1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,760 I want to apologize just up front. 2 00:00:02,760 --> 00:00:05,960 This is one of those I I normally a week or so before 3 00:00:06,760 --> 00:00:09,520 preaching a sermon on an adult theme, I all announce that it's 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,760 going to be APG 13 Sunday. This is APG 13 sermon today and 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:15,400 I did not announce that last week. 6 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,040 Nothing graphic, but clearly from the reading that Brent just 7 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:24,520 read adult themes going on here in this story this Sunday and 8 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,760 then two Sundays from now, not next Sunday, next Sunday is on 9 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,960 Joseph and in one of his dreams. But the two Sundays after that 10 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:34,160 and then for a couple Sundays, we're going to look at the story 11 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:37,000 of Tamar as well. And some of those are going to 12 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,240 be PG13 sermons as well. So just a heads up, Dinah and 13 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,600 Tamar are, are two people that I don't think I have ever heard 14 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:49,360 preached about in a Sunday morning sermon. 15 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:53,240 And, and as we've, you've read the passage today and when we 16 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,080 get to Tamar, I'm sure you'll, you'll realize when we're there 17 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,720 as well, if you don't know that story already, that there's a 18 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,080 reason why these passages don't get preached on. 19 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:03,040 These are very difficult subjects. 20 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,560 They, they are not child friendly subjects, but there are 21 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,680 very important subjects. And these two women, Dinah and 22 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:17,280 Tamar, have their names highlighted and emphasized in 23 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,720 the Scripture, and I think it's important for us to attend to 24 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:27,040 their stories. Dinah Tamar is mentioned along 25 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,920 with a few other women, as part of the lineage of Jesus. 26 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,040 When we get into the Gospels, particularly in the Gospel of 27 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,720 Matthew, Dinah is not. We don't hear much about Dinah 28 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,240 after this. We don't hear about her 29 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:41,480 children. We don't hear about her 30 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:43,200 descendants. She's not mentioned as an 31 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,800 ancestor of of Jesus in the lineages that come. 32 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:54,400 And, and I think that does not mean that Dinah's insignificant. 33 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:58,680 I think what that means is, is that this story is here because 34 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:05,000 Dinah as a person herself, who she was, not based on who she 35 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,360 was married to, not based on what children she had, not based 36 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:12,400 on what her descendants did, but Dinah herself and this 37 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:16,840 experience are important and meaningful and worthy of our 38 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,160 attention. And so that's how we're going to 39 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:24,080 treat this and we're going to deal with this, how the people 40 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:31,520 around Dinah responded to what was done to Dinah is the, the, 41 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:37,800 the, the rest of the chapter that that Brent read. 42 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,040 And we don't have time to read the whole chapter, but I'm going 43 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,960 to give you that story as, as we go along here. 44 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:47,960 But Dinah as, as the passage mentioned, well, again, we're 45 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,040 getting into the details of it. This, this the theme for the day 46 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,320 is the struggle for justice. How do we, when we're in a 47 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,520 system which is stacked against us, that is to say, when we're 48 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,680 not the powerful people in a particular system, how can we 49 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:09,120 pursue justice when justice desperately needs to be pursued? 50 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:14,680 What can we do when our options are limited, when our power is 51 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,000 limited? And this is the situation that 52 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,720 Dinah found herself in and Dinah's family found themselves 53 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:22,720 in. And so we're going to talk, I'm 54 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,240 going to give you a little bit more about Dinah's story and, 55 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:28,880 and, and the struggle for justice in the broken world in 56 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,960 which they lived at the time, the ancient Middle East. 57 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:37,080 And Jacob, Dinah, Jacob's daughter, as far as we know, 58 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:44,600 Jacob's oldest daughter, born to Leah and, and, and, and so Dinah 59 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,200 and her family, along with Jacob, They are strangers in a 60 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,000 strange land. Jacob is wealthy. 61 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,440 We already know that God has made him wealthy. 62 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:56,680 Jacob has a household. Jacob has lots of flocks. 63 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,480 His his wealth is a mobile wealth. 64 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:04,280 Jacob owns no real estate, except if you want to count his, 65 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:08,480 his family owns a plot of ground in which his grandparents are 66 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,640 buried. They own a small graveyard, is 67 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,760 the only land that they own and say they are visitors in this 68 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,839 land of Canaan. And they are near the city of 69 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:23,000 Shechem. And you'll notice that the city 70 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,080 named Shechem is named after the man who raped Dinah. 