A Godless Chapter?
April 30, 2026 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
This Sunday in our sermon series on Genesis we come to chapter 34. The ESV chapter title calls it “The Defiling of Dinah.” “Defiling” is a sanitized word for sexual assault or rape. And that is not the only scandalous sin of the chapter. There are “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 Jn. 2:16). There are “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Col. 3:5). There are deception, anger, wrath, malice, and slander (Col. 3:8-9). There is the destruction of innocent life. They are many guilty players in this story.
Do you know what this chapter lacks? Any mention of God. For the first time in the book of Genesis, we have an entire chapter without one mention of or reference to God. I know chapter breaks were introduced centuries after the writing of the biblical books, but this entire story unit has no explicit mention of God. What should we think about this?
- God always is on his throne. God’s providence is “his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions” (WSC 11). We ought not think that God is taking a break in Genesis 34. Every event in the world, including sinful and evil events, are a part of God’s “preserving and governing all his creatures.” In Job 1 and 2 we are allowed to see the backdrop of God’s interactions with Satan that allow us to understand what is happening to Job. In Genesis 34, we do not have that insider information to know clearly what God’s plans are. But we can remain confident that God reigns and is working out even the evil circumstances of Genesis 34 for his sovereign plan.
- Perhaps God removes his direct guidance to test Jacob and his family. I use the word “perhaps” because we cannot be certain without Scripture explicitly telling us. In 2 Chronicles 32:31 we read, “God left Hezekiah to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.” God knew what was in Hezekiah’s heart. This kind of testing is more for the human to learn his own weaknesses apart from God. Jacob has just been victorious in his confrontations with Laban and Esau. Perhaps God saw that Jacob needed to be reminded of his utter weakness and need to remain dependent on God alone.
- God always is teaching about himself and his covenant. We know the next generation of the covenant family have become adults. Dinah at least is a teenager to draw the attention of Shechem. Her older brothers, Simeon and Levi, are old enough to go on a rampage to slaughter the men of the city. The covenant promises must be passed on to the next generation. In the tragedy of the chapter, the sons of Jacob use circumcision, the sign of God’s covenant promises, to manipulate Shechem and his father into a compromised position. This violates the third commandment, using God’s name and circumcision associated with God’s name in vain.
For their actions in Genesis 34, Jacob curses Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49:5-7, “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed by their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” These brothers are not cut off from the covenant community, but they do suffer consequences for their sinful actions. The discipline of the Lord teaches his people about himself and his ways.
- Genesis 34 is yet another reminder that humanity needs a Savior. For all his prosperity, victories, and accomplishments, Jacob still cannot save himself, nor his family, from their sinfulness. The darkness of Genesis 34 reminds us that the curse of sin still affects every single human being. We need the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent, and he has not yet arrived in Genesis 34. The depravity of Genesis 34 also reminds Jacob, his family, and us that it is only by the sheer grace of God that anyone has hope of salvation. If we are ever tempted to think that Jacob and his sons have earned the favor of God, the events of Genesis 34 blow that out of the water. It is only by the grace of God that this family, or anyone, is included in the covenant of grace.
Chapters like Genesis 34 are in our Bibles for good reasons. We affirm with Paul that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Let’s look for that profit from Genesis 34 this Sunday morning in worship.
