“Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and to his father Hamor.”
~ Genesis 34:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever told a lie? Do you know what a lie is? A lie is something which is said or which is written as being true but which is not true. Telling a lie is something that we are all tempted to do. Telling a lie is something that we are not to do. There are at least two things that happen when a guy, gal or kid tells a lie. After a guy, gal or kid tells their first lie, it is easier for him or for her to lie again. After telling a lie, a guy, gal or kid will invariably have to tell another lie to cover up the first lie that he or she has told. Has your ma and/or dad ever punished you for you having told a lie? It is very important that your ma and/or dad punish you when they find out that you have lied. If a guy, gal or kid knows that he or she will not be punished for having said or for having done something that he or she knows is wrong to do, he or she will more than likely do the same thing again – like telling a lie. The Bible has in it a lot of very interesting and encouraging stories. These are the stories that mas and dads like to read to their kids. There are other stories in the Bible that mas and dads do not like to read to their kids. These stories are about guys and gals who have done something that is wrong or evil to do. Genesis 34 tells the story of two bros who did something very bad to a guy who had done something very bad to their sis. The gal’s name was Dinah. The guy’s name was Shechem. As Dinah was on her way to visit some women one day, she was spotted by Shechem. Shechem decided he would do whatever he wanted to do with Dinah because he thought that he loved her. When Dinah’s bros found out what Shechem had done to their sis, they decided to punish the guy who had violated her. Dinah’s bros were really mad. They would end up killing Shechem as well as all the guys who lived in the town where Shechem lived. We sometimes rashly do things that we should not do when we get mad. Your Aunt Lynn is your dad’s sis. When your dad and your Aunt Lynn were young, your dad would take care of your Aunt Lynn. Your dad would protect your Aunt Lynn. Your dad would not let anyone hurt your Aunt Lynn.
Each time after your grandpaa and grandmaa had finished spending three or four years living in Bolivia and then in Guatemala, they would spend a year living in the United States. The time that your grandpaa and grandmaa spent in the U.S. was called a furlough. One year when your grandpaa and grandmaa were in the United States, your grandpaa went back for a month to Bolivia. Your grandpaa took an acquaintance from the United States with him to Bolivia. During the time that your grandpaa was in Bolivia, your grandpaa took videos of some of the places where your grandpaa and grandmaa did things. While they were in Bolivia, your grandpaa and his traveling companion were able to make a trip with a missionary who was living in Bolivia. This missionary on one of the days on this trip came to a place where the gravel road that we were traveling looked like it went down through a muddy stream and then back up to the road on the other side. The road also looked like it went straight over a slight hump in the road and over the muddy stream. Your grandpaa suggested to his missionary friend that he get out of his Toyota Jeep to check out the muddy stream. If the missionary had gotten out of his jeep to check the stream, he would have noticed that there was a bridge that went over the stream. The missionary instead said that because his jeep had four-wheel drive that he could drive through the muddy stream. What do you think happened? The jeep ended up hung up on a trunk of wood. The missionary could not get his jeep to go forward or to go backwards. The jeep’s wheels would just spin. The missionary had gotten hung up on a trunk of a sawed up tree in the middle of a three foot deep or so dirty stream. The bridge was only twenty or so feet away. Your grandpaa a couple of days earlier had gotten bitten on one of his little fingers by an ant. The ant bite had become infected. A red line had begun to go from the ant’s bite up your grandpaa’s arm. That is not a good thing for that to happen to anyone. Because your grandpaa’s little finger was swollen, your grandpaa did not think that it would be good for him to dig around in the mucky water or to help get the jeep out of the muddy stream. Instead of spending the next couple of hours trying to get the jeep out of the muddy stream, the missionary could have driven across the bridge in seconds. There will be times as you grow up when you will do some things impulsively. Instead of finding yourselves doing some things without worrying about the consequences and then resorting to telling lies, it is always good to stop for a moment to think. If you will take the time to ask some questions or to look around, you may just find a better way to do something.
Telling lies is not the only thing that is not good to do. Have you ever watched the news with your dad? It seems like anymore that there is a lottery drawing during each newscast. Do you think that it is good to play the lottery? Playing the lottery is like throwing money away – even if you should win a lot of money. If you play the lottery, you are telling God that you do not trust Him to supply you with all your needs. When you tell a lie, you are telling God that you do not trust Him to take care of you if you were to tell the truth. Verse 13 tells us what Dinah’s bros did. “Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and to his father Hamor”. Deceitfulness is to tell a lie. This is what Dinah’s bros Simeon and Levi did. They wanted to punish Shechem for what he did to their sister. It is important to see in this chapter that God is not mentioned. God will allow bad things to take place to teach us that there never is a good reason to do things which we are not to do – such as telling a lie. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are praying that you will never begin making bad decisions.
Genesis 34 (6)