Genesis 34:1 – And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

Genesis 34:2 -And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

Hey all, new blog today. Although I’m a guy, I can see that the Bible is teaching young women a very important lesson in Genesis 34. In fact, these two verses are a must for young unmarried women. The forgotten member of Jacob’s family is Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, the sister of the 12 brothers. If you want to be a godly woman, and for God to bless and honor you and use you for his glory, then you will pay special attention to this story, because in this story lies a great warning to women. Such a great warning, standing out like a beacon in the very first book of the Bible, it’s a must learn, because if you don’t, you will be cut off before you ever get to marriage, as Dinah was. God could’ve used her greatly, but instead this story is all we ever learn of her. Womanhood is underrated, it has been so viciously attacked by Satan (just like manhood) because God has a design for women just like for man which Satan wants to thwart because he knows how powerful a godly woman can be. God uses women mightily in his purposes, women are to guide the home, in bearing and raising godly seed they impact the world for Christ, they leave a legacy that will stand for all time. They bear the children, and have a major say in how children turn out, and thus what the next generation can be for God. God puts the trust of children greatly in women’s hands. A godly man is only as good as his wife. Godly women God has used throughout history to greatly alter events, in fact, without godly women who obeyed God we would’ve never had people like Moses or John the Baptist. Parents have a huge say in who and what their kids will become, it doesn’t negate personal responsibility of the children, but nevertheless, if you raise your children for God and give and lose your children for Christ’s sake, then you will gain their soul forever. Committing your kids to God’s trust is truly finding them. Cast your bread upon waters and thou shalt find it after many days. Either God’s true or he’s a liar, and he’s not a liar.

If you want to be a godly woman used by God, and have God honour and keep you, you need to pay special attention to Genesis 34. You don’t want Dinah’s fate, and you don’t want what Dinah created. She created a huge mess, on top of casting the pearls of her virginity before someone who had no business and no right to it, and who would not value or respect it in marriage. How could this happen? How could she make such poor decisions? And her testimony and potency for God fell alone, far away from security, from family, from her home, from where she belonged, and to whom she belonged. Dinah was in a godly home. She was safe in her godly home, she had a father whose God was the Lord and brothers who cared for her purity, who cared so much they’d go on a murderous killing rampage after what she did. Her brother’s took it out on Shechem and his kindred, but it was her fault. It was her fault. It would be nice to wind back the clock and say to Dinah, Dinah hold on… sure, those women out there seem to be having more fun, sure there’s some hot goss out there, but you don’t need that, God’s got way better for you.

But what God had for Dinah wasn’t enough for her. Dinah grew discontent. Why else should we leave? Obviously her humble little life wasn’t getting it done for her. And that little seed of rebellion was cultivated in discontentment and by being in a land where people were having a lot more fun and living a lot more life than she was. The nations surrounding Israel’s (Jacob) family were wicked, worldly, they served other gods (which aren’t gods) and they did things differently. The world is no place for a girl to tackle by herself. Yes we are in the world, but we are also meant to steer well clear of any appearance of evil. We are in the world, but not OF the world, we are also separated from the world, there should be clear division in your life from sin and wickedness and from situations that will harm your life and witness and ability to be used by God. The life of a believer who has the Holy Spirit, is a sanctified life. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, if you have him. God is HOLY, and thus if you have his HOLY Spirit, your life will be marked by holiness. God separates us from this world unto himself. Many people use “we are meant to be in the world, not of the world” to justify their sin. Yes this is correct, but many people are in the world, and OF the world, just like Dinah, she didn’t raise the standard of the worldly people there, she just got lowered to their sin and wickedness. Sanctification is our life after we are saved, because we are sinners who repent and got saved, we got born again, and then the Holy Spirit cleanses and washes and purifies and prunes our life, making us fit for God’s use, making us a vessel unto honour. This is distinct from religious efforts, where the person tries to separate himself to make himself worthy of heaven… when you are saved though, the Holy Spirit separates you unto Jesus Christ, whatever that looks like. There are many things we should not do, places we should not go, people we should not hang around. Because Dinah was never going to “raise” the standard of the people of the land, it was only ever going to end one way. Read Psalm 1… it’s a fact. Blessed is the man that standeth not in the way of sinners… You can’t take fire into your bosom and not be burned, Dinah got burned.

