Playing With Fire. Genesis 34:1-7 NLT

How close can we get to the flame and not get burned? Probably every child will learn this lesson the hard way. You can tell them not to touch a hot stove but they won't actually learn not to do it until they try. 

Dinah was curious. She wanted to see how the women in the city lived. She ventured out alone. Jacob didn't provide her with adequate supervision or protection. A women alone in a foreign city was, unfortunately, fair game as far as the inhabitants were concerned. 

Jacob played with fire and Dinah got burned, bad. Because of Jacob's disobedience to God, his whole family will suffer. The Lord told Jacob to  “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there". Instead Jacob went to  Shechem, in the land of Canaan. 

This isn't the first example of not doing what God instructed we have seen in this first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve were the first to disobey.  Lot too tried to get to close to the fire and paid a terrible price. In fact, this theme of disobedience is repeated over and over throughout the Bible. Along with the consequences of that sin. 

I asked the question once in a Bible Study how many times will  God continue to refine us like silver in the fire. The answer was until we get it right. 

Genesis 34:1-7 NLT 

1 One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the young women who lived in the area.  2 But when the local prince, Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, saw Dinah, he seized her and raped her.  3 But then he fell in love with her, and he tried to win her affection with tender words.  4 He said to his father, Hamor, “Get me this young girl. I want to marry her.” 

5 Soon Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter, Dinah. But since his sons were out in the fields herding his livestock, he said nothing until they returned.  6 Hamor, Shechem’s father, came to discuss the matter with Jacob.  7  Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the field as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious that their sister had been raped. Shechem had done a disgraceful thing against Jacob’s family, something that should never be done. 

Blessings, Cecilia