(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Well it's great to be here this morning and it's the first time I've ever been to this church but for a long time I can remember wanting there to be a church in Fresno and having a burden for this area and talking to a lot of people that wanted a church in this area and so it's great to see that dream having come true and this church is here and exists and I couldn't believe it when I heard that it's been around already for three years because time just flies because I feel like this church was just founded yesterday but God bless everyone for being here this morning. Now this morning I'm going to be preaching about Simeon the character Simeon in the Bible and he plays a prominent role in this story. I'm actually doing a series as many of you may know I'm on a road trip where I'm traveling to a whole bunch of different churches and on this trip each church I'm continuing the same series where I'm preaching through the sons of Jacob so I preached on Reuben when I was in Los Angeles a few days ago and then this morning I'm preaching on Simeon tonight I'm preaching on Levi and then at the next church I'm going to preach on Judah and I'm just going down the line of these 12 sons of Jacob that ultimately become the 12 tribes of Israel and there are a lot of really interesting things to be learned from these characters themselves as well as the tribes that sprang from them. Now Simeon is one that you probably aren't used to hearing a lot about you're probably wondering you know what's kind of the big thing about Simeon or you don't really hear much about the tribe of Simeon either you're probably pretty familiar with tribes like Judah Levi Ephraim and Manasseh those are kind of some of the bigger more important tribes later on Simeon is actually one of the least important tribes later on and part of that has to do with the sin that he commits in this chapter and it's because of this sin that God ends up cursing him in Genesis 49 he's gonna end up being a very small tribe he's gonna end up being scattered throughout Israel and it's gonna be one of the first tribes that sort of ceases to exist in a meaningful way okay and we'll get into that a little more as we go but let's start out with the setting of the story here Dinah verse number one of chapter 34 Dinah the daughter of Leah which she bear unto Jacob went out to see the daughters of the land you know this chapter starts out so innocently doesn't it it doesn't sound like she's trying to do anything wicked or bad or get involved in anything sinful she's not going out trying to find some dude to shack up with she's not trying to look for the boys of the land no it says that she went out to see the daughters of the land of course this is totally normal for a young lady to want to have friends and to want to socialize and to interact with people her own age but the problem is that they're living in a wicked area they're living in a sinful area and so the standards and the the morality that the Canaanites have is not the same as the standards and morality that God's people have that the Israelites are supposed to have right and so she goes out to see the daughters of the land it seems innocent and it says when she come the son of Hamor the high bite prince of the country saw her he took her and lay with her and defiled her and so she ends up getting involved with fornication with this young man she come and obviously that is a major sin in the Bible committing fornication in the Bible is crystal clear that we are supposed to remain pure until we are married we are not supposed to engage in that physical relationship outside of marriage that is supposed to be kept within marriage the Bible says marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and so within marriage is a beautiful blessed relationship and outside of marriage it becomes something sinful and wicked and defiling think about that word she was defiled what does that mean to be defiled to be made unclean to be devalued to be denigrated right and that's what happened to her by committing this act of fornication and let me say to you young people when you go out and commit fornication you're defiling yourself you're soiling yourself you're dirtying yourself you're cheapening yourself when you go out and commit that sin of fornication now in this scripture it says he took her and lay with her a lot of people have misinterpreted this and they've decided that this was not consensual that basically he abducted her or that he somehow forced her against her will and in fact if you get a lot of the modern Bible versions that's how they'll actually translate this they'll change it from just well he took her and lay with her and defiled her they'll say well he took her and lay with her and he forced her in some way that is not what the Bible says the King James Bible is the right translation in English it's the perfect word of God these modern versions are corruptions of God's Word do not trust them this is reason number 573 why you need to have a King James Bible is this story here is completely altered and changed in the new versions where they will say that she was forced to do this now we can just let the Bible define itself right here in this passage in order to see who's right you know who's right is the King James Bible right or are these modern verses right well who here reads Hebrew fluently this morning right yeah that's what I thought and so you know you're wondering like who do we trust right do we trust the King James or do we trust these modern versions well first of all I believe that the King James Bible is a perfectly accurate translation it has stood the test of time for over 400 years and God in his Providence knew that English is going to be the most important language in the world in the end times and we can see right now that no other language can even hold a candle to English for how important it is and God and his Providence and his wisdom worked out things historically to where scholars of a very high caliber to the tune of 54 expert scholars spent years and years and years taking what was already a good translation of the English Bible done by men like William Tyndale and later with the Bishops Bible and then spending six years just perfecting this thing and giving us the King James Bible that is a perfect English translation so thank God we don't have to know Greek or Hebrew in order to know what the truth is or to understand the Word of God we've got the King James Bible but there are a lot of people who want to come along and just make money by creating new versions or even worse they