Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #2 of Genesis 34, and we are reading Genesis 34:1-11:

And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.  And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done. And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife. And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give.

I will stop reading there.  We were looking at the historical setting last time, and we noticed that this account highlights Dinah more than anyone, except for Shechem.  Shechem is mentioned ten times, and Dinah is mentioned six times, but Dinah is certainly a major focus here, but nowhere else in the Bible does she come into view especially.  So we have to think of her, and that is how the chapter does begin.  It said in Genesis 33:17:

And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

 Dinah was born after Leah had six sons.  Regarding Leah, we also know that of the twelve sons of Jacob, Leah bore six, and her handmaid bore two, and Leah counted her handmaid’s sons as her own.  If you remember, Rachel, Jacob’s other wife and Leah’s sister, bore two sons, and her handmaid bore two sons, and Rachel claimed those two sons as her own.  So Rachel claimed four sons, and Leah claimed eight sons.  We saw how there is a one-third/two-thirds relationship, and we also noted that Jacob loved Rachel, and God says that Leah was hated.  So that fits in with the one third that was loved, and the two thirds that were hated. 

Dinah was not in that count because the Bible repeatedly emphasizes the twelve sons of Jacob, or twelve tribes of Israel.  Actually, it turned out to be thirteen tribes, but not because of Dinah.  It was because God blessed the tribe of Joseph with a double portion, and Ephraim and Manasseh became the tribes of Joseph.  It is always the sons that God refers to, for example, in Revelation 7 where God speaks of the firstfruits, and He uses the tribes of Israel to represent them.  He refers to 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes, leaving one tribe out, to total 144,000.  And that is typically what God does, and He does not refer to Dinah.  So we might think that Dinah is not a picture of the tribes of Israel.  She is not mentioned in these places in the Bible where God does speak of the sons of Jacob, or sons of Israel.

And yet when we look for the spiritual meaning for Dinah, I think we will come to the conclusion that she is representing the children of Israel, or the daughter of Israel.  In fact she was the daughter of Jacob, and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, so she was the daughter of Israel.  So that is the language we can grab hold of and begin to understand when we are thinking of her.  We will look at several verses, and let us start with Isaiah 62:11:

Behold, JEHOVAH hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

This is a Messianic reference pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was fulfilled, as we see when we turn to John 12:12-15:

On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.

We read in Isaiah 62:11: “Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh…”  This was not exactly the verse that was quoted in John 12.  That is found in Zechariah 9:9:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

These Isaiah verses are related, but Zechariah 9:9 is a more direct quote in John 12:15.  We can see that Christ came to Jerusalem, and He was said to be King of Israel, and then it refers to the “daughter of Sion.”  They are all synonyms that refer to the people of God, and it is referring to the nation of Israel in the first instance, but the true meaning of Christ coming as the King of Israel has to do with spiritual Israel, or spiritual Jerusalem.  So the daughter of Sion can refer either to the outward representation of God’s kingdom (the nation of Israel, as well as the New Testament corporate church), or it can refer to the eternal kingdom of God made up of all those God has saved, or spiritual Israel.

If we go to Jeremiah 8, we will see a few different references.  It says in Jeremiah 8:11:

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Then it says in Jeremiah 8:19-22:

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not JEHOVAH in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Here, we see the phrase “the daughter of my people” repeatedly.  And that is actually fairly typical.  Let us go to Lamentations 1:4-6:

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for JEHOVAH hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

You see, God just easily transitions from referring to “the daughter of Zion,” or to Jerusalem, or to Zion, or to the nation of Judah, or the nation of Israel, while simultaneously referring to the corporate church. 

Let us go to Lamentations 2:10-12:

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

Clearly, it is the judgment of God on the churches, spiritually.  That is what is in view.  It is judgment on the daughter of Zion for destruction of the daughter of His people.  This is how God refers to the outward representation of His kingdom, and it is also how He can refer to His elect.  We also see a reference here to the “virgins of Jerusalem.”  The daughter of Zion can be likened to a virgin, can she not?  We know that in the New Testament with the parable of the ten virgins, there are five wise (virgins) and five foolish (virgins).  The five foolish identify with the tares, and the five wise with the elect. So they are “virgins,” so we could just as readily say that the virgins of Israel, or the virgins of Zion, are in view.

We read in Lamentations 3:48:

Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Then it says in Lamentations 4:1-2:

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Here we see a shift to the “sons of Zion,” but it is the same picture, spiritually.

Then it goes on to say in Lamentations 4:3-6:

Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

We could keep reading, but we will stop there.  Here, “the daughter of my people” is compared to a sea monster.  In this comparison, it says that even sea monsters draw out the breast, but the daughter of His people have become cruel like the ostriches because the tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof his mouth for thirst.  They are given no milk.  Why?  It is because the wrath of God came upon the churches and congregations of the world as judgment began at the house of God, and the Holy Spirit departed out of their midst. 

The Word of God is likened to a mother that provides milk.  It is the “milk of the word” that we read about in 1Peter 2.  The Word gives milk to the spiritual babes when they become born again.  But once the Holy Spirit departed out of the midst of the churches, there were no more new “births,” and there was no longer any genuine milk because it requires the Spirit of God to work through His Word to nourish the souls of those that have become born again.  So as the Word of God was preached, the congregation could hear it with their physical ears, but not spiritual ears, and there was no application of the Word.  If the elect could have been nourished there, there would have been no need for God to call His people out.  But since they could not be nourished there, God commanded His people to come out.  We typically think of those that departed out in order to become saved, and that is true, but it is also true for the saved as they came out in order to find that “green pasture” of the nourishment of the Word. 

As we think back, we remember how little we were being fed in the churches under the hearing of the pastors, elders, and deacons of the congregations because of their methodology of studying the Word.  It was such meager meat that they could deliver because they were still on the milk of the Word.  Yes, we could thank God that the pastor was reading from the King James Bible, and maybe he said a couple of truthful things, but where was the meat?  We had to come out of the congregations, and then all of a sudden the Bible opened up like a floodgate, and the truth of God’s Word just gushed out.  There was so much information, and we are still studying some of the things we learned during the Great Tribulation.  And God is continuing to bring forth truth into this Day of Judgment.

Again, in Lamentations it said the “daughter of my people” became cruel, and we can clearly see that it is referring to those that would share the Word of God, seeking to provide spiritual nourishment to the young in the congregation, but they could not because the Spirit was not blessing the Word.  The Spirit was not there.

So let us go back to Genesis, and close this study.  Again it said in Genesis 34:1:

And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 

She was a daughter of Israel, and she was going to see the daughters of the land.  Think of her as the daughter of Zion, the daughter of Jerusalem, or “the daughter of my people,” as we saw often in Lamentations.  And that is why it was such a serious matter when Shechem saw her, took her, lay with her, and defiled her.  It was a very serious thing, and that will help to understand what the defilement means in both places the word “defiled” is used.  We will look at that, Lord willing, as we continue on, but we have come to the end of our study.  I hope you will be able to join us next time as we open God’s holy Word, the Bible, in this wonderful book of Genesis.