Historical Background

Abraham became the first Jew at age 99 by means of a miracle of God. He and Sarah were past childbearing capability, but God had promised Abraham that he would be the Father of a great nation. Abraham did not waiver in his faith. God told Abraham to circumcise the dead skin from his phallus. This was ritual, i.e. a demonstration to illustrate that the scar tissue of Abraham's right lobe had been removed through suffering for blessing. The circumcised phallus of Abraham and all male Jewish descendants was a testimony of the grace-provision of God in reviving Abraham and Sarah's sexuality in order to bear a son in their old age. The circumcision of Abraham represented the removal of the dead works of the flesh in order to receive the grace blessing of God.

God worked a miracle and a new racial species came into being. The Jewish race began, through whom the Savior of the World would come. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. Abraham's spiritual heritage was passed on to Isaac, who was blessed because Abraham had been a mature believer. However, as is typical of a child born into blessing, Isaac was inherently lazy and did little to advance his spiritual life. Although he never lost his blessing, the decline of Jewish spirituality had already begun.

With each succeeding generation, Jewish spirituality declined. To Isaac was born Jacob. To Jacob was born Dinah and the twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, Dinah and her redneck brothers were the fourth generation. They had neglected Bible Doctrine until God's judgment was approaching. God visits his judgment upon the third and fourth generations of those who are negative to doctrine. Although that statement had not yet been recorded in the written canon of scripture, the principle was about to be demonstrated.

Dinah, a thirteen year old teen, was to be the spark to ignite the judgment of God upon the Jews. Little did Dinah know when she got up that morning that she would make history and be singled out to be cursed in such a way as to permanently alter the course of the history of the world. Further, her most humiliating moment would be recorded for all future generations in the holy scripture. There are many such cases in the Bible of teens who became the focus of human history. Among them were: Tamar and Amnon, Bathshebah, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and the teens of the death march of Psalm 119.

Dinah, who was approximately 13, had just reached adulthood. Physically, her body was mature, and she was an adult. Whether we believe that or not God put her in an adult role in human history. Dinah, was typical of a fourth generation teen. She was not that keen on the scripture. She was bored with her Jewish heritage and wanted to experience the world. She had spiritual training and was probably a believer, but she had failed to prepare for the approaching crisis. She was naive, lacked objectivity regarding the devil's world, and was easy prey for a worldly boy.

As the Jewish spiritual heritage declined, Dinah used her volition one day to go into the world to have social intercourse with some of the surrounding worldly girls. Shechem saw her, deceived her, and sexually abused her. It was a case of date rape by a Hivite. Shechem was a typical wild, promiscuous teen boy - approximately 16 years old. Descended from a Hamor (Chamor), which means donkey, he was the son of a donkey - a jackass.

Dinah's loss of her virginity at the hand of an evil teen boy represented the next generation being cursed by the justice of God. What did God have to do with it? The Lord Jesus Christ controls history. And, whereas this was a terrible thing that happened to Dinah, it was only the spark that unleashed much more evil destruction. Dinah's judgment was just the beginning of this episode. There was more to come.

When Dinah's redneck cowboy brothers heard of the incident, they were overcome with bitter vindictiveness and hatched an evil plot that was far worse than what Shechem had done. Shechem fell madly in love with Dinah and asked his father to secure her so he could marry her. Dinah's brothers were full of deceit and negotiated a business deal with the Hivites. They convinced the Hivites to have all the males circumcised so that they could intermarry with the Jews.

This is typical of legalists. They prescribe a physical, man-made solution which is of no spiritual value. God only accepts his work - not man's. Anything the unbeliever can do is not spirituality. These Jewish rednecks did not know the meaning of circumcision even though Jacob had surely told them in Bible Class.

Nor did Dinah understand the meaning of male circumcision for a woman. It meant that there was only one Right Woman who could cover the phallus of Right Man. Dinah was raped by an uncircumcised Hivite. Without doctrine in her soul to protect her, she suffered the wrath and indignation that demonstrated the meaning of an uncircumcised phallus. She experienced what she could have avoided with doctrine in her soul to protect her. She didn't understand circumcision, and she was given a lesson in the evil of uncircumcision.

Those who fail to orient to the Plan of God through doctrinal instruction will orient to it through experiencing the justice of God. Those who dislike the taste of doctrine will experience the taste of justice.

