What You Meant for Evil, God Meant for Good

What You Meant for Evil, God Meant for Good

Chet Phillips

Transcript

It's good to see you all this morning. Grab your Bibles, go to Genesis chapter 50. I don't know if you know this, that is the last chapter in the book of Genesis. So starting next week, we will begin back in the book of Genesis because we felt there was a few things we missed. No, I'm just messing with y'all. We will be moving on to other things.

I think it's been good for us to walk through Genesis and I'm glad we're going to be wrapping it up. When my wife and I first got married, we rented a little house in Clinton, South Carolina. I don't know if you're from Clinton. You have to pronounce it Clinton, but I'm not from Clinton, so I will say it correctly. We rented a house in Clinton, South Carolina and we lived on a road called Teakwood Drive, I think. I know it was Teakwood.

And the lady who we were renting the house from had a man that would come by. It was an older gentleman who would come by and help do some work around the house. And he was there repairing something and he had whittled a, I believe it was a dog. I don't exactly remember what it was, but it was a small little figure. And he handed it to me and he was saying, I whittled this. And I was like, man, that's, this is neat.

Like, this is a cool whittled thing. And he started telling me it was made out of teakwood. And he said, now teakwood is one of the strongest woods that exists. And I was like, cool. And I'm holding it. And so when he told me it was really strong wood, all I did was just kind of test that.

And I snapped it in half. And so I broke it and then just stuck it back together real quick. And just stood there like that. Now I'm having a hard time paying attention to the conversation because I'm having to think through, this is terrible. I've made a huge mistake. When someone hands you something they've whittled, you don't break it.

This is like a, you know, feels like a social norm has just been broken, you know. So I'm sitting there holding it. And he's just going on and on about how strong teakwood is, how they use it to build ships, how, you know, it's practically indestructible. I think he was saying stuff like if Superman fought a teakwood tree, the teakwood tree would win. He didn't. But it just seemed like he went for a really long time about how strong teakwood was.

And then when he finished, I said, well, that is really cool. I'm sorry I broke this. And I just handed it back to him in two pieces. You know, I had the option of like pretending he had offended me and throwing it on the ground or just like fumbling the hand off. But I think it was just I just had to own it.

So I just was like, this is broken. And he was like, oh. And I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm apparently an idiot and should not have done what I did. And so I just, you know, he took it well. So that in general is how the book of Genesis starts.

That's how the Bible starts. That's the way it feels. God in chapters one and two creates this beautiful world. And it repeatedly says, it's good. It's good. It's good.

It's good. It's very good. And in chapter three, he makes the, in chapter one and two, he makes the pinnacle of his creation, humanity. And he hands it over to humanity, puts them in a garden. And in chapter three, they walk over and go, yeah, we broke it. We, I don't know.

We were here for, it seems like 45 seconds. And now all the stuff you made is going to be terrible. That's really the way it feels. We start off the book of Genesis and they, it feels like immediately rebel against God. They decide that their wisdom is greater than his. They decide that they cherish something more than him.

So that when it comes down to, do we want to obey or disobey? They, they so lower the value of God that they choose something else and they rebel. And when they do, sin enters the world and everything gets messed up. If we'll remember at the beginning of Genesis, when we were reading this, everything was good. Everything was beautiful. They were in a garden.

The world was going to respond well to them. They were going to have a good relationship with creation. They were going to have a good relationship with each other. Genesis two says they were naked and not ashamed. We have a hard time being naked by ourselves and not ashamed. They were naked together.

This was just the thing that was going to happen. They weren't going to feel shame. They weren't going to feel guilt. And as soon as they sin, they noticed they're naked. They feel shame. They hide, they cover themselves.

And from that point on, everything is broken. And it turns very badly, very quickly. We, and the question that we have from the, from the onset of Genesis is what is God going to do? How is God going to respond? What is he going to do with sin? What is he going to do with this creation now that is marvelous in?

What is he going to do with sinners? How does he remain holy? How does he remain good? How does he, how does he respond? Is he just going to start over? Is he just going to destroy humanity and let animals have a messed up planet?

Is he just, what's he going to do? That's the kind of the question we have is how's, how's he going to respond to sin? How's he going to respond to sinners? What's he going to do? We see in Noah, the Noah story, we see that it says Noah was righteous. The New Testament is later going to tell us that that was through faith, that he inherited righteousness through faith.

But Noah was righteous and so God kills everybody on earth who had gotten extremely evil extremely quickly. Like we jumped some generations to get to Noah, but it says the world just spiraled. We suddenly have murder, hatred. As we read through Genesis, it's like a highlight reel of human sin and debauchery, incest, lust, sexual assault. It, I mean, I felt like multiple times as we were walking through the book of Genesis, we would just have to be like, turn to Genesis chapter 30. It's bad again.

Y'all are used to being sad, right? Because that's what we're going to talk more about. Like that's kind of what Genesis has been. And so he, he kills all of humanity and you go, okay, here's our answer. He's going to get rid of all the bad people, but we'll have the righteous people. He's reset it.

Noah gets off the boat, immediately gets drunk, gets naked. His son sees it, doesn't honor his father, ends up getting cursed. And then God actually says, basically when they're walking off the boat, I'm not going to kill everybody again, even though they're still evil. And you want to be like, wait, wait, wait, I thought you kept the good guy. He's like, yeah, even our good guys are the worst. It seems like the book of Genesis goes out of its way to highlight how terrible the heroes are.

We're like, we got Abraham. Okay. Like the first thing we see Abraham do is walk into a city and he pauses. He's walking in with his wife and she's like, oh, this is a nice city. He's like, yeah, hold up. We get in there.

I'm going to need you to tell them you're my sister. She's like, why? And he's like, because you're cute and I'm a coward. So say you're my sister. And then I will actually just help you marry people when we get in here. That goes terribly.

God helps them. And then the next time they go to another city, Abraham's like, you remember my bad plan from before? And she's like, yeah. And he's like, all right, round two. It moves from Abraham to Isaac. And we think, okay, well, maybe Isaac will have some sense.

No, does some of the same things. It moves from Isaac to Jacob. And Jacob starts off the first half of his story. He just seems like a scoundrel. He does some things okay. But it's like the book of Genesis is going out of its way to highlight these people are sinful.

Even this legacy, this line, this promise of maybe this will work out. That's one of the things we see in the garden is as soon as it goes bad, God steps in and basically says, I promise sin won't win. The serpent had come in, had lied to Eve, had deceived her. Adam had willfully gone along with it, passively at first and willfully afterwards. And God comes in, he curses them, tells them what's going to happen, how the world's going to be messed up now. He kicks them out of the garden.

And he says, though, there's going to be one who comes. Eventually, the serpent won't win, sin won't win. We read through Genesis. It looks like sin's winning. Because every time it steps in, everything gets marred, everything gets broken. Every time someone whittles a beautiful dog, sin snaps it in half.

It's the way it feels. And we can try to glue it back together, we can try to piece it back together, but it's not going to be the same. And that's what we've been walking through. When we get to Genesis 50, we've seen some of the promises fulfilled. We've seen this family line continue. We've seen all the world be blessed.

That's one of the things he told Abraham. I'll make you into a great nation, and through you I'll bless all the world. We've seen a little bit of that. His nation's getting bigger. The 12 tribes are beginning to grow. And through Joseph, the world, the local world there, is blessed.

And you might would say, well, that's the finalized version of this. You read on, and we're going to see that that's not the finalized version, but it is a small picture. But in Genesis chapter 50, we're going to get the answer we've been asking. The answer to the question we've been asking. What is God going to do with sin? How is he going to fix this problem?

Is he going to have to get rid of sinners to do it? And he gives an answer for the book of Genesis that ultimately we'll find is an answer for the entire Bible and for the entire world. For his answer to sin. So we're going to read that in Genesis, and that's where we'll finish out. As Genesis finishes out, kind of letting us see how this works and what God is going to do. So let's pray.

