Dinah’s story like so many girls and women throughout history is not easy to hear and is wider than the events that happen simply to her. It is twisted and complex. It doesn’t make easy reading and raises questions as to whose side we are supposed to be on. Rape is on all counts wrong but is death of many a right way of avenging it when those who do the avenging are supposedly God’s chosen people?
It is why we must hold onto with confidence that vengeance belongs to God alone. The acts of Dinah’s brothers get caught up in personal motives. It is why we need justice systems that are right and fair. It is why we need churches who understand and teach God’s way, His justice, His mercy and live those out. It is why we need to see churches live out the gospel toward each other and to believe it is big enough for the pain within churches so that we know it is big enough for the events going on around us outside of the church. We need to see the gospel of justice and mercy first lived out in our churches so we can have confidence that God sees, cares and acts and that we can then leave vengeance with Him.
If we can leave vengeance for God it gives us the capacity to repay evil with good, to turn the other cheek. Not because we are being doormats but because we know the One who deals righteously with justice and evil and who will put all things right in the right time. Our aching for justice now is part of our image bearing of God, for He is the ultimate Just One. What He asks of us is to trust, to love our enemies, to treat others as we want them to treat us. That can sometimes feel as hard to read and do as reading the story of Dinah. It can feel wrong, it can feel like we are standing with the perpetrators of wrong. It brings to mind the musical Les Miserables. For Jean Valjean the grace and love he was shown by the priest though he had stolen from him enables him to turn his life around and to do be a blessing to others. For Javert the conflict within himself once he is shown grace is too much and he dies. When we repay evil with good, when we give them our shirt as well as our coat we don’t know how they will respond and that is not for us but between them and God. If we take vengeance into our own hands, in the moment it might feel right, yet the long term outcomes are going to lead only to further unrest and tension for all.
It is why we need people of faith in the police, in the court rooms, as lawyers and solicitors who can be God’s hands and feet here to see righteous justice brought about. Who will treat all as image bearers of God whether they know it or not and holding confidence that vengeance does not come with power or uniform but is God’s alone.
Father no story is one dimensional, no life is lived without layers. Lord give us to courage to leave vengeance to you and be willing to love. Forgive us when we think vengeance is the more heroic courageous righteous path when wrong has been done and give us a renewed vision of what love looks like and the strength needed to live it out. In Jesus name we pray.
https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/
Joshua's Tree Rooted 