71 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,440 Shechem is a known city. Archaeologists have excavated 72 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,640 that city. It was a large city, a fortified 73 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:40,680 city in the day, and it was named for the person who raped 74 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,720 Dinah. Shechem was a person of power 75 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,880 and influence. Shechem's father had even more 76 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,600 power and influence in that region. 77 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,720 They had military power, they had economic power. 78 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:57,800 They had the power of real estate, the power of ruling a 79 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:00,280 large and fortified city in the region. 80 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:08,040 And so when Shechem raped Dinah, there was very little that Jacob 81 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,760 and Dinah's brothers could do. Jacob, Dinah's father, and 82 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:13,880 Dinah's brothers and Dinah could do. 83 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:18,920 They could hardly go and demand justice from Hamar. 84 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:22,600 Justice. And again, it's weird. 85 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:24,960 The Bible is weird on this subject of rape, and I don't 86 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,640 think it does any good to try to pretend that it isn't weird. 87 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,600 There are some places in the Scripture where it suggests that 88 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,200 when someone rate when a man rapes a woman, the man should be 89 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,520 stoned to death. There are other places in the 90 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:43,080 scripture very close to that place, the same chapter in fact, 91 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:46,640 that suggests when a man rapes a woman, the punishment is that 92 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:48,400 the man then has to marry the woman. 93 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:50,400 The woman has to marry her rapist. 94 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:57,000 The the culture was different, the ethics were different, and 95 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,800 certainly not different in a good way in terms of favoring 96 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,760 women. I cannot imagine what it would 97 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:08,320 have been like to be Dinah in a situation where she's gone out 98 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,160 to build relationships, to establish connections with the 99 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,400 local women of the area, and instead find herself being 100 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,280 raped. And then to have a rapist ask 101 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:20,560 her father for her hand in marriage and her father consent 102 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:28,920 to it, which is what Jacob did. The struggle for justice 103 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:33,600 happened does not happen in a vacuum, and it seldom happens in 104 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,120 a perfect world. The struggle for justice happens 105 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:42,080 in an imperfect world. And what do we do in an 106 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:46,120 imperfect world? When a grave wrong has been done 107 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:51,480 and we have little or no power to pursue true justice, What do 108 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,800 we do? What do we do? 109 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,800 And this is not a, an abstract question. 110 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:02,040 This is not an ivory tower philosophical question. 111 00:07:02,280 --> 00:07:06,960 This is the real world situation of most people in this real 112 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,680 world. I, I think of the women in Iran 113 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:17,120 for the last 47 years who who have been at times brutalized. 114 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:21,360 There was a few years back there were documented cases of women 115 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:25,760 because they showed too much hair, had acid thrown in their 116 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,160 faces and were permanently disfigured. 117 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,560 Women arrested and brutalized for for for not wearing the 118 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:38,840 hijab, for showing too much skin, too much hair. 119 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:45,160 We don't know for sure, but some reports indicate that in January 120 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:49,840 10s of thousands of people, including women were murdered by 121 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:57,200 the current government in Iran. What do you do when to stand up 122 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:01,640 and protest and call and demand for justice could very well mean 123 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,960 your imprisonment, your death, you're being brutalized. 124 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:09,040 What do you do? How do we pursue justice in a 125 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,480 broken world? Jacob took one route. 126 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:19,320 Jacob chose appeasement and accommodation for the sake of 127 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,520 familial protection and prosperity. 128 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:26,880 We don't get any interior dialogue from Jacob on. 129 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:29,320 We get, well, a tiny little bit toward the end. 130 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:31,640 Dinah's brothers chose a different route. 131 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:33,000 We'll talk about that in a minute. 132 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,360 And the route that they chose, what the, the, the insight we 133 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,360 get, the clear insight that we get into Jacob's interior 134 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:44,039 dialogue when, when Dinah's brothers chose violence and 135 00:08:44,039 --> 00:08:47,920 vengeance was for Jacob to say, you have put us in a very 136 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:52,960 dangerous position. We are strangers here and we are 137 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,080 surrounded by people who are now our enemies because of you. 138 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,400 And I think it's reasonable to infer from that that Jacob's 139 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:05,120 primary concern was the protection of his entire family. 