How God Redeems: A Tale of Two Women

I have personally been most fascinated by the concept of an infinite God who is outside of time. To think that a day to Him is as a thousand years is curiously strange. To read verses like Joel 2:25, where He says, "I will restore the years that the locust have eaten", it amazes me that such a thing is possible. How can years be restored? How can time itself be contrived and altered after being spent?

Well, how can the dead be raised? How can a man walk on water? How can illness be healed with a touch or demons cast out with a single word?

In my many conversations with young people who are tottering back and forth with the faith, they say they want to believe, that there are some things about Jesus they do believe. However, these kinds of bizarre stories of defying physics, natural law, death, and others... sometimes seem, well, unbelievable to them. I've learned that asking the skeptic questions is of more utility than telling.

I'll usually ask, "Tell me, what would God have to do to prove to you that He is real?" Typically the response is showing up to them so they can see Him, or, to provide something they immediately want or need.

I'll then ask, "If you were Jesus, how would you prove that you are the Son of God?" The answers vary. But the point is to show them that if Jesus came from heaven, was born of an already married woman, was a normal toddler and teen, and if his greatest achievement to glorify God was tying his shoes and making tables - then why would we believe that this would be the Son of God? If he only did what every other man could do, no man would need him. If he were only human and only did ordinary things, we would still be having this same conversation. The miraculous acts were a tribute to his deity. Him doing what no one else ever did before and what no one else could ever do again, is the proof that he is the Son of God.

And if you believe that Jesus could heal the sick, why could he not raise the dead?

And if you believe that Jesus could turn water into wine, why could he not feed 5,000?

And if you believe that Jesus could love and forgive the woman caught in adultery, Peter, Judas, etc., why would he not love and forgive you?

If you are going to believe the gospel, you must believe the full gospel.

Some things will never make sense.

This is why faith is necessary.

If an infinite God could be fully comprehended by finite beings, He wouldn't truly be infinite, now would he?

And so, restoring years, healing time itself, of course, God can.

Of the two women I want to talk about today, one seems to get far more airtime than the other. I had never before made the connection between them that I would like to share with you now. One tiny detail connects these two strangers across a millennium.

The first woman we'll read about is Dinah. She was the daughter of Jacob and Leah. Born into a plainly dysfunctional family, she would have been privy to the example of mothers who were sisters, bickering over a husband who clearly had his favorite. Her story begins in Genesis 34.

[Gen 34:1-31 NKJV] 1 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her. 3 His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, "Get me this young woman as a wife." 5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his livestock in the field; so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard [it]; and the men were grieved and very angry, because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, a thing which ought not to be done. 8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 "And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves. 10 "So you shall dwell with us, and the land shall be before you. Dwell and trade in it, and acquire possessions for yourselves in it." 11 Then Shechem said to her father and her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 "Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife." 13 But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father, and spoke deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 And they said to them, "We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that [would be] a reproach to us. 15 "But on this [condition] we will consent to you: If you will become as we [are], if every male of you is circumcised, 16 "then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us; and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. 17 "But if you will not heed us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and be gone." 18 And their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. 19 So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. He [was] more honorable than all the household of his father. 20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and spoke with the men of their city, saying: 21 "These men [are] at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land [is] large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22 "Only on this [condition] will the men consent to dwell with us, to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they [are] circumcised. 23 "[Will] not their livestock, their property, and every animal of theirs [be] ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us." 24 And all who went out of the gate of his city heeded Hamor and Shechem his son; every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. 25 Now it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and came boldly upon the city and killed all the males. 26 And they killed Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah from Shechem's house, and went out. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their sheep, their oxen, and their donkeys, what [was] in the city and what [was] in the field, 29 and all their wealth. All their little ones and their wives they took captive; and they plundered even all that [was] in the houses. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since I [am] few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I." 31 But they said, "Should he treat our sister like a harlot?"

What strikes me the most in this story is that God is never mentioned. No one prays, makes a sacrifice, or seeks the Lord. He's not physically there, no Angel of the Lord, no Christophany, no word from His voice or a prophet. Not only is the heavenly Father seemingly silent, but Jacob, the earthly father, is also silent. Jacob held his peace. He said nothing. When the prince's father arrives to negotiate the marriage, a conversation traditionally reserved for fathers, Jacob is silent and his sons do the talking. In fact, the only words that Jacob has to say about the matter is once it's all over and his words are very selfish (vs. 30).

There are three stories of sexual assault against women in the Bible: Dinah, the Levite's concubine, and Tamar. Arguably, there could be more, but these are the most explicit and clear. Interestingly, in each of these stories, God is not mentioned. God is seemingly absent in each story of sexual assault. One can only hypothesize, but I wonder, could it be because such an event feels so god-forsaken? Because assault 'ought not be done' (vs 7), it seems so godless? It is a godless act, however, it doesn't mean God is absent. Though, I know personally, and from so many other women, how alone one can feel in it.