have evil motives maybe they don't even understand their motives but the devil is using them to produce corrupt Bibles that twist doctrine and make all kinds of terrible changes to the Word of God but I can just prove to you right now within the text of this chapter that it is the King James Bible that is correct and the modern versions that are wrong and you know look I do read quite a bit of Hebrew and I read this in Hebrew I looked it up and I can tell you the King James Bible is dead on it's right on in this passage but you don't even need to look at other languages because let's let the Bible define itself what is the sin here is the sin that this man forced her against her will this will make him a rapist which is which is something horrific okay or is it a sin of fornication where he enticed her he seduced her and he got her to participate in this just through his powers of persuasion he put the moves on her okay that's what actually happened in this story she went out to see the daughters of the land and she got sucked in by this guy and they both participated and committed this sin together well let's see what the Bible says well if we just go down a few verses to verse 7 it says the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it and the men were grieved and they were very Roth Roth means they were very angry because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter which thing on not to be done so why are they so mad are they angry because he's this violent person that abducted their daughter forced their daughter is that what the Bible says no the Bible says that they're angry because he lay with her that's why they're angry why because that thing ought not to be done in Israel what thing laying with their wife without or laying with this young lady without being married to her okay that's the thing so so here's the thing the problem these these modern so-called scholars and experts that think that they know more than the King James translators it's like they're not reading the whole story and getting the context even understand what's going on in the story because what are they horrified by they are grieved and angered by the fact that this guy lay with Dinah not anything about the fact that he attacked her forced her was violent with her or roughened her up in a way no the Bible says that it was because he lay with her and that ought not to be done why because that is supposed to be kept within marriage and that is not something that's supposed to happen outside of marriage that's not something that you just find some young lady you hang out with her a little bit and then boom you're in the sack no you get married and otherwise it's fornication so the chapter right there told us what they're mad about just the fact that he lay with her again showing that the King James has translated verse number two properly but not only that we could even go down further and look in the chapter and see that the Bible tells us that this young man Shechem was actually more honorable than the rest of his house and so if he's being called by the Bible an honorable young man does that sound like a rapist no now here's the thing he might be more honorable than the people around him he might be more honorable than all of those in his father's house he might be more honorable than other worldly sinful heathens but guess what by God standards obviously he's not honorable because he's committing fornication but he's one of the better guys amongst these worldly heathen people but the problem is that a lot of people in this world just think fornication is okay and so probably where he's coming from from his culture from him his mentality it wasn't a big deal what he did but from God's standard it is a big deal what he did but here's the thing forcing a woman against her will attacking a woman abducting a woman that's not going to be honorable in anybody's culture okay that's obviously super wicked and so again the modern versions make no sense and ruin the story by changing it into something completely different by the way they do the exact same thing in Deuteronomy chapter 22 and Deuteronomy chapter 22 and in fact let's flip over there quickly and just take a look at it in Deuteronomy 22 this is from the law of Moses in Deuteronomy talking about different punishments for various crimes and this kind of comes into play with what we're reading in in Genesis 34 so the Bible says in Genesis excuse me Deuteronomy 22 verse 23 so Deuteronomy 22 23 if a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband and a man find her in the city and lie with her then you shall bring them both out unto the gates of this that city and you shall stone them with stones that they die the damsel because she cried not being in the city and the man because he had humbled his neighbor's wife so thou shalt put away evil from among you so if this woman is betrothed to another man and she ends up being involved in this act of adultery then the Bible says that they are both to be put to death and if she tries to claim oh well I didn't want to do it he said well they were in the city why didn't she cry out you know and so it seems like she participated in this but verse 25 if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field and the man force her now notice that word the man force her so does the Bible know how to tell us when somebody's being forced when somebody's being forced the Bible tells us he forced her same thing we could go to the story about Amnon and Tamar in the book of 2nd Samuel and you know what it's gonna say he forced her the Bible knows how to tell us that okay but here it says he forced her and lie with her then the man only that lay with her shall die he'll die for doing that right the punishment for him forcing her is to be put to death okay and I do believe that even today rapists should be put to death that's a horrible crime and the Bible says but under the damsel thou shalt do nothing you know she's not guilty because she was forced so it says you should do nothing unto her there's no sin in the damsel or worthy of death for as when a man riseth against his neighbor and slayeth him even so is this matter he's saying look she is a victim just like a murder victim or anything else this is not her fault this was forced upon her and it's the same thing and it says he found her in the field and the betrothed damsel cried and there was none to save her now look at the Bible says in verse 28 if a man find a damsel that is a virgin which is not betrothed and lay hold on her and lie with her and they be found then the man that be then the man that lay with her shall