140 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:13,440 What can I do to make sure that my family, that our guests, that 141 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:17,800 our, our, our visitors don't get overwhelmed and destroyed by our 142 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:22,200 more powerful neighbors, the people whose land and whose 143 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,520 grace we depend on for our survival? 144 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:33,040 And so Jacob chose appeasement. Shechem asked to marry Dinah, 145 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:40,160 and Jacob said yes. Build an economic tie between 146 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:42,800 his family and the most powerful family in the area. 147 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:48,440 It builds political ties. It builds ties and obligations. 148 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,200 The family Family ties were incredibly important and 149 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:56,040 significant that to to become allied and joined with a family 150 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:58,760 of that level of power and significance would have would 151 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:03,120 have offered a great deal of protection and security for 152 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:09,840 Jacob and his family. And Jacob, in a broken world 153 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,800 with limited options, shows familial protections and 154 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:19,640 prosperity at what must have been the expense of the mental, 155 00:10:19,640 --> 00:10:23,000 emotional and physical safety of his daughter. 156 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:30,840 I don't. It's easy to throw stones when 157 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:33,320 you're not in the position of making the decisions, right? 158 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:38,480 I would like to smack Jacob upside the head and say I would 159 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:40,160 never put my daughter through that. 160 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:43,320 I've never been in Jacob's position. 161 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,040 I don't know what it means to have to choose the safety of one 162 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,800 child over the safety of your entire family. 163 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:53,760 I don't know. I've never been there. 164 00:10:54,680 --> 00:10:58,000 I like to think I know what I would do in that situation. 165 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:03,960 But that's the situation Jacob was in, and that's the route he 166 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:08,240 chose, the path to justice that he saw. 167 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:12,120 And that broken world was what can I do? 168 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:16,520 How can I take a horrible situation and turn it into a net 169 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:22,560 positive for my family? And that was appeasement and 170 00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:26,520 accommodation. Jacob's brother, Jacob's sons, 171 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:28,680 Diana's brothers, chose a different route. 172 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:37,280 They agreed on the surface for their sister to marry Shechem. 173 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:42,400 But they said Shechem culturally, religiously, for us, 174 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:44,600 for our families to be joined together, if you're going to 175 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:47,800 marry our our sister, you have to be circumcised. 176 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,920 And in fact, our our whole clan, our whole how we can intermarry 177 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,920 with folks from your city if all the men of your city get 178 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:58,440 circumcised. And Shechem agreed to this. 179 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:01,360 It's like, OK, I mean, that's that'll hurt. 180 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,120 That'll be painful, won't be a pleasant experience. 181 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:08,200 But he, too, apparently saw benefits to be gained from 182 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:12,880 uniting with the family of very of a very wealthy nomad in the 183 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,560 area. And so all of the men were 184 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:19,000 circumcised in the city of Shechem on one day. 185 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:25,560 And two or three days later, when they were still in great 186 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:32,200 pain, Dinah's brothers killed him, every single one of them, 187 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:40,120 and took their wives and their daughters as hostages into their 188 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:45,880 own camp. Simon and Levi were the two 189 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,720 brothers that were named, but Jacob, the other brothers were 190 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:50,040 indicated. Those were the two that were 191 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:56,200 named chose violent retribution for the sake of revenge as their 192 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:01,880 path to justice. We'll give you justice for what 193 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:05,640 you've done to our sister. We will kill you and we will 194 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:11,280 kill every male in your city. And we will take your women and 195 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:14,440 your children. Not exactly a net gain for the 196 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:23,280 women of the area. Again, Full disclosure, part of 197 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:30,240 me says yeah, my daughter, my wife, yeah, that sounds about 198 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:37,880 right. But is it really right to kill 199 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:41,640 every male in the city for the wrong committed, even an 200 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:43,880 egregious wrong committed by one man? 201 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:50,720 Is it right to take other women and make them your property 202 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:53,720 because of what one man did to your sister? 203 00:13:53,720 --> 00:14:00,520 To your daughter, again, I'm not in that situation. 204 00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:06,440 Simeon and Levi and Dinah's brothers, they looked at the 205 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:08,600 situation and they said we don't have the power. 206 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,440 There's no way the ruler of this city is going to give the death 207 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:18,440 penalty to his son for something that his son and he don't even 208 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:22,640 think was wrong. There's no, there's no legal 209 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:28,440 path to justice. So we will pursue revenge and we 210 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:31,880 will punish them and with overwhelming force. 