The opportunity to serve God as a Christian worker has never been as great as it is today. We are in the threshold of “the-eleventh-hour-Harvest” when more souls will be harvested into the kingdom of God.
As God trains men and women to stand victoriously in a place of ministry, He also equips them to do battle with Satan-the restless, ruthless and merciless enemy of the saints, especially men of destiny and conquer. Despite this, many yield to moral temptations and are added to the kingdom’s spiritual casualty list. Moral failure is especially dangerous. It leaves a lasting scar. Solomon says of someone who falls into fornication, “a wound and dishonor shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away” (Prov. 6:33). It will impede your journey and ministry for the rest of your life. God’s forgiveness and restoring grace never fail to be available, but the “wound and reproach” continue to have effect. Through moral failure, you will lose all you could have gained by the years of preparation in becoming a Christian minister. God will forgive and forget the sin of the leader who falls and truly repents. But the people will not. They will remember the rest of their lives- and many will never forgive the man who let them down by his moral failure. Such leaders will be haunted day and night by thoughts of “what might have been- had I not sinned.”
My purpose in this short treatise is to look briefly into the lives of some men who fall into sexual sin and its devastating consequences on their lives so as to gain wisdom from the fragments of their lives. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1Cor. 10:11-12).
SHECHEM
“And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her” (Gen. 34:1-2)
Shechem was prince of Shalem, a city in the land of Canaan. As a prince, he had the potential to the leadership position of the land. However, he fell to sexual sin by defiling Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. Shechem may have been a victim of “love at first sight”, but his actions were impulsive and evil. Not only did he sin against Dinah, he sinned against the entire family (Gen. 34:6,7). Even Shechem’s declared love for Dinah could not excuse the evil he did by raping her. Do not allow sexual passion to boil over into evil actions. Passions must be controlled. The consequences of his deed were very severe for him, his family and the entire city.
The consequences of this immoral act were severely devastating on the life of Shechem (Gen 34: 24-29): He died in the prime of his years as he bowed to the sword of vengeance! He never lived to fulfill destiny as a prince. He also died not leaving a seed behind that could have continued his legacy. Shechem died before the ‘prince’ in him could find expression. His sin also led to the death of his father and all the males of the city! The city also was badly looted!
When Shechem slept with Dinah, the consequences were far greater than he could have imagined. Dinah’s brothers were outraged and took revenge. Pain, deceit and murder followed. Sexual sin is no more sinful than any other sin, but its consequences may be especially devastating! And like Steve Farrar said, sin will always cost you more than you wanted to pay
Dinah also was not left out of the gruesome consequences of sexual sin. Of her own volition “she went out to see the daughters of the land” and she was “seen” in returned. She was caught when she decided to wander out of the circumference of the love of God. I doubt if she informed or took permission from authorities over her before embarking on that dangerous excursion.
Unfortunately, she got more than she bargained for! She was trapped in sexual immorality with the uncircumcised Shechemite! What a sorry case! By that single act of sin, she became a symbol of sin and shame not only to herself but her entire household. The Scriptures described her act of sexual sin as “…a disgraceful thing in Israel…a thing which ought not to be done” (Genesis 34:7 NKJV). She became defiled and lost her virginity- the pride of every Jewish lady in marriage! She became defiled and got her file removed from the list of daughters that would have befitting wedding ceremony! By the way, did you ever read anywhere in the Scriptures of Dinah’s wedding as we read of Rebecca, Esther, Racheal or Leah? Beware!!!
Watch out for the next episode
