Monday, September 25th – Genesis 34: 18, 19

The wicked, who lack the discernment that the Lord gives to the righteous, are easily led by deceit. Hamor and his son, Shechem, perceive no snare in the seemingly good words of Jacob’s sons. They considered the shedding of a small amount of their blood to be a negligible price to pay for the gains they sought. Shechem’s motivation was evident, as he declared his strong desire for Jacob’s daughter, Dinah. Hamor’s motivation was more hidden but also stronger, for he desired to absorb for himself all of Jacob’s family and fortune (v.23). The wicked judge all things by outward appearance. The wicked practice deceit, which is the casting of a disguising appearance over the true character of things. Their superficial judgment and deceitful practice make them not more able to detect the deceit of others, but less able to do so. Only those attuned to the truth of the Lord are equipped to detect lies.

Tuesday, September 26th - Genesis 34: 18, 19

Hamor and Shechem not only accept the words of Jacob’s sons, but they also hasten to act upon them. It is remarkable how quickly the godless act upon words deceitfully given. It should be convicting to believers who withhold their trust in and delay their obedience to the Word of God that is true, infallible, and sure.

Wednesday, September 27th - Genesis 34: 20, 21

The deceived Hamor and Shechem become themselves deceivers of the men of Shechem. Jacob and his sons are represented by Hamor as being peaceful and posing no threat to the Hivites of the land. The truth was far different, as Jacob’s sons were plotting a massive and murderous retaliation for the sin that Shechem had committed against their sister. Men who deceive and are deceived are in far greater jeopardy than they know, not only from other wicked men, who sinfully disguise their threatening intentions, but especially from the holy God of heaven, who calls men to repentance who ever busy themselves suppressing the truth of their rebellion against and accountability to the divine Judge of all the earth.

Thursday, September 28th - Genesis 34: 21-23

Although Hamor and Shechem were deceived by Jacob’s sons, they were not themselves dealing with honesty and integrity when they sought to persuade the men of Shechem to accept and intermarry with Jacob’s children. In v.21 they appeal for a peaceful and mutually beneficial co-existence with the covenant people of God. Yet, when they mention the price of circumcision that the Shechemites would have to bear, they appeal not to mutually respectful and beneficial co-existence, but rather to the Hivites’ selfish absorption of the people and possessions of Jacob. Sinners are essentially selfish and will do nothing that is gracious, generous, or even fair, but will, instead, employ the cunning of their deceiving and destroying father, the devil, to gain for themselves at the expense of others. Thanks be to God that we who are in Christ are no longer like self-centered and that we have wise discernment to protect ourselves from those in the world whose god is still themselves.

Friday, September 29th - Genesis 34: 22-24

The men of Shechem show themselves willing to undergo momentary submission to pain in order to have lasting profit at the expense of Jacob and his children. Theirs is not a proper investment mentality, such as the believer would have when he considers his bearing of momentary, light afflictions in prospect of his receiving an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). Rather, the Shechemites have the same spirit of carnal grasping and self-gratification at the expense of others as motivated Shechem when he raped Dinah to satisfy his own passion. The men of Shechem are not innocent victims about to suffer at the hands of Jacob’s sons, but instead are ones about to be judged by the God of heaven, who sinlessly will use the sins, even of His own people, to accomplish His just and holy will.

Saturday, September 30th - Genesis 34: 25, 26

The attitude of sinful anger and the determination of sinful and excessive retaliation that Jacob’s sons disguised beneath a religious pretext now come to bear their bitter fruit. While the men of Shechem are disabled due to the pain of their circumcision, Simeon and Levi kill Hamor, his son, and all the men of Shechem. We have these two sons of Jacob, as Matthew Henry remarks cutting the throats of the Shechemites, and thereby breaking the heart of their father. Simeon and Levi were the second and third sons born to Jacob through Leah, the wife Jacob did not love or want and the one he never should have had, but did have by his uncle’s deception and his own weakness to discern and refuse the deception. The roots of some sins can grow deep and long. But while Jacob was himself a deceiver, it was his brother, Esau, who was murderous and largely lived by his sword (Gen. 27:40,41). Thus, Jacob’s sons here resemble their godless and profane uncle more than their redeemed father. Sin destroys all things and distorts all relationships.

