Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

February 9, 2026 - Genesis 34 & Psalm 30

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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0:00 | 18:27

We read Genesis 34 and Psalm 30, wrestle with the horror done to Dinah, and warn against twisting sacred things to justify revenge. We connect David’s restored joy to our student retreat on the imperishable prize and invite prayer for lasting fruit.


For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley. Today is Monday, February 9th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 34. Now Dina, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamer, the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamer, saying, Get me this girl for my wife. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hamer, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they had heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing must not be done. But Hamer spoke with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us, give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it. Shechem also said to her father, and to her brothers, Let me find favour in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me for a great pride bride price, and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife. The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamer deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we agree with you, that you will become as we are, by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone. Their words pleased Hamer and Hamer's son Shechem. And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father's house. So Hamer and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, These men are at peace with us, let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people. When every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised, will not their livestock, their property, and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamer and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure, and killed all the males. They killed Hamer and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field, all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Parisites, my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household. But they said, Should he treat our sister like a prostitute? Psalm thirty. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cry to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name, for his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. But your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. What profit is there in my debt death? If I go down to the pit, will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned from me my mourning into dancing, you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Now Genesis 34 is perhaps one of the darker chapters in all of Genesis. We we do see some pretty horrendous things happening to Dinah. The text says explicitly uh that Shechem, the son of Hamer, the prince of the land, saw her, seized her, and lay with her, and humiliated her. So this seems pretty clear that this was not something that was desired by Dinah. This was something that was forced upon her, and so she was legitimately wronged in a pretty horrific way. And we can say that and we can affirm that, and we see even the response of anger in some sense uh being appropriate by her brothers, by Dinah's brothers, because she was treated horribly, she was uh humiliated, as the text says. But I want you to notice how uh Simeon and Levi specifically go about getting revenge. They actually use the covenant sign that God instituted with Abraham to commit murder and revenge. I mean, think about that. This is a sacred sign that represents a covenant that God has made with their family to bless them, to provide for them, land, seed, blessing, to make their offspring as great as the stars in the sky. And they use the sign of that very covenant to deceive, to murder, uh, all in the name of revenge. And ultimately, we see them taking matters into their own hands. We see them not trusting the Lord. We see them feeling like they gotta go and they gotta get theirs, they have to make this right, they have to do it in their way, and they have to make a mess of things in the process. And again, I want to make it clear it's right for them to be at uh to be upset at what happened to their sister. That is right. I think even anger is a good and godly response in their circumstances here. It is also right for them to want justice, to cry out for justice, but they want it and they went about it in the wrong way. I think the principle that we see repeated both in the Old Testament and the New Testament is that vengeance belongs to the Lord. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Now, that doesn't mean that justice cannot or should not be served, but it just means that the way that we pursue justice should be shaped by the truth of God's word and not by our own sinful desires, not by our own bloodlust for revenge. And unfortunately, we see them taking something as sacred as the covenant sign that God made with their father Abraham and using that to deceive, to trick, ultimately to murder and to plunder, all in the name of revenge. And I think that stems from a lack of trust in the Lord. And again, just a sinful response of we're gonna go get it done our way, and we're gonna uh who cares what happens in the process? Who cares who gets hurt? Who cares what we have to do? Uh, we're gonna go out, we're gonna get justice, we're gonna get vengeance, and we're gonna do it in a way that satisfies our sinful desires. And there's a warning here in Genesis 34. Of course, this is a pretty dramatic situation, but in our own lives, in our own circumstances, is it not easy for us to want to go out there when we feel like people have wronged us and force justice, force vengeance? I think that does really come from a heart that does not trust the Lord. So again, hear me clearly, I'm not saying that we should not seek justice. There are good and godly ways to do that, but I'm just saying we're probably more like Simeon and Levi than we're willing to admit. We're probably quicker to have a kind of vengeance that is sinful and that lacks trust in the Lord than in a way that honors him, and in a way that trust that vengeance does belong to him and that he will repay God, sees all, he knows all, and that justice, whether in this life or the next, will be served. Let this text just serve as a warning in big ways, in small ways, in our relationships uh with our coworkers, our bosses, our spouses, uh, all of the different relationships that have the opportunity to bring us harm and to do us uh ill in any number of ways. Our response sometimes in our flesh can can be to go out and feel like we got to go get ours. We have to get vengeance, we have to punish them, oftentimes in ways that uh even go beyond the initial uh infraction. And so we need to take this as a just a warning, a kind of a shot across the bow, uh, where, okay, yeah, this is a dramatic circumstance. There's some horrible things going on. People are losing their lives in the process, but we're not far from Simeon and Levi, and we're not far from stooping as low as they did, using something as sacred as a covenant sign that God intended for his promises to deceive, to lie, to trick, and to murder. So let this be just a warning and uh just something that encourages us to trust in the Lord and to seek justice in a way that honors him. Now, as we transition to Psalm 30, I want to kind of connect this reading to what just happened this past weekend in the life of our church, Compass Bible Church South Valley. We had our inaugural winter weekend for our student ministry. That's our sixth through twelfth grade ministry. And they went away to Garden Valley for a few days from Friday night uh to Sunday morning, and they had four different teachings, four different sessions and four different small group times. And I know that the leaders were really invested and pursuing the students and seeking to disciple them and to discuss God's word. And it was a great time. And we'll hear actually from uh Tyler and Michael, who were there on the ground in a clip here just in a second. But I want you to see kind of a connection that that we're gonna make from Psalm 30 uh to what they discussed. Their theme was all about uh the imperishable prize, the imperishable prize that cannot be taken away, uh, that is kept in heaven for us. And that prize is Christ, an eternal life with him. That was their focus all throughout the weekend. Uh, as teens, especially and even as adults, we can get so caught up in pursuing the things of this world that are temporary and fleeting. And so the the students of Compass Bible Church South Valley went away and they focused on what really matters, what is ultimately gonna last, and they were encouraged to evaluate whether or not they're competing for the eternal prize rather than something that is temporal and something that will fade away. Now I thought of that even in connection to Psalm 30 from verses 11 and 12, uh, where David says, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. Do you hear the sort of salvific language here that we can mirror in the gospel and what Christ does for us? And in verse 12, he says, That my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And here again, we we see this sort of salvific language and this response to what God provides and what God grants David and the just the nitty-gritty of his circumstances. He says, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth. That's uh just a reference to mourning and grieving, and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. And I think that's a response, a right response to understanding what it is that God provides that is far sweeter, far richer, and far more lasting than anything this world has to offer. I think David understands that correctly. He understands even the salvation that God gives him and grants him, uh, and his mourning turns into gladness. And as a result, what does he want to do? He wants to live a life in praise to God. I think that's a great connection to the theme of winter weekend from this past weekend of living a life in praise of God, because you recognize, and we hope that these students recognize uh that the eternal prize is Christ Himself. And as a result, our prayer is that these students would put their faith and trust in Christ and they would pursue Christ headlong as their ultimate aim, as their ultimate pleasure in this life, because there's nothing better than the all-surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to hear from Tyler and Michael, who again were there on the ground. This was filmed or recorded on Saturday. So uh you'll kind of hear this after the fact. But uh just be encouraged by their report and just look forward to what God will do and the fruit that will come as a result of this first winter weekend.