God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how good you are to us. And we pray that we would see the beauty in the reality of how you respond to sin and to sinners. As we finish up the book of Genesis. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Genesis 49 ends with the death of Jacob. Chapter 50, verse 1. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for it. For that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. Okay, so you would... That rivals, this is almost how long you would weep and mourn for a pharaoh. So Jacob gets a lot of respect and honor because his son is second in command over Egypt.

And so they mourn for him for seventy days. And we're going to see that this mourning continues. It says, When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan. There shall you bury me. Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father.

Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up and bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father. And with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, So the elders of the household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers and his father's household, only their children and their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land of the Canaanites saw the mourning of the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore, the place was named Abel-Misraim. It is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them.

For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. So they go, they travel, and they bury Jacob in the cave that they bought from Ephron the Hittite. They say this every time it's mentioned because they want to make it really clear why they own the land, where it is, who has it. And they mourn for him with a great mourning.

And this is one of the things that culturally I think we have lost. That we don't know how to mourn well. That we try to kind of move on quickly from mourning and we feel like we ought to be past things that honestly we cannot move quickly past. And so a lot of times people will feel like they're still in mourning but everybody else has moved on. But this actually was 70 days where the whole nation mourned.

And then even when they got there they did another 7 days of it. That there is time for and seasons for us to just be sad. And that's okay. And that's what they do. And they greatly honor Jacob. And I'm sorry I've been losing my voice all week.

So I will preach as long as the Lord lets me. And then we may just end in the middle of this sermon. We'll have to see. I'm just kidding. I'll jump to the end. We're going to talk about Jesus.

Surprise. Alright. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead. They said it may be that Joseph will hate us. And pay us back for the evil that we did to him. Okay so this moment in the lives of Joseph's brothers triggers for them their guilt.

Everything had been going fine. They'd been there for 17 years. Things seemed okay. Their dad dies. And suddenly they're like uh huh. I don't know who brought it up.

But at some point in the brother meeting that Joseph wasn't in. And I'm guessing Benjamin wasn't in. They were like hey. Think back. Remember that time. That we threw Joseph in a pit.

Told our dad he was dead. And then decided not to murder him. I think that was the highlight of this. But we did sell him into slavery into Egypt. And then do you remember how we were all shocked when he's in charge of Egypt now? Because that's not how usually the route to being in charge of Egypt doesn't usually go foreign slave to second in command.

Yeah. So you think he's still mad about that? They get together and they're basically like. It feels like maybe he was just being nice to us because dad was here. Because he remembered how upset dad was when we killed him technically. Maybe he thought dad would be upset with him if he killed all of us.

But now that dad's not here. Maybe. Do you think maybe he's going to do that? But don't worry guys. They have a plan. So verse 16.

They sent a message to Joseph saying. Your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph. Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin. Because they did evil to you. And now.

Please forgive the transgressions of the servants of God. Of the God of your father. All right. Before dad died. He told us. To tell you.

To forgive us. We don't know why he didn't tell you. I think it's because he thought it would mean more. Coming from him to us to you. Than just from him to you. And he totally said this.

This is real. Benjamin knows about it. But I wouldn't ask Benjamin about it. Because he'd be his feelings would be hurt if it was brought up. Even if this was just because you know he's sad. So just just know dad said this.

And for you to go ahead and forgive us. And also. Will you will you go ahead and forgive us? Yours truly. Your 12 brothers. Check.

Yes or no. Waiting patiently in Goshen. Like I don't. This. This is the note they send. Says this.

Joseph. Wept. When they spoke to him. He just. He just cries. And he says.

His brothers also came. So this is the messengers brought this. And he just. He just weeps. Because of the brokenness still in this relationship. And his.

Brothers also came to him. And fell down before him. And said. Behold. We are your servants. But Joseph said to them.

Do not fear. For am I in the place of God? He's basically saying. Like. I. I don't get to judge y'all.

It is not my job. To judge. And to condemn. And to decide what your fate is. It is not my job. To.

To weigh your hearts. To know whether you're repentant. It is not my job. I got. It's not. Not my role.

Don't fear. I don't. I don't get to do that. I don't get to bring the hammer down on you. It's not my position. It's a very humble spot.

For the second in command of Egypt. Who absolutely could do what he wanted to. With his brothers. And who had absolutely been wrong. He just says. That's not.

It's not my role. As for you. You meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. To bring it about. That many people should be kept alive.

As they are. Today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them. And spoke kindly to them.

Verse 22. So Joseph remained in Egypt. He and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children. Of the third generation.

The children also of Machir. The son of Manasseh. Were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers. I'm about to die. But God will visit you.

And bring you up out of the land. Out of this land. Into the land that he swore to Abraham. And Isaac. And Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel.

Swear saying. God will surely visit you. And you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died. Being 110 years old. They embalmed him.

And he was put in a coffin. In Egypt. That is the end of the book of Genesis. It will move on from there. 400 years. And we will have the Exodus.

That would walk through. We're not going into that book next. But that is what would happen. If you read this. In the order it comes in the text. So Joseph dies.

And he ends by making them promise. Making basically the nation of Israel promise. When y'all leave. You're taking me with you. And he believes in the promises. That have been made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And he says. My bones will be here. I need y'all to grab those. And tow them on out. Which had to be fun at the Exodus. When they were like.

Alright we're leaving. Also. There was a guy who was super in charge here. About 400 years ago. He's buried in one of these really fancy crypts. We're going to need you to go get that for us.

Because we have to take him with us. And guess what? The Egyptians said. Sure. Because at that point. God had put Egypt in a headlock.

And been doing what he wanted to with him. They do take his bones with him when they leave. So. Go back though. Because this is the answer given in Genesis. The key kind of climactic point here.

Was in verse 20. We'll have it on the screen as well. Says this. As for you. You meant evil against me. But God meant it for good.

To bring it about that many people should be kept alive. As they are today. That's the answer in Genesis. Jesus. Now. Just understanding how to read your Bible.

That is a thing. That Joseph says. It's not. Prophetic word. Word of the Lord. There are certain places in the prophets.

Where it says. Thus says the Lord. And we take that as something God says. When you're reading these stories. You just have to understand. This is a thing Joseph says.

And so. You have to then look and see. It's actually the way the book of Genesis runs. It's kind of this point. As the summation of what's going on. We're also.

Joseph is a trusted source. To speak on behalf of God. And. The rest of the Bible carries this out. So you cannot always go to a place.

Where someone just says a thing in the Bible. And go boom. Let's build some amazing theology off of this. But you can here. Because it's carried out and displayed. This is what God does.

So. What you meant for evil. God meant for good. That word meant means a lot here. Joseph's brothers meant. To harm Joseph.

They meant to destroy him. They meant to get rid of him. They meant to make some sweet cash. Off of him. And to never see him again. They meant evil.

They purposed it. They willed it. That was their desire. And then he says. But God.

Meant. Purposed it. Willed it. Desired it. For. Good.

We would be inclined. To think. That when everything. Turned to evil. And when everything. Gets bad.

And when everything. Is broken. Our question is. How is God. Going to respond. As if he's having to wait.

To see what happens. And then make a plan. But that is not what that says. What they meant. That the exact moment. That human actors.

Who are free. And choosing evil. When they were exactly. That moment. Were at work. To do harm.

God was in that moment. Through their evil. Flipping it. And meaning it. Purposing it. Willing it.

For good. Are they responsible. For what they did. Yes. Is God bigger. And more capable.

Than them. Yes. And did he control it. And work it out. For something good. Yes.

Did he respond. Nope. He was in it. At the beginning. Psalm 105. Says this as well.

It says. When he summoned. A famine. On the land. And broke. All supply of bread.

Meaning that God. Brought about a calamity. He. Had sent a man. Ahead of them. Joseph.

Who was sold. As a slave. All right. Was the selling. Joseph. As a slave.

Evil. Yes. Should they have done that. No. Was God. At work.

In that. To bring something. About. That he had planned. To bring about. Good.