Sunday, October 1st - Genesis 34: 25, 26

The men of Shechem were tender because of their circumcision. They who had received the sacrament of initiation into the covenant people of God should have been strengthened and protected by this sign and seal of the covenant of salvation. Yet, they are slaughtered instead. It was the sin of Jacob’s sons that they did the slaughtering. Yet, let us not fail to note the uselessness and even danger into which those people put themselves by their receiving only the outward sign of the covenant and of church membership, while they are void of the inner essence of a saving faith. God does not allow men to mock His holy ordinances.

Monday, October 2nd - Genesis 34: 25, 26

From v.26 we learn that Dinah had been in the house of Shechem until Levi and Simeon took her from it. Perhaps she had been held in Shechem’s house after her rape, and perhaps the sons of Jacob meant to deceive the men of Shechem and impose circumcision on them only to disable them so that they could better effect her rescue. The wording of Scripture could imply this, and, if this were the case, it would be the best light in which the actions of Jacob’s sons could be seen. It is still a poor light, clouded by unbelieving fears and sinful devices. The inescapable conclusion is that there is the blackness of most heinous sin in the actions of Simeon and Levi. They exacted treacherous and excessive payment for the sin that had wounded their sister. Dinah was raped, but not killed. Simeon and Levi in return killed Shechem, murdered Shechem’s father, who may not have known about his son’s sin, and they murdered all the men of Shechem, who had little, if any, responsibility for this sin. It is awful when the children of the God of justice and mercy show neither mercy nor justice to their enemies. The wrath of man does not, in itself, achieve the righteousness of God, although God can and often does overrule it to that end.

Tuesday, October 3rd - Genesis 34: 26, 27

Why were Simeon and Levi filled with such excessive rage against the men of Shechem? One reason is that they were more sore over their own wounded family pride than over the wounds their sister had received. We are incompetent rightly to judge a matter when we either are the offended party or are nearly associated with the offended party in a matter of sinful injury. Furthermore, and most critically in this instance, Simeon and Levi did not rely on the Lord for the healing of their family’s wounds. Thus they sinned (as we all sin) by not seeking healing from the great Physician. They seek relief in the spilling of their enemies’ blood, and not in the reconciling and restoring shed blood of the Lamb of God who takes away sin and, ultimately, all of its sore consequences. The shedding of the blood, even of an excessive number of sinners, cannot heal what only the precious blood of the holy Son of God shed for the salvation of His people can do.

Wednesday, October 4th - Genesis 34: 27-29

The sinning of Jacob’s sons expands beyond their deceit, treachery, and murder. In these verses we learn that they steal all of the possessions and enslave all of the persons remaining alive in Shechem. In v.27 we are given insight into what they thought justified their rapacious action: the defilement of their sister. Yet, how can a retribution that kills all of Shechem’s men, enslaves all of Shechem’s women and children, and steals all of the Shechemites’ possessions be considered by any right thinking person to be justified by the defilement of one woman? Surely Jacob’s sons, who had practiced deception upon the men of Shechem, had also deceived themselves into thinking that a sin against their sister had as infinite consequences as a sin against the eternal and infinite God. Such reckoning is sinfully flawed.

Thursday, October 5th - Genesis 34: 27-29

It is unclear from v.27 whether it was only Simeon and Levi who looted Shechem. The reference, Jacob’s sons, could include the two ring-leaders as well as their other brothers who may have joined them in their sinful material profiting under the guise of holy zeal. In fact, some scholars suggest that the mention of Simeon and Levi in v.25 as those who carried out the Shechemite slaughter, indicates that Jacob’s second and third sons led all the others even in this mass murder. We cannot decide with certainty whether the brothers of Simeon and Levi were complicit in this terrible crime. From the prophecy of Israel in Gen. 49:5-7 we may be inclined to conclude that the two named sons acted without the rest. Yet, the closeness of family ties causes suspicions to fall on all family members, even when only one or two commit some great sin. It should be one of several impediments to our sinning when we consider the cloud of shame and suspicion that our sinful personal actions can bring upon our families.

