Category: Evangelism

Genesis 34 is one of those sad chapters in the history of redemption.  Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, is raped, humiliated, and then treated like a commodity to be traded for mutual benefits. Jacob appears ready to make the exchange of his daughter for the benefit of prospering in the land – the land already promised to him by the Lord.

When Dinah’s brothers hear of the atrocity they first object because the Hivite’s do not bear the covenant sign of circumcision. It appears already that the covenant itself has become less significant than the sign of the covenant.  For them pride of identity supersedes the blessing of covenant relationship with the Lord.

The brothers create a ruse in which the Hivite men agree to circumcision and, while recovering from the surgery, they are slaughtered by Jacob’s sons. The brothers then plunder the city and take captive the women and children.

Jacob fears both disgrace and potential revenge from the other inhabitants of the land. Rightfully so, because they have failed to be the covenant family that reflects the grace of God.

Though Jacob and his family are recipients of the covenant promise and though the sons bear the covenant sign of circumcision, it appears that cutting away flesh does not cut away the evil of their hearts. Jacob sons are worse than the pagans whom they destroy. They deceive; they take revenge; they murder; they steal; they are justified in their own eyes.  Instead of blessing the nations as the offspring of Abraham, they are morally bankrupt, destroying rather than delivering the nations of the world.

We leave this chapter longing for that offspring of Abraham who truly will bless the nations and create a new community of covenant believers that will include the nations of the world

Tragically, this story reflects the history of Christianity in the city. Christians who wear the new covenant sign of baptism often do so without having experienced the power of the gospel that transforms a sinner’s heart. They are religious, upholding the signs of Christianity, but bankrupt morally. They often are angry, bitter, unkind, and unmerciful.

The city of Philadelphia is peppered with religious edifices that stand as a sign of Christianity’s once magnificent presence in the city. However, the signs and symbols eventually became the substance, replacing the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ with formalism. The signs and symbols lacked the power to overcome racism, injustice, and disregard for the poor and disenfranchised. The signs and symbols had no power to restore broken relationships or to deliver from life consuming sins. Without the gospel, these religious edifices soon succumbed to 12-step programs, conscience-soothing acts of mercy, and self-help seminars.

The city needs a resurgence of new communities of covenant believers who not only uphold the signs and symbols of Christianity, but who bear evidence of a life being transformed by the gospel of God’s grace – a life of indiscriminate forgiveness, mercy, generosity, and bountiful love.

In Genesis 28-30 we see how God continues the blessing of Abraham through Jacob.  Isaac affirms the Abrahamic Covenant to Jacob and then sends him away both to escape the enmity of Esau and to find a wife through whom progeny would come.  Esau and Jacob represent not only two nations (Edom and Israel) but contrasting destinies of cursing and blessing. As Malachi later records God’s disposition to both: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  Jacob is a recipient of and a believer in the Abrahamic blessing; while Esau in unbelief rejects the Abrahamic blessings.

However, as the story of Jacob ensues, we begin to wonder how someone as unlovely and unlovable as Jacob can be the bearer of the promise. He often uses trickery (as his name ‘heel-clutcher’ implies) to get what God has already promised. He often depends on his own strength and cleverness instead of depending on God.  Nevertheless, on the way to Mesopotamia God meets him at Bethel and assures him of blessing.  While in Mesopotamia he struggles with bickering wives, separation from his parents, his flight from Esau, and uncles and cousins who are self-serving; nevertheless, while there God blesses him with wives, possessions, and children.  Geerhardus Vos comments on why the questionable character of Jacob is so prominent:

“This is done in order to show that the divine grace is not the reward for but the source of noble traits. Grace overcoming human sin and transforming human nature is the keynote of the revelation here.”

The Jacob narrative both humbles and encourages us as we labor in the city. We are aware of our own predisposition to find shortcuts or self-contrived means to experience to satisfy the longing of our souls. Though we have God’s Word in the Gospel, our hearts love the lie that God’s promise in the gospel isn’t enough, so we must become clever in helping ourselves and others to find that for which their souls long. Urban centers attract people and institutions who have Jacob-like strategies for gaining the blessing of God.  And, urban centers are filled with desperate people who are ready to believe the lie. As we serve in the city, we seek to be aware of the grace we need to faithfully look to the promise of the gospel and we seek to be faithful, not clever, in pointing others to the ONE who alone can satisfy the longing of their soul. Along the way, though like Jacob we slip and fall, we experience a God who is faithful and whose grace overwhelms our failures.