That was actually. Better. Than what would have happened. Otherwise. Yes. How does that work?

God is amazing. And humans are evil. But God's. Amazingness. And goodness. Outweighs that.

Outshines that. And he works in the middle of this. What it doesn't say was. When a famine. Came on the land. God looked around.

And said. Oh. I need to do something. Egypt's in trouble. Hebrew slave. I talked to the Hebrews.

I used to talk to this guy's daddy. Found one. I'll talk to him. Now let me figure out. How to get him. Into the palace.

It's not what he did. It's not what he did. Potiphar's wife. Lies about Joseph. Gets him arrested. She accuses him.

Sexual assault. She is believed. Joseph is not. He gets arrested. Should she have done that. No.

Was it evil. Yes. But the next line. In the scriptures was. But God was with him.

And that God was working in this. The whole time. To eventually. Elevate him to the palace. So that Joseph could say.

Hey. Y'all took your best shot. And you meant it for evil. And God in the midst of that. Meant it for good. And he saved a bunch of lives.

Through it. And it's not my job. To bring. Be judgment on y'all. It's my job. To do what God wants me to.

And we're okay. Now. The immediate response to that. As we think through that. Is. I.

I want to go. Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out.

Time out. Time out. Time out. Part of me is much more okay. With God hanging back. People do some evil stuff.

Like we. Shatter the glass. And then God goes. Right. Pause. Shattered glass.

I'm going to make a mosaic. It's going to be beautiful. Like he takes what's already broken. And he fixes it. And he makes something nice out of it. Part of me is a little bit more okay with that.

But as soon as you say. No. No. No. When you were swinging the hammer. To shatter the glass.

God was also with you. Swinging the hammer. Because he had this plan. For this beautiful mosaic. As soon as they're like. Lined up together.

And you're meaning something. And he's meaning something. In the same act. And the act is evil. I suddenly have some questions. Pause.

Hold on. Does God sin? Biblical. Biblical answer. No. Does God cause people to sin?

Biblical answer. No. He doesn't cause or tempt people to sin. He's not. In the midst of sin. Does he mean and purpose.

And will it for something else? Yes. Yes. And those are some fine lines. The other question I have is. Hold on a second.

How can God will. In something evil. And in something broken. How can he will sin? Like doesn't. I thought God's will was always good things.

Like when we pray. May your will be done. Aren't we praying. May good things happen. Not. May evil things happen.

That'll ultimately be better. That's not really. Is that what we're. Like what is going on there? C.S. Lewis helped me a little bit.

With this conceptually. And I'm going to give you the. My paraphrased version of that. That you can have two wills. At the same time. One being.

Kind of a generic will. One being your greater will. The way he explains this is. If you have children. And they have a room. It is your will.

That that room be clean. But you may at some point. Look at your children and say. I am no longer cleaning your room. You are in charge of cleaning your room. And he said.

The moment. That it is dark. And you walk in the room. And you step on a Lego. He didn't say Lego. He said something else.

But Lego is a better example. Because it's excruciatingly painful. The moment you step on a Lego. That was both inside. And outside of your will. It was outside of your will.

In that you will the room to be clean. You desire for the room to be clean. But it was inside your will. As your greater will. Had actually allowed that to happen. Because you are no longer.

Stepping in. You have willed it. That your children would clean the room. Now. You can't push that super far. Into theological things.

But it gives us an example. Of how you can have two wills. One greater than the other. That you can have. At one moment. Your desire.

Is not. That your children would grow up in a house. Where their room was always clean. Your desire is that your children. Would grow up. So that they could have their own house one day.

And keep it clean. Or. Step on all the Legos they want. You don't care at that point. But you want them to get out of your house.

And so you got to take some steps. That's what he's saying. That you can have two wills. So it is God's will that we not sin. But it's also his will.

That we be moral agents. That have some choice. And so he. Allows sin. And he allows evil. And some of us want to go.

Okay well that's where it stops. But no. God does something more beautiful on top of that. Even in the midst of our evil and sin. He's walking right along. And just turn it into something good.

So at first. This sounds not comforting at all. When you are facing evil. Because you want God to be on your team. And somehow. Responding with you to the evil that's going on.

You want him to be sympathetic. But the problem is. Now as soon as you say this. You go wait wait wait wait wait. He's somehow ordained. He's somehow worked in this calamity.

The reality is. The human actors are still. Culpable for what they did. And will be held accountable for it. But the beauty is now.

That we know. That has not left God's control. And that he will work things towards good. And towards an ultimate more beautiful will. And all the fine details of that. The Bible doesn't give us.

But what we understand is that God is good. And so you immediately then. Now the question becomes. Okay well maybe he's not good. Because if you've heard this. This people have posed this.

As kind of a thing for a long time. They'll say. Either God is in control. Or he's good. But he can't be both.

And the reason he can't be both. Is because there's a lot of evil. Terrible wicked things that happen. So either he's in control. And he works in all these terrible things. But then he's not good.

Because he lets terrible things happen. Or he's good. He's just not in control. He's just hurting right alongside of us. He's just weeping with us. But he has no control over.

He can't stop evil. The answer is. He is in control. And he is good. And he has something better. That he's actually bigger than that conceptual framework.

He's big enough to be in control. Big enough to be good. And big enough to have a beautiful reason. For all the evil that we face. Even when we can't see it. And the reason we know that.

The linchpin for that. Is the cross. That he does love us. And that his plan is bigger. Because none of us would have come up with the cross. We can come up with a system.

Where God's big. And in control. But then he'd have to make everything nice. That's our system. Or God's loving. He's really nice.

But he's not in control. But he's with us. And he cares about us. When bad things happen. He's in your corner. He's with you.

But no. God is in control. And he is big. And so now we have a huge problem. And none of us would have come up with the cross. But that's his answer.

That what we meant for evil. He means for good. Acts 2 says almost that. Just lays this out. It shows us this picture. This is Peter preaching the very first sermon.

It says this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up. Loosing the pains of death. Because it was not possible for him to be held by it. This is not a main point of this sermon.

But I love the back half of that verse. Y'all can kill him if you want. But death cannot hold him. It's not possible. So he rose back up.

Because it was not possible for him to be held by death. When Jesus died, death suddenly became very overwhelmed. And was like, I just... Nah. It's a bit too much. And so, again, not a main point.

Look back at the first part. It says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan. Plan. Meaning, we're going to do this. Definite. Meaning, only going to do this.

Not doing something else. Those are pretty simple words. They've been over-explained to you now. And foreknowledge of God. Foreknowledge means knowledge you had beforehand. God being the one who was working out this definite plan that he had a plan for beforehand.

You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Now, immediately, my brain can't hold that. They're lawless. Out of control. This is complete and utter chaos. Yes?

Yes. They are actively defying God. Yes? Yes. It is humans killing God. That is not inside of his will.

This is not his desire for people. That we would rebel against him. That we would hate him. John says that we hated the light. That God, Jesus shows up as the light, but the darkness does not love the light. The darkness hates the light.

You know how you feel when you are asleep and someone comes in and turns the light on. That is how humanity responds to Jesus. We hate it. It is, it does not sit well with us. You remember how to lay in your bed and try to not want to like assault your mom for doing that or whatever. That was the response of humanity to Jesus.

Jesus showed up and he just walked around shining in everybody's faces and we're sinful and sick. And we said, quit. Go home. So much so that eventually we got together, we plotted and we killed him. Lawlessly hatred, murder. Definitive foreknowledge of God.

His plan all along. Are they culpable for what they did? Yes. Should they repent? Was that sin? Yes.

Was God going to let sin win? No. God had no desire to destroy the whole world and just eliminate what he had done. He had the desire to step into the world and through evil means to bring about something so much more beautiful and so much better that could have never happened had this not happened. That it's at that exact moment that Jesus is redeeming and working on our behalf. That he is most gloriously displayed.

And that God's plan is most beautifully shown. And so what happened in the Joseph story? He goes to the palace. All of a sudden we have a guy who can interpret dreams. He goes through. He saves this whole place.