given to the damsels father 50 shekels of silver and she shall be his wife because he had humbled her he may not put her away all his days and then so on so the point is that in this scripture we see that he lay hold on her and lie with her again if you get a modern Bible version here's what it'll say it'll change it to that he forced her even though that's not what it says it's a different word in Hebrew it's a different word in English this woman in the second scenario is not forced that's why it says he lay hold on her and lie with her and they be found even that they there is showing that they're both guilty here they both committed this sin they both committed fornication what's the punishment if a guy finds a woman lays hold on her lies lies with her and they be found and she's a virgin and he does this then the man that lay with her shall given to the damsels father 50 shekels of silver and she shall be his wife because he had humbled her he may not put her away all his days so what is the appropriate punishment it's not death because they you know she's not betrothed to someone else she's just a young single girl they commit this act of fornication the punishment is that he has to pay a fine he has to pay this huge fine 50 shekels of silver and then he has to marry the girl if she's willing to marry him because the scripture clarifies elsewhere that if that if she doesn't want to marry him or her dad doesn't want her to marry him then she doesn't have to marry him but that he basically has to marry her if she'll have him because he deflowered her and now her value has gone down because in the ancient world people actually cared about these things and so they wanted to marry a girl that was a virgin and so now that she's been deflowered in this way her value has gone down so he has to marry her if she'll have him but this is where you'll get atheists and I don't know how many of you had an atheist come at you and say well the Bible teaches that you know us to marry her rapist who's ever heard an atheist bring that out and make that claim about the Bible but here's the thing if you're reading the NIV one of these modern versions that's what it says in this verse because they're corrupting the Word of God but again that would make absolutely no sense would it to say oh yeah you know marry the guy who forced you and attacked you look he just compared a woman being forced like that to murder two verses up so he's not making light of the sin in the Word of God he compares it to murder and so he's not going to turn around and say oh yeah you're gonna marry this guy it's gonna be great you're gonna live happily ever after no that's garbage again the King James has it right and people say well you know it says he he lay hold on her and lay with her well what if I told you that it's impossible to lay with her without laying hold on her you know it's gonna be pretty hard to pull that off without taking hold of her okay so the word a hold that's what everybody says on their wedding day they say to have and to hold from this day forward does that mean like all right get ready to get attacked that's not what it's saying it's just holding is involved and so don't believe for one second that these modern versions are somehow more enlightened or or that the scholarship behind them is better look a lot of the guys who work on these modern versions I kid you not they can't even read Greek and Hebrew fluently let alone being experts that could translate it like the guys who gave us the King James but anyway I don't want to go off too far on that but I wanted to show you that scripture in Deuteronomy 22 because I want to make it clear to you that what has happened here in Genesis 34 is a consensual act you know young lady she's unstable she's not mature she's not old enough or smart enough or godly enough to really protect herself not from an attacker but from this suave dude who comes along and he puts the moves on her he entices her he seduces her he beguiles her and they end up committing fornication and as a result of that okay you know now what punishment would God think is appropriate you know God would say okay he has to pay a fine to the girl's family and he has to marry this girl that would be the appropriate punishment am I right according to what we read in Deuteronomy according to God's law would this young man or woman be put to death no they've committed an awful sin they've done something wicked but it's not a sin where they should die for it okay there's other punishment that should be meted out but not that okay so now let's see how the story plays out so we're in Genesis 34 there and he took her at the end of verse 2 he lay with her and defiled her because the act of fornication itself is defiling that's why they were angry that he lay with her it says in verse 3 and his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob and he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the damsel and she comes spake unto his father Hamor saying get me this damsel to wife and Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter now his sons were with his cattle in the field and Jacob held his peace until they were come so it's interesting Jacob doesn't really say much until his sons arrived he's waiting for his sons to get back he doesn't really say much until they get back probably because he knows how offended they are and so he wants to make sure that everybody is satisfied with whatever arrangement they come to so Jacob doesn't want to tell them okay yeah let's put this behind us and and you know they can get married and we'll you know we'll make an honest woman out of her he says okay I'm gonna wait until my sons get here so his sons get there and it says in verse 6 Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him and the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it and the men were grieved and they were very wroth because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter which thing ought not to be done and Hamor communed with them saying the soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter I pray you give her him to wife and make you marriages with us and give your daughters unto us and take our daughters unto you and you shall dwell with us and the land shall be before you dwell and trade ye therein and get you possessions therein and Shechem said unto her father and under her brethren let me find grace in your eyes and what ye shall say unto me I will give ask me never so much dowry and gift I will give according as ye shall say unto me but give me the damsel to wife and the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor