Passage Read: Genesis 33-36
Meditation Verses: 34:30-31
Thought
The contrast between young and old is striking here. Jacob is concerned for the safety of his whole family, certain that they wouldn't last long if the people around them gathered against them. His sons aren't concerned about that, but about avenging their sister. Jacob thinks like his father and grandfather, seeing himself as a sojourner in the land of many potential enemies. How do you seek justice when the authorities are the very ones who violated your daughter? When the people you live among do not have the same respect for women and marriage and family as you? When they rape your daughter then come and negotiate a marriage? Jacob then lets his sons take the lead in negotiations, and they come up with an interesting proposal, which Hamor and Shechem accept. It seemed like they'd found a peaceful way out! Then Simeon and Levi attacked the city and killed all the men. Was that the plan from the beginning? It seems none of the other brothers got involved--until everyone was dead! Did Simeon and Levi's actions catch even the brothers by surprise? In the end, God protected Jacob and his family, but Jacob finally rebuked Simeon and Levi for their violence and distanced himself from their counsel.
Application
The young are hotheaded and rash. The old are cautious and slow. Who's right? We can't see what Jacob intended because his sons took matters into their own hands, in unexpectedly dramatic ways! Would Jacob have come up with a better solution. It was already an ugly situation and no one would win. Simeon and Levi in some respects more accurately reflect the wrath of God building against the Canaanites for their growing wickedness. Yet Levi's zeal for righteousness ends up rewarded with the priesthood, though they are scattered among the rest of the tribes of Israel, as Jacob requests. I feel the outrage, but question the method. I too would hesitate with Jacob and hope to find a better solution. But I don't want to be motivated by a fear for my family's safety as reason to ignore an injustice. This situation is hopefully very far from me, but how many other ways do I compromise righteousness for my own or others' safety? I would rather be heedlessly zealous for Christ's righteousness at the expense of my own safety at least, which means I have more dying to self to do.