Genesis 34:13

The whole of Genesis 34 deals with the unhappy results of Jacob lowering his separation from the world. Its evil effects showed up not in Jacob himself but in his family. The tide of evil runs in two broad channels: violence and corruption. The world is just the same today. As Christian parents, we often have to hang our heads in shame and admit it. A little flirting with the world on our part has led to sorrow and even disaster in our families.

Then Jacob's sons stepped in with cunning and set the condition of circumcision for every male. They had no thought or wish of bringing the men of Shechem into the covenant. It was the basest treachery, designed to trap and massacre them. Jacob had nothing to do with the cruel secret. Their pride and revenge ignored God as it ignored their father. Shechem was guilty of a great wrong, but Dinah too was at fault. The condition was a lying and cowardly pretext to carry their resentment to the utmost.

In crafty malice and greed for gain, Israel's sons hand over to these men God's own title to the land. And the man who thought that title so worthless that he based his claim on another man's rights would think little of trading circumcision away for treasure in this world. Circumcision is the reproach of Christ, separation from the ungodly world, the seal of faith, the sign of God's inheritance.

They are joined together and deceitful, as religious bigotry always is… In these terrible crusades the innocent suffer with the guilty — the innocent ox along 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, religious order and separation. So they drag religion into the contempt of unthinking minds. They manage to wrong the world and the church at the same time.

After his experience at Peniel, Jacob built a house at Succoth and bought a plot of land instead of going on to Bethel. If he had gone to Bethel, perhaps this sad event would never have happened. God allowed it to humble His servant Jacob. Again he reaps what he had sown, and the deceit of the father is reflected in the deceit of some of his sons.

So the shameful story of Genesis 34 made Jacob "stink to the inhabitants of the land." That was a dreadful position, since he was the only man in the land with the true knowledge of God. It also brought judgment on the two who promoted the violence. Yet in later days the tribe of Levi acted in such a way as to gain a special blessing. So we see how God can turn what was first a curse into a blessing. The word had been, "I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." They were divided — but God did it by calling Levi to special service and scattering that tribe through all the others.