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God Preserves His Family of Fools
Genesis 34:1-31
People love happily ever after. After the prince fits the shoe on Cinderella, they lived happily ever after. After he changed into a prince, Beauty and the beast lived happily ever after. And after the wolf died in the furnace, the three little pigs lived happily ever after. But so far, Genesis doesn’t have a happy ending. Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden. Their hope for a promised Son fizzled out when one son killed the other. There’s disappointment after disappointment. Even in our lives. Weddings are not happily ever after. Graduates enter a sluggish economy. That dream job in a dream company? Nightmare. Believers continue to struggle with sin. Why? Because we’re living under the sun - there’s vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit. Happily ever after only exists beyond the sun, in that Promised Land where there’s no sun.
In Genesis 33, Jacob returned to Canaan. He finally called on the name of the Lord at Peniel. He humbled himself and learned surrender. Surely, things will be good now, right? Wrong. At Peniel, the sun rose again. That’s a tell! His life would still be a struggle, especially here in Genesis 34. It’s one of the Bible’s most disturbing chapters. There’s rape, deception, mass murder, and plunder. God’s name is not mentioned. There are no angels ascending or descending. No pillar of fire. But God’s not absent. He’s at work preserving his people from a world of predators. And he’s also preserving them from themselves. He’s preserving his holy people; who are also a family of fools. But we can take heart. Even in our messiness and scandal, God preserves us. We explore this chapter in 2 parts. Firstly, the evil ways of the world. Secondly, the foolish ways of God’s people.
Firstly, the evil ways of the world. Believers live in a world of predators. There are Cains, Ishmaels, Esaus, and worse like Pharaohs, Abimelechs, and kings of the east. We learn in verse 1, Leah’s daughter, Dinah, went to see the daughters of the land. These words should sound an alarm. When Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the Israelites already knew not to give their sons in marriage to the daughters of the land. They also just read how unbelieving Esau married the daughters of the land. But Dinah went out to meet them! Perhaps not inherently sinful, but greatly unwise. This placed her and her family in danger. Why? Because of the world’s violation of God’s people. What do I mean? We learn that Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, “saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.” He saw and took. Like Eve who saw the fruit and took. Like the men of Sodom - who saw the visitors and came to take. Like Cain who saw Abel in the field and took his life. Like Pharaoh and Abimelech who saw Sarah and took her. The verb here for “took” is forceful. This was assault. And it was done in quick succession: saw, took, lay, defiled. And it was done with deliberation. Dinah was his victim. No one else would do. It had to be her. He took. Why? He was the son of a prince! He felt he had a right. She was an object for consumption. Yes, verse 3 says Shechem’s “soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.” There was emotional attachment. But this was not biblical love. There was lust and thereafter infatuation. He wanted her. He told his father to take her for his wife. This was not love. Godly love has to do with giving. He took and still wanted to take.
This is the evil of the world. It hasn’t changed since Eve. The question is this - why didn’t Jacob say anything? When he heard about the assault, verse 5 says he kept silence. Perhaps he felt he couldn’t oppose the prince of the land. But why not? He’d just wrestled God! Why didn’t he wrestle man when there was such evil? Why did he let it fester? But because God’s people are silent, despite the world’s violation, this can lead to more violation. And this happens today. When we don’t stand up, the world pushes on.
And that happened - the world tempts God’s people to compromise. After the rape, Hamor came to negotiate - first with Jacob, then Jacob’s sons. His words sounded reasonable - “And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.” He was proposing an alliance. Remember, Jacob was powerful and wealthy. If he could give 550 animals to Esau, imagine what he was worth now? And Hamor was offering even greater potential for growth. If you join with us, you’ll profit. We can trade. Wouldn’t it have been a win-win? Additionally, Shechem spoke up - “Please show me favor, let me marry her. I’ll pay whatever dowry for her.” Whatever dowry! There’d be profit to be had if they joined up with these pagans! And the way it’s often done is by temptation to profit. Correct? Keeping the Lord’s Day the Reformed way is too austere. How will I ever move ahead in life? God understands. Compromise. How will I ever find a partner if I don’t look more broadly? Maybe my convictions are too strict - there’s much to benefit from if I just relax a bit. God’s laws don’t take into consideration today’s context. This is the danger of compromise through temptation.