His brothers show up. And if you've been reading it, you're like, oh, oh, oh. This were the dreams he had when he was a kid. See, his brother's bowing to him. And you're like, oh, God knew the whole time? We in movies, one of the things that we can kind of contrive is we can contrive a character, a person who would do a lot of good things for an evil purpose.

You watch a movie and there's one of the good guys. And then finally at the end, you find out they're the bad guy. And if they've done it really well, you're shocked and hurt and mad. Because he's like, I trusted you. I thought you were the good guy. And then you see, oh, that's why they were generous.

Oh, that's why they were being a good friend. They weren't being a good friend. It just seemed like it. Like that's, you walk back through the story. And God's a level up above that because he's actually able to, in the free actions of other humans, bring about his sovereign will. How does that work?

I don't know. But it's beautiful and encouraging and hope-filled that in the middle of this mess where people are harming us, because they are. In the middle of the sin, in the middle of the worst brokenness we ever face, God in his sovereignty is walking it towards something that is so much more beautiful, so much more glorious, so much more hope-filled. Than we could have ever imagined. And sin won't win. That's the gospel.

That's the story that's told to us in Genesis where we get this little peek at it in the story of Joseph. And ultimately that's the story that unfolds in Christ. It's the same thing the disciples pray in Acts 4. They say, they quote an Old Testament passage. They say, why did the Gentiles rage? Meaning, internally have hatred.

And the people's plot in vain. That means not just like this emotional response, but mentally they were at work to cause harm. It says, the kings of the earth set themselves against the rulers, were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. And they say, for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. Basically everybody.

Everybody who could have been involved was involved. To do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. In the midst of human depravity and sin, God was at work for something more beautiful. That we are sinners and we will be held accountable and culpable for the things that we do. But God has not handed over the course of events and the course of human history to humans.

So he said, okay, there's going to be sin, there's going to be brokenness, there's going to be murder, and there's going to be hatred. And I'm going to step into the timeline and I'm going to take it all on myself. Sin and hatred, rebellion, murder, brokenness, all of it. I'm going to take it, I'm going to die for it, and I'm going to bring hope in it. And I'm going to turn everything they mean for evil, I'm going to mean it for good. And that's what he does on the cross.

That's what Romans 8, 28 says. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. All things. And immediately we want to say, even this? The answer is yes.

If you belong to Christ, then he will turn it good. And good isn't even the word better. Better than it could have ever been. And this is beyond human reckoning. All we can think is, can he fix the problem? And his answer is, I'm going to do more than that.

Is he just a first responder? No. He's more sovereign and more in control than that. Should they have done what they did? No. Was it sin?

Yes. Was that in God's will? No. But his ultimate will and his purpose will override that and bring about something good and glorious. And that brings hope to us in our brokenness. If we embrace that, we're embracing Christ.

Who did not just respond to sin, but before the world began, chose those in him whom he would save. Because he knew that sin was coming and he predetermined to pay for it. He predetermined to have it met out on him in the cross. So at the moment of man's most self-glorification, God gets the most glory. That when we've rallied together to crucify God, he ultimately turns it on its head. He means good for it.

In our utter brokenness and despair, he brings about unending hope. When death seems like it wins, resurrection walks out of the grave. That Jesus, the author of life, could not be held by death. When hatred looks like it is at its peak, God is displaying his most gracious love. That in all the things that look the most chaotic, God's definitive plan was at work. That when everything seemed to be broken beyond repair, God was creating and building something so much more beautiful than could have ever been.

This is the hope of the gospel and this is the reality of the life for a Christian. That when things seem out of control because of sin, they are not. That our hope is held sure because Jesus Christ has proven to us that all that was meant for evil, he will mean for good and he will bring about something good. And that he can be trusted. We want to say, well does that mean he doesn't love us? Jesus Christ loves us so much that he joins us.

That he takes the brunt of it on himself. I would be inclined to say that it would mean God is not loving were it not for the cross. But he loved us so much he gave his own life and he gave his own son that we might know that we are loved. That he joins us in the middle of this. He chooses in his wisdom not to just keep us from it or to keep it from us. He chooses in his wisdom to work what was meant for evil, for him to mean it for good, and for him to prove to us that he can do this and that he does love us in the cross.

And that is our hope. That is the answer in Genesis and that is the hope given to us in the gospel. That he does love us because he joins us and he takes the brunt of this on himself. That in our rejection of God he was adopting us. That in our pride he was displaying overwhelming humility. The very last book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

There is a hobbit named Sam and the hobbit is just like a half a person with furry feet. I mean like a whole person but like half size. So not just like a little legs down. That would be weird. Has arms and a face and stuff. There is a hobbit named Sam.

In the first book they are all together on this journey and then the team gets broken up. The way the team gets broken up is Gandalf who is a wizard dies fighting a big fire monster thing. It is kind of a sad ending to the book. But good for Gandalf. He was defending his team. Then they break up and Sam and Frodo who is another hobbit go off.

They have to get rid of this ring. Throw in a fire. To stop evil. Everything is getting worse. Everything is broken. Everything is terrible.

And they eventually do it. They stop evil. They come back. And Sam sees Gandalf. And he is excited. Because the last time he saw Gandalf, Gandalf was dead.

So Sam says to him, this is the quote from the book, he says, I thought you were dead. But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? So he sees the risen Gandalf and he says, I thought you were dead. Of course, I thought it was over for me. Does this mean everything that's sad?

Now that everything's gone good again. Now that everything's, all the curse has been broken. The evil has been broken. Does that mean that everything sad is going to become untrue? And Tim Keller, who's a pastor in New York and who loves the Lord of the Rings trilogy, quotes this in one of his books. And he says, the answer of Christianity to that question is yes.

Everything sad is going to come untrue. And it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost. He says, embracing the doctrine that Jesus Christ joined us in humanity and died for us on the cross. He says, this doctrine, embracing this idea, brings a profound consolation in the face of suffering. The doctrine of the resurrection can instill in us with a powerful hope, can instill us with a powerful hope. It promises that we will get the life we most long for, but it will be an infinitely more glorious world than if there had never been the need for bravery, endurance, sacrifice, and salvation.

That when sin entered the world and when sin entered your story, because Jesus also entered the world and also entered our story, he becomes more glorious, more beautiful, and the hope of what he does for us through the cross becomes infinitely more precious and is held secure in the sovereign hand of God, who is not in response to sin doing anything, but who is, by his definite plan, bringing about a most glorious good for his glorious name. The band's going to come back up. We are going to, as a church family, take communion, which is where we celebrate, where we remember that Jesus Christ took on human form, joined us in our weakness, and died in our place. That his body was broken, that his blood was shed, that the most heinous of things happened to our Savior, and that he, like Joseph, says to us, do not fear.

What you meant for evil, in all your sin, in all your rebellion, and what you meant for evil, in murdering and crucifying me, God, I, meant for good. To bring about that many might be saved, as they are at this day. That Jesus, through the cross, brings redemption, so that God does not just destroy sin and sinners, but he joins us, becomes our sin, and gives us hope. And that all along the way, he's taking what others mean for evil, and it is evil, but he's not letting that win the day. That he's meaning it for good, and that he'll bring about something more glorious than could have ever been.

And in the moments of our weakness and brokenness, and when we stand staring face to face with our own evil, and staring face to face with the evil of others, lean into the cross. Trust in Jesus. That evil should not have happened. It was not his desire that we would face all this sin, but he will not let it win. He has a greater will that rises above it, that he might redeem sinners, and that he might bring life and hope. And that he's going to do something more glorious in it.

He loves us so much that he died for us. We can walk with him through anything. That's the answer in Genesis. That's the answer in the gospel. And that's the hope for our souls, our weary souls right now, as we stare into the face of evil. That we get to repent of our own sin, and that he says, do not fear, and he offers grace and forgiveness to us, and that we get to face the sin of others with hope that he is in control, and that he brings about good.

