Genesis 34:1 (KJV)
And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
I can understand the challenge Dinah faced. The timeline suggests she would have been about 16 years old by this time. She’s in the Promised Land, but she’s alone, a stranger, born in another place and here with no one other than all those brothers. Isaac, Jacob, and Esau had no suitable prospects in the Promised Land and may have felt like they had no friends their age, but at least they weren’t surrounded and overwhelmed by the opposite gender!
- Isaac waited until his father sent a servant to get him a bride.
- Jacob went to find a bride among his own family.
- Esau married one of the locals, but that was a grief to his parents.
Dinah, being of age, may have been wondering what her future would hold.
Robert Hawker observes, “Hitherto the Patriarch Jacob had been exercised with many sharp and trying afflictions, as they arose out of the circumstances of his own life. In this chapter, the history of the Patriarch records the beginning of the afflictions with which he was exercised, as they arose out of the circumstances of his children.”
The dynamics of adult children are like a wild card in life. The best of us have little control over what influences will arise as our kids reach adulthood or how they will respond to them.
We have no reliable account except the Bible. Of the many commentaries that speculate on the account, Joseph Benson’s is the most concise:
“Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out — from her father’s house into the city, out of curiosity, there being then, as Josephus asserts (Ant., lib. 50. c. 20), a great concourse of people to a feast. It does not appear that she asked, much less obtained, her father’s consent in this; but, to gratify her foolish fancy, she put herself out of his protection, and exposed both herself and others to temptation, and that among persons who had no fear of God to restrain them from the most enormous crimes. ‘She went to see; yet that was not all,’ says Henry, ‘she went to be seen too. She went to see the daughters of the land, but it may be, with some thoughts of the sons of the land too.’ It is supposed that she was now only about fifteen or sixteen years of age.”
The chapter is tragic, beginning with a teenage girl who likely strayed from her place without her parents' knowledge or permission.
It’s not always possible to prevent our children from experimenting with the world, but it’s never going to end well when they do.
#TeenageChallenges #ParentalGuidance #BiblicalLessons #StrayingFromFaith #DinahInTheLand
When Youth Strays: The Wild Card of Life
Call to Action
- Are you actively guiding your children to make wise choices in a world full of temptations?
- Discuss with them the importance of staying within God’s boundaries. Start by reading Genesis 34 together and reflecting on the consequences of straying from His path.
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