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
Present Kingdom | Neil Hunt | Sunday, 23 February 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Prophesied Kingdom | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 16 February 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Men's Breakfast - Weeds | Andrew Cameron | Saturday, 15 February 2020 | Listen | ||
Partial Kingdom - Part 2 | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 9 February 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Partial Kingdom - Part 1 | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 2 February 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Promised Kingdom | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 26 January 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Perished Kingdom | Neil Hunt | Sunday, 19 January 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Pattern of the Kingdom | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 12 January 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
God's Big Picture | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 5 January 2020 | Watch | Listen | |
Where does my help come from? | Bernard Gabbott | Sunday, 29 December 2019 | Watch | Listen |