Tamar and Dinah Dramas

Bible Study Time, let's get to it. Now I know with the picture above, you're like 'where is this going...' just try to keep up! So after waking up late with few #Spoons (My #POTSIES will get this!) Jesus started dealing with me about two key bible situations that I often internally ponder, but now it's time to study them with the #Internets! Now if you kinda don't know your bible, I'll point out to you what to review and provide how I see it, in my humble #Apostolic opinion with Jesus.

So, top pictured verse is referencing 2 Samuel13:1 KJV and the tragic situation that poor Tamar, Daughter of David, got mixed up in by no fault of her own other than kinda just being born. Now I won't get into the messy details, you can go read 2 Samuel 13 KJV (the whole chapter) and see that a bunch of stuff went down and it got out of hand. What always stood out to me though, was that leading up to the craziness and the aftermath that followed, Tamar was never honestly respectfully consulted in the situation. Okay, blame it on time and culture of the day, but scripture lets us see that Tamar was not 'okay' and nobody addressed her and let her speak her mind withholding judgement, just acted on her behalf. Proof she wasn't okay:

"¹⁹ And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying." - 2 Samuel 13:19 KJV 

Pretty straight forward, yeah she was not okay with the situation. But people all around the situation just started acting, not even bothering to hear her out or even try and consult God or pray or anything. Leading to long drawn out plots, blood shed, vengeance, unnecessary drama, etc. And Tamar herself kinda just gets lost in it all and we don't really get to see where she even went... Okay, duly noted.

Then we have the second pictured verse, Genesis 34:1 KJV, where we are introduced to Dinah, Daughter of Leah and Jacob. Now in my Scofield study bible it interestingly intros the chapter with “Jacob reaps the harvest of his evil years”... This points out to me Dinah is gonna find herself born into some situation that is not her fault. But differently from Tamar, scripture is more vague concerning her reactions/feelings in her messy situation. 

"³ And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. ⁴ And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife." - Genesis 34:3-4 KJV

Now that could be interpreted a lot of interesting ways. To me, it kinda seemed like Dinah was happy in Hivite country in the first place since she was going to visit and whatnot. Who knows, maybe the drama filled house of Jacob was a bit much and she was going to make the best of the situation and boom this Shechem dude complicates matters. But again feel free to read Gen. 34 the whole chapter to get all the details of how once again, we don't really get to see Dinah actually respectfully consulted on the matter at all. She leaves us wondering a lot...With Dinah, I'm going to review more since a lot happens in this one chapter. Because Tamar's resulting drama spills over a bunch of chapters. Like I said, things got out of hand.

In Dinah's case her bros go about being deceitful, again not consulting Dinah.The plot thickens when a back room meeting occurs, without Dinah, about Dinah... The meeting is between the now super sincere Shechem dude, his Dad (Hamor), and Dinah's Dad (Jacob, who yes totally has good judgment...*insert sarcasm here*) and her bros happens.

^"11 And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. ¹² Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife. ¹³ And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister: ¹⁴ And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us: ¹⁵ But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;" - Genesis 34:11-15 KJV  

Now if cooler heads had prevailed in adult Dinah's situation it could theoretically be argued that the Hivite people could have all been taught to follow the ways of God. Seeing as all the Hivite dudes were willing to follow their leader. Not to earnestly repent of their sins, get baptized in the Name of Jesus in fully submerged water, and receive the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in an unknown tongue to them (Because remember, this was Old Testament time), but got CIRCUMCISED... as grown adult males in a time before medically approved narcotic level pain killers... Yeah, I said it because I know what I'm talking about!

"²⁴ And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city." - Genesis 34:24 KJV


Like dude, that's kinda a big deal at any time in any culture! I'm just willing to honestly point out this painful truth (No pun intended, okay maybe a LITTLE pun intended, lol), because it's been there in the bible the whole time. Think about all those Heads of Households willing to go through physical pain to follow their leader who, with good intention, was actually listening to Dinah's deceitful bros....

