July 25, 2007

• Discovering God’s Character – Part 16
  
  
  
  Jacob’s Sons –  A Whole Lot of Bad News

  Have you ever had whole string of bad news hit you, one thing after
  another, like it just won’t quit, just like a “black cloud is hanging
  over you”? Surely nobody in the Bible every experienced this, have
  they? Indeed they have and we see Jacob going through a time like this
  in Genesis 34 and 35.

  Consider this… Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, is forcibly raped by a young
  man, Shechem, who really loves her but can’t control himself. He
  quickly makes arrangements to “do the right thing” and earnestly wants
  to marry her because he loves her. So he asks his father, Hamor, to
  help with the negotiations. Now when Dinah’s brothers heard of this,
  they were grieved and angry. Shechem is willing to pay any price for
  Dinah’s hand in marriage. Jacob's sons, in deceit, take it upon themselves
  to strike a deal with them. The whole city must become circumcised in
  order to allow Dinah to marry Shechem. Now Shechem agrees to this right
  away. We’d be harder on Shechem here but the scriptures say that “he
  was more respected than all the household of his father” so there must
  be something about Shechem that earned their respect. While we don’t
  want to excuse him for his deed, still there is some honest effort here
  to make things right. Actually, this makes the situation worse. The
  males of the city agree to be circumcised after being persuaded by
  Hamor and Shechem to do so. Now Simeon and Levi show up on the third
  day when they were all in pain and kills every male in the city
  including Shechem and Hamor. Then Jacob’s sons loot the city of all its
  wealth and took all the wives and children, livestock and goods in
  their homes. So we’ve got rape, proposal for marriage, killing,
  looting, and now fear of reprisal from the surrounding inhabitants, all
  in a few days, hitting Jacob. So Jacob takes Simeon and Levi to task
  and they brush him off justifying themselves saying Shechem treated
  their sister like a harlot. While the situation was a very bad one, the
  scriptures go to some length to point out Shechem’s attempt to do what
  was right after he did wrong. Jacob knew exactly what was going on and
  he never forgot the matter.  Just before Jacob dies, he prophesies
  about the future of his sons and we learn of Jacob’s opinion of Simeon
  and Levi’s attitude.

  
  Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are implements of violence.
  Let my soul not enter into their council; let not my glory be united
  with their assembly; because in their anger they slew men, and in their
  self-will they lamed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and
  their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob, and
  scatter them in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7 (NASB)

  Before we go any farther, we should note that what happened here was
  the fruit of unforgiveness on the part of his sons and it affected them
  for the rest of their lives.

  Moving on, we see God calling Jacob to move to Bethel where Jacob had
  met Him before. Jacob has his entire household and all those who were
  with him clear out all the idols and foreign gods and clothing
  associated with all that to purify themselves. They do so and Jacob
  buries all these things near Shechem before they start on the journey.
  We see him address everyone about the matter and tell them that he will
  build an altar in Bethel to God who has answered him in the day of his
  distress and has been with him wherever he has gone. Jacob is really
  stressed here. The things of life were getting to him in a big way and
  the Lord says “come see me in Bethel.” So they all moved to Bethel and
  all the people of the land were terrified of the sons of Jacob and left
  them alone. Now the people of the land probably thought of Jacob’s sons
  were outlaws and were glad to see them go. When Jacob gets to Bethel,
  he build the altar and calls it El-bethel.

  Then Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse dies and was buried. So we need to add a
  death to Jacob’s woes. This is the first time her name was given. She
  was first referred to in Genesis 24:59. Perhaps she came to help with
  Dinah after all that had happened and I suspect that she had other news
  about Isaac as we’ll see shortly. So now we’ve got a death of a beloved
  servant who had taken care of Jacob’s mother.

  God appears to Jacob again and blessed him and reaffirms His promise to
  him. In times like these, it is reassuring that the Lord still loves us
  and tells us to hang in there and so it was for Jacob. Jacob puts up a
  pillar, offers a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. Yes, God
  met him again at Bethel.

  Now we see that Jacob leaves Bethel even though the Lord had told him
  to live there. While he’s some distance from Bethlehem (Ephrath),
  Rachel enters into severe labor and has a son (Benjamin) but dies in
  childbirth. Jacob buries his beloved wife and sets a pillar over her
  grave, a gravestone you might say. In the midst of this additional
  grief and on their way, at the tower of Eder, Reuben has relations with
  Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine and Jacob hears about it and this too he
  never forgets and prophesies concerning Reuben on his deathbed.

  
  Reuben, you are my firstborn; my might and the beginning of my
  strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Uncontrolled
  as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed; then you defiled it--he went up to my couch. Genesis 49:3-4 (NASB)

  And while we recount the names of the sons of Israel, now being twelve,
  we find the most likely reason why Jacob left Bethel. His father,
  Isaac, was close to death. Jacob came to see his father before he died
  and Esau and Jacob buried him at his death at the good old age of one hundred and eighty
  years.

  Somehow its not hard to visualize Jacob having a hard time with all
  this and being depressed with all the things that had happened. Three
  people who were important in his life die especially his beloved wife,
  Rachel and his father. Also, he would most likely be feeling the shame
  of seeing three of his sons commit despicable acts before God. And we
  shouldn’t forget that his daughter was violated as well. Jacob’s life
  looks like its falling apart. It is certain that these two chapters
  could be called “Jacob’s sorrows” and we see God in there encouraging
  him in the midst of it all. Yet Jacob had to pass through these times
  to see it to the end.

  We know that Jacob is going to survive all these troubles and will see
  more before its all over concerning his son, Joseph.  Now its important
  to note that just because God’s blessing is on you doesn’t mean you’ll
  live a charmed, trouble-free life. We can clearly see that Jacob did
  not do anything to bring this upon himself and we could understand if
  Jacob would have wondered if God was still there. Yet in the midst of
  his trials, God was there and told him to go back to where he had met
  Him the first time… in Bethel.

  Often when trouble comes in our lives especially when it comes in
  batches, things looks bleak for us and we feel abandoned yet this is
  not so. The Lord is nearby and will comfort you through it all even
  though it may be that the trouble will not be removed from you and you
  will have to experience it anyway.  It is in this way that we learn of
  God’s wisdom and his trustworthiness. We learn his wisdom often many
  years down the road when we’ve had a chance to look back on the things
  we’ve gone through and we learn that even though the toughest things of
  life have hit us, we can depend on Him to not leave us or forsake us.
  Even one of the Bible’s most famous men had to learn this and so it is
  with us. God is the same faithful One who carries us through all the
  shame and grief and misfortune the world can dish out.  With His help,
  we overcome. Mr.Vee

  • 12:10 pm
  • 3 Comments