Bow your heads as we begin to pray. I want us to consider the cross prior to taking communion, that we might remember that Jesus suffered for us, that he has joined us, and that he has a definite plan to bring about good, so that we can trust him when everything seems most lawless, and most chaotic, when evil seems like it's winning. So God, we pray that right now, that you would nourish our souls, that you would offer your strength, in place of our weakness, that we would offer your hope, in place of our fear, and that we might trust, your good, sovereign control, and that we might feel, the warmth of your love, shining from the cross, in the face of your son. May we walk away from our sin, may we be quick to repent, knowing at what cost, our forgiveness comes.

And may we take communion, remembering, your glory, and the unending hope, and steadfast love, given to us, in the glorious person, and work of Jesus. Amen.

The Defiling of Dinah

The Defilement of Dinah

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, it's good to see y'all this morning. My name is Chet. I am one of the pastors. Logan, do you mind cutting the light on? I'm one of the pastors here. Last week we got to celebrate Easter together, and so we gathered, as many Christians around the globe did.

We gathered, we sang, we praised, we worshipped, and we delighted in the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross. He was dead, he was buried, and he rose again to forgive us of our sins and to save us to himself. And as we did that, as we got together, as we celebrated, as we ate, as we had an Easter egg hunt, as we did a lot of fun and had a lot of fun, and across the world in Sri Lanka, there was a tragic attack that killed 253, as of the last count, people who were in hotels and people who had gathered in churches to celebrate the same gospel that we gathered to celebrate. And that is the reality of the world that we live in, that there is beauty and joy and delight, and there's pain and tragedy and suffering, and we can swap from one to the other in the blink of an eye.

And the story that we're going to be in Genesis looking at today is one of those stories of great tragedy and horrific sin. And if you'll grab your Bibles and go to Genesis chapter 34, we've been following through this story. If you don't have a Bible, there's a blue Bible near you, it'll be on page 17. And if you don't own a Bible, feel free to take this one with you, that would be our gift to you. We'd love for you to have a Bible, we'd love for you to read it. We've been following through this story where God made the world good.

He made it beautiful. He made it delightful. And then humanity sinned, and we brought into the world wickedness and pain and death. And then the question throughout Genesis is how is God going to respond to this problem? And that's the question we've had to continually ask as we've watched real people in real stories in real life have horrific things happen is how does God respond? And that's what we're looking at today.

In a story about rape and revenge, fear, hatred, murder, we're asking the same question, which is how do they respond? And more importantly, how does God respond? Now as we go through this, there may be some of you who, this is very close to home. In your past, you have had situations of abuse, that you have been abused or harmed, that you have abused and harmed others, or those near you whom you love have been harmed greatly. And this will drag up a lot of painful memories and a lot of emotion. My encouragement to you this morning would be, even in the moments when you feel like you want to just get up and leave, you just need to get out of the room, my encouragement would be to stay as we study this together, that we might see Christ and His answer, which is a good response to this, and it is sufficient and complete.

So my encouragement would be to stay, to continue to press in, to ask the Lord for help. Now I know that for some of you, I just made it really hard to go to the bathroom. And so there's still room, normal Sunday, if you need to get up, if you need to go out of the auditorium, you're welcome to, and nobody's going to be looking at you thinking, obviously this means something particular about you, but I did want to give that word of encouragement to those who don't want to hear this. So we're going to pray for God's grace. So I would encourage you to just a moment, pray for yourself, that you might hear this well, regardless of where you sit in the room, whether this is close to home or foreign to you.

Just ask the Lord for grace, and then I'll pray, and we'll read this text together. Lord, we need your help. Lord, we have been sinned against, and we have sinned against others. We have been harmed, and we have inflicted harm. So we ask for your Holy Spirit to work as we study your word today, that we might, as we look at this family and their story, and your response, we might see Christ, know him, and that we might respond appropriately.

In light of your word, in Jesus' name, amen. Chapter 34. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. Okay, so Dinah, her name actually, it's similar to her brother's name, Dan. It means judge or avenge or justice. And that's going to be really interesting, because that's kind of what we're going to be asking in this text, is where is justice?

What ought to happen? How does this respond? But it says that she went out to see the women of the land. Now if you'll remember, Jacob had fled from his brother Esau because he had stolen from him. He then gets married, has a bunch of children. He has 11 sons at this point.

He's going to have one more. He has one daughter, Dinah. She's probably in her teenage years. He's 16 or up, somewhere around in there, 16 to 20. And they come back. He was supposed to kind of go back to Bethel, where God had said originally, I'm going to bring you back here, and then you'll worship me.

And when he said, go back to your homeland, it's kind of implied. Go back to Bethel, but he doesn't. He goes to Shechem. He lives near a city. Now the Bible does not tell us that cities are evil, but the Canaanite cities are.

The Canaanite people in this land have a very bad culture, and the Bible is not like us. And we say, well, all cultures are equal, and there's, you know, everybody just what they believe. The Bible doesn't do that. The Bible steps in, and because it's written over all culture, can say, that's good, that's bad, this one's okay, that's not. This part of your culture needs to go. This part needs to flourish.

And so it does that with these Canaanite cities. They're not good cities. And they settled near one, and so Dinah goes to see the people of the city. Now, Jacob has a tribe. They're set up in tents. They're kind of a roaming band, but they bought a little bit of land.

They have some tents. They have herds. They're not a huge group of people. If you'll remember, Abraham had a ton of people. He had 300 fighting men. Jacob doesn't.

He's got 12 sons. He's got some servants, but it's not a huge crowd. They're big, but not huge. They're a little tribe. They're next to a city, and that's kind of the setting for this. And it says she goes out to see the women of the land.

So she heads into the city. She wants to get to know some people. We don't really know why, what she's doing. We just know that she does this. And it says, And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land. Okay, so they're near the city Shechem.

This guy's name is Shechem. He's the prince. His dad's the king, tribal leader. He's over the city. It says, When he saw her, he seized her, and lay with her, and humiliated her. When he saw her, he seized her, and lay with her, and humiliated her.

From his position of power, he sees something that he wants, and he forcefully takes it. Now, we don't know how forcefully, but he did use his authority, and he did use his power, and he does rape Dinah. Now, the truth is, you should be able to go anywhere, and be inside any circumstance, and never have someone sexually assault you. The reality is that that is how God designed his world, but the reality that we live in, is that that is not how it works, any longer due to sin. And that we can get into positions, where we are unsafe, and we can get into positions, where we really should be safe, and still be drastically, horribly, wickedly harmed.

And what happens to Dinah, is horrific. And it's the type of thing, that happens in life, where from this moment forward, life is not the same. Not to say that she can't heal, and not to say that she can't mend, and not to say that there can't be good in life for her, but this is the type of thing that happens in life, where from now on, it affects your future. And so, there are instances in life, where things happen, horrific accidents, terrible sin, wicked actions, and then as we move forward, the question is, how do we best move forward, but there's no way to really, just perfectly fix, and go back to, what we would have considered normal.

We're going to have to find a new normal. And for, this story is not far from us. In the United States, one in four females, will be sexually assaulted in their life. That's the, the statistic we have currently, one in six males. One in six females, in the United States, will be forcibly raped. Most of them, will be raped by someone, that they know, are acquainted with.

And that's, what we're looking at here. And if this, is true for you, I want to say, I'm so sorry, and that should not have happened. It is horrific. It is evil. And God does have a response. This is true, for far too many of us.

We live with this reality. And the question is, how do we move forward? And what do we do? And we're, we're going to get to see in this story, how they respond. It's not going to perfectly tell us, what to do. We're going to have to look to Jesus, for that.

But we'll get to see, how they respond. And it says, and his soul, this is verse three, was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman, and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, get me this girl, for my wife. And far too often, this is what happens. This is the confusing mess, that comes out of this, is that he forcibly takes, what he wants.