father deceitfully so here's the thing again fornication is a huge sin but this guy is not a horrible person he's worldly he's unsaved he's not a Christian right he's a heathen guy but he's not a horrible person and so he actually wants to make things right okay and so he's coming and saying look I'll pay the money I'll marry the girl just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it but the sons of Jacob man they're not ready to forgive this guy they're not ready to make things right and move forward they are enraged and they're not going to accept this and so they end up answering him deceitfully and they said to him we cannot do this thing verse 14 to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised for that were a reproach unto us but in this will we consent unto you if you will be as we be that every male of you be circumcised then will we give our daughters unto you and we'll take your daughters to us and we will dwell with you and we will become one people but if you will not hearken unto us to be circumcised then we'll take our daughter and we will be gone and their words pleased Hamor and Shechem Hamor son and the young men deferred not to do the thing because he had delight in Jacob's daughter and watch this he was more honorable than all the house of his father so again this is not the worst person in the community and Hamor and Shechem his son came into the gate of their city and we already read this before the service but basically what they do is they convince everybody in the town they say look everybody needs to get circumcised all the dudes need to get circumcised now you might think this would have been a tough sell like dude why are we getting circumcised that you can marry this girl you want to marry that girl what do we get out of this you know why do we want to go through this surgery here and get circumcised come on but what they end up doing as a selling point is saying look these people are they're good people they're wealthy and they're peaceful and if we do this we're gonna have a lot of prosperity you know what I mean it's gonna be a big boost to the economy because we want these people to stay with us and kind of merge with us and become one people where we give our daughters to their sons we do vice versa and then we can kind of become one people and all of their wealth is going to be ours that's what they use as a selling point it says in verse 23 should not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours I mean look at the money that we're gonna get so the town ends up saying okay we'll do it you know you love the girl we want to make money let's do it so all of these guys get circumcised well it says in verse 25 it came to pass on the third day when they were sore so this is three days after the surgery of getting circumcised they're not feeling too great they're not in the best of condition they're convalescing they're suffering they're their body is healing from that cutting that took place on their body and so on the third day when they're sore two of the sons of Jacob Simeon and Levi and these are clearly the two that had orchestrated this whole thing when they told them get circumcised they didn't really have a concern about circumcision it's that they knew what they were they were pre meditating murders what they were doing Simeon and Levi were pre meditating this murder and so they wanted these guys to get circumcised so they'd be sitting ducks because look if you're gonna go in and fight against grown men you know it's better to do it three days after they just got circumcised they're kind of weak and vulnerable and so Simeon and Levi just two men they go in boldly with the sword and they catch these guys off guard when they're hurting and sore from getting circumcised and it says that the two of the sons of Jacob Simeon Levi Dinah's brethren took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males and they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister and then they take all the stuff they take all the goods and everything and then Jacob he's angry about this this was not Jacob's idea and the other brethren were not involved in this it's just Simeon and Levi that dreamed this up and it says in verse 30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi you've troubled me to make me distinct among the inhabitants of the land among the Canaanites and the Parisites and I being few in number they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me and I should be destroyed I in my house and look at the answer that Simeon and Levi give this is their answer dad tells them you guys are crazy what have you done this is horrible now people are gonna come after us seeking justice we're all gonna be doomed here's their answer they said well should he deal with our sisters with a harlot should he deal with our sisters again the third piece of evidence that we're not talking about someone who's being forced because harlots aren't getting forced are they no they're willingly offering themselves unto their customers and so again just everything in this chapter points toward this being a consensual act the new Bibles that change this are wrong okay and so it says here you know should he deal with our sister as with the harlot now that doesn't justify what they did but it is true that he did deal with her as a harlot because he is cheapening her defiling her he's not waiting until marriage but he's just using her outside of marriage and that is not acceptable in the eyes of God that is called whoredom a girl who does that is called playing the harlot in her father's house a man who does that is called a whoremonger now if you would go to Genesis 49 because we're gonna see what God's Word says about this situation because some people might read that story and say you know what I think Simeon Levi were right I think they were justified you know to take and to file their sister like that treat her like a harlot but hold on a second what they did was murder because not only did they murder Shechem not even Shechem deserved to be murdered nor did his dad deserve to be murdered but they murdered the whole town as far as the men of the town you know the village or whatever small group of guys but they murdered a bunch of dudes that dwelled in that community and so in Genesis 49 we can understand God's thought on this because Jacob is prophesying by the Spirit of God here and of course he condemns Reuben in the first few verses then we get to verse 5 it says Simeon and Levi are brethren instruments of cruelty are in their habitations oh my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honor