Friday, October 6th - Genesis 34: 27-29

Shechem raped one daughter of Jacob, while the sons of Jacob killed all the men of Shechem and enslaved the remaining women and children. Shechem and Hamor proposed as restoration for this injury to Dinah and her family that an alliance and union be effected between the Hivites and the family of Jacob. They did this with an eye to their absorbing all of the Israelites’ possessions (v.23). The sons of Jacob actually looted the town of Shechem, taking for themselves all of the Shechemites’ possessions. Undeniably, these covenant sons of Jacob, who wore the sign of the covenant in their bodies and had the name and promise of God upon them, sinned far more greatly against the Shechemites than had Shechem sinned against them. It is a shameful disgrace that the people of the Lord of mercy and love should, at times, be lavish in their punishing of others, and ruthlessly devoid of pity for them. If we are to err, let us do so by our lavishing grace on our enemies, returning good for evil, and reckoning that our heavenly Father will set all accounts right in His perfect timing (Rom. 12:17-21).

Saturday, October 7th - Genesis 34: 30

This verse records the rebuke that Jacob gave to his sons. The mention of Simeon and Levi would seem to indicate that they were the only perpetrators of the awful crime, and yet it could be that they were singled out as the leaders of something in which more of their brothers shared the guilt with them. Whatever we can make of the parties, it is clear that Jacob’s rebuke is weak, inadequate, and ineffective. The heart of his rebuke is self-regarding. Jacob mentions nothing about his sons having committed heinous sin on a massive scale, nor does he direct them to repent and endeavor to make some kind of restitution. He says nothing about how their action was a sinful offense against and a dishonor to the Lord. All that Jacob is concerned about is how the actions of Simeon and Levi would arouse opposition from the surrounding Canaanites against him. It reveals an inadequate understanding of our sin when we are more concerned about the miserable, personal consequences of it than with the grief it causes our God and the injury it causes our neighbor.

Sunday, October 8th - Genesis 34: 30
Jacob’s reaction to his discovery of what his sons had done to the Shechemites is full of fear and utterly lacking in faith. His fear is not without some foundation. His moral understanding rightly informed him that those who live by the sword die by the sword. Therefore, he feared retaliation from the Canaanites against his retaliating family. While the news of his daughter’s suffering from the sin of Shechem threw Jacob into grief and despondency, the news of his sons’ sin against the Shechemites threw him into fearful despair. It is shocking and should be sobering to us when we note that this man who had so recently wrestled and prevailed with God Almighty should now be in fearful dread of man. Let us take heed, lest we likewise be tempted and fall.

Monday, October 9th - Genesis 34: 30, 31
    Jacob did not so much rebuke his sons for their sin as he complained to them of the anticipated suffering their actions would bring upon him. Such a self-regarding complaint was devoid of moral authority. Accordingly, Simeon and Levi respond with a rhetorical question contemptuously thrown at their father. Implied in their question is a charge that Jacob’s passivity in response to his daughter’s rape was tantamount to his accepting Shechem’s treating Dinah like a harlot. Thus, in response to Jacob’s feeble charge, his sons issue a contemptuous counter-charge. The members of this holy, covenant family, by their having sinfully responded to a sin they had suffered, are accordingly turned sinfully against one another. Sinful anger is a raging fire which no one can control. If we harbor it, thinking that we can direct it only against our enemies, we shall find it burning our friends, our family members, and ourselves in the end.

Tuesday, October 10th - Genesis 34: 30, 31
    In addition to the contempt displayed in this response of Jacob’s sons to their father’s complaint, we should note the faulty reasoning upon which this response rests. The question contemptuously hurled at Jacob does not speak to the issue. Should Shechem treat Dinah like a harlot? Of course not! But the word translated treat in this verse could also be translated make. Should Shechem make Dinah a harlot? That would be impossible so long as she took her wounds, sinfully inflicted upon her by another, to the Lord, who is the loving, gracious, and Great Physician. If Dinah were in danger of being made a harlot, the sinful wrath of her brothers would not restore her. It was that sinful anger, with its ineffectual aid and its aggravating and escalating of sin’s guilt and misery that was the true point and issue of Jacob’s complaint. Even to Jacob’s feeble raising of that issue, Simeon and Levi could give no acceptable account. How much less could they justify their actions before the divine Judge of all the earth?