211 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,600 We will say don't ever mess with us and our family again. 212 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,920 Not surprisingly, Jacob said you have put us in a very dangerous 213 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,640 position. We are now surrounded by enemies 214 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:50,560 rather than friends. And their response was, should 215 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:55,400 we let him get away with it? These are hard questions. 216 00:14:56,160 --> 00:15:00,560 The struggle for justice in a broken world is a very, very 217 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:04,800 difficult struggle. It's a very difficult thing to 218 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:11,000 pursue when the powers that are out there don't help you pursue 219 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:14,160 it. Our country is not perfect. the 220 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:16,000 United States of America is not perfect. 221 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,800 I don't know anyone who thinks that we're perfect, but our 222 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,400 system of justice and our system of justice is not perfect 223 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,040 either. But it's so much better than 224 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,920 this. It's so much better than this. 225 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,920 We got a long way to go to the Kingdom of God, but it's so much 226 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:39,880 better than this. Even in our system, there are 227 00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:42,280 people that feel like they can't get justice here. 228 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:49,280 Does a preacher tell the story years ago of having been in 229 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:56,360 Chicago and there was a situation where, and again, this 230 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:01,960 was decades ago where tenants were suing slumlords because of 231 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,360 the lead based paint in the apartment buildings and the 232 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:08,480 slums that they lived in. Their children would chew a 233 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,400 window sill or get a flake of paint off and put it in their 234 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:13,800 mouth. And, and, and apparently the 235 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,960 transformation is very quick when a child consumes lead. 236 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:22,600 You can almost watch it happen on their faces, the damage it 237 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:27,040 does to their brains. And the tenants were suing their 238 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:30,400 landlords. And a pastor in the area went to 239 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,640 court on the day when some of the decisions were being made. 240 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:40,400 And he was sitting in the courtroom as the judge dismissed 241 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:45,240 or found in favor of the landlords in case after case 242 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:52,680 after case. Pastor at one point stood up and 243 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:56,720 said, your honor, is there no justice in this courtroom? 244 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:00,080 And he said the judge's reply was this. 245 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,760 This is not a Court of Justice. This is a court of law. 246 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:05,880 If you want justice, change the law. 247 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,960 Great jurisprudential philosophy that did nothing to help the 248 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:22,920 tenants whose children's lives were so horribly damaged by the 249 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:26,520 neglect of the slumlords and the indifference of the slumlords. 250 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:31,640 As good as our system is, we have a very different justice 251 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,200 system for people who are wealthy and people who are in 252 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:36,520 poverty. Very, very different. 253 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,440 I heard another attorney, someone who graduated from a 254 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:45,800 prestigious law school that top of their class, I don't know 255 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,760 what Harvard, Yale, it was one of the Ivy Leagues and he was a, 256 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,040 a, a black man from the South. And this again, this was decades 257 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,640 ago. And he was offered positions at 258 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,920 several major law firms and he turned them all down and he went 259 00:17:59,920 --> 00:18:02,560 back to his home city to be a public defender. 260 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:10,000 And when someone asked him why, he said because we don't execute 261 00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:13,920 criminals in our country, we execute poor people. 262 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:19,080 My initial reaction to that was all well dominated. 263 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:24,520 They wouldn't but go back and check and see how many wealthy 264 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:28,160 people have received the death penalty in our country. 265 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,120 We have very different systems of justice for the poor and for 266 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:39,240 the wealthy, very different. This struggle for justice is a 267 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:42,280 real thing, and it's an important thing. 268 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:46,680 One of the things that we have and that we hold onto as 269 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,120 followers of Jesus is the promise that one day Jesus will 270 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:54,160 bring true justice. Aubrey read that passage already 271 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:55,560 this morning. I'm going to read it again 272 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,640 because it's it's important. And I want to highlight this. 273 00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:03,960 This is a prophecy from Isaiah that that was very quickly 274 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:08,200 seized upon by the church in the early days of after Jesus 275 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:10,480 resurrection to say this prophecy. 276 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:14,120 Isaiah was talking about Jesus. Isaiah was talking about Jesus 277 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:17,200 the Messiah here when he said, here is my servant whom I'm 278 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,120 uphold, my chosen one and whom I delight. 