Click here to download this week’s issue of the Drive Home Newsletter! The Drive Home Newsletter 1/14/2018
Click here to download this week’s issue of the Drive Home Newsletter! The Drive Home Newsletter 1/14/2018
The story of Dinah is a difficult one for us to read. In our world, when a man disgraces a woman so heinously, he does not then ask for her hand in marriage. But revenge is something we understand all too well. Hearing that their sister was raped, her brothers, most notably Simeon and Levi, form a plan to get revenge for her. With Jacob for a father, hearing the stories of his youth, it is no wonder that this is the reaction of the Fathers of the Tribes of God’s people. With tales of stolen birthrights and stolen blessings, stolen flocks and stolen wives, these young men plot against the men of Shechem.
The plot revolves around the use of God’s law for their personal attack. Claiming the requirement of circumcision, they trick the Shechemite men into weakening themselves so they would be easier targets. And after using God’s law for their own ends, they slaughter the whole community.
We probably don’t have the slaughter of an entire community on our conscience, but have you ever used God’s law for your own ends? Have you ever found yourself very legalistic about some point that hasn’t been that important to you in the past when that legalism suddenly becomes very helpful to you? Many a parent has suddenly become very interested in the OT prohibition against tattoos once their children become teens. The call to not “get drunk with wine” becomes a core value for many families once their kids begin going to parties. From homosexual acts to divorce, from God’s plans for us to Jabez’ prayer, we should always be suspicious of ourselves when a verse that we haven’t really considered suddenly becomes the bedrock of our theology. In any theological debate, we must ask ourselves why this particular biblical law has suddenly become so important to us, and is is possible that our arguments are more self-serving than God-honoring?
The story of Dinah is a difficult one for us to read. In our world, when a man disgraces a woman so heinously, he does not then ask for her hand in marriage. But revenge is something we understand all too well. Hearing that their sister was raped, her brothers, most notably Simeon and Levi, form a plan to get revenge for her. With Jacob for a father, hearing the stories of his youth, it is no wonder that this is the reaction of the Fathers of the Tribes of God’s people. With tales of stolen birthrights and stolen blessings, stolen flocks and stolen wives, these young men plot against the men of Shechem.
The plot revolves around the use of God’s law for their personal attack. Claiming the requirement of circumcision, they trick the Shechemite men into weakening themselves so they would be easier targets. And after using God’s law for their own ends, they slaughter the whole community.
We probably don’t have the slaughter of an entire community on our conscience, but have you ever used God’s law for your own ends? Have you ever found yourself very legalistic about some point that hasn’t been that important to you in the past when that legalism suddenly becomes very helpful to you? Many a parent has suddenly become very interested in the OT prohibition against tattoos once their children become teens. The call to not “get drunk with wine” becomes a core value for many families once their kids begin going to parties. From homosexual acts to divorce, from God’s plans for us to Jabez’ prayer, we should always be suspicious of ourselves when a verse that we haven’t really considered suddenly becomes the bedrock of our theology. In any theological debate, we must ask ourselves why this particular biblical law has suddenly become so important to us, and is is possible that our arguments are more self-serving than God-honoring?
Our God is an intimate God and He always has been. People tend to characterize God in the Old Testament as distant and aloof, a rule-giver and judge, but then characterize God in the New Testament as near and intimate, a grace-giver and friend. Then they proclaim that God doesn’t change. This last statement is far closer to the truth than the first two, for God is the same today and forever. He has always been holy (separate) and intimate, giving both rules and grace.
Jacob meets our intimate, holy God in the night, and as he has his whole life, he wrestles with God. Since his birth, Jacob has been wrestling with God, and so God makes this wrestling literal. And in it we find a God who is intimate. He doesn’t have a shoot-out with Jacob, or an argument from two sides of an issue, or even a boxing match. All of these are done at a distance. No, God wrestles Jacob. If you’ve ever wrestled or seen a wrestling match you know that it is one of the most intimate contests we have. And so our intimate, holy God contests intimately with Jacob. And once they are finished, God makes sure Jacob remembers his intimate night wrestling with His intimate God by changing his name to Israel, which literally means, “Wrestles with God”.
This is our spiritual heritage, and so we are of a people who wrestle with God. But do we? When you fight with God (come on, we all do it) do you do so from a distance, with arguments and debates, lobbing reason and study at Him? Or do you wrestle with Him, emotionally, intimately? God loves you so much that even when you are fighting, He still wants to be intimate. Are you brave enough to share that intimacy with Him, too?