Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
CloseBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 11 September 2022
Mourning, Yearning, Turning
It really is a section of the Bible you feel like you need a shower after: there is sexual violence, anger, silence, rage, favouritism, deception, carnage, and silence. In fact, on a surface reading, God seems as absent as His speech or acknowledgement! Like so many other episodes in the family history of Jacob, no human actor emerges well. Jacob has placed his family here through disobedience. Shechem violates Dinah. Shechem and his father are duplicitous. Simeon and Levi are deceitful and deceptive. The brothers are wanton in their violence. And the outcome is described in purely self-interested terms by Jacob! But, the mere presence of this episode in the word of God speaks a number of truths. First, the silence of God must never be construed as the absence of God – look at the cross! Second, the word of God never shies from the brutality of sin. Third, the events make our hearts recognise our own sin – and yearn for a family where sin will be confronted, not ignored or taken advantage of. Those three truths taken together find voice in Psalms 27 and 56, expression in the genealogy of Jesus, and resolution at the cross, where the one man who should never have met God’s silence experienced the full brutality of sin so that we can always hear God’s voice!
Scripture References: Genesis 34:1-31, Psalms 56:1-13, Matthew 27:45-56
Related Topics: Genesis | More Messages from Bernard Gabbott | Download Audio
From Series: "Genesis"
More Messages from Bernard Gabbott...
God's Love for UsBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 26 June 20221 John 4:7-21 |
||
Christ and ConscienceBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 19 June 2022Colossians 3:1-11 |
||
Christ and CashBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 12 June 2022Matthew 6:19-34 |
||
Real ResurrectionBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 22 May 20221 Corinthians 15:1-28 |
||
Christ and CrownBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 1 May 2022Romans 13:1-7 |
||
Facts... and alternative factsBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 17 April 2022Matthew 27:57-66, Matthew 28:1-20 |
||
Whispers, rumours, edifices... don't be deceived!Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 10 April 2022Matthew 24:1-51 |
||
Where do you fit?Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 3 April 2022Matthew 22:34-46 |
||
The King and His mobBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 27 March 2022Matthew 21:23-46 |
||
The Arrival of the KingBernard Gabbott - Sunday, 20 March 2022Matthew 21:1-17 |
||