"Responding to the Unspeakable"

I want to take a brief moment to remind everyone that as we are reading the Bible together as a church family, let’s both encourage one another to read daily while also heaping grace. Sunday marks the start of a new week and if you have fallen behind pace, let today be the day that you pick things back up.

This morning’s focus is one that I do not take lightly, but neither is it a subject that can be ignored. It is a subject that invariably will make us each uncomfortable, but as a proclaimer of the Word of God I am not not permitted the privilege of preaching the easy things or exclusively sharing funny stories so that we can each go home with some sense that we were made to just feel good.

I don’t have that privilege because, despite what may be shared from the pulpits of Lakewood Church or Potter’s House this morning, the gospel of Jesus Christ does not promise health, wealth, or prosperity to the child of God. In fact, I would suggest to you that health, wealth, and prosperity has little comfort to offer anyone who has been subject to the nature of crime committed against Dinah in our text this morning.

No, a life free of cancer or heart or other health-related issues that would otherwise shorten a life span, has little effect to the wounds inflicted to the memories of victims of sexual offenses. Money may bring countless sorts of things or take someone to the most unimaginable places, but when night falls and all the ways one may normally distract themselves by are at rest, victims and their loved ones become inescapably present to their thoughts. The same is true no matter what doors are opened to someone and how high one may climb that so-called ladder…for in but a blink of an eye, with the rush of emotion, those affected by sexual assault will come crashing back to the day they or their loved one was victimized.

As we have made our way through these first few weeks of 2022’s Chronological study as a church family, from this pulpit we have come to see that our identities are fractured by sin and that real, Holy Spirit-driven transformation is needed to reassemble that which has been broken.

What if we are the ones broken by the sin of others? How does the gospel address these unspeakable matters? How does the gospel challenge the way which we respond? It’s my intent this morning to take us through the three responses in our text to Dinah’s rape in order to show to us that

The cross is where we discover how to respond to our deepest pain.

Response #1: Anger

We look first at the response of anger.

Now, I want you to know that the Bible mentions anger in two different ways and so there are two different expressions of anger. There is anger of a good sort that is spoken of in the Bible. This good sort of anger is referred to as “righteous indignation” and it refers to the extreme displeasure of a holy heart unable to tolerate any kind of sin. When God angers, it is anger of the “righteous indignation” variety.

Think of it like this, man should be good but man sins and as a consequence, God is angry because in his sin, man Deuteronomy 29:26 “...went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.” God cannot sin or even be tempted with sin of any kind and for that reason, he cannot tolerate sin in his people. God’s anger is not unreasonable, unwarranted, or arbitrary passion but a result of the conflict between his holiness and sin.

In contrast to a holy anger or “righteous indignation,” we more frequently see anger referred to as an emotion that is considered sinful. For example, in Psalm 37:8 “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!” It was last week that we were helpfully reminded that Jesus paralleled anger with murder when he said that Matthew 5:22 “...everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment...” just as if he had actually committed the murder he felt in his angry heart.

And it is angry hearts that we see in the biblical record before us. Angry hearts responding to the defilement of their sister and we might be quick to think, of all the emotional responses to take, anger seems most natural, most fitting given the situation.

I mean, so much has transpired for Jacob and his family up to the point of their lives that we find ourselves immersed in this morning. In the chapters preceding this, we have seen that God has moved to restore the relationship of Jacob with his brother Esau after Jacob practiced deceit to steal Esau’s birthright. With peace between Jacob and Esau, God has restored Jacob to the land of Canaan, which was great because Jacob’s father-in-law wasn’t exactly the chairman of Jacob’s fan club, either.

Yet, no sooner had the dust settled from the family’s relocation that disaster strikes. All that had been going so cheerfully screeches to an abrupt halt. Jacob’s daughter Dinah is raped by Shechem (Genesis 34:2), a Canaanite whose father had sold this piece of land to Jacob. Genesis 34:7 “7 The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter...” Shechem’s father Hamor tries to smooth things over with negotiations for Dinah’s hand in marriage for Shechem and with cold and calculated hearts, the sons of Jacob take to the family tradition of using deceit to get their way (Genesis 34:13). Jacob’s sons convince Hamor and his son that they’ll agree to the marriage proposal if they would submit to the custom of circumcision. The sons’ goal was to put Shechem and his father in a weakened state.