SPEAKER_02:

My name is Tyler Sanborn, and we have two sermons down, two to go, and uh this is free time here at River Canyon Retreat Center for winter weekend 2026 for Compass Bible Church South Valley. And the theme of this year's winter weekend is imperishable, speaking about the imperishable prize that that does not fade, does not uh corrode, does not rust, and that is life in Christ. That is uh life with the Savior, uh, eternal life with God, and that is something that is imperishable. This life will fade, this life will perish, and one day we will be with God in heaven, dwelling forever in his presence. It's been a rich time of uh worship, a rich time of fellowship here in Garden Valley, and I have one of our leaders, Michael Eisner, here. He's been leading us in song and worship, and uh, we're gonna hear some thoughts. Now, Michael, what has been a couple highlights for you so far this winter weekend?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Tyler. Um it's it's been awesome just to um lead the charge in worship. Um these students are just um so so engaged, and it's been so amazing just to hear them sing to the Lord, um, sing praises. And um I have to have to joke, they they they just are louder than than I can play with the guitar, uh, which is amazing. That's um so I'm I'm battling their voices with the guitar, which is uh just a huge blessing. Um and we we have we've had some really good small group times. The the boys that we do have here um have just been so engaged. Um our last um small group discussion, we just discussed what are our motivations? What why do we do what we do? And we we were able to walk through kind of their daily lives and uh just talk with them about okay, so why do we do the things that we do? Um and I think they they're really starting to wrestle with God's word, which has been a huge, huge blessing to see.

SPEAKER_02:

Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that, Michael. And uh we have two more sermons to go, one tonight and one tomorrow morning, session three and four. And if you could be praying that God's word would would just go to work in the hearts of our students, that uh the word of God would challenge our students to really evaluate their lives to help them understand if they're living for the here and now, the perishable, or the eternal, the imperishable. So our prayers that they would one day uh come to saving faith in Christ and obtain the prize uh of eternal life. So thank you so much for your prayers as we wrap up the second half of winter weekend 2026.

SPEAKER_01:

What an exciting report from Tyler and Michael and be praying. Pray for God's word to have its way and to work in the hearts and the lives of the students. Pray for much fruit to be born as a result of their time together this past weekend, and pray for the challenge that the students were given of whether or not they are living for this life and the temporary things, or whether or not they are living for that which is eternal. So I hope you're praying and are committed to praying for our students at Compass Bible Church South Valley, for them to compete for that which is imperishable, for eternal life in Christ, and that we partner together to disciple them, to see them make steps and strides towards that pursuit. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.