Wednesday, October 11th - Genesis 34: 30, 31
    The complications, confusion, mutual recriminations, magnified guilt, and increased misery that result from the response of Jacob and his sons to Shechem’s sin against Dinah, all have their bitter root in the faithless selfishness of Jacob and his sons. Jacob concentrates more upon his fears than upon the sinfulness of his son’s actions or upon the suffering of his daughter. Simeon and Levi concentrate more upon the wounding of their inflated pride than upon the wounds of their sister, the death and destruction of the Shechemites, and their own guilt before God. Had Jacob and his sons run to the Lord and trustingly believed in their God, who has power to heal all wounds, wipe away all tears, even raise dashed hopes and dead men, they would not have been disappointed (1 Pet. 2:6).

Thursday, October 12th - Genesis 34: 30, 31
    This whole chapter teaches us that things can and do go badly and painfully wrong for God’s people. In the kingdom of saving grace that is wrought out in a fallen world, disasters can quickly follow delights such as the one Jacob had enjoyed when he saw the face of God at Peniel (Gen. 33:30). In Jacob’s current case, we have hints as to the cause these disasters. Jacob’s passivity was an indication that he had lapsed from being the man who would not let his God go. The easing of a man’s grip upon his heavenly Father tends to prompt wanderings and godless actions in his children. If we believe that without the Lord we can do nothing, why would we ever ease the vital grasp we have upon Him by faith?

Friday, October 13th - Genesis 35: 1-3
    From their wallowing in their victimized sufferings and sinful miseries, Jacob and his family arise to walk with the Lord. Such revival, repentance, and restoration do not result from Jacob’s efforts but from the initiative, grace, and enabling of the Lord. These things in God’s Word are written for our instruction, so that we might profit from our rightly considering the failings of those like Jacob, and so avoid such sinning. However, when we do sin, the Word of the Lord plainly teaches us that our merciful Father is the only One who can and will effectively deliver us from our sins and consequent sufferings.

Saturday, October 14th - Genesis 35: 1-3
    The timing of God’s call to Jacob is significant and instructive. After Jacob and his sons had exchanged loveless and mutually recriminating words, the Lord spoke to Jacob words of loving mercy, clear direction, and enabling power. After the bitter consequences of the spiritual laxness and sinful actions of Jacob and his sons had come to full fruition, the Lord revived and nurtured the sweet fruit of His Spirit in them. When we are faithless, God remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself the fulfilling of His great and precious promises in our lives (2 Tim. 2:13 ).

Sunday, October 15th - Genesis 35: 1
    In this verse, the Lord gives to Jacob graciously commanding words of direction. The patriarch is told to arise, not just physically, but also from his emotional depression, and especially from his spiritual torpor. Even when we have cast ourselves down into the miserable pit of sin, the Lord comes to us not to condemn and confirm us in our painful prostration, but to comfort and exalt us, as He lifts us out of the miry clay of our own making.

Monday, October 16th - Genesis 35: 1
    The Lord tells Jacob neither to stay in Shechem nor to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Canaanites whom he feared. Instead, the Lord directs Jacob to return to Bethel , to the house of God (Gen. 28:17,19). The divine directive is not that Jacob merely visit Bethel to indulge in sentimental nostalgia or to be refreshed by a spiritual retreat. Rather, Jacob is told to live in Bethel . It would be only at the house of God that Jacob would be preserved from death. Furthermore, Jacob was instructed by these words that he should remain at Bethel , making it his dwelling place. We always see more truly and live more securely when we repair regularly to the earthly sanctuary of the Lord (Ps. 73:17ff), and direct our thoughts and affections constantly to dwell in the heavenly house of our God (Col. 3:2-4).

Tuesday, October 17th - Genesis 35: 1

Jacob is told by God not only to go to Bethel, but also what he should do when he arrived there. The Lord directs the patriarch neither to build a fortress as protection from his enemies nor to erect a house for the protection of his family from the elements, but rather to make an altar to his God. The way out of our sin is never by the works of our flesh or by the natural reasoning of our fallen and fallible minds, but always by the worship of our holy God. It is only through the sacrifice that God has provided in Christ that we are rescued from all of our enemies.

Wednesday, October 18th - Genesis 35: 1

The concluding words of this divine directive remind Jacob (and us) of truths about the faithful help of the Lord and the utter need man has for that help. When Jacob had previously been in Bethel, he had been fearfully fleeing from the threats of his brother against whom he had sinned. There, in all of his helpless and self-caused misery, the Lord graciously appeared to him and gave him gracious and powerful words of comfort and promise (Gen. 28:13-15). Now, as Jacob feared the threats of many Canaanites, he was being clearly directed by God to the place of previously demonstrated divine care. All who are weary and heavy laden with their sins and the bitter consequences of those sins, are ever directed to Jesus, in whom the fullness of the God of salvation dwells (Mt. 11:28, 29; Col. 1:19; 2:9).

