Frontier Justice and the Sacred

Scripture: 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. Genesis 34:25

Observation: Shechem rapes Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. Her brothers ride to mete out some frontier justice, but Shechem’s dad makes them an offer: let’s have a treaty and join forces. Jacob’s sons agree, but only if all of the males are circumcised. They agree, only to discover this was a trap. 3 days into the recovery from surgery, Shechem’s men awake to find swords at their throats.

Application: I remember the first time I read this story. I thought it was a pretty savvy strategy. Talk about kicking your enemy when he is down. Today as I reread it, I was floored by the stench of this chapter. It just made me sick. There is sin compounded by sin. Rape, vengeance, murder, deceit, greed. And not only are these things present, one thing is absent: God. There is no mention of God in this chapter. Not in the plans of Jacob’s sons, certainly not in the actions of Shechem and his men, and not even in Jacob’s rebuke to his sons. Jacob seems more concerned about future attacks than what God thinks about all of this. In fact, the only time any type of spiritual reference is made in all of this is the act of circumcision. Circumcision, an outward symbol of an inward commitment to God, is used instead to perpetuate evil. This is sacrilege. Imagine using baptism to drown someone, or poisoning the Lord’s supper.
I keep thinking about this passage and I think the message for me is: Don’t misuse the sacred for your own purposes. Shechem misused the sacredness of Dinah’s dignity. Jacob’s sons misused the sacredness of a promise, and the sacredness of a spiritual rite. I encounter the sacred everyday—humans made in His image—and I have an opportunity to treat them with respect, or misuse them. For example, if I look on a woman in such a way to satisfy my desires, then am I not also abusing the sacredness? She is no longer a person, but an object for my own purposes.

Prayer: God, help me see ways in which I misuse the sacred for my own purposes. Especially the people I meet and see—help me treat them with the respect for your sacred design that seems so absent from this passage.