279 00:19:20,360 --> 00:19:23,680 I will put my spirit on him, and He will bring justice to the 280 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,360 nations. He will not shout or cry out or 281 00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:29,880 raise his voice in the streets. A bruised Reed He will not break 282 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:31,080 in. A smoldering Wick. 283 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,920 Wrong button, a smoldering Wick He will not snuff out and 284 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,280 faithfulness. He will bring forth justice. 285 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:41,320 He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes 286 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:46,200 justice on earth. Three times in 4 verses we're 287 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,200 told that God's Messiah will establish justice on earth. 288 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:54,920 This is the promise that in the Kingdom of God, true justice 289 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:59,920 will be there and that Jesus will bring that justice, and not 290 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,680 by violent revolution. You know how ultimately Jesus 291 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,920 works this all out? We don't know. 292 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,360 But if he's not, he's not even shouting in the streets, but 293 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:13,440 he's bringing justice. This is the promise that we 294 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:15,680 have. This is the hope that we have, 295 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:20,160 that one day there will be true and equal justice for all, for 296 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,400 rich, for poor. No matter the color of your 297 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,840 skin, the language you speak, the part of the world you're 298 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:33,000 from, you will receive justice. That there will be a reversal 299 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:37,360 when those in power finally find themselves to be without, and 300 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:39,840 those without power find themselves to be blessed and 301 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:44,000 favored. That day has not arrived yet. 302 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:48,840 Jesus's life, death, and resurrection inaugurated that 303 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,720 Kingdom, but that Kingdom has not been fully and completely 304 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:56,000 established. And what are we to do in the 305 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,080 meantime? How are we to live and respond 306 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:04,360 and and seek justice and support those seeking justice in the 307 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:06,400 meantime? There are lots of voices ready 308 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:07,840 to answer that question right now. 309 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,240 Some of those voices calling for violent revolutions, some of 310 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,160 those voices calling for they're on sofa. 311 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:18,520 You know, a lot of different people have a lot of different 312 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:22,040 pathways to true justice. Most of the voices that I hear 313 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:24,640 in this world calling for justice, their pathway to 314 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,480 justice involves killing a lot of people. 315 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:38,560 A lot of people. Stalin, Hitler and Mao all 316 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:43,120 promised justice and killed a lot of people. 317 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,200 Western nations have promised justice and killed a lot of 318 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,840 people too. How do we get there? 319 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:54,640 I don't know. I don't. 320 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:58,200 I don't have that answer. I don't know why God would give 321 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:02,920 it to me anyway. Why would he tell us that? 322 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:09,360 What can we do about it? What we can do, again, in the 323 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,200 absence of a strategy to bring about true justice on the earth 324 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,360 as a whole, what tactics can we live by? 325 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,560 What things can we do to enable justice and to weaken injustice 326 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,520 where we find it? That's just what I want to walk 327 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,360 through today. How can we pursue justice when a 328 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:32,560 system is stacked against US? One of the things we have to do 329 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:35,520 is recognize the importance of justice, that it really does 330 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:40,120 matter. Too often in in some branches of 331 00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:41,800 the Christian Church, particularly in the West, 332 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,520 justice has been Pooh poohed and dismissed as as some sort of, 333 00:22:45,560 --> 00:22:50,920 you know, fringe left wing political, you know, the social 334 00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:55,440 justice gospel as not really true Christianity. 335 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:02,040 Three times and four verses about the Messiah, we're told 336 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,640 how important that justice is. The central thing. 337 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,920 Jesus, when when he launches his career with his first sermon in 338 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,800 his hometown of Nazareth, launches his public ministry 339 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:16,800 there. Jesus quotes from passages that 340 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,480 talk about the Messiah bringing justice. 341 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,360 Doesn't use the word but, but it's all of the language, the 342 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:26,160 justice language of the poor and the oppressed and the imprisoned 343 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:32,960 being set free and lifted up. Justice is of central importance 344 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:37,760 to God. Simply saving people's souls for 345 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:41,200 pie in the sky when we die has never been the mission of the 346 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:45,080 Church. But helping improve people's 347 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,120 lives and circumstances in this world as we wait for Jesus to 348 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:52,240 return is at the heart of the mission of the Church. 