“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 Hamor 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 Perizzites. 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?” Genesis 34:25-31 ESV
A sad reality is that believers often times are less moral than atheists.
It’s the dirty little subject no one likes to talk about in the church. We should because it gets to the heart of the issue, which is sin and righteousness. Simeon and Levi committed mass murder to avenge their sister because there was no thought of the Lord and His will anywhere in the whole event. How often does that pattern happen to us? How often does something come up, some irritation, a challenge, a frustration, a tragedy, and we immediately set up our defenses rather than pray and seek the will of the Lord? How often, when crisis comes, do we first think of the Lord and His will rather than how to fix the situation ourselves?
There simply cannot be conflict if all parties seek and follow the Lord because the will of the God is perfect peace. Conflict and strife exist on earth because mankind insists on getting his own way – in manners great and small.
Oh, but how terrible a thing it is that Christians are so very often babes and novices in the skill of peace. How dreadful that Paul had to admonish the Corinthian church for dragging each other to court over every little thing (1 Corinthians 6:1-8). It’s the same now. The church, sadly, isn’t famous for the wisdom and love of its members. On the contrary, the world knows well of her childish disputes, her emotionalism over reason (Philippians 4:5), and lack of theological depth (Hebrews 5:12-14). Whereas Solomon was sought out to settle disputes because of the gift of wisdom, church members today, bereft of Godly knowledge, gossip, slander, malign and sue with the best of them. Why? Bad theology! What we think about God will determine how we live and what we think about Him can only be rightly informed through study of Scripture. There is no crisis in this land greater than this. Christians rightly deplore the rising Left, the LGBTQ movement, the normalization of sin in culture and so on. But these are symptoms of the main disease which is faithlessness of the church.
Did Jacob bring his family to the Lord during this crisis? There’s no evidence that he sought to inquire of Him who is wisdom and life. Do we belong to a church? Do we submit to the will of the Lord and follow the precepts of His life-giving word? Jacob left his sons as children of the world, seeking the things of the world (power, money, security in circumstances, ego, and status) because he didn’t lead them to the Lord.
We, like Simeon and Levi, stubborn and prideful, are convinced that power is in the world and in our circumstances rather than obeying the Lord.
Look at it this way, there’s a difference in a dude who goes to the gym for the first time, trying to work off the sloth that’s settled in over the years, and the seasoned athlete. They’re both there, yes, but there’s a difference in performance capacity. It’s that way with justification and sanctification. Both the babes in Christ and those seasoned by years of humble submission to Him are there in that gym called life. One man is barely able to do a pull-up and the other can deadlift a small house. They are both in the gym. The thief on the cross next to Christ knew nothing of the mysteries of the faith (or so we figure) and yet, by simple dependence on Christ, he was with the Lord that very day in heaven. The story of the prodigal son should teach us this lesson: both the wayward and steadfast are the Lord’s insofar as He has called them. It’s the Lord’s will that saves, not works. And it must be this way or else our pride will prevail. The only thing that saves anyone is the righteousness of Christ imputed by the gracious God who owes no one anything except judgment.
But the spiritually weak, those flabby souls who are saved by grace but yet live in the poverty of their own mind, following the old principles, refusing to be corrected, are too often dominated by the old nature. Being ignorant of Scripture, being in submission, not to His word/law but to their passions, move into incessant conflicts because “the way of peace they have not known (Romans 3:17).” Barnhouse says of Lot:
“The Lord had commanded that he go to the hills for safety; Lot still lingers in the plain. It is hard to understand why the believer wants his own way so much until we study the Word of God and learn what the old nature really is. There is nothing that a man will not do to get his own way. Lot had left Sodom and its grosser sins, and was advancing to the place of refuge, yet his heart was attached to the things which he had renounced. Many Christians wish to substitute the world of Zoar for the world of Sodom. They will ask for anything rather than have the separation of the lonely mountain.”
Like Lot, like Jacob’s sons, fleshly Christians can’t bear to hear the word no. They must get their own way and when their pride is wounded, they will substitute the Lord’s technique with their own. What is the technique of the flesh? It’s the way of war if power is on our side. If not, it’s the way of lawsuits or politics. If not that, it’s simply murder and slavery by other means: slander and gossip. Self-righteousness is a sword at the throat of those who will not let us have our way. Our feet are swift to shed blood (Romans 3:15).
What is the way of the Spirit?
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:16–21 ESV
God’s people must beware lest in spiritual ignorance and fleshly pride we cave in and are deceived. In any dispute, in every conflict, we must develop the spiritual muscle, no matter how sure we are that we’re right, over against the passages of Scripture that clearly detail how we’re to respond. And even if we’ve been wronged, as Dinah surely was here, our responsibility is to honor Christ by following His principles rather than our own because man’s principle is always fleshly and self-centered and will not bring peace.
Jacob was clearly a believer. His sin was covered by the blood of Christ through faith, not by works and he was a covenant man. Nevertheless, he committed many sins in his life – deception being foremost among them. And now we see the atrocious cost to the family that seeks to solve a crisis according to the principles of the flesh. To set the mind on the flesh is death (Romans 8:6-8) and conflict and strife. The way of peace is Christ, which means that we obey Him through faith…especially in areas of conflict. A flabby faith, unnourished by the Word and prayer, will show when we don’t get our way. Like a man of the couch trying to go for a run is a fleshly Christian when they’re frustrated by life’s no.
The fleshly mind won’t be able to run the course of love. It will ignore the principles of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
In the flesh we’re Cain. In the flesh we’re Simeon and Levi. In the flesh – Christians, yes, Christians – will attempt to ameliorate a challenge in life on our own power, for our own glory, to our own comfort, and for our pride. The mass murder of the men of Shechem had nothing to do with the brothers’ love of their sister, Dinah, but with their own pride. How many innocent men were put to the sword because of pride? How many sins do we commit against others because of our stubbornness?
Our lesson is sobering. We may not take up the sword against our neighbor for vengeance – Christian or atheist, but the manner in which we respond to crisis and challenge displays our fitness in the faith. Great damage is done when we ignore the clear teachings of Scripture and refuse to see our neighbors in Christ and insist upon reacting in the flesh.
In the flesh, we’ll ignore Matthew 5:9 and be troublemakers instead of peacemakers. We’ll reject the biblical process of settling disputes with believers given to us in Matthew 18:15-17. And with unbelievers we’ll seek revenge rather than suffer a wrong in Christ (and for Him) so that unbelievers might praise Him. Like Simeon and Levi, we’ll seek vengeance on our own terms.
The thing is, Jacob is God’s covenant man just as we’re now His covenant people too. The sins manifested here will be dealt with in the ensuing chapters of their lives. God will not let sin go in the lives of His people. The story of Joseph and his brothers has its start here. They will all learn that the flesh can’t solve the problems wrought from sin, only grace and faith can. They will learn to submit to the Lord in all things. They will learn humility and the true path of peace. We pray that the same can be said of us.
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