The Leading Lady Dinah

The Leading Lady Dinah: This article narrate Dinah’s story lost and revenge.

The story of Dinah in the Bible is quite short but packed with different twists and returns. It started on a very distasteful note when we consider what happened to her.

But in between, we can pull out different lessons that can help us all. Her story is captured in the book of Genesis.

Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, went out and meet some of the young women in the neighborhood. Most likely with the intention of learning about their way of life.

Nevertheless, while she was there a man named Shechem who was the son of the chieftain of that country, took her.

To add insult to injury, he then came to the conclusion that he loved the young lady and desired to get married to her.

When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock. So he did nothing about it until they came home.

Then Shechem’s father, Hamore went out to talk with Jacob. Meanwhile, Jacob’s son had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what happened.

They were shocked and furious because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that should not be done.

Jacob was informed that Shechem had impurely slept with his daughter, Dinah, and that Shechem wished to marry her.

But he strangely did not respond to either of these allegations. On the contrary, it was Jacob’s son who ended up being extremely upset and furious.

And they were the ones who correctly labeled Shechem’s conduct as an outrage that should not be done.

But Hamore said to them, “My son, Shechem, has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as wife. Intermarry with us, give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves.

You can settle among us. The land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it and acquire property in it.”

The Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and i will give you whatever you ask.

Make the price for the bride and the gift i am to bring as great as you like and i will pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father, Hamore.

They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing. We can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be disgrace to us.

We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only, that you become like us by circumcising all your males, then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves.

We will settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we will take our sister and go.”

Their proposal seemed good to Hamore and his son, Shechem. The young man who was most honored of all his father’s family lost no time in doing what they said because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

So Hamore and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city. “These men are friendly towards us,” they said, “Let them live in our land and trade in it.

The land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours, but the man will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised as they themselves are.

Won’t their livestock, their property and all their animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms and they will settle among us.”

All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamore son Shechem, and every male in the city circumcised.

Because he continued to pursue the marriage agreement and portrayed into marriage between the two families as advantageous situation for everybody concerned, Harmore, Shechem’s father appeared to be unaware of the anger that Jacob’s sons were displaying towards him.

Three days later, while all of the men were still in pain, two of Jacob’s son, Simeon and Levy, Dinah’s brothers took their swords and attack the unsuspecting city, killing every male.

They put Hamore and his son Shechem to the word and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. The sons of Jacob cam upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.

They seized the flock and herds and donkeys and everything else to theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the house.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levy, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites an d Perizzites, the people living in this land.

We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, i and my household will be destroyed.”That they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute.”

Genesis 4:25-31,AMP  “They compelled the men to get circumcised as a way to weaken them. And hile the men were still in pain, two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levy, avenged their sister’s honor by killing all the makes in the town.

Simeon was Dinah’s older brother and Levy was Dinah’s younger brother. In addition to that, they pillaged the city leaving the people of Hamore in ruins.

Jacob was troubled by the assault because he was concerned about their ability to establish a permanent presence on the land.

He was afraid that the other Canaanites in the vicinity who were significantly more numerous than they were, would exact revenge on them.

Jacob didn’t trust that God would keep his family in the land like he had promised. Shechem violated God’s just laws and did violence to an innocent woman.

Jacob’s sons used the sacred symbol of the covenant with God as a trick to murder far more people than were guilty.”

Let’s examine this story more closely and draw out some life applicable lessons from it.

First, we see that Shechem the son of Hamore the Hivite was a prince, sheik of the land. He represented royalty, but he had a nse of entitlement and also a spirit of lust that had a great deal of control on him.

Of course, it is natural for a man to be attracted to a woman but it becomes dangerous hen the desire propels a person to sexual sins like fornication and forcing yourself on somebody.

The right thing would’ve been to approach her father and ask for her and in marriage. But he chose to forcefully take her. This means that we must never allow the spirit of lust to control and decide our actions.

He later did what he was supposed to have done in the first place, but it was like giving medicine after death because seeds of discord and hatred had already been sown by his action.

Our flesh is actually a very bad master. If not controlled, it can lead us to take actions that could ultimately lead to destruction.

Here is what the Bible says in Romans 13:13-14 AMP, “Let us conduct ourselves properly and honorably as in the light of the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and irresponsibility, not in quarreling and jealousy but cloth yourselves in the Lord, Jesus Christ and make no provision for nor even think about gratifying the flesh in regard to its improper desires.”

For Shechem, it was all about gratifying his flesh and nothing more. The act isn’t just evil, but it is also traumatizing as it leaves the victim with a feeling of worthlessness.

That was exactly how Dinah felt. And she let her brothers know of Shechem’s actions. Even though Shechem, on the other hand, still wanted to marry her, that didn’t erase the consequences of his actions.

Consider what the Bible said in Proverbs 14:12 AMP, “There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straightforward before him, but its end is the way of death.”

This is why we can connect the dots of what happened to Shechem and his family at the end of the story. The brothers of Dinah would neither take it with a pinch of salt, nor live with it.

They had only one thing in mind, and that was revenge. They had their plans well crafted that even their father, Jacob was in the dark as far as their plans were concerned.

But once we decide to do something wrong, we can be sure that the devil will give lots of evil ideas. The devil is the master of every evil plot and he will give you the strategy as long as you are willing to do what is contrary to God’s will.

Indeed what Shechem did as wrong and couldn’t be excused by any standard. But wiping out his entire family was definitely not Jehovah’s idea, but Satan’s.

The lesson here is that we must not allow the devil to stir up in us an unhealthy revenge that is designed to take us against the will of God.

Every one of our actions should be subject to scrutiny on the basis of God’s word. In today’s world, there is usually a law that deals with issues like this.

So we should allow constituted authority to decide what should be done to the offender, rather than committing murder in a bid to revenge our a loved ones hurt.

We will only end up pilling sin upon sin till the world becomes a horrible to live in.

Romans 12:19-21 AMP says, “Beloved never revenge yourselves, but leave the way open to God’s wrath and his judicial righteousness for it is written in scripture, ‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay,’ says the Lord.

But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For by doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome and conquered by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Also Deuteronomy 32:35-36 AMP says, “Vengeance is mine and retribution. In due time their foot will slip, for the day of their disaster is at hand and their doom hurries to meet them.

For the Lord will vindicate His people, and will have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength hand is gone and none remains whether bond or free.”

In this story, Jacob’s sons, who were Dinah’s brothers, acted like they were okay with the proposition of Shechem and his father, but their minds were already full of revenge.

So they kicked off the plan by making them agree to circumcise every male in their family. This would be the trick to weaken them and then murder them. The family fell for this and they were all slaughtered.

The question now is, after killing everyone in Shechem’s family, what was their reward?

Was justice served at the end?

Their father, Jacob was so pained by the whole situation and God who knew how embarrassed he was, told him to leave that area.

Genesis 35:1-4, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there and build an altar to God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother, Esau.’

So Jacob said to his household and all who were there with him, ‘Get rid of your foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Then come, let us go up to Bethel where i ill build alter to God who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever i have gone.’

So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears and Jacob buried them under the Oak at Shechem.”

Also, it is obvious that the children of Jacob were no more living according to God’s ways but were controlled by the common behavior of the culture around them.

This is why their hearts were cold enough to carry out this mass murder without any consideration about what God would think.