And here, we see the destructive danger of temptation - not only to God’s people but to the world itself. James 1:14-15 say, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” In verses 11-17, Jacob’s sons were very angry. But they used Shechem’s schemes against him. They told Hamor and Shechem that no dowry was necessary except for circumcision. “You don’t need to pay any money, just get circumcised - it’s our custom.” And verse 11 says they orchestrated this deceitfully. So Hamor and Shechem fell for it. “Wow! We don’t need to pay anything! Just go through a procedure!” Saving the dowry was too tempting an offer to refuse. And so they agreed. Their own lust drew them away. They were enticed. And we learn why.
In verses 20-24, the goal of assimilation, their attempt to cause Jacob to compromise was so they could have a complete take over. The sin of take was still there. They still wanted to violate God’s people. So when Shechem and Hamor convinced their people to be circumcised, they dangled a carrot. Verse 23 - “Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.” Consent to circumcision, then their stuff is ours. This is the evil of the world. First, force it on the Christians - don’t give them a choice; then tempt and seduce them to compromise; follow up by negotiation, and finally by sheer numbers assimilate them. The threat is not just violence; it’s the erosion of covenant identity.
Assimilation forced from without and allowed from within is always the world’s goal - to make the church indistinguishable from the world. Beloved in Christ, we must note this. There are many reasons why believers compromise - we’re tempted by profit and benefit. But at the same time, many join church for reasons other than the gospel. They join for benefit. But unless it’s for Christ alone, it’s dubious and dangerous. And God’s people will lose their identity. And yet again, we hear nothing from Jacob. It was wrong. Israel was to be distinct. Jacob himself went away to get a wife. But here, this family was invited to merge into the world, to lose their distinctiveness as heirs of the promise. And father Jacob was silent. Why? Temptation to profit. But the price would be too high to pay. That’s the world’s evil. Violate God’s people, tempt us to sin, and assimilate us. That’s what happened when the sons of God married the daughters of men. By Noah’s time, the imaginations of man’s heart was only evil continuously. And this was the danger that Simeon and Levi perceived. But because of Jacob’s silence in all of this, they rose up to address it. But instead of bringing wisdom and holiness to the equation, they chose foolish weapons.
Secondly, the foolish ways of God’s people. So while we’re shocked by the evil of the world, we are greatly shocked by the folly of God’s covenant people. Yes, if God’s people don’t let themselves be transformed, we can be worse than the world. You see, Jacob had been assured by God he’d be a great nation, that God would bless and preserve them. But in these verses, his sons took matters into their own hands to be blessed. We see their sinful means of acquisition. Shechem wanted to make an alliance to acquire Israel’s possessions by assimilation. But the sons of Jacob acquired theirs by execution. I don’t know which one is worse?! And to do this, they resorted to deception. Earlier, in verses 13-17, they suggested circumcision as a precondition for marriage.“Come, be circumcised, then we can join together as one family!” But they had no such intention. But from where did they learn such deception? Like father, like son. But it went further than just deception. There was retribution. Verse 25 onwards tells us that on the third day after Shechem was circumcised, the men were “sore” - not just pain from surgery; but after 3 days, infection would have set in. There was fever. Their was incapacitation. And so Simeon and Levi took up their swords, went into the camp, and slew all the males. Now this was no small family. How did they manage to kill all the males? Imagine their uncontrolled passion. As Dinah’s full brothers, they were very angry. But where did they get such strength? You don’t have to look far. Like father, like son.
By so doing, they took back Dinah. And then they took. Like pagans, like the world, they took. Verse 27 says they plundered the city - they took flocks, herds, donkeys, wealth, wives, children, etc. This was not justice, this was a bloodbath. They acquired it by plunder. Yes, from the pagans - violation, temptation, offer of assimilation - all bad. But on the part of God’s people? Deception, circumcision, infection, incapacitation, retribution, execution, utter destruction, acquisition. Who did all of these terrible things? God’s foolish people. When they had promise after promise of preservation and benediction from God. This is the sad reality - sometimes God’s people are so foolish, they resort to the flesh. Now, to be sure, they weren’t interested in self-preservation. They’re interested in retribution and acquisition. Beloved, what are we interested in? What drives us? I can tell you that among God’s visible people, many are driven by sin, not by God’s kingdom. But in their pursuit of justice, by sinful means; in our own foolishness, the Lord providentially preserved them and preserves us from assimilation. We’re not so spiritual - and we see the compromise in our lives - and yet, we’re still not quite as wicked as we can be yet. Thankfully. But we don’t excuse their foolishness or ours, even though God used it for their good.