be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man and in their self-will they dig down a wall they're not doing God's will here this was their own self-will their own rage their own fleshly appetite for revenge when the Bible says vengeance belongeth unto me I will repay and we should not take the sword into our own hands or take revenge ourselves and so Jacob is condemning this through the Spirit of God he says in verse 7 cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel so the punishment that is brought upon them the curse that comes upon them is that God said that he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in in Israel now what actually ends up happening to the tribes of Simeon and Levi in the long run well let's just briefly talk about Levi first Levi ends up becoming the tribe that ends up being the ones who serve in the house of God and they end up being the priestly tribe so the priests are like a subset of the Levi's right all the Levi's work in the house of God but it's only the family of Aaron that become the priests so it's a smaller group within the Levi's that are actually the priesthood but the Levi in general are a special tribe because they receive no inheritance in the promised land so all the other tribes of Israel they get an inheritance in the land flowing with milk and honey in the land of Canaan they all get inherits except for Levi does not get an inheritance they end up working in the house of God which is not always necessarily a glamorous job because again they're not all the priests a lot of them are just doing manual labor of taking down the tabernacle building the tabernacle cleaning and doorkeeping and just hauling stuff around and stuff so they basically end up working in the house of God and receiving no inheritance and serving the Lord in that way and so this caused them to be scattered throughout Israel whereas the other tribes have like a certain area where they're concentrated like this area is the tribe of Dan you know this area is is a car this area is Zebulun and they have like a separate zone the Levi's are scattered throughout the whole country so they're divided okay maybe part of the rationale behind this is well if they're divided then they can't really do as much damage as if they were all just united in one place and and if they inherited this from their ancestor Levi this rage or anger or revenge you know let's kind of divide them get them busy with church so that they don't you know kill anybody all right but anyway so the you know Levi ends up being scattered throughout Israel in that way what about the tribe of Simeon though because really this morning the sermon is specifically about Simeon right because I'm going through the the list talked about Reuben when I preached in LA now I'm preaching about Simeon you know what happened specifically to the tribe of Simeon well what happens with the tribe of Simeon is that when they leave Egypt and you have the book of Numbers and at the beginning of the book of Numbers the reason it's called Numbers is because it starts out where they count all the tribes and they count how many people are in each tribe and if you look at the book of Numbers at the beginning and they count the tribe of Simeon you know it has a normal amount for a tribe it's not like a crazy low number or anything but here's what's fascinating if you compare the beginning of the book of Numbers and you count up all the numbers and then you look at the end of the book of Numbers you'll see some tribes have grown a little bit in those 40 years in the wilderness some have grown some have gone down but nothing really too crazy you know they've gained some people they've lost some people whatever except there's one just kind of shocking change that takes place which is that the tribe of Simeon is just way smaller at the end of the book of Numbers way smaller and the only way to explain them having lost tens of thousands of people in that time is that they're killed because I mean for the population to drop by tens of thousands it is just completely brought down to a way smaller number by the end of numbers and I don't want to go into it too much in this sermon but part of the reason why is that and I don't have time to go into the story but in the book of Numbers there's a story called the matter of Baal Peor if you kind of remember that story it's pretty close to the Balaam story it's like chapter 25 in the book of Numbers and in that story there are 23,000 people killed in one day according to the New Testament there's 24,000 total that get killed you know probably the lion's share of that 24,000 that got killed in that story were probably almost all Simeonites and that kind of makes sense because the guy who started the whole thing the guy who takes the heathen woman into his tent in the side of all Israel the Bible tells us he was a Simeonite so the guy who actually was the most responsible for the Baal Peor debacle is actually a Simeonite so it makes sense that many of the people who are wiped out in that plague were also Simeonites that tribe seemed to have led in that sin and therefore they're just way smaller by the end of numbers then you get to Deuteronomy chapter 33 and in Deuteronomy chapter 33 Moses is blessing the 12 tribes sort of like in Genesis 49 Jacob is blessing his 12 sons but he actually says something negative about the first three and then he ends up getting into the blessings but when we get to Moses in Deuteronomy 33 Moses is actually really positive with everybody he actually doesn't bring up all the bad things like Jacob is doing here but Moses actually in Deuteronomy 33 just is blessing his sons he's blessing Reuben he's blessing Levi he's blessing Judah he's blessing Joseph and and and he's going through and Moses is blessing the tribes and the only tribe that he doesn't have a specific blessing for is Simeon so there's just like there's like 11 tribes that he's blessing and he literally just doesn't bless Simeon and it's kind of like why is he not blessing Simeon but remember Simeon just finished leading the charge on some super wicked things and being just completely just almost chopped in half of their population right just way less people so many people died that tribe is not doing well in Deuteronomy 33 they're not even getting a blessing Moses is just skips them for whatever the reason then when we get into the book of Joshua and we see them actually inheriting Len remember what God said he would do here in Genesis 49 he said I'm gonna scatter them I'm gonna divide them scatter them what ends up happening is everybody else gets their