Often in Scripture, a spiritual highpoint is followed by a corresponding low. After the Garden of Eden, we get the Fall (Genesis 3). After Noah survived the flood, he got drunk (Gen. 9:21). After David established his kingdom, he committed adultery (2 Samuel 11).

Jacob had experienced a spiritual high. He had received a new name, returned to the land of Canaan, and reconciled with his brother (Gen. 32:1–32). Genesis 34 describes a spiritual low point. As Jacob settled into his new home, his daughter Dinah went out to “visit the women of the land” (v. 1). A young man from a powerful Canaanite family named Shechem saw her and raped her (v. 3). Deciding to marry her, he convinced his father to talk to Jacob (v. 4).

Everyone in this situation acted inappropriately. Jacob seemed apathetic and unmoved by his daughter’s plight (v. 5). Apathy in the face of sexual abuse is all too common even today. Shechem’s father used the situation to benefit himself (vv. 21–22). Dinah’s brothers were rightly angry but acted deceptively toward Shechem and his father (v. 13). They convinced Shechem that the men of the town needed to be circumcised to intermarry with them (vv. 16–17).

Surprisingly, the townspeople agreed. This may tell us something about how wealthy Jacob was. While the men were recovering, Dinah’s brothers slaughtered the residents of the town. This was not justice, but revenge. After all of this, Jacob was upset because other Canaanites might threaten him (v. 30). Why is this story in the Bible? Here we learn that God’s choice of Jacob was not based on his moral virtue. God was and is faithful to His covenant promises despite human frailty. And we see how God was working through Abraham’s family to redeem and save humanity from all sin.

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