Divine Discipline

The discipline of God may be divided into Warning Discipline, Intensified Discipline, and the Sin Unto Death. Fornication, rape, adultery, criminality immediately result in Intensified Discipline. Under the Jewish Law, which had not yet been give during the time of Dinah, the penalty for adultery, rape, and many crimes was death. Criminals have to be removed from society because they deprive a person of the right to live a normal life by violating the property or person of another, both of which are sacred. The Jews have an added protection because God told Abraham, "I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you."(Gen. 12:3)

Even though Shechem is an unbeliever, he is still subject to the discipline of God, which is administered to get him to accept the gospel and to protect society from criminality. Shechem at this time is in Intensified Discipline and rapidly approaching the sin unto death. Even though Dinah was a victim, her rape was Intensified Discipline for her. The stage has now been set for the next Act of this tragedy.

Dinah's Problem

Dinah loved the world. As a teen, she looked around her and wondered what the other teens were doing in the world around her. Her curiosity soon led to a much stronger desire for social intercourse. But what's wrong with talking to people? Nothing, if the person has the capacity to handle the relationship and that relationship is in the will of God. But life is not just physical and soulish. It is also spiritual.

Dinah's friends were worldly, which means slaves to Satan's Cosmic System (Cosmos Diabolicus). There are two spiritual powers that are more powerful than the individual: God and Satan. Everyone decides every minute of the day which to choose. But what if we don't choose? The Lord Jesus Christ said, "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Matt 12:30; Luke 11:23). Or regarding anyone who has not made the decision to believe in Christ:

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the uniquely born Son of God (John 3:18).

Dinah had been taught the doctrine of separation from the world by her father, Jacob; but she chose of her own volition (free will) to discount it. She pushed the doctrine out of her mind (off the cerebral cortex) and began to listen to the yearnings of her Old Sin Nature. Everyone has an Old Sin Nature (OSN) even after they are born again. After salvation the believer can chose to obey the teachings of Bible Doctrine or reject them and go with the desires of the Old Sin Nature. Dinah pushed the Bible Doctrine out of her mind and gave her soul over to the yearnings of the Old Sin Nature.

Dinah's problem had been growing for a while. This was not the first day that she had rejected Bible Doctrine. The next illustration shows a simplified model of the human soul and its relationship to the Old Sin Nature. The Old Sin Nature is in every cell of the body since the sin of Adam is in every member of the human race per divine imputation (1 Cor. 15:22). In the illustration, however, the OSN is illustrated functionally in relationship to the soul. The head in the illustration is designed to represent the thinking part of the soul. The psychologists call the soul the psyche, which is the transliteration of the original Greek word in the Bible (psuche). If you would like to see this in the original Greek, then copy the following word to a word processor page, highlight it, and select your symbol font: yuch.

Dinah's basic problem was that the OSN was controlling her soul. How do we know? Because she loved the world. This begins with arrogance, which is a sin. As soon as an individual sins, the OSN controls the soul. But a smart person would say, "Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world." Yes, He did, which means the sins are already judged and should never be a problem for the believer. It doesn't matter that Dinah lived before Christ because believers in the Old Testament looked forward to the cross in faith just as those in the Church Age look back to it.

When a believer sins, he doesn't lose his salvation. The sin is merely a rejection of fellowship with God. So for Dinah, as well as for us, God has provided a recovery procedure so that when we sin, we can get back in fellowship with Him again. That recovery procedure is 1 John 1:9:

If we name our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all wrongdoing.

We are commanded to name our sins to the Father in the privacy of our own soul (not to anyone else). When we follow this recovery procedure, we are restored to fellowship. That is all there is to it. But if we add anything to this, it won't work. God honors his word. Therefore, because sins were judged on the cross, God has provided a simple recovery procedure, which involves no additional judgment.

Dinah didn't follow the recovery procedure; so she was in a state of sin. Her Old Sin Nature with its lusts were controlling her soul. All the doctrine that she had learned was nullified. The OSN had power over her soul. She had relinquished control to it when she decided to sin. She had left it in control when she did not follow the recovery procedure (which we call "Rebound"). She was in denial. She did not admit to God that she had a problem. As she continued this activity she wound up in self absorption. In self absorption she was occupied with self and the desires of the flesh (OSN). She was bored, restless, and frustrated in her condition of being out of fellowship with God.

As a substitute for fellowship with God, Dinah needed an alternative to satisfy her longing. She chose fellowship with worldly Hivite girls. This was a further violation of God's Plan for her life. It propelled her further into the Cosmic System under the power of Satan. The end, as we have seen, was tragic. In the world, she met Shechem, who did not play fair. He was deceitful, as with others in the Cosmic System, but Dinah was totally sucked in by his fast line and good looks. In self absorption, she probably liked talking with another teen; but she never bothered to check out his credentials. He was a liar, deceiver, and rapist. But how was she to know? She had turned off all opportunity for divine protection when she decided to walk out on God's Plan and pursue the world.

Author: Larry Wood