Dinah went out. So she left home, she left security, she left God’s design for her life. She checked God’s ways in for the world’s ways. Many girls today go out just as Dinah went out, both physically and spiritually. They’re young, they’re curious, boys are fascinating, life is an adventure waiting to be had, experiences to be gotten, experiences that we feel entitled to. Everyone else is having fun, everyone else is living, well I’ve gotta live too. They leave their parent’s faith, they leave godly morals and ways and thinking, because there is a big exciting world out there. Don’t worry dad and mum, I’ve got this. Famous last words. Often it is easy to justify going out, because us sinners will find any way to justify our sin and doing wrong. She went out to see the daughters of the land. Seems harmless enough. But they weren’t supposed to have anything to do with these nations, so really what was she doing. She wanted to get in on the action, action that wasn’t quite available at home. Not all girls are blessed with a godly home, in fact, most aren’t, but a wrong doesn’t excuse another wrong. A bit like the brothers, they weren’t favored, and that was wrong of Jacob to favor some sons over others, but it didn’t justify them doing wrong. What defiled them wasn’t their dad’s favoritism, but their own actions. You can’t control others, but you can control what God has put power in your hand to do, ie. your own life and what you do and don’t do. Dinah wanted friends and fun, but you better be careful who your “friends” are. Because ultimately, those women she went to see, they were worldly women, they weren’t ever going to be true friends.

And it was in this setting of Dinah going out on her adventure that she’d find the prince of her dreams. To many girls, there are “princes” for boys out there, that one boy who will find a way past any virtue and morality and ruin their lives. There is always going to be a prince out there, young lady.  Dinah got a lot more than she bargained for out here in the world, and so any young woman entertaining a life not in obedience and surrender to God’s ways and will for her life, runs the risk of ruining her own life all for a brief moment of sin. We don’t see that Dinah had much backbone at all, she wasn’t raped, and yet she didn’t appear to have any substance to her life at all. She could’ve said no, but she didn’t, she was just a pawn in the bigger game of life. I’m sure she thought she was in control of what was going on, but she wasn’t. Noone is match for the god of this world, Satan, and he loves nothing more than to ruin the lives of young women (and young men) so that they are no danger of hurting his kingdom. Dinah doesn’t make a splash in history, job done. It is so naive to think that disobedience to God is harmless. This would’ve all never happened if she stayed with her own kindred. There would’ve been a man to marry, a man who would’ve married her first and not treated her like a whore.

We can look at Shechem, and of course he picked Dinah out. Because Dinah hadn’t been with a guy before. What a prize for Shechem! Young women, your virginity is worth a lot more than you will realize. Virginity shows you are faithful, that you believe in marriage, that your love means something, that you can be trusted, that you are in fact special when she says you’re special. No doubt Shechem had slept around with women, especially given the privilege of his rank as prince of the land. And he sees this innocent, naive little girl running around with the daughters of the land. She was no match for his charm, he saw her, he got her, he defiled her. Your virginity, your purity, your virtue makes you an even greater target and trophy for a man, and ultimately for the devil. Dinah had a lot more to lose than the daughters of the land. All the daughters of the land weren’t walking the path she had been, they slept around, and it was no big deal. Why is sleeping around a big deal? Because fornication and adultery is a marriage killer, why do you think there are so many broken families and homes these days? Because trust goes, a breach is made by you having sex with someone else other than your spouse, it creates division, it causes unrest. Fornication is a direct attack on God, who he is, and on marriage, which God created.

Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for Shechem, because it looks like he did love her and wanted to do right. But it wasn’t a godly love, a godly true love would’ve meant he saw her, and went to her parents first, and did right by her first, before using her for his personal pleasure. True love is God’s love, and God’s love puts the other first. He put himself first. He took, he didn’t give, true love gives, not takes. The woman is the weaker vessel, yes both sin, but man has greater responsibility, if you are a man claiming to be a Christian, and you’re going around sleeping with women, be sure God will get you. You may get by with it your whole life, but God keeps good records, be sure of that. Your damnation is not slumbering, God is being long suffering, but there is a day he will suffer your wickedness forever no more. Shechem didn’t have a godly love to give Dinah, because he wasn’t godly, he would’ve never loved her like a godly man would’ve. But she settled for less. He bartered for her like a piece of property, someone who had already laid with Dinah with no respect for her family and brothers. He didn’t know better and he did have some honour, worldly honour, but unfortunately he had taken their sister’s honour, and now he has the audacity to bargain for her. And their ultimate plan was to assimilate Jacob and his family into their country, adding to their wealth, and becoming one with them. That wasn’t God’s plan for Jacob. They were separate from these people for a reason. He was willing to be circumcised to get her, and so, girls you should know a guy will do anything to get a woman he’s fixated upon. It is ironic that it was circumcision, because in here is another picture in the Bible… beware trying to make someone saved by “doing good” rather than by repenting and being born again. If you’re saved, don’t try and “Christianize” other people to make them saved, and if you’re unsaved, don’t try and Christianize yourself because that doesn’t save you. Circumcision was a human work, and no human work saves mankind. Works follow salvation as a result of new life in us, we do not work to be saved. It is Jesus’ work that saves us, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves or keep ourselves saved. Circumcision was just a sign God gave Moses, being circumcised or not didn’t make a shred of difference to his eternal future. It’s just a human work, and in the same way, many people take people to church, and get them to clean up their lives, “swept and garnished”, and they “do” better and live like a Christian, and yet they are unsaved. Such people are being set up to fall, because religion will make you fall, and Shechem and his entire family and country fell because they put their confidence in a human work, rather than a saving repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That human work just made them easier to be slain.

