Genesis 34 recounts one of the most deplorable events in all God’s Word – the rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah and the horrific revenge taken by Jacob’s sons upon her rapist Shechem’s city.
Study Type: Adult Lesson
Study intended for sharing in a small fellowship or class of adults
In Genesis 32-33 we look at the well-known story of Jacob wrestling with God who blesses him and renames him Israel. Afterward Jacob and his twin brother Esau meet and reconcile after a twenty-year estrangement. Esau then returns to his home in Seir while Jacob returns to Canaan and settles at Shechem.
After Jacob had served his uncle Laban 20 years, God finally called Jacob to return home to Canaan. After Jacob left secretly he was pursued by Laban who caught up with Jacob in the hill country of Gilead where the two made a non-aggression agreement.
After serving his uncle Laban for fourteen years for his two daughters Leah and Rachel, Jacob continued in Laban’s service in exchange for a portion of livestock from Laban’s flocks and herds.
Jacob sojourned in Paddan-aram for over twenty years serving his uncle Laban. In that time Jacob married Laban’s daughters Leah and Rachel and fathered eleven of his twelve sons and at least on daughter by his two wives and their two maid servants Zilpah and Bilhah.
Fleeing to his mother’s family in Paddan-aram from his brother Esau who had sworn to kill him when their father Isaac died, Jacob stopped overnight at Luz. There he dreamed of a ladder going up to Heaven. From the top of the stairway, God reiterated to Jacob His promise to his grandfather Abraham that through their descendants all the families of the earth would be blessed. The next morning, Jacob renamed that place Bethel – the house of God.
Genesis 26 tells the story of Isaac lying to Abimelech King of the Philistines that Rebekah was Isaac’s sister just as Isaac’s father Abraham had done years before. Afterward, Abimelech and Isaac swore oaths to live peacefully together in the land of the Philistines. In Genesis 27, we read how Isaac’s wife Rebekah and his younger son Jacob deceived Isaac into giving his double-portion inheritance blessing that should have gone to Isaac’s firstborn son Esau to his younger brother Jacob instead.
After 13 chapters devoted to detailing Abraham’s life, Genesis 25 tells us about his latter years and his death at the age of 175. The chapter then lists the 12 princes born to Abraham’s elder son Ishmael. The latter part of Genesis 25 brings us into the fourth section of our Genesis study with the birth of Abraham’s twin grandsons Esau and Jacob. Finally, we see the story of the elder twin Esau selling his birthright of the double-portion inheritance due the first-born son to his younger brother Jacob.
Following the death of Sarah, Abraham sent his servant to Paddan-Aram to obtain a wife for his son Isaac from his family. Abraham’s nephew’s daughter Rebekah returned to Negev with the servant to marry Isaac.