Our reading starts out pretty sadly, today. Shechem, the son of a local prince, rapes Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob. Then Shechem is convinced that he loves Dinah, so he asks his father to get Dinah for his wife. Jacob finds out first, and doesn't share with his sons immediately what has happened, but when the sons return from the field and hear the news, they are angry, and understandably so. Hamor, Shechem's father, then asks all of them if they would give Dinah to Shechem and to intermarry with them. Shechem then tells them that to win over their favor he'll pay whatever price. As a trick, the brothers said their family cannot intermarry with uncircumcised men, so Hamor has all of the men in their city circumcised. Three days later, Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, take advantage of the men's painful state and kill and loot the whole city. When they return, Jacob kind of scolds them, but then they replied "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?" Gen 34:31.
Rape is a terrible violation to any person, and the only person I know who can completely forgive it is God Himself, and that is even hard for me to wrap my head around. This is proven, though, by Simeon and Levi's reaction to their sister's rape. Rape is also a really hard subject to talk about, because people who have never been through it can never really grasp the feeling, even if they can empathize. Throughout my whole reading, though, this scene made me think of two things. The first: my older brother, who is Levi and Simeon personified, and the second: no one wrote about Dinah's reaction to all this. In the gray area that gives a quick review for this reading, it says "a story of violence turned to love" but who is in love here? I hope with all my might the writer meant Shechem's "love."
Today, I'd like to invite you to do the two things I'm about to do.
1.) Send a "hello" to any of your siblings, if you have them, because even if they don't show it in an obvious way, they really do love you. (good friends who are like siblings count too, for all you only children!)
2.) Think about how awesome/crazy/unreal the depth of God's love for us really is. He can forgive you absolutely if you would just meet Him half way. Like Pastor said yesterday, He even listens to "fox hole prayers." So maybe today you can shoot a quick prayer to God and ask Him for the help to forgive someone for a wrong/wrongs he or she has done to you. Levi and Simeon had an understandable reaction to the news of their sister's rape, but killing and looting didn't undo the rape. Taking revenge, no matter how satisfying, doesn't ever truly solve anything. Forgiveness, however, is powerful stuff. It doens't give back what was physically taken, but it does work to fix any mental wounds you may have.
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