Jacob’s sons are to be the inheritors of the promise after him but, as the events of this chapter show us, they hardly seem ready for the responsibility they will bear.

None of the men in Dinah’s life get their responses to her assault quite right. Jacob under-reacts. Perhaps he is getting too old now to take action himself, but to simply wait and do nothing until his boys get home hardly seems to be a fitting reaction to what has happened to his daughter.

On the other hand, the sons, and especially Simeon and Levi, go completely overboard. It is to be expected that they would want to exact some price from Hamor and Shechem, but they went about it in such a deceitful and bloodthirsty way that Jacob rebuked them in the end because of the threat the Hivites now posed because of their actions.

The way that Jacob’s sons interacted with the local people is very different from the way that Abraham and Isaac had done. Both of these ancestors made honourable treaties with the Canaanites, while keeping themselves separate from them and honouring God. This gave them good standing in the eyes of the people around.

Jacob’s sons did not act with honour at all, and Jacob himself was accurate about what the results were likely to be. Even though Shechem had acted appallingly, Jacob and his sons ought to have been honourable in their response. Nobody prays in this chapter. Nobody seeks God’s direction, or asks for blessing, or praises him. Everybody acts out of their human passions.

We, as Christians, will often be faced with behaviour by others that shocks and even hurts us. How will we respond? Out of our own emotions and passions? Or will we remember to seek God first in all things and act only in ways that honour him?

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NEWBOLD COMMUNITY CHURCH