loving, albeit subtle and seemingly behind the scenes. God cares for Dinah in the midst of her shame and suffering, and He offers that same grace to today.
First, notice that God values Dinah’s story by telling it. Dinah doesn’t speak at all in this passage, yet her story is being told. Her heavenly Father has ensured that her story is included in his eternal word. When you read the book of Genesis, this chapter stands out as not really fitting with the plot of the narrative. There’s nothing in here about inheriting blessing or the establishment of the nation of Israel. But the reason this story is here is because Dinah is God’s daughter. Her story matters. For those of you who have been the victims of sexual assault and think that no one sees, no one cares, no one even notices – please know that Your heavenly Father does sees, he does care, and your story is infinitely important to him.
Second, notice the gift that God gives to Dinah in how he tells her story. Verse 2 says that Shechem raped Dinah. It does not say Shechem “allegedly raped” Dinah. In a court of law, there may not have been enough evidence to convict Shechem, but God knows that Dinah is innocent and that Shechem is guilty and has written her story this way. It is so interesting reading commentators on this passage, especially older ones. A number of them try to blame Dinah for what happened because of the phrase “she went out to visit the women of the land.” They state that she must have been dressed provocatively or done something to attract Shechem’s attention. That is not how God views the situation. God declares that Shechem is the guilty one. Whatever has happened to you, God knows the truth. You may not be able to convince anyone else of the wrongs done to you, but you don’t have to worry about convincing God. You may not get justice or understanding from people of this world, but God is just. God understands.
Third, I want you to look carefully at verse 3. Buried in this verse is something really beautiful for those who have experienced sexual assault. “His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, he loved – and here’s where I want you to notice the word – “the young woman.” This is the Holy Spirit describing Dinah after she has been assaulted. The word for young women is the Hebrew word used for a virgin. In fact in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek word specifically means virgin, someone who has never engaged in sexual activity. What Shechem did to Dinah did not change her status in God’s eyes. To humans she had been defiled. Before God her status has not changed. She is still holy. Those who are the victims of sexual assault often feel dirty, empty, numb. Please hear the words of God your Father: You are his daughter, you are innocent in his eyes, and he has declared you to be clean and holy before him.
One last thing that God does for the victims of sexual abuse that is not present in this passage, but this passage points forward to it. In response to sins like sexual abuse, God sent his own Son, Jesus, to be murdered so that Jesus could provide a way for those who have experienced such violence in this world to be restored. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the death you have experienced in this area, can be the pathway to life. God can and will bring restoration. God can and will make all things new and through Jesus he is already at work making you into a new creation. He is turning the scars and wounds into wholeness and beauty. And through Jesus God is creating a community of faith where you can experience what Dinah did not. A community where the Spirit causes people to feel your pain, to believe the truth about your story, to walk with you during the process of healing, and to share their own struggles and point you to God in the midst of them all.
Conclusion
Seven years ago, a brave woman in our congregation stood up and shared her testimony of being sexually molested by her brother. Just a couple of weeks ago I received this testimony from another person in our congregation:.
She wrote: “Back in November of 2015, when [she] shared her testimony with you and her brother came, it absolutely changed my life. I was sexually assaulted on a first date while in law school by another law student. I did not have the courage to report it. I always thought I would be depressed and haunted by that situation. After Lou’s testimony, I joined a three part series Bible study ran by someone on staff that completely freed me from that situation and other stuff from my past (including my dysfunctional family trauma). Honestly, I forget it even happened because I completely forgave him and myself. Anyway, I finished that study the year I was diagnosed with cancer. I was so grateful that I had so much healing in my life before my cancer diagnosis because I don’t think I could have handled the cancer journey at all. I emailed Lou and thanked her too, telling her my diagnosis would have just destroyed me without first having dealt with my past. I only got help after seeing for myself in her testimony that you can overcome severe trauma with Gods help. Isn’t God so gracious? He has been so good to me and my family.”
Let me close by saying to those who have or are perpetrating such crimes. My friends, repent, turn from your wicked ways and accept the forgiveness that Christ has offered. There will be much work to do, even perhaps discipline from God to endure, but no matter what you have done, it can be forgiven in Jesus.
For those who are responding to the victims of sexual assault: Hamor’s selfish greed, Jacob’s spineless passivity, and Levi and Simeon’s uncontrolled rage are all the wrong ways to respond. God’s righteous justice, grace, compassion, and understanding, this is the model for us to follow.
And for the victims of sexual abuse. Please know that you are loved by God. He gave Jesus for this exact reason that you might be healed and restored. Know that God has created this community at Calvary to help you walk this road. We have those among us that God has specifically placed here to help you on the journey. You have experienced what Dinah experienced, but God has provided Jesus and his church so that you can be cared for by God in ways unimagined by those who came before us.
Jim Samra is the Senior Pastor at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI. He holds a DPhil in New Testament from the University of Oxford. Jim is a member of the St. Anselm Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
