“Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have ruined me, making me a stench to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites! My men are few in number, and the men of the land will band together against me and attack me; I shall be destroyed, I and my household.” But they said, “Should he [be permitted to] treat our sister as a prostitute?”” Genesis 34:30-31 AMP
To best understand the life and times of Joseph it helps to pull back in order to see the view from above. It’s the task of our lives…to live in the now, in the particulars and immediacy, yet seeing all these in light of eternity. Mistakes (sin) occur most often when we see only now and lose sight of the time’s context. To this end, let’s consider the grand scope of Joseph’s great story. It was his brothers, fueled by hatred and jealousy, who betrayed their flesh and blood and sold him into slavery. Thus is Joseph’s story the grandest one, save that of Jesus Christ Himself. It’s the classic of classics; the woe of betrayal and then beauty and supremacy of sweet forgiveness.
Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, said once that “if you are at enmity with anybody, how can you expect mercy when you appear before God on that day?” He had much to say about forgiveness. “Do you find it difficult to forgive one who has wronged you? Then you will find it difficult to get to heaven.” The logic of Christianity is the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us who hated and betrayed Him. Spurgeon again: “As soon as we become Christians, we cannot hate anybody.”
Alas, if we’re to read the story of Joseph correctly we must come to it humbly and know that we don’t represent Joseph. Toward God we are like his brothers. That the sons of Jacob rejected their own and conspired to kill him should dispel any myth of self-righteousness in our hearts. All this nonsense and controversy over the fact of predestination is the stuff of vanity. How can we read Joseph’s story and not see that all are saved by grace and that all events are preordained? The modern Christian that’s bothered by predestination wrestles not at all with the obvious fact that Israel was chosen.
Ah, but our pride is ever before us!
Those who hate the doctrine of predestination really, in their heart, despise the doctrine of total depravity (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-10).
Often times our theology is no deeper, and less realistic, in fact, than that of children playing house when their parents are out of the room.
After the reconciliation of Jacob and his brother Esau in chapter 33, Scripture turns to one of the most shocking instances in history. Chapter 34 of Genesis details the rape of Jacob and Leah’s daughter, Dinah, by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. Many teach on this episode to say things unsupported by the text. They suggest that Dinah was out gallivanting about or some such thing. The Scripture says none of that. We do know that Shechem was prince of the land and this land was, by the way, the area of Canaan – an evil and violent place bound to grow ever more so as the covenant people of God left for Egypt.
Dinah’s kidnapping and rape by Shechem shows us quite a bit about life in such a Lord of the Flies land. You see, absent of God’s law, man is organized by power. There’s always law. Man can never be completely lawless because that means, ultimately, total destruction. But as we saw in Genesis 4 with the law of Lamech and his song of violence, outside of God, man seeks power for himself in which to attain both security and sustenance. He uses alliances in this quest lest he be overpowered. This is to say that man cedes to the pragmatism of power circles rather than be guided by faith.
Why does the gossip talk so much? Because they seek to earn with their tongue what they can’t with their fists. The law of moral causality is that men and women who reject God’s authority will seek power any way they can. It’s a moral rule: the depth of one’s faith is proven by how little they seek to rule their neighbors. Manipulation, alliances, and politics are the tools of those who can’t use brute force.
In Canaan they knew of Abraham’s God. Surely the story of his mighty 318 men (Genesis 14:14) and rescue of Lot had come down through the generations. More still, they saw Abraham’s offspring, Isaac, and now Jacob, grow wealthy. We don’t know how many strong men Jacob had but he was an influential family and, absent of law-enforcement as we’d understand it, Canaan was a land of family-thrones. Not only that, but Esau had 400 men too. All of this is to say that Dinah, who was likely in her teens, was free to go on her way. Who was to touch her? Her family was powerful.
