Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to room, room 103. Actually, I see Mike Barry looking at me right now. Genesis 34, turn to Genesis 34 for our time of study in the word. This morning, We're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Genesis, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Genesis 34 and my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 1 through 31.
And the title of the message this morning, as you see on the sermon notes that are in your bulletin is rape. Revenge and rescue in Checkham. Genesis 34 is, in my opinion, truly one of the saddest chapters in all of the Bible. It is definitely not a feel-good chapter.
If you came this morning expecting to hear a feel-good sermon, You will be disappointed. In Romans 3, the apostle Paul says there is none good, not even one, and we can actually say that about the people, the characters in Genesis 34. There's not one completely good character in this chapter, not even one. Contained in this chapter is not a story of good guys against the bad guys.
This is a story in which every person in this chapter behaves. In ways that are confusing to us. In fact, in morally confusing ways that lead to terrible outcomes. One commentator says it this way, he says that there is ostensibly nothing about Genesis 34 that is commendable....