349 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:57,000 In addition to sharing the good news that saves our souls, 350 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:04,400 seeking justice is what Jesus said He came to do to set the 351 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:09,240 captive free free to set the oppressed free, to be bring good 352 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,480 news to the poor, to give sight to the blind and strength to the 353 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,320 lame. All of this is the language of 354 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:20,080 justice that we hear throughout the Old Testament over and over 355 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:23,000 and over and over again in the New Testament or in the Old 356 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,760 Testament. In the New Testament we hear of 357 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,720 God's call for and desire for justice. 358 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,680 Read through the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 359 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,960 Daniel, and and the others and hear over and over again God's 360 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:39,720 call for justice from his people. 361 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:44,040 Justice for the poor, justice for the weak, justice for the 362 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,640 oppressed. If we don't recognize that this 363 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:50,680 is a a central thing for God and not some some sort of side 364 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:55,040 fringe issue, we will never make a meaningful impact on justice 365 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,280 in people's lives around us. We have to realize this is 366 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:01,520 important to God and so needs to be important to us. 367 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,200 Then we need to prioritize the care, healing and restoration of 368 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,920 those who have been wronged and those who are most vulnerable to 369 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:15,000 injustice. That that we we put our focus on 370 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,200 the same folks that Jesus put his focus on the poor, those 371 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:23,640 imprisoned, those suffering, those who are vulnerable, the 372 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,320 orphans, the widows, the foreigners, the strangers, the 373 00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:32,680 most vulnerable people among us. One of the tragic things about 374 00:25:32,680 --> 00:25:37,440 Genesis chapter 34 is that we never hear from Dinah. 375 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:45,160 We never hear Dinah's voice. Jacob doesn't ask her. 376 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:52,000 Her brothers don't ask her. They speak for her, they stand 377 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:58,440 in their minds for her, for their family, but we never hear 378 00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,960 from Dinah. What did Dyna see as a just 379 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:05,080 response to this? I wish we knew. 380 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,120 We don't. And I think that's part of the 381 00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:13,440 story and an important part of the story as well. 382 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:20,000 And that, that, that, that the absence of that question being 383 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:27,400 asked, Dinah, what do you want? Dinah, how can we best respond 384 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:32,880 on your behalf? Speaks volumes about the 385 00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:37,080 brokenness of the world at that time and this time, and speaks 386 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,880 volumes about the struggle for justice in such a broken world. 387 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:50,400 A world so broken that a young woman being raped has no say in 388 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:59,000 how to respond to her rapist, to give priority to those voices, 389 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:04,880 to listen to those voices. There is a, a version of 390 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:09,520 Christianity which says that God favors the poor, that God is on 391 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:11,440 the side of the poor against the rich. 392 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,360 I think that can be overstated. There's scriptures that support 393 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,120 that and there's a, there are theological streams that are out 394 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:21,480 there that, that dive deep into that. 395 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:25,280 I think that can be overstated. I, I don't think God wants 396 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,160 anyone to suffer or to be punished. 397 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:34,000 And, and while I could not say in any absolute sense that God 398 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:39,800 is always on the side of the poor against the rich, I can say 399 00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,840 that the testimony of Scripture is very clear that as we are 400 00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:46,880 seeking and pursuing justice, that we have to listen to and 401 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,560 prioritize the needs of those who are most vulnerable. 402 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,040 Whether that's economic vulnerability, vulnerability 403 00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,960 based on their gender, their, their nationality, their 404 00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:01,000 language, whatever, whatever that vault, whatever the source 405 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:08,640 of that vulnerability is. To guard those who are 406 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,200 vulnerable. To prioritize their care, their 407 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,760 healing, and their restoration. To beware of both vengeance and 408 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:22,240 self-serving accommodation. Beware of those tendencies the 409 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:26,040 the those can crop up in in in very easy ways for people who 410 00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:29,200 are particularly those who who are not directly affected. 411 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:31,920 They're observers to the injustice. 412 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:38,480 Or maybe they are directly affected, but but that that 413 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,640 desire for for appeasement, self-serving accommodation. 