Genesis 34:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 34:13

Comments

From now on, Jacob was not present. Moses writes as if Jacob is not a party to what happens. They answered deceitfully; they quickly hatched a plot. They decided they would persuade all that township, large or small, all the men, to be circumcised, because they knew that by the third day they would all have pain, and perhaps infection, and they would all be either bed ridden or at least at home. That was the basis of the scheme. If all the men stopped indoors that day, and the streets were quiet, then two of the brothers – presumably they could not do it entirely alone, presumably with their servants, because they all had many servants – would go out from house to house, unmolested, and just kill the occupants of each house, one house at a time. So the third day of circumcision and they'd all be indoors and the place as quiet as a tomb, and they would go round and do their work.

Application

These brothers they are rather like modern society. Society – and so it should be – is wild about paedophiles. Yes, but no one is taking any responsibility. Society still wants the permissive society. It still wants a social environment that brings the worst out of people, where every kind of sexual deviation can flourish. It wants to be so angry and hostile at the paedophiles – and that is right – but it will not take seriously its responsibility. That is just like these brothers. They were absolutely incensed at the man who defiled their sister, but they hadn't done anything to stop her roaming in that town. There were eleven of them with all their servants pretty well all round the encampment of Jacob. They surely saw her going off. I think it's fair to assume that, though the Scripture doesn't say so. They knew what this girl was up to and her tendencies. They knew she was immature, that she was just really a child. They were all at least twenty years old. None of them said, ‘What is she doing wandering about? You can't do that.’ I should imagine – but I'm reading this into the passage – that they themselves stole out at night to get drunk and to conduct debauched activities in the town. To them it was nothing, so they were not horrified when they saw their sister, a child of Jacob, going into the uncircumcised town. It doesn't say so, but it looks very much like it, and that is the kind of hypocrisy we see in our society.

You see it in the churches too. You read and you hear of churches where they’ve come down like a ton of bricks on somebody who has committed a serious and perhaps sexual sin. Yes, well that is right; they should. And yet that church has got so much worldliness in it. It is hardly helping the younger members to avoid the sins of this world, and that's what's going on here too.

There is a lesson in the failure of leadership. Jacob may not be a partner to the sin, but he did not stop things going wrong, neither were the sons accustomed to being lead, for they did not submit their plans to him. The father must lead in the home and be fair, wise, considered in his leadership. If only Jacob had restrained her, or stayed at his post.

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Genesis 34:13 Commentary and Bible Study