Just imagine what Dinah must have experienced. She is raped, forced to marry her rapist, and then made a widow all in a very short time. Talk about trauma. We know this because she was already living with the prince when her brothers implemented their murderous plan (vs. 26). While her brother's anger is justified, their actions are not. The scriptures are true, "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God," (James 1:20).

While Dinah is mentioned by name, we never get to hear her voice in this story. I think this is also rather keenly indicative of how so many survivors can feel as if their voices have been stolen, suppressed, or silenced. Did she reject the arrangement of marriage? Did she love the prince? Did she even smile on her wedding day? Did she mourn him? Was she upset with her brothers? Her father? I'm left with so many questions.

Simeon and Levi deceptively convinced the men of the city to undergo circumcision. This was to be the sign of the covenant with God. This holy ritual was supposed to be a sacred symbol of belonging to Yahweh. These men, and Levi no less, as the forefather of the priesthood, perverted this sacrifice as a precursor to mass murder. The men were slain, their families taken captive, and the city plundered.

Such a broken

Bloody

Mess.

And we never hear anything about Dinah ever again. How peculiar to have your existence be recorded and remembered for the worst thing that ever happened to you? A pity, really. Such a story would truly be meaningless on its own, wouldn't it?

...

The next woman I would like to introduce is known as The Woman at the Well. Her story is far more popular and can be found in John 4.

[John 4:5-30 NKJV] 5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from [His] journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' 18 "for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." 19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you [Jews] say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 "God [is] Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am [He]." 27 And at this [point] His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?" 28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

Theologians have observed this to be the longest dialogue Jesus had with someone. Jesus did a lot of things you weren't 'supposed' to do. Talking alone with a woman would be one... but a Samaritan woman at that? Was he looking for a black mark on His reputation? The woman seems to have had a 'reputation' of her own, arriving at the well at midday.

Jesus requests a drink.

Then He tells her about Living Water.

She is curious.

In an effort to protect both of them and assure the woman that His intentions were pure, He asks her to retrieve her husband.

She doesn't have one.

Jesus reads her mail and, I imagine, in a biting-her-lower-lip sort of way, she dubs Him a prophet.

He reveals His true identity to her and she flees the scene, testifying to the town.

There is one small detail that unites both of these women's stories.

Did you catch it?

The location.

The well.

It was Jacob's well.

The plot of land Jacob owned.

The place where Dinah lived and was violated.

The city that was ransacked by her brothers.

This is the same place!

It is the same piece of earth, the same soil, the same city.

Considering the observations we made earlier about Dinah's story, let's compare and see how this encounter redeemed so much more than just one unnamed woman...

 

When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman, it has been over 1,200 years since the rape of Dinah. God is outside of time, His timing is perfect and He does not delay (2 Peter 3:8-9). Jesus' appointment with this woman was not just to give us a sermon point on how He was inclusive.

This was a Sovereignly planned redemption.

Yes, to redeem the woman.

But also to redeem the town. To offer these once brutalized citizens a chance at a covenant relationship without being tricked or deceived. The forefather of the priesthood had murdered them, and now the true High Priest has come in the flesh to give HIS life instead.

And to redeem and bring justice to a 1,200-year-old story. To show that God had not forgotten Dinah or the people of Shechem.

Even the tiniest observations like how:

Dinah was treated as a harlot

But this woman lived like one.

Dinah was forced

But Jesus asked the woman.

Dinah went to see the women of the land

But this woman came at midday to avoid the other women.

Here is Jesus bringing Living Water that refreshes, soothes, cleanses, and satisfies every wound, and every need for meaning, purpose and justice. This was a divine mission to set things right.

I've often wondered what happened next. After this woman tells the town, then what?

Interestingly enough, the Orthodox church has much information about this woman at the well, whom they have canonized as a Saint, and they say that her name was Photini. After meeting Jesus, it is said that she and her family became missionaries. At one point she has a vision of Jesus telling her to go to Rome. She obeys and goes head-to-head with Nero. They are persecuted, but many miraculous things also took place. Ultimately, she is martyred, with some sources saying that her body was thrown into a well of all places. If you would like to learn more you can visit this link.

There are things in our lives that will never make sense.

That may feel so purposeless.

So meaningless.

Moments when we may even feel as if God has forgotten about the evil we've been through.

Or worse, does His silence condone it?

But, this connection between these two women, can remind us that we are each just one thread in the tapestry.

We will never know this side of glory how or when God will use and integrate our experiences into the continuing gospel story...

BUT

Faith says that He will!

...

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