And he's in a culture, where maybe this was relatively normal. He's the prince of the land. He's able to just kind of claim, what he wants. And then he speaks nicely to her. And this happens. It says his soul is drawn to her.

He's genuinely conflicted. He, he inside of himself, thinks he loves her, but he doesn't even know what love is. And he doesn't know how to act. And he chooses to do something, so wicked and horrible. And then he's just really kind. And we have that situation, where females are going, I know he does this.

I know he Acts this way. I know he hurts me. But then he talks nicely to me, and he says he loves me. That's what's happening here. And he goes to Shek, goes to Father Hamel, and says, get this girl for my wife. Now they would have at this point, at least, if not earlier, I would assume earlier, because she would have looked different.

They would have known at this point, she is not of our people. She does not live in this city. She's a part of this tribe, that is outside our gates. And so there is some amount, of cultural tension, that is happening here. They're not all under the same law. They're not all under the same rule.

They are in separate zones. She says, go, get her for me as a wife. Now Jacob heard, that he had defiled, he being Shechem, had defiled his daughter, Dinah. Now that word defiled, is very interesting. It means, to make unclean, to make dirty, to stain. And the reality is, that our culture, at one moment, will tell you, that sex is just sex, and it's just physical, and it's just an appetite.

And therefore, it ought to be free, and it ought to be shared, and it ought to be, we shouldn't look down on it. But as soon as we move, into the realm, of sexual assault, we are all willing, and immediately understand, that that isn't true. That it's not just physical. That there is, a reality, to spiritual ramifications, that take place, and when someone, forcibly takes this, when they claim something, that is not theirs, when they take something, from you, that is private, and should never, be taken. There is great harm, and it says, that she has been defiled. She's dirty.

And for so many, victims of assault, this is a reality, that they face, that they feel this, in themselves. Yet they're dirty. It says, when he heard this, but his sons, were with his livestock, in the field, so Jacob, held his peace, until they came. Jacob doesn't respond. We're going to see, that this isn't just, self-control. He doesn't respond, this whole time.

We don't, know why. At the end, we're going to see, that there's some fear, and some self-preservation here. And for those of people, who have struggled with, assault, and maybe finally told someone, this is one of the most painful things, that can happen, is that they just, don't really respond. Or at best, they just kind of want to cover it up, or they just want to move on. That's what Jacob, leans towards. He doesn't lead.

He does not pursue, justice. And we'll see, the consequences of that, in a second. So it says, Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob, to speak with him. The sons of Jacob, had come in from the field, as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant, and very angry, because what he had done, is an outrageous thing in Israel, by lying with Jacob's daughter. Because he had done, an outrageous thing in Israel, by lying with Jacob's daughter. For such a thing, must not be done.

We don't care, what Shechem's culture is like, this ought not to happen. It doesn't matter, if he's used to it, it doesn't matter, if he's okay with it, it's not co-signed, by the scriptures. It ought not to happen. It is outrageous, and they are angry, and indignant, and they are correct. There are certain things, that you ought to be angry over. They can mourn, that would be a correct response.

They can be angry, that is a correct response. Those are responses, that God has to sin. Do not believe the lie, that all anger is sinful. Now, what we do with it, can be. And what they do with it, ultimately seems like it is. But to be angry, and to respond violently, in ourselves, is acceptable, and godly.

But what we do with it matters. So it says that Hamor went out. Now, Hamor's the king of this city. We're going to hear him speak, we're going to hear Shechem speak. It is fair to assume, they would have ridden out, with some form of guard. We also find out later, as we go, that Dinah is not with them.

She's still in their house. So either way, they ride out in a position of power. They ride out to a, probably smaller group, than them. Most likely, with some force. And, in some ways, at least to the people of Israel, it feels as if, Dinah is still held hostage. So here's what they say.

But Hamor spoke to them, The soul of my son Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him, to be his wife. Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourself. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell, and trade in it, and get property. Shechem also said to her father, so he's there, and to her brothers, Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say, to me, I will give.

Ask for as great a bride price, and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman, to be my wife. Okay, so they ride out to Jacob. Jacob is older, he's got a hip injury, he's holding his peace, but ultimately find out he's fearful. There are 11 indignant brothers, older, not all of them, but several of them, a good bit older than Dinah, who care greatly about this outrageous thing that happened. Hamor rides out as a king, with his son, the prince, and probably, it does not say, it's fair to assume, some force, but at least no Dinah, and they just say, Hey, my son really likes your daughter.

Let's have some marriages. Let him marry her. We'll pay you as much as you want. We're rich. We can't ask for as much as you'd like. We'll pay you.

They don't say, here's what we've done. We're sorry. This is a bad situation. They just ride in. They act as if this should be fine. The sons of Jacob, this is verse 13, answered Shechem and his father.

So you'll notice, Jacob does not respond. His sons do. And in the absence of godly household leadership, you will get other leadership. Somebody will step up. Jacob ought to be leading this situation. He does not.

He commits a sin of omission. We think that sins are things that we do, but often we can sin by not doing the things we ought to do. So the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. So because of what he did, they're going to retaliate. They lie to him. It said to them, we cannot do this thing to give you our sister, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

Only on this condition will we agree with you, that you will become as we are, by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone. So basically what they say is, the Mark of our tribe, the Mark of our people is circumcision, and so we can't intermarry with y'all because you're uncircumcised. But, if you'll get circumcised, then we have a deal. We'll intermarry.

You can have Dinah, we'll just become one big group of people. This is not exactly, but it is similar to, when someone is dating someone who is a non-Christian, and they are a Christian, and they say, well I can't marry you. We've seen this in our church family. I can't marry you unless you become a Christian. And then the guy's like, oh, yeah, I love Jesus. And the girl's like, great, that sounds great.

That's what's going to happen. They say, you have to have this Mark, you have to have this sign, and this has to be true for us to be able to be married, otherwise it's a deal breaker. And, their words pleased Hamor, and Hamor's son Shechem. That's verse 18. And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. Now, he was the most honored of his father's house.

That matters in just a second. So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city, and spoke to the men of their city, saying, these men are at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and trade in it. It seems as if when they rode out, there was a bit of attention on, are we about to have to go into conflict with these people? Is there going to be war? Because it's a party's riding out to another tribe that's outside of us, and something has happened here that they may not appreciate.

So they ride out, they come back and say, we're at peace. The land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us, and to become one people. When every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property, and all their beasts be ours?

Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us. Okay. One of the things I learned from my dad, who's managed business stuff, and who's done sales, one of the things he talks about is, when you're going to give somebody difficult information, he talks about you do it in the sandwich method. So a sandwich has a nice soft piece of bread, and has the main part of the sandwich. You don't call it a bread sandwich, it's called a ham and cheese sandwich, the part in the middle, and it has a nice soft piece of bread. That's exactly what they do.

This is when you're having to correct somebody. You bring them in, and you say, I want to let you know you've done such a great job, really appreciate how hard you work. And it's true, you don't make stuff up, and then you say, but we're going to have to work on the fact that you keep showing up late to work, because I want you here the full time you're supposed to be doing your great job. So let's punch in on time. But I really appreciate you, and I know you're going to fix this, and it's going to be great.

That's a sandwich. Soft. Main part. Soft. These guys roll in and say, we're at peace. They can live in the land.

This will be great. We'll give our sons. We'll intermarry. It's going to be wonderful. Everybody's going to have to be circumcised, but won't we own everything? And it matters that this is the most honored son, and this is the king of the city, because it says this, and all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised.

All who went out of the gate of his city. So every male that lives, going out of the gate means they would be able to work outside the city, but they would come in and close the gates at night. They were under the protection of Hamor. They lived in this city. On the third day, when they were sore, it's not an easy operation, specifically for people who don't have good anesthetic, painkiller, ways to keep things clean. They had sharp utensils, but it's not an easy operation.

Three days later, they are sore in a place that makes it hard to do much of anything. If sore. Two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. So they say, we can't do this unless y'all all get circumcised.