Thursday, October 19th - Genesis 35: 2, 3

As when Jesus called for Lazarus to arise and exit his tomb, so here we see that when the Lord speaks to Jacob in his spiritual paralysis, the patriarch arises and acts according to God’s Word. The faith of a believer may at times burn so low as to appear extinguished. However, when the Lord calls to the believer through His Word and Spirit, even weak faith hears, heeds, and grows strong.

Friday, October 20th - Genesis 35: 2, 3

A lapse in Jacob’s faith was hinted at in chapter 34. In these verses it is made clear that Jacob and his family had, indeed, neglected their saving God and drifted from Him and toward false gods. The language of v.2 indicates that while Jacob himself was not devoted to false gods, he knew that the members of his household were. His toleration of such sin made him share in its guilt. The false gods here mentioned were likely multiplied from the seeds of Laban’s household idols that Rachel had stolen from him as Jacob and his family were leaving Haran (Gen. 31:19). That sin which Jacob had failed to nip in the bud apparently grew to extensive sin that infected all of his household, alienated them from the Lord, and caused them to rely on the arm of flesh to deal with their problems—all to disastrous ends. Let us ever be careful to rely only on the Lord, the one thing necessary, and allow nothing to compete with Him in our trusting affections.

Saturday, October 21st - Genesis 35: 2, 3

After God spoke to Jacob, the patriarch then spoke to his household. From a comparison of v.1 with vv.2,3, it would appear that Jacob added his own words to God’s Word. However, although in v.1 the Lord said nothing about putting away of false gods, what Jacob said regarding the removal from his household of such foreign deities issues as a good and necessary consequence from what the Lord said in v.1. The gracious words of the Lord, no doubt, served to bring searching conviction upon Jacob, who, in turn, rightly repented and called upon his family to repent of their sin of reliance upon such false gods in addition to their supposed reliance upon the Lord. When we are summoned by God’s Word to worship and serve the Lord, we do well to cleanse and purify ourselves of all that displeases the holy Lord we endeavor to trust and obey.

Sunday, October 22nd - Genesis 35: 2, 3

Another thing that Jacob adds to the words spoken to him by God is a reference to the Lord as the One who answered him in his distress and had been with him wherever he went. This addition, too, flows as good and necessary consequence from what the Lord declared in v.1. God not only appeared to Jacob at Bethel, but came to Jacob as the answer to all of his needs. Furthermore, the Lord had been with Jacob, as He pledged He would be (Gen. 28:15; 31:3). This truth Jacob now recalls and realizes that the Lord was with him even then, in Shechem, and was with him even in the sinful mess he and his sons had created in Shechem, and would be with him on his way to Bethel. Even in our spiritual dullness, the Lord is with us and will never leave or forsake us.

Monday, October 23rd - Genesis 35: 4

The convicting call of Jacob was right and necessary. This verse informs us that foreign gods were plentiful among the members of his household. Yet, we see also that repentance swiftly and thoroughly takes place. The family of Jacob gave up all they were commanded to remove from their midst and more besides. Items of innocent adornment were also given up, as being, most likely, the materials from which these false gods were fashioned, as they would be with the golden calf Aaron was later to fashion (Ex. 32). The removal of such golden rings also manifested repentance from the fashions of the neighboring Canaanites, and a humbling of the family of Jacob, as they sought rightly to mortify human vanity within themselves. Those who are truly and deeply repentant will do more than a call for their repentance may require.

Tuesday, October 24th - Genesis 35: 5

Those who had weakened themselves by their sinful drifting from the Lord, now find themselves strengthened and shielded on their journey that is undertaken in obedience to God’s Word. The Lord sinlessly overruled the terrible sin of His people, so that the massacre wrought sinfully by Jacob’s sons would strike fear in the Canaanites and prohibit them from attacking Jacob and his family. This doctrine of God’s sinless use even of our sins, like wine, must be responsibly used to encourage and fortify our repentance, and not to intoxicate us with presumption.