But we see here what led to all of these problems. There was a sinful desire for reputation. In verse 30, Jacob finally spoke. He rebuked his sons. But the rebuke was not moral, it was pragmatic - “You’ve brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land!” Jacob wasn’t grieved over the sin of murder or the defilement of God’s name. He was grieved over his own reputation. He cared more about what the world thought. He kept silent when his daughter was defiled. He was concerned for his witness among the people of the land. And that’s the problem with the church as well. We want to be seen as nice, loving, and kind - we want to oppose evil in a reasonable way. Now certainly, the church doesn’t take up arms. Our weapon is the Word of God, spoken boldly - but even then, we’re not bold enough. And we let the world violate us, imposing on us ideologies, restrictions, all in the name of tolerance. And when we stay silent, we allow compromise. And this was really surprising in the case of Jacob - he wrestled God for blessing, and was willing to give it up so easily. Now, the sons weren’t right either. When he rebuked them, they asked - should we let her be a prostitute? You didn’t do your job! You cared more for your reputation than you did your daughter’s! And sometimes, we care more for ours than we do for Christ’s. We refuse to speak because it may bring trouble to the church. Beloved, the church through time has always experienced persecution from the world when we resist them. Why should we be different? Because if we don’t resist, we’ll become the world! But we don’t defend the sons’ justification either. Resistance from the church is often foolish. Fight for the faith yes, but not foolishly. But some like Simeon and Levi, can’t tell the difference.
But beloved, why did all of this happen? Why violation, infatuation, temptation, offer of assimilation, deception, infection, incapacitation, retribution, execution, utter destruction, acquisition, no communication, justification? Because there was no separation. There was sinful lingering. In chapter 31, years ago, God told Jacob in Bethel to return to the land of his fathers and to his kindred, and he’d be with him. But what did Jacob do? He settled in Shechem. He even bought land there in Genesis 33. Like Lot, his great uncle, he stayed too long among the Canaanites. His daughter Dinah went out among them, his sons learned their violence, and the family nearly perished by assimilation. This is the silent sin of God’s people: remaining when God has said “go.” We linger in friendships, jobs, or patterns of life that expose us to temptation. We know we should move toward holiness, but we delay. And in that delay, the enemy strikes. And it took a massacre to move the family. In Genesis 35:1, God told him to arise from Shechem and go to Bethel, to dwell there - at the house of God.
Beloved, we are in the world, but not of the world. And God is gracious in preserving us, although we act foolishly. There’s hope. If the world violates and defiles us, and even we struggle with love of reputation and acquisition, we know that the Lord preserves us - but only if we’re in him. Let us repent of our compromise. We look at our own families. Perhaps there’s a Dinah, or a Simeon or Levi. Why? Maybe you’ve been a silent Jacob. And even as we look at the church - perhaps officers need to repent. We’ve kept silent. Consider your reputation. But Jacob, in all of his foolishness, he had a son. Not Levi. Not Simeon. But the Lord Jesus Christ. He was defiled by sinners - he took on our sin, was massacred, cut off from the land of the living. When Peter sought to preserve the kingdom with a sword, Christ told him to put it away. For the kingdom is won by Words. We must preach and teach against the ways of the world. We must not compromise. As the church, we don’t go out into the daughters of the world to meet them, but to reach out with the gospel to them. And it’s a fearful thing. If we don’t, we’ll be violated. If we do, we’re persecuted. But the church follow the ways of her master. Christ was persecuted, but he lives.
So beloved, don’t be defiled by the world. Guard your purity. Don’t be unequally yoked. Don’t let the world define love, marriage, or truth. Don’t become the world in defending the church either. The weapons of our warfare aren’t carnal. Don’t use God’s name to destroy others. There are many Simeons and Levis today - justifying themselves. But don’t remain silent. Your ultimate safety and preservation aren’t in your acquisition or reputation - it is only in Christ and his kingdom.
1. The Evil Ways of the World
A. Their violation of God’s people (1-5)
B. Their temptation to compromise (6-12,18-19)
C. The destructive danger of temptation (20-24)
2. The Foolish Ways of God’s People
A. Sinful means of acquisition (13-17, 25-29)
B. Sinful desire for reputation (30)
C. Sinful lingering (Gen 31:13, 33:19, 34:31, 35:1)
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Mark Chen, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2026, Rev. Mark Chen
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