I grew up in a rough neighborhood back in the 70’s. I had a big brother who was feared. Older boys spoke of his bench-press strength with awe. I went about secure in the fact that unless I started a fight, no one would dare come after me. There was one comical incident when two brazen and stupid brothers whom won’t be named here, humiliated me at the bus-stop one chilly morning. My mother had bought me a pair of new pants and in a poor neighborhood that stuck out, so those older boys took issue and forced me into a mud puddle. You can imagine the effect that had on a nice pair of new, white pants. Well, I raced home. Not in tears. Why not? Because I was sure of the fact that when my big brother saw the mud and heard me say the names of those bullies that there would be justice.
When I walked in the house he was at the dining room table eating a bowl of cereal. He saw the pants and looked at me quizzically. I simply mentioned the names of those boys and he flew out of the house. Several moments later I saw them running for dear life, my brother fast on their heels. I changed my pants and went on with my day.
My martial arts training took off in earnest when my brother, seven years my senior, left for Parris Island after high-school in 1980. Without him for cover I was exposed to more aggression. Well, this is something of the principle that covered Dinah. Her father’s men, her brothers, and even Esau…that was quite a deterrent.
Ah, but the prince of the area was not quite so worried and thus set off the murderous chain of events.
The rule of history, outside of God, is when powerful men sin like this, it’s a scandal, not a crime. Law is for the powerless in a world of violence; law is the token nod to pragmatism in order to stem the tide of bloodshed and chaos. Shechem, you see, if he and his father are to be believed, loved Dinah. Apparently he wasn’t used to having to wait for what he wanted and this explains his behavior, so to speak. But the scandal was that Jacob and his family were clearly offended so there had to be some type of resolution. Shechem offered a payoff and alliance. That’s the way it always works in the world of pragmatists. This is the politics of the amoral 101. Pragmatism as moral order is the law of expediency, not God.
The offer they made was reasonable. Even good. Dinah will be a princess of sorts (though probably one of many as Shechem is hardly to be trusted long term). And Jacob and his sons will be enriched by being immersed into the larger, more powerful clan. Hamor and Shechem probably like the thought of getting their paws on more available women to intermarry with and it seems to be a classic case of pragmatic win-win.
The problem is that Jacob is God’s covenant man and to be assimilated into the clan of Hamor and his kidnapping, rapist son should have been a non-starter. But Jacob’s poor leadership reared its head again and here’s the point about living in Canaan and the world: we’re to be transformed by the life and mind of faith, not conformed to the world (Romans 12:1-2).
The interesting thing about the incident is the response from Jacob’s sons. Apparently Jacob agrees. He sees, perhaps, a war with Hamor that he can’t win, so the compromise makes sense. But his sons had other ideas. Deceitfully, they used their covenant mark – circumcision – to trick Hamor’s clan. They agreed to the deal if all the men of Shechem got circumcised.
They agreed.
Everyone had visions of lust and wealth but when they were all down and out due to the procedure, unable to defend themselves, Simeon and Levi waltzed in and murdered all the men. The other brothers looted the camp.
Remember: the rule of pragmatism as moral order is that what the powerful can achieve is what they will do. In this event, the men of Shechem agreed to circumcision, not because they had turned to the Lord, but because they wanted wealth and women! How terrible. Many commentators condemn the violence of Simeon and Levi but fail to mention the use of God’s covenant law (Genesis 17:11) for the purpose of vengeance.
What we see is that Israel was in Canaan and Canaan was in Israel. Instead of living by the law of faith, they took matters into their own hands because God’s glory wasn’t their highest good, their raison d’etre. They became blinded in their rage and we see the principle of moral pragmatism writ large. How many sins God’s people commit because they won’t wait on the Lord nor seek His council. The only mention of the Lord in this chapter is the use of Him to outwit/overpower the enemy. Joseph’s brothers don’t pray first. They don’t seek the Lord. Shechem was blinded by lust and power; Joseph’s brothers were blinded by vengeance. When we try and fix a sin or a problem of life with another sin, how foolish we are!
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