If you are a young lady, you should read Genesis 34, if you want to be married one day and have a loving husband and a prosperous marriage… heed the age old warning of the Bible. Dinah had a rebellious spirit, she was discontent, she was in the wrong company, she did the wrong things, she was running with the wrong girls, what was wrong with the Hebrew girls? What was wrong with her gig in life? But she was lured away, beyond the ability for others to save her and protect her, she was lured away to a place where she’d be unable to resist the advances of prince charming. He took her, and she was too weak to resist. Don’t count on yourself being able to resist sin, because the temptation can be very strong, that’s why the Bible tells us to flee fornication, and abstain for every appearance of evil. Because many have fallen, even the best of us, the great men of the Bible… it truly is a giant that is going to take God’s grace and power to slay. Satan can get us before we know what is going on, things can happen quickly, and it is a tough cruel world out there. Other people aren’t going to look out for your purity, those women Dinah was hanging out with certainly didn’t look out for her, in fact, it was through these women that Shechem got to Dinah. They were of the world, he was of the world, Dinah had no business there, but because she put herself in that place, in that situation, willingly, she was not too special too fall. I’m sure she told her dad she knew what she was doing… I’m sure she had it all in hand and had life figured out… I’m sure she was headstrong and wasn’t going to take no for an answer… I’m sure she claimed she was only going to “see” … but it ended up in a whole lot more. Jacob wasn’t always the sharpest parent, he had one daughter, he couldn’t afford to be so slack. What was more important than the state of his daughter? Was he too busy, too occupied, too important to protect his daughter? And so with much finger blaming, ultimately it was Dinah’s fault. It’s a pretty sad story, and it’s been repeated many, many, many times over throughout history.

Back then it was game over for a woman, such was the importance of virginity. Virginity is all it’s cracked up to be. It is worth waiting, despite the testing, despite the fun you seem to miss out on, despite the life running out on you before your eyes. Marriage is of God, it is his will for women to be married and have children. God’s way and God’s timing. Forbidding to marry is a sign of the last days, there is no record that Dinah was forbidden to marry, but clearly her people didn’t supply her with a guy that suited her, clearly she was dissatisfied and discontent with her options, or maybe she just didn’t have the faith to wait and trust God to bring a man to her, so she went out to get one. There is no doubt that women go seeking men, even indirectly, they know if they get out and about, they’ll run into someone. If we contrast Dinah to Rebekah, we see a world of difference. Rebekah waited faithfully, she stayed with her people, and similarly a godly girl should stay with fellow Christians, older and younger women, being around good influences on her life who will protect her and look out for her best, God’s best in her life. To say God can’t provide any true friends is to call him a liar, there is no impossible situations beyond you that God will put you in where you cannot but sin. The truth is, Dinah just didn’t want God’s way, she did as Proverbs says, there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. She did what she wanted. Don’t do a Dinah. If you have done a Dinah, there is but one call, a call to repentance, because it’s a slippery slope, once that breach has been made in your life it’s hard to go back.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. “And such were some of you”. It doesn’t justify our past life, but Jesus did come to call sinners to repentance. And Jesus called many fornicators to repentance, and washed and cleansed them and made them new in Jesus Christ. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. The only hope for repentance and forgiveness and newness of life is in Jesus Christ, a true salvation from sin. That was Dinah’s only hope, we don’t know what happened to her after this, but without finding repentance her life was wasted. Don’t ever sin presuming upon repentance thereafter, because you might not find a place of repentance… Esau was a fornicator who did not. You have an opportunity today, to make a break from sin today. To turn to God in repentance and faith today. Life is full of decisions, may God give you the grace to make the right decisions. It does take God’s grace, Esau failed of God’s grace, it was no innocent mistake he made selling his birthright, he didn’t have God’s grace to see it’s value and hang onto it. Because he was a bad man, a wicked man at heart. May God give you the grace, because it takes his grace firstly to be saved, and secondly to live for God and obey him. God’s grace, God’s power… and it is worth it. None of us make it through life clean, but one thing is for sure, God’s word, and God’s way is the right way, the right path, the sure path that becomes brighter and brighter until the perfect day. It is worth it to obey God, and hold to his word. And he can redeem that which was lost, because he has spoiled Satan’s house, Satan is a robber, but Jesus is a restorer. The only thing that can trump the ruin Satan makes of our lives is the blood of Jesus Christ, which has bought us out of this wicked lost mess and we can have his life and blessedness, our ashes in exchange for his beauty. Today is the day.

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