Genesis 34:2

One wrong step away from our true position before the Lord leads to many a sin, scandal, and sorrow. So we find here as the consequence of Jacob's buying the land of the Hivite, and building himself a house. His stay at Succoth and Shechem covers some ten years. He had to be unsettled before he would return to his pilgrim place. The way back was painful for all, and it brought Jacob deep shame, humiliation, and fear.

Jacob seems to have grown weary of the pilgrim path, and yielded to the temptation to settle down and build a home. And what was the fruit of this action? His daughter Dinah goes out to see the daughters of the land. Her father had settled down in the world instead of living as a heavenly pilgrim passing through it. What could be more natural than that his daughter should want to be friends with the world? Who would have guessed that swapping a tent for a house could yield such bitter fruit?

One of the races found early in Palestine: they were descendants of Ham through Canaan (Genesis 10:17). Jacob, on his return to Palestine, found Shechem occupied by the Hivites (Genesis 34:2). They also held the city of Gibeon, and managed to trick Joshua into making a treaty with them.

With or without the approval of her parents, Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land. What had she to do with them in any way? Everyone but the godless knew that judgment was coming on these people, and that Abraham's offspring would have the land. Their sin was great, though not yet full. Apart from that, how thoughtless and dangerous her behaviour was! She seems to have been as independent of her mother as her brothers certainly were of their father's advice.

Her wandering curiosity exposed her to the young prince of the land. He was taken with her and carried away by his passion. He seduced her, if he did not force her by violence.

The sons, when they came, were not only grieved but very angry at Shechem. Did they not stop to think that the blame was not only Shechem's, but Dinah's also? For though this was sin, it was not rape.

The whole of Genesis 34 shows the unhappy results that came from Jacob lowering his separation from the world. The evil showed itself not in Jacob himself, but in his family. The tide of evil runs in two broad channels: violence and corruption. The world is just the same today. How often we have to hang our heads in shame and admit that we, as Christian parents, have kept too close to the world — and it has brought sorrow and even disaster into our families.

His altar declares God to be his God (El-elohe-Israel). Yet it seems he uses this only to walk in his own ways more openly than before. His house at Succoth and the land he bought at Shechem tell the same story. He is hardly a pilgrim now. He loses his separateness, and Dinah is defiled. God's grace will not comfort those who will not use it in holiness.

Was this the way of the house of Abraham? Was this the family of the separated patriarch keeping the way of the Lord? Had Abraham been this careless? What contact had he arranged for his children with the sons or the daughters of the land?