Genesis 34:25–27 ESV

25 On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

I can only imagine how satisfied Levi and Simeon must have felt in unleashing their fury upon those who defiled their sister and those who would defend her attacker. I can only imagine how satisfying it may seem to exact revenge upon those who have caused any of us pain and wounds that simply never seem to heal. Fairly or unfairly, the actions of another towards us have wounded us and we rage at the ones who hurt us and ourselves. But here is something we must know:

Practical Illustrations: 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon 10-192: Only Christ Can Defuse Hate (Hate)

A person who is hateful will, by definition, do hateful things. And a person who is full of hate, refusing to yield to Christ, is like a bomb waiting to explode. In a 1994 article, Wars’ Lethal Leftovers Threaten Europeans, Associated Press reporter Christopher Burns wrote:

The bombs of World War II are still killing in Europe. They turn up—and sometimes blow up—at construction sites, in fishing nets, or on beaches fifty years after the guns fell silent. “Hundreds of tons of explosives are recovered every year in France alone. Thirteen old bombs exploded in France last year, killing twelve people and wounding eleven,” the Interior Ministry said.

“I’ve lost two of my colleagues,” said Yvon Bouvet, who heads a government team in the … region that defuses explosives from both World War I and II.… “Unexploded bombs become more dangerous with time,” Bouvet said. “With the corrosion inside, the weapon becomes more unstable, the detonator can be exposed.”

Hatred is a lit fuse that will unleash every sin in the human heart. There is only one person who can safely deactivate this deadly bomb called hate. It is Jesus Christ Himself. Christ threw His life on sin and took on the full impact of its lethal effects.

How can Jesus Christ safely deactivate our anger, our hate? The gospel grants calm sanity to our outbursts of anger, for God’s own righteous anger and fury toward the redeemed sinner has been calmed in the cross of Christ.

Are you prone to anger? No matter its source, be it impatience or your response to what has been done to you, anger kills. Would you entrust to Jesus, perfect Jesus, never going to fail you Jesus, your pain? Your anger? In the punishment and death of Jesus, the righteous anger God has for you, has been satisfied. If Jesus can calm God’s anger, cannot he not calm yours?

Response #2: Passivity

The next response we see in our text before is what we would call passivity or appeasement. In other words, trying to pretend that everything is just going to be ok. It is the exact opposite response to the one that is demonstrated by the sons of Jacob. If we were to define appease, it would be generally described as “to make one at peace.” It results in a lack of response at all when it is very obvious that some sort of action was needed.

We are soon to make our way to a book of the Old Testament named 1 Samuel. It’s a book that details a critical point in the history of Israel and their independence from God. As that book opens, the reader is introduced to the priest Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas, who were also in service to the Lord. And early in the book it is very evident that the sons of Eli are deviants, unrepentant and showing no concern for the things or matters of God. Frequently it is observed that Eli’s attention is drawn to his sons’ defilement of the things of God and all the evidence is dismissed by a father who is unwilling to punish the sin of his children. God, being holy and perfect and righteous, is vastly unlike the bankrupt Eli and in sweeping fashion, the sons of Eli are killed in a battle and upon learning of the news of his sons’ death that day, Eli too, dies for his inaction (1 Samuel 4). Maybe his epitaph may have said some nice words like “Peace Keeper” or “Never One to Rock the Boat,” but God’s view of the matter is clear.

In our text, the one who is obviously passive and effectively dismissing the whole crime is Jacob.

Genesis 34:5 “5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.”

And while Shechem’s father, Hamor, has initially gone to consult with Jacob, it appears as though he’s eerily silent on matters initially, overpowered by the anger of his sons, described in Genesis 34:7. In fact, in contrast to the fury of his sons, Jacob is so passively unconcerned that his voice is not heard again until the end of the chapter:

Genesis 34:30 ESV

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

That’s interesting, isn’t it? Your daughter has been raped by the son of the man you bought your land from and your sons have just committed premeditated murder and his concern is for who? Herein is the sinfulness of being passive in response to our pains - in our cowardice, we are only concerned for ourself.

Now, let’s do Jacob some justice and acknowledge that what is at stake in this account is nothing less than the covenant promise of God. Jacob tells his rash sons that if the surrounding peoples unite against Jacob, he and all his family will be wiped out. Even if Jacob survives, the land he has just bought from Shechem is certainly at risk in light of Simeon and Levi’s fury. The promise of descendants as numerous as the sand, then, and also the promise of the land of Canaan are both suddenly endangered.

Jacob was the appeaser; he simply wanted no trouble, but this, loved one, is not an example of a gospel way of living. The gospel grants courage to those of us tempted to just want to appease the situation through a passive response. The gospel grants courage to those of us tempted to appease through passivity, for if God has been appeased through Jesus, we need not be concerned with appeasing others.

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Good Courage

Second Samuel 10 records a seemingly impossible impasse for the armies of David. David’s commanding general, Joab, “saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear.” Then he and his brother, Abishai, vowed to support each other and to leave the results in the hands of God. Joab reinforced Abishai with these courageous words:

If the Syrians are too strong for me, than you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good to him (2 Sam. 10:9, 11–12).

Response #3: Silence

In responding to our deepest pain, we can be angry, we can be appeasingly passive, and as is demonstrated in our text, we can also be driven to silence. It is to this point I will speak the least because I do not want to say more than the text will allow.

