Jacob to Israel – A Life Transformed – 11

Genesis 34

Actions and Reactions

When God deals with us and our spirits are determined to follow Him and His guiding, ultimately we will change. Jacob experienced a place where God had met him and changed his character. This change meant that he would see things in a different light, he would act and react differently.

The incident that takes place here in Genesis 34 is one that most of us will find distasteful and unjust. How we deal with these kinds of incidents is entirely dependent on whether we have had ‘God Encounters’ or not and whether we are willing to allow our hard, conditioned hearts to be changed by Almighty God.

As we have seen previously Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed, in other words he had come through with God not without God.

Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, is on a night out with the girls Genesis 34:v1 where she is seduced, raped and violated by a young man. Heard this kind of thing before?

The man who has violated her seems to then be repentant and wants to marry Dinah. Oh that he had kept his selfish desires and motives in check. This tells us something of the rebellious, sinful nature that is inherent in all of us as a result of Sin that entered the world through Adam. Not that we are in any way as depraved as the young man in our story, yet, nevertheless Sin in us is capable of anything. Sin reproduces what it is.

It is very difficult to right wrongs, no matter how good our intentions. We need to daily ask God for His Grace to enable us to go through life without sinning. A tall order, and one that seems impossible, but through God all things are possible. Whether we subscribe to the possibility of a life without sin depends on our perspective and relationship with Almighty God and whether we believe that He has done what He said He would do by sacrificing His Son who terminated Sin forever. What I do know is that my life is not perfect and also what I know is that God through His Grace sent His Son to die for me and set me free from the power of Sin and Death, so that I could live a life of freedom and power to the glory of God. It is an ever on going process, the question is am I willing to change?

It is through the daily situations and circumstances that I find myself in that I have to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, it is in fact God working in and through me for His pleasure and purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Sin does not only harm us and our relationship with Almighty God it also damages our relationships with our neighbours and friends.

What does Jacob do when he hears that his daughter has been violated. Genesis 34:5 tells us that he kept his silence and waited till his sons had come in from the field.

What was going through his mind at this point? Did he feel any compassion towards his daughter? I believe he did, from what I read of Jacob I find a changed man.

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