^"25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. ²⁶ And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went out." - Genesis 34:25-26 KJV

Missed opportunity. But not just a missed opportunity, but also innocent blood shed thanks to a bunch of shaming disrespectful unperceptive insensitive hot heads only thinking about what they wanted *cough* what Dinah deserved. Yeah... right, right. Not to mention, God had to watch this and on top of that not be consulted at ALL...By His own people! No wonder they were always having problems. I would have advised turning down humanity's freewill setting to 0! #TheSimsGeek #heh In both Tamar and Dinah's drama in Old Testament scripture, they aren't respectfully consulted by their own people and then they just disappear in the background.... Joker please.

See Jesus knows me, and that I need to be in 'The Church Age' as it is often called to the best of my knowledge after Acts 2:38 KJV established the spiritual Body of Christ, “The Church” in the present tense. Because look, Jesus knew humanity had been put into a lot of unnecessary drama after "The Eden Incident". Thank you, Adam for heeding smiling sweetly Eve, instead of being sensitive to the Will of God... Good call. Because unlike Dinah and Tamar, Eve literally had it all including first dibs to the world, respectful inclusion, and allowance to express herself. And instead of using the power and opportunity for pure legit helpful good, she trekked off behind Satan and abused her position. Yup. Good call Adam. *insert sarcasm here* In today's world I might even advise officially charging Eve with Emotionally abusing and manipulating Adam via his love for her... Talk about a Kangaroo court! You know, because there was only creation around at that point...think about it. #AnimalCrossingCourt #haha

Prior to Acts 2:38, there was kinda limited options if you found yourself in a legit everyone around you has lost their minds and ignoring you, Tamar or Dinah situation. And legit as in, not some opportunistic I-Want-To-Do-What-I-Want-And-Ignore-All-Rules negatively influenced ploy.... I mean Tamar and Dinah kinda needed multiple supernatural acts to supersede their most difficult situations. And even after Acts 2:38 salvation, if you don't have the will to fight to possibly stand apart from everyone else to keep Jesus first and exercise the gift of the Holy Ghost, you could still be in a tough spot. Because again, brethren could still go off the deep end and dispute with you to no end leading to way up spiritual drama that requires Jesus to step in directly. I.e. Jesus using supernatural acts to convince Jewish Peter to save the House of God-Fearing-Uncircumcised-Gentile-Centurion Cornelius, Saul having straight encountered Jesus and going blind and then when he gets to see again, his name changes to Paul, etc. Can I get a witness! ^_^ Your head hurt yet? #Haha

Jesus knows with me, I don't care what people think when it really boils down to the nitty gritty. Do my best to please Him, carry my cross, follow Him, and if people have an issue(Remember that picture up top? This is where the bottom verse comes into play!), brethren or not this verse gets applied:

“And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” - Matthew 5:30 KJV.

Because I'm not Tamar or Dinah, I sure did learn from them though.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV.

And for anyone who would yell “cherry picking verses” there will be a future bible study for you too! Here's a sample: “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” - Isaiah 28:10 KJV

Key words being “here a little, and there a little”. I can't wait for that one. ^_^

I'm a Church Age sister for adversity, but become my adversity at your own risk! I will jump over that hurdle as fast as my #POTSCross allows and keep walking or rolling with Jesus. Outlaw Him, okay then I'm a willing and ready outlaw rolling one deep and Jesus doesn't show on camera. #CatchMeIfYouCan Because when I get to Heaven I will sit down and tell Him about my problems and if you made that list then the jokes on you. #Move #GetOutMyWay

Seriously though, Tamar and Dinah shows me that life can be crazy and filled with drama. But thankfully, today as Apostolic Pentecostal people we have options and can select our attitude and reactions. But remember, you reap what you sow (David and Jacob sure did learn that! O_O), which is why I do my best to sow good seeds for Jesus first. And work to have a reason for what I do and I why I do it in the annoying gray-ish areas of life, because only what is done for Jesus matters in the end. And I've learned that sometimes just being present and willing to take a stand is all that Jesus wants key people to see. Someone willing to see the craziness in this modern day world all over the place, and in Apostolic Truth and Holy Ghost Powered perception say “No. I'm going to do something I haven't seen others do before”. And then be willing to follow through no matter the costs. No matter if only Jesus is your witness, He's the only one you need. Plus, He is the ultimate judge too, sooooo kinda a win-win in the end. ^_^

If you ACTUALLY read all the way down to here with me not having time to add fun pictures to this late post, I'm impressed. hahahaha #POTSWarrior4Jesus