Genesis 49:5–7

These two brothers are considered together, and united in cruelty and violence. Nothing good is said about them at all. Jacob refused to be identified with them in their rampage of murder, driven by their bitter anger. He refers to their slaughter of all the men in the city of Hamor and Shechem.

Their father never forgot their cruel and violent action, recorded in Genesis 34. He separated himself from it. They claimed to be avenging their sister's honour. But Jacob would not join his honour to what they did, and he condemned it as the fruit of their anger.

They band together and deceive, as religious bigotry always does, but every truly religious man will echo Jacob's rejection of it. The innocent suffer with the guilty in these cursed crusades — the innocent ox with the guilty Shechem — and Shechem was not half as bad as they were. The worst part of this crime is that they do it in the name of God, of religious order and separation. So they make thoughtless people hate religion, and they manage to wrong the world and the church at the same time.

The last clause of verse 6 is unclear, because the reading is not certain. But take it as it stands: "they dug down a wall." We may apply this to their murder of their Messiah and Deliverer. In killing Him they destroyed their own separated position, and so dug down the wall of protection that had been theirs.

In the end he sees what all this really was — the fruit of his living at Shechem. In self-will a man had been killed there, and a fence thrown down. But Jacob himself had dug down God's fence before. The call of God had raised a wall between the clean and the unclean, between the Jew and the Gentile. Jacob himself, in spirit, had broken that wall down when he settled as a citizen or landowner on his purchased estate at Shechem.

How striking the language is! God could not come into Levi's council, or join his company. That was impossible. God could have nothing to do with self-will, fierceness, and cruelty. Yet He could bring Levi into His own council, and join him to His company. He could take him out of his home, where the instruments of cruelty were. He could bring him into the tabernacle to handle the holy instruments and vessels there. This was grace — free, sovereign grace. Here we must look for the basis of all Levi's blessed and high service.

By nature he was "joined" in a covenant of murder; by grace "joined" in a covenant of "life and peace." The former, because he was "fierce and cruel"; the latter, because he feared and was afraid of the Lord's name.

The first action of Levi that the Scriptures record is an act of cruelty. Levi was one of Jacob's twelve sons. Excessive wrath drove him, and he acted in a deceitful way. Read the account in Genesis 34: "Simeon and Levi... took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males" (Gen. 34:25). Jacob had to say: "You have brought trouble on me" (Gen. 34:30). This is why, later, the blessing of the tribe of Levi was turned into a curse.

Simeon and Levi come next. Their father never forgot their cruel and violent action, recorded in Genesis 34. He dissociated himself from it. They claimed to be avenging the honour of their sister. But Jacob would not join his own honour to what they did, and he denounced it as the fruit of their anger.

These two brothers are considered together, and united in cruelty and violence... Then comes a prophetic sentence: "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." Their unity in evil would result in division even among the tribes.

As a consequence of Simeon and Levi's sin, these two brothers were "divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel" (Gen. 49:7). However, they differed from each other. In grace the Lord used Levi's dispersion to give him priestly functions suited to his position. It was otherwise for Simeon, who continued to bear the mark of God's judgment... Simeon was small in number. His land lay partly inside Judah's territory, was open to enemy attacks on the south, and had no definite borders.

It may be instructive to compare the case of Levi as an instance of God making His judgment an occasion of blessing. Genesis 49:7 says, "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." But in Deuteronomy 33:10 we see Him overrule that dividing and scattering. It made them teach "Jacob your rules, and Israel your law" more effectively. "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."

By nature he was "joined" in a covenant of murder; by grace "joined" in a covenant of life and peace... By nature Levi was familiar with the instruments of cruelty; by grace, with the instruments of God's tabernacle. By nature God could not come into Levi's assembly; by grace, Levi is brought into God's assembly.

It refers, we believe, to that terrible outbreak of anger and cruelty in the nation, which reached its climax in the rejection and death of Christ. Stephen speaks of Him as "the Righteous One," in contrast to the sinful men killed by Simeon and Levi. He added, "whom you have now betrayed and murdered" (Acts 7:52). Strikingly enough, Simeon and Levi achieved their murderous intent by a preliminary act of betrayal.

Anger is allowed in a believer, but it must not become a settled feeling... There is a holy indignation. The sight of shameless evil may stir it, and it is far from private hostility... When harboured as a lasting sentiment, it is sin; and in its results it is nearer to cursing than to blessing.