The Heart Is A Dangerous Place - Genesis 34:1-35:15 Series

Genesis 34:1 says – Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. He raped her.

Dinah is the tenth child of Jacob, the only girl that we see that was born to him at this point. She has nine older brothers who are going to come to play in this story. Notice what it says about her. It says – She went out to see the women of the land. These are the pagans. These are outside of the faith community. She went out there. We don’t know why. She went out there. We don’t know whether she’s going to the mall or going to a party. Those are two different kinds of going out into the world. We don’t know exactly what she’s doing. But Moses makes a note of that fact to draw attention to the story to know what’s going on.

I would suggest and I want to warn young people today that there are times when you think you’re going out just to have fun or just to enjoy yourself, but there are dangers there that you are not aware of. When you say to your mom or dad, “Hey, I want go to this party on Friday night,” and your mom says, “Well are the parents going to be home?” “No. Their parents are on vacation. That’s why they’re having the party then because they want to be able to use the whole house and not bother the parents.” And Mom says, “Oh ho ho. I don’t think so!” Why? Because Mom has some experience in life. Mom knows what kinds of bad things can happen in those situations. Or a young person starts hanging around with someone that may not be the best and their parents’ red flags are coming up about the person they’re hanging around with and shares a warning with them. I just want to encourage you young people. You’ve got to listen to people of experience who have been in these places before you because there are challenges out here in life. Not just for young women, but for young men as well.

In fact I want to go a step further, if you would bear with me, because I want to talk to you young people (and older people too) and I just want to share a concern that you need to be aware of. I want to talk to you about the dangers of the power of male sexuality. Let’s just be honest here. Let’s talk about this for a moment.. This is not just for young ladies, but it’s also for young men and older people. The dangers of the power of male sexuality. You see God has created men with this desire to lead, this ability to take on challenges, to determine objectives to overcome obstacles, to conquer. That’s what men do. They go out and they solve the problems of the world. When God is working in a person’s life good things can happen and that is a great ability that they have. They also have passions that are inside, sexual desires that take place. Those are also good, designed by God. But when you take the desire to lead and overcome obstacles and face challenges and conquer and put that together with unbridled sexual desires, then you can get into a pretty bad place. Bad things can take place. You’ve got to understand that. Young people, if you’re going into a situation, a young woman, you’ve got to be aware of the dangers of the power of male sexuality. It takes a very spiritual man to be able to manage his own sexuality in our world today. It’s challenging.

Now God designed these two things in a very powerful way because in a marriage relationship when there's conflict in a marriage, then the husband is saying, “Wow, I want to get rid of this conflict so I can enjoy my wife.” So he’s motivated with his manly qualities of leadership and conquering and overcoming obstacles and meeting challenges. So he wants to do that so he can enjoy the relationship. It’s a God-given beautiful thing within marriage. But if a heart is selfish, not attuned with the Lord, then terrible things can happen. That’s what happens in this very difficult and sad story here with Dinah.

The fault is all on this guy Shechem. He’s the guy who’s perpetrating this rape and it’s just terrible what’s happening. You’re going to see that developed more in the passage. Just terrible what he does. Sexual abuse, sexual violence. It’s not just a violation of the body. I know in a group like this some of you have experienced this and you know all too well what I’m talking about. Sex is not just a biological experience, it’s a spiritual experience. So when a violation takes place like that, it goes deep into the heart of a person and hurts them and damages them in ways that are so sad and so hard to address. The process out of that can only take place really through the grace of God in a person’s life to overcome that terrible hurt that they’ve experienced.