They know everybody got circumcised. They wait. Just so y'all know, every time a new servant entered into this household, it was policy that all of the new servants would have to be circumcised. They understood how this worked, how it felt, and when you were most vulnerable. They wait. They know.

Day three. They've been doing this. They understand. Simeon and Levi take swords, just two of them. They walk in the city and they kill every male that breathes. They kill Hamor.

They kill Shechem. There was a moment when Shechem most likely laid up in his bed, sees a shadow fall across his doorway, sees the silhouette of a sword, sees a man walk into his room and for just a second, maybe two men, they probably both went, just a second realizes what's about to happen, can't move, can't respond and is cut down. And his blood pours out because he defiled their sister and they kill everyone. Now I understand, I've been made to understand as I share stories from my family and my childhood that I grew up in a home that maybe was different from other people's homes. When I was in about middle school, my dad taught us about a thing called equalizers.

He said, if you're going to fight somebody and you're going to win, fight them behind the gym, fight them in a bathroom, fight them wherever. You don't want to get in trouble, just fight them. If you're going to lose, don't fight them where they say, don't fight them in the bathroom, don't fight them behind the gym because no one will break this up. They will beat the fool out of you. You're going to need an equalizer. And he gave us some options.

Hard lunch trays are an equalizer. Throwing sand in someone's face is an equalizer. Waiting until they're sitting down and you're standing up, starting the fight before they realize it has begun. It's a good equalizer. It is an effective way to win a fight is to punch someone while they're still talking or while they're taking a test. Ask my brother Logan about that.

This is one of the best equalizers in the history of humankind. They set the odds in their favor and they slay everyone. And there's part of us that loves this. There's part of me that loves this. This is Braveheart, Gladiator, Patriot, and like seven Denzel Washington movies. There's part of us that so greatly desires that when someone harms someone and when someone wrecks someone that somebody else picks up a sword.

But that's an incomplete answer. verse 26. They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses they captured and plundered. So the men of the city had said, if we get circumcised then we'll get to own everything they own and it was actually the exact reverse.

If we get circumcised they'll soon own everything we own. So they go in, they take everything, they plunder. Now, there are places in the Old Testament where God specifically says and directs his people to do similar things. This is not one of those places. This was done by the will of Simeon and Levi not the will of God. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi you have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

My Numbers are few and if they gather themselves against me and attack me I shall be destroyed both I and my household. But they said should he treat our sister like a prostitute which is an indictment against both Jacob and Shechem. Should he treat our sister like a prostitute? Should he just take what he wants and then as long as he pays us enough we're okay? And the question here as Jacob wants to have a very non-response a very muted response a very let's just make everything easy let's just make sure we're safe let's not cause trouble in the household. And as his sons in violent anger Jacob's working out of fear his sons working out of anger and wrath they go exact revenge.

But the question is where is justice? How ought this to have been handled? And how does God respond? Chapter 35 God said to Jacob Arise and go up to Bethel and dwell there and dwell there make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him that's all these new families all these new women and children put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments then let us arise and go up to Bethel so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.

And to all who were with him that's all these new families all these new women and children put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments then let us arise and go up to Bethel so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave to Jacob all their foreign gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears

And Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem and as they journeyed a terror from God fell upon the cities and they that were around them and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob and Jacob came to Luz that is in Bethel that is Bethel which is in the land of Canaan he and all the people who were with him there he built an altar and called the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he had fled from his brother and Deborah

Rebecca's nurse died and was buried under the oak below Bethel so he called its name Alan Bakuth God appeared to Jacob again when he had come from Padamaram and blessed him and God said to him your name is Jacob no longer shall your name be called Jacob but Israel shall be your name so he called his name Israel and God said to him I am God Almighty be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings

Shall come from your own body the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you and I will give the land to your offspring after you then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him in a pillar of stone he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it so Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel God does not show up in the middle

Of this situation he shows up after it seems as if a lot of it has been resolved although he does protect them as they travel so that what Jacob said was true which is they are going to find out what we did and all the rest of these people who are semi-related to them are going to come crush us God protects them and takes them to Bethel but then God says he renews his covenant with Jacob he renews this promise that had been made to Abraham and to Isaac

And to Jacob multiple times he renews it with Jacob and he says I am going to do this and it feels as if God's answer is insufficient it is incomplete that in this story we want him to show up we want him to bring clarity we want him to tell us who was right who was wrong how it should have been handled but God's answer to this is going to be absolutely complete and 100% sufficient and it is made here when he re-promises I am going to send the king his answer to this

Is found in Jesus and nowhere else everything else will be a limited earthly response carried out by sinful humans and so God gives a full and complete answer and it is made by way of promise here and it is made by way of fulfillment for us and it is through Jesus and I want to tell you the full and complete answer so we are going to spend the rest of our time Jesus has two tools with which he responds to this type of sin and wickedness really all types of sin and wickedness

But we ask it so often in these heinous moments first Jesus picks up the cross second Jesus picks up the sword first Jesus picks up the cross then he picks up the sword that is the answer that the Bible gives us for just a moment let us talk about the cross Jesus comes and lives a perfect sinless life loving teaching us how to love treating people even people who don't like

Christianity like Jesus he is so kind he is so loving all they want to do is pull off the deity part they just don't want him to be God but otherwise we can keep him he is nice he comes graciously lovingly and then he is brutally murdered the first thing he does is he picks up the cross in Isaiah 58 there is a prophecy about this and I want you to see that the first thing Jesus does

When he reveals himself to us when God becomes a human he meets Dinah and all the Dinah's that would come after her Isaiah 58 says he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he has borne

Our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed Dinah had someone in a position of power take her strip her humiliate her

And harm her and the first thing we see Jesus doing is coming and having people in positions of power take him strip him humiliate him and harm him that if Dinah were in one of our community groups and this week she were to share maybe for the first time or maybe just the most recent time this thing that has happened and through tears she would talk through what had taken place

That if Jesus Christ were in her group he could through tear stained eyes look directly at her and say me too that where Dinah is voiceless here we are told in this same chapter Isaiah 58 that like a sheep led to the slaughter he opened not his mouth that Jesus Christ was stripped brutally beaten humiliated and died that he is a man of sorrows who joins us in our sorrow

That throughout the Old Testament we read that God is close to those who mourn he is close to the broken hearted and the question is how close and the answer is he becomes one that close he does not sit far off enthroned and separate that he joins us in our pain but he does not just join Dinah as comforting as that is he redeems Dinah

Isaiah a few chapters later in Isaiah 61 it says I will greatly rejoice in the Lord Isaiah 61 is the chapter that Jesus reads in Luke 4 when he says he proclaims the day of the Lord's coming the year of the Lord's coming he says this has been fulfilled in your hearing this is how it ends it says I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall exult in my God

For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels if you're in here and a minute ago when we talked about Dinah being defiled you felt shame creep up your back crawl up your face and you felt dirty all over again

I want you to know that in Christ he does not just join you he clothes you that he was stripped so that you can be clothed in righteousness that you can be like a bride or a groom on their wedding day as dressed up and as beautiful as we can get as much as he can cover you and make you shine that's what he does to us in the cross that he not only dies for our guilt but he dies

For our shame and he takes it away that you have been cleansed that you have been washed that you have been made new that he meets Dinah but he doesn't just meet Dinah he also meets Jacob and Shechem if you look back at Isaiah 58 it says he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our

Iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed that is good news to those who have suffered abuse and that is good news to abusers that Jesus Christ took the punishment that you deserve and when you feel like you're going to be found out and someone ought to punish you the truth is that that is real you ought to be punished but the hope

In Christ is that he was punished for you that by his stripes you are healed and so for all the Shechem's in the room and all the Jacob's in the room and all the parts of us that are Shechem and Jacob where we've harmed and hurt and sinned that we get to run to the cross and we get to trust in Jesus who bears our iniquity and sheds his blood that there was a moment