inheritance and their portion except Levi when it comes time to give Simeon an inheritance God says okay they're gonna get an inheritance within the tribe of Judah so they get like a little part where they're gonna live in Judah's inheritance so they don't get their own region they don't get their own inheritance they end up just becoming like people who live in Judah's inheritance they get a little area carved out like okay this is where you guys are gonna live and then as you actually study the Bible and move forward you know what you find is that that area kind of stops even being recognized and it's just it's all just Judah and it's all just Judea eventually and so they this tribe just kind of fades away and ends up not doing well and then you know why were they cursed because of this act of just premeditated murder on the part of Simeon this wickedness on the part of Simeon so what Simeon did here in Genesis 34 along with the help of his brother Levi it's not right in the sight of God and we might get this attitude and let me just in the in the closing part of the sermon here give you all the applications that we can learn from this story because there's a lot of great application in this story is that we're reading here in Genesis chapter 34 you know some of the things that we can see right away are that first of all Jacob doesn't seem to be leading his family very well in this particular passage or at the very least he makes some mistakes here okay and today's Father's Day so it makes sense to touch on this on Father's Day to say that he should not have allowed his daughter to go out on her own to see the daughters of the land right away I mean that's where everything went bad and again it's not that she's a bad girl it's not that she's trying to go out and flirt with a bunch of guys the Bible tells us why she went out there to see the daughters of the land but the problem is today that we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation and we need to not just be sending our daughters out into the world to just go see the dogs of the land just all right just go off to the public school system just go get that fast food job just go out to the mall with your friends and just be totally unsupervised and it just seems like she just went out on her own just Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land and what happened she gets enticed she gets begot I mean here's the thing if her brothers would have been with her this wouldn't have happened clearly they don't approve of this sort of thing so they wouldn't have just been like all right Dinah you know just go off with Shechem and have a good time they wouldn't have done that they would have said no way but the problem is she had no chaperone she had no escort she's just out by herself doing whatever and you young teenage girls you might think to yourselves like well I would never do anything like that I'm just trying to see the daughters of the land but here's the thing you know Dinah didn't set out to do that either she didn't go out there with the intent to do this but what happens is when you're young you're not necessarily experienced you're more susceptible to flattery and the seduction and these different things that some smooth operator could try to pull on you to try to get you involved in this sin and so we as fathers need to take our job seriously what mothers need to take their job protecting our youth because here's the thing an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure okay you know you can get all mad and rage and be Roth and want to kill somebody but at the end of the day guess what it's too late that's not gonna fix things for that you know the best thing that would have fixed things for Dinah after the damage was already done would be to have taken the guy's money and set it up to where she could marry this guy and then okay at least it's not ideal but at least she could be married to this guy and possibly they could win this guy to the Lord possibly they could live a normal life and it's a sin it's wrong but at least you could pick up the pieces move forward forgive and forget and try to do the best we can going forward am I right I mean that's what the Bible teaches so what the Bible said in Deuteronomy 22 is the right thing to do but here's what we need to understand is that once that defilement has taken place there's nothing you can do to undo it therefore the big brothers of this world and the parents of this world we need to watch out for the young ladies now while we can before it's too late you know you as a big brother you should watch your sister and and and look out for her not just like oh some guy slept with her well all right let me go ahead and just load my weapons and I'm gonna go murder someone now that's not the right response the smarter thing would be why don't you watch out for her before the damage is done parents need to watch their kids before the name is done and look teenage girls think they're invincible because so do teenage boys think they're invincible teenagers just thing nothing bad is gonna happen to them and it's smart and they can handle themselves and they're wise to this world but my friend teenagers are not necessarily all-knowing I know this comes as a shock to you okay but but we need to guide them and especially the girls need to be protected and they need to be watched and guarded because they're not old enough to just be thrown out there to the wolves at 14 15 16 17 years old and even just because they turn 18 doesn't mean oh you're 18 now magically now you are just out and doing whatever you want and there's no rules now we need to have rules and accountability at all ages okay you know we need to be in the family and and here's the thing you know I strongly believe that you should always be a member of a family because when you're a kid and you're growing up you're in a family with your parents right and then once you become an adult you leave father and mother as a young man and you leave to your wife and now you're in a family you know I went from living with my parents and guess who held me accountable my parents right I mean they didn't just let me do whatever I wanted so when I was growing up as a kid my parents held me accountable and then I went from living with my parents to getting married and guess what even though I'm the head of my home even though I'm the boss there's still an accountability there of being married that I'm not just living by myself doing whatever I want at least I have someone that I'm accountable to now she's not supervising me or something but at the same time though I know that