Genesis 34 Rape - Prevention and recommendation
"Mummy, what is rape?"
Me: cracking my brain

My daughter asked me this question when she was about five years old after we had read the story of Dinah the daughter of Jacob in Gen 34 where the word "rape" was first mentioned in the Bible.

What were the circumstances surrounding this first rape incident? Jacob bought land from the family of Hamor in the land of Canaan and settled his family there. Remember he was just arriving from Paddan Aram where he had been living with his mother's family for over 20 years.

As they settled, his only daughter probably got bored of staying home with her brothers and decided to go mingle with other girls of the land, and from there she landed on Shechem's bed and was raped!

Too many lessons for one story.
❤First, we can help and teach our daughters how to keep themselves safe from the predator/rapist. The rapist is not in our circle of control, but our children are.

Dinah was obviously idle and bored with staying home, compare her with Rebekah and Rachel who were busy with their father's business and met their husbands in the line of duty.

Some children are introverts while others are extroverts and can't be kept home for too long. In whichever category your child belongs to, here is what to do to keep.their mind preoccupied with the positive.

��Get your children - teenagers gainfully involved in profitable ventures such as learning of skills and doing business, this is an all-time boredom killer, and they won't begin to think of where to go and who to look for.
Dinah strayed into the den of the predator. The truth is that there are certain areas that are known to be notorious or are likely places girls can easily be attacked.

��Teach your daughters to avoid such notorious areas, lonely areas, night waka, ungodly parties and sleepovers where their drinks can be drugged, and so on.

��Teach your child not to follow anyone to their home or any hidden place for any reason, I remember a 9-year-old girl that was raped because she followed the man to his house to collect money for her mother.

��Teach your children how to mix up with the right pack of friends who share similar values. Many girls lost their virginity because they made friends with the wrong set whose values don't match with theirs. What was Dinah doing with the girls of the land?

�They might have lured her into Shechem's abode.
�They might have connived with themselves and probably drugged her drink.
�They might have convinced her to agree to marry the guy when it was against their family values and beliefs.

‼It is very true that the girls who don't have sexual purity as a value, envy those who have, and won't relent until they make them lose their purity.

��Teach your child what to do in the case of an attack - scream, push, fight, kick, run, and most importantly REPORT. Your home atmosphere will determine if your child will report abuse cases.

��Just in case the rapist had his way, then learn a lesson from Dinah's brothers - justice must be sought for the child, the rapist must be brought to book with a befitting punishment enough to warn other intending rapists.

In summary, the only two antidotes to the rape culture in our society are - ❗sexuality education at home ❗and justice for the rape victim and against the rapist.

Happy Sunday
To the sexual purity of your child��
©Chinyere Obinna
Parent-child sex educator

please just tell the little girl what rape is, and don't weave a sermon on rape and tie it to the bible. Is it good to sex educate our kids? Sure.

Must we do it with stories from the bible? Heaven no!

This breeds apostasy