MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Genesis 34,35,36
Reader: Ipe Mavunkal
Last week, the Christian community was rocked by the distressing news that Michael Tait, the former lead singer of the popular Christian music band Newsboys, had engaged in serious moral failures, including sexual assault of young men, predatory practices, cocaine usage, and alcohol abuse. I grieve for the victims. My blog on the church website this week concerns that tragic situation. When events like this occur, they are a God-given opportunity for reflection and growth, such as asking the obvious question: are there consequences for not living in obedience to God’s rules? Jesus said that the two most important commandments are, “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbour as yourself.” Sinning stops a person from loving God fully or loving one’s neighbour in the manner God commands. Today, we will see this theme played out in the family of Israel’s third patriarch Jacob – really the least likeable of the patriarchs – and we will begin by looking first at Jacob’s brother, Esau. Now, despite Jacob’s sins of deceit and lying being greater than Esau’s, Esau himself was not God-honouring, as is seen in that he married three women who neither worshipped God nor were interested in the eternal covenant given to Esau’s father, Isaac.
Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite—also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. (Genesis 36:2,3)
God would still protect him and make him wealthy, but Esau’s disdain for God cost him the fuller blessing of being able to participate in God’s covenantal promises, including living with his family in the Promised Land of Canaan. Instead, Esau moved southeast of the Dead Sea in the hill country of Seir and settled there. We read this:
Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. So, Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir. (Gen. 36:6-8)
That statement by itself could make it seem that having too much livestock between Jacob and Esau is what forced Esau to move but he had moved there well before Jacob showed up on the scene with his large herds. It was Esau’s disregard of God that caused Esau to miss out on the covenantal blessing. Meanwhile, Jacob – because of his sins against Esau and his father, the patriarch Isaac – had fled for his life to Mesopotamia. After 20 years of being away, Jacob decided to return to Canaan. Now, Esau heard he was coming and went out to meet him but Jacob, still fearing for his life, met Esau halfway and tried to give him gifts as a peace offering. Esau turned away those gifts because he wanted to have a relationship with his brother, and
Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the flocks and herds before me and the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” (G. 33:13,14)
But Jacob was lying. He had no intention of going to Seir. Instead, he went to a place called Succoth and on to a city called Shechem and settled there. This deceit of lying to Esau was added to a similar promise he made to God, that being would return to Bethel, the spot where he had originally met God in the “Jacob’s ladder” event. Consequences of these lies we will read about. First, hear in chapter 28, before he left Bethel 20 years earlier, what he had said to God.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” (Genesis 28:20-22)
Jacob had promised to make the remembrance pillar he had set up in Bethel into “God’s house”, a permanent structure, and to give God a tenth of all he had. He fulfilled neither promise. Instead, he settled in Shechem, a Canaanite city, an act that had a terrible consequence for many. Shechem had been founded some time before by a man bearing that name. In the passage we are about to hear read, a distant relative named after the original man Shechem, and living in the city of Shechem, sinned badly. Now think about it: if Jacob had not settled in that wrong place, in the Canaanite city of Shechem, the horrible things we are to next read about, most certainly would not have happened.
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. His heart was drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.” When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so, he did nothing about it until they came home. Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done. But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.” Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask. Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.” (Genesis 34:1-12)
One of the most well-known blood feuds in American history was between the Hatfield and McCoy families. The feud, which lasted from 1863 to 1891, began when a member of the Hatfield family ambushed and killed a member of the McCoy family. In retaliation, Hatfields murdered McCoys and the McCoys, again in retaliation, murdered Hatfields. People were kidnapped, homes burned down, jailbreaks carried out, numerous people ambushed. By the time all was said and done, upwards of 60 people had lost their lives, a story that illustrates the tendency all of us have towards retaliation and sin. Thus, we read,
Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor. They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males. Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.” Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. (Genesis 34:13-19)
Circumcision was something God commanded of Jacob’s grandfather Abraham as a sign of the covenant he had made, a sign to be applied to Abraham’s male descendants marking them as God’s chosen people. Jacob’s sons use this sacred, God-given, sign for treachery.
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 agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.” All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised. (Genesis 34:20-24)
Everyone in this event was in it for themselves. Greed on the part of the men of Shechem. Revenge by Jacob’s family who would act against the weakened, unsuspecting Canaanites.
Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. (Genesis 34:25,26)
It was Simeon and Levi who murdered the circumcised, weakened, men of Shechem but in the verses after, we read their other brothers looted the city and carried home their plunder. Jacob was not pleased.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” (Genesis 34:30-31)
Where we decide to live can have a huge impact upon so many people. When I was a kid, we lived in Nelson, B.C., the centre for drugs and hippies in Canada. My dad, when I was 15 years of age moved us to Vancouver. I didn’t want to move so I asked him why he was moving us. He said because, “I don’t want you or your three older sisters to become drug addicts or to have illegitimate children.” He was right. He moved us to an upscale area in Vancouver, with good schools. It was in Vancouver that I became a Christian and it was because of my dad’s move that I am today your pastor. Those good things would not have happened if my dad had kept us in Nelson.
Now, if Jacob had only gone to Bethel, as he promised, not of the terrible things we have read about would have happened. Jacob was afraid that the Canaanites in the area would have revenge on them but we read that God sent a “terror upon the Canaanites so that they did not pursue the family of Jacob”. But God was fed up with Jacob not going to Bethel. It was as if he said, “Enough! Your stupid, unfaithful decision-making has caused enough pain and destruction.”
Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” (Genesis 35:1)
So, finally, Jacob returned, reluctantly, to Bethel. There,
Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. Jacob called the place where God had talked with him “Bethel”. (Genesis 35:14,15)
But, staying at Bethel held no appeal to Jacob, with sad results.
Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t despair, for you have another son.” As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. So, Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb. (Genesis 35:16-20)
Jacob – or Israel as God renamed him – did not put 2 and 2 together that intentional disobedience against God’s will, would have bad consequences, and so we find his oldest son Reuben sinning:
Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. (Genesis 35:21,22)
That was Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son. Jacob’s 2nd and 3rd-born sons, Simeon and Levi, were the ones who earlier murdered the men of Shechem. The consequences of all their sins were coming.
Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.” (Genesis 49:1,2)
This would be like a modern-day reading of a will, where family members are called together to gather around to hear the reading of the deceased’s will but this “reading of the will” happened when Jacob was still alive. He speaks to his 12 sons in their birth order.
“Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” (Genesis 49:3,4)
Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, lost his position of prominence in the family. He would “no longer excel”. To sons two and three, Jacob said,
“Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce,
and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.” (Genesis 49:5-7)
So, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi all bore consequences from their sins. When the 12 tribes of Israel would return to the Promised Land, the tribe of Reuben would be given land east of the Dead Sea, far away from Jerusalem, the place of power and authority in Israel. Reuben lost his place of pre-eminence. The tribe of Levi, the Levites, as prophesied by Jacob, would be dispersed throughout the other tribes, and not be given any land of their own. The tribe of Simeon would be given undesirable land fully enclosed within the borders of the land given to the tribe of Judah. Over the centuries, the tribe of Simeon would progressively get smaller and weaker and would later disappear altogether as the tribe of Judah became stronger and stronger.
So, which son would rise to prominence? That of the fourth-born son, Judah. To Judah, Jacob promised prominence. This was fulfilled in at least 3 ways: 1. Jerusalem, the prized jewel city, and the capital of the 12 tribes of Israel, was within the land given to the tribe of Judah; 2. It would be from the family line of Judah that all the people in the nation would gain their name: “Jews”; and 3. Coming out of Judah would be the “Lion of Judah”, the Messiah, God’s Son, Jesus. So, just as we have seen that sinful disobedience results in bad consequences, it must always be proclaimed that righteous, obedient behaviour conversely results in good consequences, realities we call “blessings”.
So, returning to where we started this sermon: last week, the four-time Grammy award singer Christian singer, Michael Tait, was accused of multiple, very sordid sins. His silence was deafening. But this week, thankfully, he confessed his sins and apologized: “Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true…I am ashamed of my life choices and actions and make no excuses for them. I will simply call it what God calls it – sin. I don’t blame anyone or anything but myself…I want to say I’m sorry to everyone I have hurt.”
Good for him! Just as the consequences of his sin and willful disobedience to God’s will were and are painful for himself, his band Newsboys, as well as for his victims, I pray for Michael Tait’s healing. Certainly, his confession and his pledge to righteous living may lead to good things for all involved. But let us learn the lessons we need to from the Michael Tait scenario as well as what we heard in scripture today. No matter how we try to downplay or deny it, sin causes harm. Loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, mind, soul, and strength, and neighbours as ourselves is surely how we should live. The choice is ours as to how to live. Choose wisely. Amen!