I'm responsible for her and I'm responsible in a sense to her because we belong to each other and we're in this thing together and so I'm not just gonna go out and do whatever because I want to be a good husband to her and I'm accountable to her to do my end of this bargain called marriage you know she's gonna keep her under the bargain I'm gonna keep my end of the bargain and so we're holding each other accountable and today there are too many young people with just no accountability and we need to get back to having some family ties that matter and parents that look out for their daughters and older brothers that look out for their daughters and watch them and care you know if your parents send you out with with your younger sister and say all right you need to watch her you know don't just be like I don't want to hang around with her she's got cooties and see you sucka and just go out and just do whatever you know take take that job seriously if you're supposed to supervise your siblings right I mean if you're supposed to supervise your younger sister supervisor you know make sure that way later you're not sharpening knives and and and planning all these things it's better to just do it right from the beginning right we see dad here has made the mistake of allowing Diana to run wild amongst the Canaanites a heathen land guess what I hate to say it America is a heathen land I wish America were this kind of godly moral Christian atmosphere it'd be great if we could just let our daughters just go to the mall by themselves and just and just let them go off to school by themselves and just go off and work these restaurant jobs by themselves I mean that'd be great if we could just kind of just send our young teenagers out there in the world and just think oh it's a great atmosphere guess what that's not reality it's not the world we live in we're living in a wicked time we're living in a crooked and perverse generation and we need to watch our daughters so that they don't end up like a Dinah okay dad he's gonna wait until his sons come out of the field before he even makes a decision you know he's not exercising proper leadership he should have protected her in the first place and he shouldn't have just let his sons take over and be like all right guys you all need to get circumcised you know it's where are you at Jacob you know Jacob should be the one doing the talking making the rules and being the boss in the situation so those are a few applications that jump out right away in this passage but here's another important application we can take from this passage you know you might think to yourself that your sin isn't that bad and you might think like you know what fornication is not that big of a deal but here's what the Bible says the Bible says when lust is conceived it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death now is that what happened in this story now was it right for Simeon and Levi to murder Shechem and his dad and the other men of the town was that right absolutely not but did it happen let me explain some of you just because something isn't right doesn't mean it's not gonna happen hey I don't think it's right to be violent whatsoever I don't think it's ever right for us to be violent and assault anyone for any reason I do believe in self-defense I do believe in defending our family if somebody breaks into my house I'm gonna defend my family but I do not believe that it is ever right for me to go kick anybody's backside for any reason I mean it doesn't matter what they've done it's not right for me as a Christian to go you say well you're a pastor so no striker you know the rules that I live by as a pastor are the same rules for all Christians it's just that as a pastor we have to meet a certain standard but you know we're all in the same situation my friend God doesn't want any of us to be a brawler God doesn't want any of us to be a striker it's never right for us to go out and get violent with anyone for any reason you know I was talking to somebody the other day and they were talking about how bad things are in our country and how bad the persecution is and and and and you know this person kind of mentioned like you know at what point do you actually get physical or get violent I said never you never do because we wrestle not against flesh and blood we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places the weapons of our warfare are not carnal they're spiritual I am not to assault anyone or shoot anyone or attack anyone physically for any reason okay only defending myself for my family or defending someone else but not to go out and start carrying out punishments and vigilante justice and you know hey at times things happen and those kind of thoughts might appeal to us and we might daydream and indulge in those kind of fantasies but let me tell you something it isn't right okay and it might seem macho or yeah you know we're gonna go out but but what does the Bible say what does the Bible teaches in this story okay it's wrong but that being said just because it's wrong to get violent just because it's wrong to go out and hurt people guess what people get violent and people hurt people so therefore you go out and commit fornication with somebody's daughter they might kick your butt they might shoot you they might murder you they might you know you go out and commit adultery with another man's wife or something you know not to mention how wicked it is in the sight of God but guess what people do get violent whether whether it's right or wrong they're going to in many cases and so you could literally die from committing a wicked sin in the sight of God God could literally allow you to be killed for that even though it's not a death penalty thing as far as the government's concern like I said the punishment for fornication is not the death penalty now the punishment for adultery is the death penalty the punishment for forcing a woman is the death penalty but when it comes to just fornication it's not the death penalty is it but yet what happened in numbers 25 23,000 were killed in one day because of fornication the Bible says in first Corinthians said let us not commit fornication as some of them committed fornication and there fell 23,000 in one day that's not the death penalty that's just death because guess what you could go out there and commit fornication and get an STD and die that doesn't mean you got the death penalty but you died though and so what we need to understand is that sin can sometimes bring a more severe punishment than we expect and especially if you start getting this attitude that says well this is not a big deal