The comfort of sweet words:

When Jacob and his family settled in a place east of the city of Shechem. One day Jacob's daughter Dinah was interacting with the women of the land of Canaan to see what their lives were like. However, an unfortunate thing happened. Shechem, the son of Hamor, a Hivite who was the leader of the area, saw Dinah's beauty, so he took her by force, raped her and defiled her. No matter whose family this happens to, it is a shameful thing and an infuriating thing.

Although Shechem defiled Dinah, Shechem loved Dinah very much. Shechem's admiration was an expression of greed, not love, so he raped and defiled Dinah. . So I comforted her with sweet words. Not only that, Shechem also used practical actions to ask Jacob to marry Dinah, solving his sins through marriage, and covering up his defilement of Dinah through marriage.

The teachings on making friends, falling in love, and marriage are very important. If people treat sexual relationships and interpersonal relationships with an unholy attitude, they will destroy God’s setting for marriage, and people’s morality will be damaged. It will become more and more corrupt, and the most common way people make up for it is through deception.

Jacob's attitude towards this matter:

After Jacob heard about this matter, he dared not speak out. Because Shechem is the local overlord and the son of the chief here, and the city is named after him - Shechem City, which also shows that Shechem is very powerful and very appealing. And Jacob was just a stranger, still physically disabled, and none of his family members and sons were at home, so although Jacob was angry, he did not dare to speak. So I have to wait for my son to come back to solve this matter. Jacob basically didn't express his attitude towards Dinah. It wasn't until his son took revenge on the city of Shechem that he expressed one sentence: Genesis 34:30: "You have caused trouble for me and for the inhabitants of this land. and I have become notorious among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Since my people are few, they will gather together to kill me, and I and my whole family will be destroyed.” Because I only care about my own safety here. , forgetting how God protected him (Genesis 31).

Faced with such an ugly thing, Jacob's choice was to remain silent. Silence did not resolve the matter, but made it worse. Although they seem to be in peace, they actually hide a deeper hatred. Therefore, Christians do not face everything with silence. We must choose the right way and approach to solve it.

Choices eroded by sin:

Shechem’s affection for Dinah was not based on true love, but on attachment based on the relationship that occurred. He asked his father to marry Dinah for him. Through the dialogue between Shechem and the Accord family, he did not see that Shechem showed any wrong attitude towards Dinah, nor did he make any compensation or cover up. Instead, he spoke forcefully to create a 34:8/9 Hamor consulted with them and said, "My son Shechem's heart desires this girl. Please give her to my son as a wife. You and we will marry each other. You can give your daughter to us, or you can marry her." Our daughters, come and live with us. This land is before you. Just live here, buy and sell, and buy property.”

When Jacob’s sons heard that their sister had been defiled, Very sad and angry. And Shechem's expression became even more angry, so the sons of Jacob responded to Shechem's request with deceitful words. That is Genesis 34:14/17 We cannot give our girls to uncircumcised wives, for that would be our shame. Only one thing is allowed: If all your males are circumcised, like us, we will give you our daughters, and we will marry your daughters, and we will live with you, and we will become one people. If she didn't obey us and get circumcised, we took the girl and left. That is, only men in the city of Shechem who were circumcised like the Jews could marry, otherwise they could not. However, Shechem thought that circumcision was just a small matter, so he readily agreed and told the whole city to go together for the circumcision. The purpose of Jacob's sons having the people of Shechem circumcised was not to actually marry them, but to avenge Dinah's humiliation.

So on the third day of circumcision in Shechem, which was the most painful moment of circumcision, Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi killed the entire city with swords and captured They did not want to see their sister become a prostitute and be defiled like this.

Faced with this problem, many families choose to get married to solve the problem. However, what is the true meaning of marriage? Whether it's defilement, cohabitation before marriage, etc., what is people's attitude towards marriage now? As Christians, how do we view the marriage of our children? How do you see God’s commandments on marriage? Not only that, as parents, have you passed on the correct views on marriage and sex to your children? Please reflect...