The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Wednesday
January 23, 2008
One day Dinah, the daughter Leah had given Jacob, went to visit some of the
women in that country. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was chieftain
there, saw her and raped her. Then he felt a strong attraction to Dinah, Jacob's
daughter, fell in love with her and wooed her. Shechem went to his father Hamor,
"Get me this girl for my wife."
Genesis 34:1-4
Well, there you have it! Jacob truly had his share of woes, but that was just the beginning of this story. Shechem and his father went to Jacob about marriage. Jacob was willing ¾ if they would willingly obey the ritual of circumcision. They were, they did, and then two of Jacob's sons killed all the men in the town! Bloody massacre!
Oh, the things we'll do in the name of love! I truly believe Jacob would have honored what he and Hamor discussed that day to protect his daughter and the family name. Unfortunately, his sons dishonored everything that day.
Young people today, and back then, tend to think they have the answer for everything. It never ceases to amaze me! Oh, I made my mistakes. No doubt about that. Amazingly, I allowed my mother to make most of the decisions for me in that area though. I was so full of self-doubt that she literally told me what to do and I did it!
It was when I hit my 30s that I began making my own decisions and going against what she would ask me to do. Believe me, it was much harder.
I will never understand what makes a man (or woman) think they have the right to another person's body. It just blows me away! Yet, God, in His wisdom places many instances in His Word for us to see that it has been going on since the beginning of time. That doesn't mean He condones it, nor did He create it. He just wanted us to see the evil in it and the wrong way to handle it when it does happen.
Yes, I think it would have been wrong for Dinah to marry her abuser. So, Jacob was wrong and so were his sons. Love doesn't always make right decisions. It's the one emotion that can lead us to make wrong choices. That is why we have to always stop and pray whenever we get into any type of situation that brings about pain to someone we love or ourselves.
Maybe, just maybe, that's why God left these stories in here for us to read and study. What do you think?