In human history when Shechem's blood spilled out onto the dirt and onto the clay and there was a moment in human history when Jesus did the same for all those who would trust in him he bears iniquity the first thing Jesus does is he picks up the cross he takes wrath in our place that's what 1 Thessalonians 1 says we are waiting for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead

Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come when we talk about being saved and people say what does he save us from he saves us from our sin he saves us from the wrath that our sin is owed see Jesus first picks up the cross we stand between these two moments in history but the next time we see him he'll be holding

A sword he picks up the cross he suffers once and then he picks up the sword this is actually what he says to the Sanhedrin as I was reading through this this past week as we led up to the crucifixion Jesus before the Sanhedrin they're asking him all these questions and he has an answer they're accusing him of all these things and he has an answer and finally the high priest

Says I adjure you by the living God are you the Christ the son of God he says by God swear by God and answer this question and Jesus says you said it which isn't super cryptic it means bingo you guessed it you called it and then Jesus says this you have said so but I tell you from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the

Clouds of heaven he says this to a group of religious leaders and they did not think it was cryptic we read it and we're like oh they rip their clothes and freak out because he just quoted Daniel 7 he looked at them and said in this moment you are seated above me and in this moment you're going to crucify me and right now I'm picking up the cross

But the next time you see me I'll crack the sky open and I'll be holding a sword that's what he said because this is what Daniel 7 says behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man he's telling him right where he's quoting from he came to the ancient of days that's the father and was presented before him and to him was given

Dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed he said you guessed it I am the one who rules and reigns for all eternity and they rip

Their clothes and say what more do we need he's claimed to be God and the truth is if he were making that up sure he blasphemed the problem is he wasn't he picks up the cross once and then he returns with a sword and the next time the Sanhedrin saw him

It's when he's cracking open the sky the next time they saw him he was standing next to the ancient of days as a ruling reigning king through all eternity 2 Timothy 4 1 tells us that he will judge the world I watched in parts with my son yesterday I watched Aquaman and he goes and it's all this mess

And all this chaos and all this brokenness and there's this moment at the end of the movie and this isn't going to ruin anything for you because you knew it was going to happen there's this moment in the end of the movie he busts through the ground he's riding on the top of this giant sea creature

He's wearing his shiny gold Aquaman wetsuit thing he's holding his shiny gold trident and there's this moment where all of his enemies suddenly realize this person that looks so humble and pathetic is now the king and he's the right king and he's

The real king because he can talk to the animals and all of a sudden all their little sharks just turn on them and it is awesome as awesome as Aquaman can be and it pales in comparison to the moment that Jesus Christ

As Revelation 19 says stands before the sky the sky rolls back he's on a horse he's got a sword he's got a robe covered in blood you see Jesus in history is covered in blood

Twice once it's his the next time it's his enemies once it's his and the next time it's the unrepentant it says he treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath

Of God that he actually grabs people together like grape clusters and stomps them that his sword kills everyone there's this moment in the book of Revelation where

They're seeing into the future and it says that all those great and those small those rich and those poor those kings and those

Homeless it says they all who were unrepentant it says that they yell to the mountains and the rocks and the buildings and they

Say fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the

Lamb you see he was a lamb who was slain and then he returns with wrath his day of vengeance the great day of

Their wrath has come and who can stand second the Thessalonians one Paul's writing to the church and he says he's talking to them about

Their suffering and he says God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who

Are afflicted as well when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who

Do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they will suffer the punishment of eternal

Destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified

In his saints and to be marveled at among those who have believed there are some in our culture who would tell you that

Our God is like Jacob and he just wants to love and he just wants to make everything nice and he just wants to

Calm everything down and when we begin to believe that and tragedy strikes that God is too weak to handle it and where there

Is no leadership and where there is no justice there will be blood there will be violence there will be vengeance that if God

Does not take up sword and so what do we do how do we respond there is a short answer that is a short

Lived answer and it is found in Romans 12 and Romans 13 Romans 12 he says beloved do not avenge yourselves leave it to

The wrath of God the truth is in Jesus taking up the sword he meets Simeon and Levi and they are free to put

It down because it does in Romans 13 he says that God has entrusted the sword to the governing officials that there is a

System of justice that we are allowed to pursue people can go to jail ought to but when that fails and it often does

Vengeance repayment belongs to the Lord and as we sit between these two moments I want to read something for you it is a well

Known passage in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should

Not perish but have eternal life that's the cross for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world that's

The cross but in order that the world might be saved through him that's the cross whoever believes in him is condemned that's the

Cross but whoever does not believe is condemned already that's the sword because he has not believed in the name of the only son

Of God that's the cross and the king whoever believes in the son has eternal life that's the cross whoever does not obey the

Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him that's the sword Romans says Paul's writing and he's talking to them about their sin

And how they judge me I want the sword I want repayment when I sin I just want you to be calm about it I didn't

Really mean it and Paul says you who judge do you not practice these same things and then he says do you not know

That God's grace and kindness are meant to lead you to repentance that the cross is to show you how much he loves you

That you might for with your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourselves on the day of wrath here is the beautiful

Glorious good news of the gospel every single sin will be paid for there is not a sin that has been committed against you

There is not a crime that has been committed there is not a single person who has gotten away scot free there is not

Someone who was tried and not convicted and got to live out the rest of their days in peace that will not pay for

Their sin blood will be shed either on the cross or on the sword your sin will be paid for either on the cross

Or on the sword and we stand in the middle this is why John the Baptist comes and the Pharisees come to him he

Says who told you to flee from the wrath that is to come and that is the correct response to flee from the wrath

That is to come so for those parts of us that are Dinah and for those of us who are Dinah go to the

Cross where Jesus meets you and becomes you and clothes you and gives you his righteousness and washes you clean and makes you new

Go to the cross and for all the parts of us and all the times that we have been shechem and we harmed and

We hurt go to the cross where you can have your sin paid for the right blood shed for it because blood will be

Shed and for those of us who are Simeon and Levi and all the parts of us that has fury and rage towards the

Lack of justice and the God forgives you and he mends your heart and wait patiently for the day that he picks up the

Sword that belongs to him not to you there's hope in the cross but one day that hope will be gone the sky will

Rip open the king will return and every sin will be paid for the ones you think are hidden the ones you think no

One knows about there will be blood and it will either be his or it will be ours and those are the only two

Choices and if you have not placed your faith in Jesus run to him and ask him to forgive you and ask him to

Heal you and beg him to have his blood shed for your sin and this day that is a day of wrath becomes a

Day God on him on the cross that I'm forgiven and free not because I'm good not because I'm holy not because I'm worthy

But because I'm hiding behind Jesus and his blood covers me my sin will be paid for we can trust that all sin will

Be paid for Matt is going to come back up and we are going to sit for a moment he's going to sing a

Song far off as we sit in this moment waiting for those who have harmed us and hurt us to pay sitting in pain

And suffering that we feel like we can't shake trusting in the cross he's just going to sing and we're just going to sit

Feel free to sing with him pray trust rest focus on the words whatever we need to do my hope is that all around the

Room we would be running to the cross trusting in the sacrifice that was made on our behalf the hope that is given to

Us in our pain and God's supreme justice to either redeem sinners like us and to forgive them or to repay them and for

Many of us right now that's the choice you get to make and I would encourage you to flee the wrath that is to

Come and to run to the cross where your sin can be paid for where blood can be spilled and where you can be

Made new and be forgiven let's pray that we ask that in this moment your Holy Spirit would work that you would help us

To trust you and your supreme and glorious justice and for those of us who are so overwhelmed by anger that we would be able

To put the sword down and trust that you wield it properly and for those of us who feel dirty may we know that

We have been clothed in Christ if we just come to you that you will make us new you'll make us holy and blameless

And above reproach and Lord for those in this room and for those of us who have sin may you remind us to hide

Behind the cross again that your wrath has been poured out our guilt is gone there is no condemnation for those who are in

Christ Jesus praise be to his glorious grace and for those who have not trusted in you we ask Lord that they would only

Know you in the cross and would never face your sword in Jesus name Amen