Simeon & Levi

2/10/2008 10:51 PM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Simeon & Levi

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Genesis 49:5-7

            Message of the verses:  “5 ¶    "Simeon and Levi are brothers; Their swords are implements of violence.  6  "Let my soul not enter into their council; Let not my glory be united with their assembly; Because in their anger they slew men, And in their self-will they lamed oxen.  7  "Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; And their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.’”  (NASB 95)

            5 ¶  "Simeon and Levi are two of a kind—men of violence.  6  O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered men, and they crippled oxen just for sport.  7  Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; cursed be their wrath, for it is cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout the nation of Israel.’”  (NLT)

            Jacob now moves on to the next two sons, who to were sinful in the past and because of that they would not truly get a part of the land even though at first Simeon would get an inheritance, but would later on be taken into the inheritance of Judah.  Joshua 19:1 & 9 explain this.  “1 ¶  Then the second lot fell to Simeon, to the tribe of the sons of Simeon according to their families, and their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah.  9  The inheritance of the sons of Simeon was taken from the portion of the sons of Judah, for the share of the sons of Judah was too large for them; so the sons of Simeon received an inheritance in the midst of Judah’s inheritance.”

            Simeon and Levi’s sins were, anger and violence were these sins which they took out upon the Shechemits, (see Genesis 34:25-31 for the full account).  There sister Dinah had been rapped by the leader’s son and because of this Simeon and Levi organized the killing of all of the males in this village, which caused their whole family to move away from where they were living.  They even went to the extent of laming oxen, being cruel to dumb beast because of their uncontrollable anger and violence. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Anger and violence are terrible sins and Jesus spoke about anger in His sermon on the mount.  As I was thinking about the sins that these two men committed it made me realize that they should have taken a different course in their dealings with these people, and in the end God would have punished these people for their wrong doing but His judgments would done perfectly where as those men’s judgment was done in anger and not perfectly done. 

            Anger, like all sins begins in the mind as a temptation and that is the easiest place to defeat it, but if one entertains the thoughts too long he is likely to fall.  I know this to be true.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  When temptations enter into my mind I need to claim 1Cor. 10:13 and then think about something else and not dwell on the temptation or else I will fall to it like I have done before.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and  all discernment,
10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.