This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to
seeing Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see
what’s happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his Gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Jacob and his family are traveling
back from their long stay with Laban.

In one of the towns where he
stopped, an appalling incident takes place.

Jacob’s daughter Dinah is
raped by the prince of the land.

Dinah’s brothers are rightly furious,
but Jacob was surprisingly passive.

The prince, Shechem,
then begs to marry Dinah.

In an act of revenge,
Jacob’s sons fool him

and all his people into getting circumcised.
But this was not a genuine invitation into their

people group or into
a relationship with their God.

Like Jacob before them,
it was a trick.

When all the men were recovering from
their painful surgeries, two of the brothers,

Simeon and Levi, kill every male in
the city and reclaim their sister Dinah.

The rest of Jacob’s
sons, then plunder the dead,

steal the livestock, and
capture the women and children.

But even after all this bloodshed and violence,
God miraculously provides safe passage for

Jacob and his family to Bethel,
and he meets with Jacob again.

Surprisingly, the covenant with Jacob
and his sons is not canceled, but re-affirmed.

The story ends with the completion
of Jacob’s family and an overview of Esau’s.

The twelfth and final son is born to
Jacob, but his wife dies in that childbirth.

The inclusion of Esau’s line shows us
that God’s blessing is really for all nations.

He can make great nations
and bless people even when

those who are supposed to be
the carriers of that blessing fail.

He does this ultimately through Jesus
who we defiled like Dinah, but unto death.

And we actually deserved much worse than
what Simeon and Levi did to the people of Shechem.

However, Jesus did not stay passive like Jacob
or avenge himself on the world like Jacob’s sons.

Jesus became active. He
bore the vengeance we deserved.

Jesus is, therefore, both Dinah the defiled,
and Shechem the destroyed.

He is both the offended party and the
one who bears the penalty of that offense.

This is such good news.

For Jacob’s sons not only failed here but
will fail again and again as the people of Israel.

Nevertheless, God’s plan to bless the
world is never thwarted by their failures.

For the final son of Jacob, Jesus, has
been faithful on behalf of the whole world.

Because of the gospel, we who constantly fail
over and over again can have the blessing of salvation

re-confirmed to us, especially in the
times when we know we deserve it the least.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would
show you the God who forgives

even the worst of sins and
upholds even the biggest promises.

And that you would see Jesus as both the
defiled one and the punished one, who allowed

both to happen to him, so he could
extend an undeserved promise to us.