and so what's the big deal I'm gonna go out and do it anyway you know God might just look at that attitude and say well you know what here's a car crash for you here's an STD for you here's an angry you know psycho relative for you to come after you here's some Simeon and Levi and let me tell you something there's no new thing under the Sun you think this Simeon and Levi the only guys who ever existed that were like this there are some other crazy dudes out there there are some Simeon and Levi's in this world and these guys aren't the only violent people and people get killed every day through violence and so you might mess with the wrong person someday and the point is that we ought not sit there and say well fornication is not a big deal you know it's not the death penalty you know just cuz some doesn't bring the death penalty doesn't mean it's not a serious sin you know stealing is a serious sin you know is it is it a death penalty thing no but stealing is a big deal okay adultery is a huge deal murders a huge deal fornication is a huge deal we need to follow God's commandments and serve the Lord with fear and trembling and not make light of these things because when lust has conceived it brings forth sin and when sin when it is finished it brings forth death and and this is one of many examples where sin brings forth death in the Bible and so that's another example that we can get from this is that first of all number one we need to supervise our daughters supervise our younger sisters look out for them protect you know the Bible says that the wife is the weaker vessel you know we need to look out for the girls the young ladies they're susceptible to these type of seductions and and so we just need to look out for them and this isn't to say that you know we don't want our young people to get out and have a good time but there needs to be supervision there needs they ought not be just going out alone just Dinah is just alone with the daughters line they need to be with other people watching them adults supervising and so forth and then we see that she is messing around with actually the more honorable guy of worldly dudes am I right I mean as far as worldly dudes go did she pick the worst one in fact she's hanging around with the best one am I right the Bible says don't throw the NIV in the trash my friend the King James Bible says this guy's more honorable than all of his father's house this is an honorable young man by their standards by the world standards so she's not hanging around with the most sinful wicked worldly dude that there is but you know what it's a worldly dude and so let me tell you this you start hanging around with unsaved guys and and start thinking about dating an unsaved guy oh but he's a really good guy he's a really nice guy guess what he's still gonna lay with you before marrying you okay you know and so another lesson we can learn is that you know no matter how good of a worldly guy he's still a worldly guy no matter how nice of a guy he's not a Christian he's not gonna have the same standards he's not gonna have the same morality he's not gonna have the same beliefs and of course today also there could even be guys that are Christians that would also go by the world standards and so you know we don't want to just think oh well if it's a Christian guy here go off by yourself and and and no supervision and so forth you know we still need to be on our guard but especially in the midst of a heathen world that doesn't even think that this is even a sin that doesn't even think it's wrong that doesn't even think it's a big deal because today our culture is going that way where it's becoming more and more normal for people to live together even and they're not married but God's Word doesn't change and it's still for an occasion it's still wrong it's still a sin and we need to judge our own lives and actions by the Word of God not by what the people around us think is okay and accept and so one mistake like this can just lead to a chain of events and I guarantee you that Dinah is walking out of Shechem's house her boyfriend's dead dad's dead the town there's blood every I mean can you imagine the carnage of just you know I mean how many people did they kill we don't know do they kill 10 people 12 people I mean they killed a bunch of maybe 15 guys or something I mean they murdered like a bunch of people and can you imagine what's going through Dinah's mind walking out of that town she just saw Shechem get killed she just saw his dad get killed she sees all the bodies she sees the carnage maybe she even got a little blood on her when the sword went into her boyfriend okay how do you think she felt at that moment I mean her life is pretty much ruined and and you know she's probably thinking what have I done like what did I do what in the world this is not what I wanted this is not what I thought was gonna happen well guess what kids what you think is gonna happen is not always what happens and we have to understand that life is hard enough when you're in the will of God life can go a little sideways sometimes even within the will of God when you get outside of the will of God it's a jungle out there and you don't know what's gonna happen you know if you're smart you stay with the Lord you stay in church you read your Bible you pray you follow the commandments of God and then you've got God directing your paths and you know what that gives you a lot more peace of mind like hey even when things get hairy I know that the Lord is directing my paths that's comforting that's reassuring but man when you're out there committing fornication all bets are off as far as God guiding and directing your life the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord you're going out and getting drunk and partying and sleeping around and then it's like well my steps are being ordered by the Lord nope you're on your own buddy and that's a scary place to be in this world I don't ever want to be on my own in this world and it's a prideful attitude oh I can I can fend for myself out there not me not me there's too many scary things in this world too many things getting on the highway is scary okay dating is scary you know going out and and working a lot of jobs can be scary a lot of jobs can get you hey I want to go out every day whether I'm getting in my car dealing with people whatever you know I want to go out every single day and I want to know like God's looking out for me God's protecting me not just get out of the will of God because because look you know you don't want to end up like Adina and all the carnage that goes with it let's borrow and have water