This is a situation where as we grow as readers of the Bible, we will learn that interacting with Scripture verse by verse has its place, but we also must grow in our general ability to read and engage in the totality of a story. We will observe that in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as he gave inspiration to this, no spoken words of Dinah are recorded. She’s mentioned directly by name 4 times in the text and indirectly another 4 or 5 times. Otherwise, she has no voice in the entirety of this story.

Now, I want to make certain of this, the Bible’s judgement with respect to the actions of the sons of Jacob with their anger is clear. It is also clear that God has rendered judgement on Jacob’s lack of action here. But we can also conclude from reading the chapter that God in his Word does not blame Dinah for any of this. And yet her silence screams out to me in the very pain of the assault she suffered at the hands of Shechem.

I am at risk of over generalizing statistical information, but for the sake of not forcing upon any of us a long list of numbers that are altogether heartbreaking, if you break down any age bracket (children, adults, seniors), male v female, 1 in 5 Americans are victims of sexual abuse or assault. If these numbers hold true to Devine, more members of our church family are confronted with these matters than any of us may have thought.

When we are wounded and deeply pained from the actions that others have committed against us, we may be prone to keep silent because we feel shame. It is conceivable for Dinah to have blamed herself - all it takes is a sharp tongue from those closest to her to have suggested she brought this on herself because, well, she was the one who put herself out there. In Dinah’s humiliation, her self-confidence may have been so eroded that she was convinced that it wasn’t really Shechem’s fault. And maybe Dinah bore a sense of guilt when we see the family that surrounds her either over-function with rage or under-function with cowardice. I mean, her brothers wouldn’t be murderers and her father’s spinelessness wouldn’t even be a thing if she hadn’t gone Genesis 34:1 “... out to see the women of the land.”

Now, I know that’s an ignorant and untrue comment, but I say it to make this point - the guilt and shame and humiliation that victims bear lead them to wrong views of themselves. It is possible for one to believe of themselves after such terrible pain is inflicted upon them that they are not lovable, not worthy of any dignity or value. Yet it is God in the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, who would say otherwise. Loved ones, hear me please, in your silence, know that God himself hears your cries, he knows your pain.

He pained and himself was silent for 400 years. His silence broke not with fits of rage or appeasing platitudes, but with the cries of innocence at the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. It was upon the cross of Jesus that he bore the guilt and the shame that has been cast upon you. In the grace of God and to the disbelief of so many who find themselves paralyzed in this state, God speaks over the guilt and shame and humiliation Isaiah 43:1 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

This chapter concludes with Dinah seemingly fading to the background, but I believe that this is a signal that the transformation God offers is not instantaneous in every situation, but rather is a process accomplished over time. My prayer is that we would each acknowledge that with the cross of Jesus Christ, God has spoken and therefore we do not have to remain silent.

I want you each to know that the entire pastoral team is here for you if you need to talk. We will not break your confidence. And in acknowledgement for the fact that the suggestion of talking to us about matters of particular sensitivity may be far too uncomfortable, I want you to know that each of you have access to Christian counseling services. You can obtain their contact information either through the ChurchCenter App by pressing More -> Counseling Services or on the church’s website at fbcdevine.org by selecting Counseling Services from the Life @ FBC menu option in our banner.

Conclusion

As we close, a reflection from Oliver E. Williams:

The wonderful violinist, Paganini, was one night in Paris playing before a great crowd. As he was tuning his violin, he broke one of the strings. The vast audience was disappointed. Paganini paid no attention, but put the instrument to his chin and began to play.

Soon another string snapped, and the audience frowned upon him. He went on, and by and by broke the third string, while his audience was grieved and maddened. Then quietly stepping to the front, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen,” while he held up his violin, “one string and Paganini.”

With that violin with but one string, he produced such music as had never before been heard. He made it sing like a nightingale, weep like a woman in distress; while the melody was as a chorus of angel voices. When he sat down the applause was wonderful. Women wept for joy and men shouted at the top of their voices.

One string and Paganini. That is it. Place yourself in the hand of the great Artist. Remembering that the music is in the Artist. The violin is only the instrument of its production.

You have been angry or running or silent but with little contentment to your soul. Just let Christ work through you and reveal to you that the cross is where we discover how to respond to our deepest pain. Not the violin, but Paganini. Not I but Christ. You have been seeking power but not in the right way. Listen! It is not attainment but attitude that is power. It is not so much what you do for Christ but what you permit Him to do through you that counts. Be filled with the Spirit. Do you ask how? By yielding yourself to Him for his infilling and using.

Oliver E. Williams, “It Is What Christ Does That Counts,” in Fifty-Two Invitation Illustrations, Preaching Helps Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1972), 50.

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