Drama, Drama, Drama!

I don’t know about you, but I’m disgusted with everything that’s on TV today. Nothing but meaningless drama, dripping with immorality. But listening to a recent sermon made me realize, drama has been taking place since the beginning of time. Let me set the scene for you starting in Genesis 27. Jacob and his mother conspire to steal his brother Esau’s blessing, by tricking his father. Now Esau hates Jacob and wants to kill him. Jacob escapes, falls in love with his cousin, Rachel, marries her and her sister, Leah. Both girls try to be his favorite wife, by giving him many children, some even from their maid-servants. Leah gave birth to a daughter, Dinah, who, at a young age, went into town and was raped. Shechem, the rapist, decides he wants to marry Dinah and tells his father, Hamor, to make it happen. So, here we are at the message! I know right…enough to make your head spin!

Hamor meets with Jacob suggesting that Dinah marry his son. But why would any father entertain such an offer? Was it because she’d been defiled? She now had no value in their culture?  Dinah was stigmatized, taboo; the only thing of value she had had been stolen from her. Maybe Jacob thought this may be his best and only offer for her hand, that the leverage he once had was gone. Dinah was damaged goods, like a scratch-and-dent special at Lowes, and Jacob used that to accept Hamor’s hideous offer. Thank goodness, that’s not how the story ends, but I’ll let you read that for yourself.

A “father wound” is described as the absence of love from the father figure. It could come because of loss of life or many forms of abuse. Dinah had a father wound. She was the offspring of Leah, who was not the favored bride. She knew Jacob didn’t love Leah like he did Rachel, which had to have hurt. We all have father wounds, even if we grow up with a loving father. No earthly father can fulfill all our father needs, that is why we must have a relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Jacob used Dinah’s abuse to leverage a marriage for his daughter. God will NEVER leverage your past against you, but it IS what Satan does best. He will remind you constantly of all your pain, failures and mistakes, all the things you never confessed or dealt with; he will torment you through depression and anxiety. God may not leverage your past against you, but He will certainly leverage it FOR you. When Jesus meets the woman at the well, He reminds her of her past, but only to remind her of her need for Him. As believers, we must not allow Satan to leverage our sins or our past against us. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that God Himself bore our sins, so that we may live righteously and that we have been healed by His wounds. When the enemy throws your past in your face, why not tell him vehemently, “NO! Jesus died for that!”