414 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:47,280 It won't make the world just. But how can I profit from this? 415 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:52,320 It won't make the world a better place, but how can I get, you 416 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,560 know, myself in a better place from this? 417 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,160 Sometimes there may be there's a place for that. 418 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,440 The entire system of non disclosure agreements and court 419 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,200 cases is built on self-serving accommodation at times. 420 00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:12,080 Sometimes that's the best option a person has. 421 00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:18,560 I can't change the system. The best I can do is get paid 422 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,040 for the harm that's been done to me and my family. 423 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,120 Sometimes that's the best option we have. 424 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,840 But it's important to remember that that really doesn't move us 425 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:35,360 closer to justice, and that can't be the final say in the 426 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,240 pursuit of justice, just like vengeance can't be the final say 427 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:44,720 in the pursuit of justice. Punishing a person who was 428 00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,920 guilty of a horrendous crime? Absolutely. 429 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,680 Punishing an entire group of people for what one person has 430 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,280 done, that feels like it's gone too far. 431 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,800 Jesus said, you've heard it said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a 432 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:02,240 tooth. It's not a bad rule. 433 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,240 It's in the Bible. It was about purport. 434 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:06,680 It was it. That rule that's in the Law of 435 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,920 Moses was against exactly the sort of thing that Simeon and 436 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:12,680 Levi and and Dinah's other brothers did here, this 437 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:16,760 disproportional vengeance that leads to generational blood 438 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:18,840 feuds. Well, you did to us. 439 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,280 Now we'll do back to you worse. Now we'll do back to you worse. 440 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:24,640 And then it just goes and goes and goes an eye for an eye to 441 00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:27,720 truth through A2 says let the punishment fit the crime. 442 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,400 Let the punishment be proportional to the crime that 443 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,960 was done. When we want to go beyond that 444 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,400 and fall into that path and that that mindset of vengeance, we 445 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:39,960 need to be aware of that just as much as we need to be aware of 446 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,320 beware of self-serving accommodation and we need to be 447 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,480 slow to judge those who choose a different path. 448 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:53,800 It's easy to throw stones at Jacob and at Simeon and Levi 449 00:30:54,040 --> 00:31:01,400 from 2500 years distance and and our situation and our setting. 450 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:05,600 It's easy to throw stones. It's easy to throw stones at 451 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,840 people on the other side of the world and their struggle for 452 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,640 justice and criticize and condemn. 453 00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:17,960 It is much harder to say, well, how do we get justice? 454 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,960 So in all things, as we're struggling for justice, we keep 455 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,240 that mindset of humility. We talked about it last week, 456 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:30,880 the one that Paul said have the same mind that Jesus had, who 457 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:34,160 even though he was God in the flesh, didn't cling to his 458 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,760 priorities and privileges, but humbled himself and became a 459 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:42,240 servant to others. Taking that attitude as we 460 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,840 struggle for justice in this world and never stop seeking, 461 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,680 never stop seeking. Our system is so much better 462 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,640 than it used to be. The one in the United States is 463 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:57,120 so much better than it was in in Jacob's day, in Dinah's day. 464 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,360 It's so much better than the system in in some countries in 465 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,560 the world today. But it's not perfect and there 466 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,600 is room for improvement. And, and never let, never let 467 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,800 good enough be good enough when it comes to seeking justice in 468 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,360 the world. Always looking for ways to make 469 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:18,640 it better, more fair, less favoritism based on economic 470 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:23,640 position, more just these are the things we can do along the 471 00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:29,600 way only if only if we recognize how important justice is to God 472 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:31,720 in this world that we live in now. 473 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:33,920 The struggle for justice is real. 474 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:38,680 I I believe that the struggle for justice will continue until 475 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,280 Jesus returns and establishes his Kingdom fully and 476 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,320 completely. I don't think we're ever going 477 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,200 to get there on our own. I don't think we have, as human 478 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,920 beings, the capacity for perfect justice. 479 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,600 I think we are, we are too far gone to sort that out by 480 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:54,880 ourselves. I believe one day Jesus will 481 00:32:54,880 --> 00:33:01,000 establish it. Until then, we'll struggle with 482 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,680 it, and we'll struggle for it, and we'll seek it and we'll 483 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,640 pursue it, recognizing that we're in a broken world and 484 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,560 sometimes the best we can do is the best we can do. 485 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,080 Let's do it in Jesus name, Amen.