The Devil's Bargain: Assimilation as Annihilation Text: Genesis 34:8-12
Introduction: Two Seeds, Two Cities
We come now to a passage that is thick with the fumes of worldly compromise. What happened to Dinah in the field was a violent, wicked act, a clear expression of the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. But what happens here, in the gate of the city, is in many ways far more dangerous. The first was an overt act of violence, but this is a covert act of war, disguised as a peace treaty. The first was a frontal assault; this is poison in the well.
The story of Scripture is the story of two cities. There is the city of God, and there is the city of man. They are established on two different loves: the love of God to the contempt of self, and the love of self to the contempt of God. And the constant temptation for the people of God is not simply to fear the city of man, but to envy it, to admire it, and ultimately, to merge with it. The world rarely comes to the church and says, "Abandon your God." Instead, it says, "Let's be reasonable. Let's make a deal. Let's intermarry. Let's blur the lines. Your distinctives are so... divisive."
This is the offer that Hamor and his son Shechem now lay before Jacob and his sons. After a heinous crime has been committed, they do not come in sackcloth and ashes. They do not come as repentant criminals seeking justice and mercy. They come as dealmakers, as urban planners, as smooth-talking politicians offering a merger and acquisition. They offer everything the world can offer: land, wealth, property, and social acceptance. And all it will cost is the one thing that makes the people of God the people of God: their covenantal distinction. They offer to solve the problem of the rape by swallowing the family of the victim. This is not an offer of peace; it is an offer of absorption. It is the devil's bargain, and it is as seductive today as it was in the fields of Shechem.
The Text
But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him as a wife. And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and take possession of property in it.” And Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; but give me the girl as a wife.”
(Genesis 34:8-12 LSB)
The Diplomatic Poison (v. 8-10)
The negotiation begins with Hamor, the father, the seasoned politician. He knows how to frame a deal.
"But Hamor spoke with them, saying, 'The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him as a wife. And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and take possession of property in it.'" (Genesis 34:8-10)
Notice the appeal. Hamor begins with the language of love and desire. "The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter." This is a masterful bit of rhetoric. It attempts to reframe a violent act of lust as a case of uncontrollable, romantic passion. He is painting his rapist son as a lovesick puppy. This is how the world always operates. It redefines sin. Lust becomes love, theft becomes social justice, rebellion becomes self-expression. He is trying to make the family of Jacob feel that to refuse this offer would be cruel, to deny "true love."
But the personal request for Dinah is just the opening bid. The real prize is in verse 9: "And intermarry with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves." This is the heart of the temptation. This is not about one marriage; it is about total assimilation. The lines of covenant distinction are to be erased. Remember, the fundamental prohibition in Scripture is not against marrying someone of a different ethnicity. The Bible is not concerned with what we would call race. It is concerned with covenant. The absolute prohibition is for the people of God to marry outside the faith, to become "unequally yoked" (2 Cor. 6:14). Why? Because marriage is a one-flesh union, and when the covenant line marries the world, the world always wins. The children of such unions are drawn away from the Lord. This was the sin of the sons of God in Genesis 6, and it was the sin that brought Israel to ruin time and again.
Hamor sweetens the pot in verse 10. He offers them the Canaanite dream. "You shall live with us." In other words, you will have social acceptance. You will no longer be strange wanderers. "The land shall be open before you." You will have economic opportunity. "Live and trade in it and take possession of property in it." You will have wealth and security. This is the world's gospel: peace, prosperity, and property. It is a powerful lure. The world offers to make us comfortable in our exile, to make us forget that we are pilgrims seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
This is the temptation of every Christian parent. We want our children to be successful. We want them to be accepted. And the world comes to us and says, "Just soften your edges a little. Don't be so dogmatic about who they marry. Don't be so rigid about your worship. Just blend in. You can have it all." But what Hamor is offering is the death of the covenant people. He is offering to make them Hivites. He is offering to absorb the seed of the woman into the seed of the serpent, and to do it with a smile and a handshake.
The Desperate Plea (v. 11-12)
After the father has made the political and economic case, the son, Shechem, makes the personal, emotional appeal.
"And Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, 'If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift, and I will give according as you say to me; but give me the girl as a wife.'" (Genesis 34:11-12 LSB)
Shechem's approach is different. He is the spoiled son who is used to getting what he wants. He has already taken what he wanted by force, and now he wants to purchase it legitimately. He speaks of finding "favor," but his actions have shown nothing but contempt. He is willing to pay anything. "Ask me ever so much bridal payment and gift." He thinks this is a transaction that can be settled with money.
This reveals the core of the pagan worldview. Everything is a commodity. Everything has a price. A woman's honor, a family's dignity, a covenant people's identity, it can all be bought. He believes that a sufficient amount of cash can paper over any sin. He offers to pay for the damages, but he shows no sign of repentance. He does not say, "I have sinned against God and against your family. How can I make restitution?" He says, "Name your price." He is trying to buy a wife, not repent of a rape.
This is a profound spiritual blindness. He cannot see that the offense is not primarily financial. The offense is against the holy God whose image Dinah bears. The wound is to the honor of a covenant family. This cannot be healed with silver and gold. It can only be dealt with by justice and blood, which is precisely where the story is headed. Shechem's offer, as generous as it sounds, is an insult. It assumes that Jacob's family shares his materialistic worldview. It assumes that their honor is for sale.
We must see that the world still operates this way. It defiles what is holy, and then it offers to pay for it, to make a donation, to fund a program, to smooth things over. It violates God's law and then tries to buy an indulgence. But the church is not for sale. The covenant is not negotiable. Our identity in Christ cannot be traded for a plot of land or a favorable position in the market.
Conclusion: The Cost of Compromise
The offer on the table is exceedingly tempting. It is an offer to end the hostility, to secure a future, to become insiders. It is an invitation to lay down the sword of separation and join the world in building a comfortable, prosperous, blended society. It is the temptation to trade our birthright for a pot of stew.
Jacob's sons, as we will see, respond with deceit and then with horrific violence. Their methods are sinful, born of rage and not righteousness. But we must not let their sinful response blind us to the fact that they correctly identified the nature of the threat. They understood that this offer of intermarriage was an existential threat to their identity as God's people. They knew that you cannot mix the holy with the profane and expect the profane to become holy. The holy thing always becomes profane.
The application for us is direct and sharp. We are a covenant people living in a pagan land. And that land, just like Hamor, constantly beckons us to assimilate. It offers our children scholarships to pagan universities, careers in corrupt industries, and marriages to unbelievers. It promises peace and prosperity if we will only stop being so peculiar, so exclusive, so... Christian. It asks us to trade the sharp antithesis of the gospel for the dull gray of cultural accommodation.
We must have the wisdom to see this offer for what it is: a declaration of war disguised as a treaty. It is an attempt to neutralize the gospel by absorbing the church. We must teach our children that the most important thing about a potential spouse is not their income, their ethnicity, or their personality. The most important thing is whether they are inside or outside the covenant of grace. We must build a thick, joyful, robust Christian culture, a peculiar people, so that our children are not tempted by the barrenness of the world's offer.
Hamor and Shechem offered them the world, but the promise to Abraham was that his seed would inherit the world through righteousness (Rom. 4:13). The world's offer is always a shortcut, a compromise. God's promise comes through faith, patience, and unwavering covenant loyalty. The sons of Jacob saw the danger, even if they fumbled the response. May God give us the grace to see it as well, and to respond not with worldly rage, but with joyful, resolute faithfulness.