God’s Mercy in a Violent World
When Justice Breaks Down
Genesis 34–35 confronts us with one of Scripture’s darkest narratives: Dinah’s assault, Jacob’s silence, and the violent vengeance of Simeon and Levi. The sermon wrestles honestly with the question, “Can God really be just when injustice fills the world?” The preacher shows how Jacob’s fear of man leads to cowardly silence, while the brothers’ rage erupts into bloodlust far beyond true justice. Yet the passage also reveals the deeper paradox of God’s character—He is both merciful and just, “forgiving iniquity… yet by no means clearing the guilty.” The message ultimately points to Christ as the only One who resolves this tension: the silent Lamb who bears judgment in our place and the righteous Judge who hates evil more perfectly than we ever could. In a world where justice often fails, Genesis 34–35 calls us to trust God’s timing, hate sin rightly, and cling to the cross where justice and mercy meet.
Genesis chapter 34. If you have your Bibles there, can follow through with me or it will be up on the screen. Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tanderly to her. So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, get me this girl for my wife. Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons were with the livestock in the field. So Jacob held his peace until they came. And Hema, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing must not be done. But Hamer spoke with them, saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us in the land and shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it and get property in it. Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers. Let me find favour in your eyes and whatever you say to me I will give. Ask me for a great bride price and gift as you will and I will give whatever you say. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.' The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamel deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah. They said to them, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will agree with you that you will become as we are, by every male among you being circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters to ourselves and we will dwell with you and become one people. But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and we will be gone.' Their words pleased Hamer and Hamer's son Shechem, and the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he was delighted in Jacob's daughter. Now he was the most honoured of all his father's house. So Hamer and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, These men are at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition the man will agree to dwell with us to become one people, when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them and they will dwell with us. And all who went out of the gate of the city listened to Hamar and his son Shechem. and every mare was circumcised and all who went out of the gate of the city. On the third day, when they were sawed, 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. They killed Hamer and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city. because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and donkeys and whatever was in the city and in the field. All their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, all that was in their houses they captured and plundered. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me stink in the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed. both I and my household, but they said, should he treat our sister like a prostitute? We just pray that the Lord will give Matt the words to speak as we learn about this passage. Beautiful. Well, with a story like that, probably best to begin in prayer. Father, Lord, you speak in every part of your Word. You have put every story, every truth, every fact in there for a reason. And so we ask now, Lord, would you enlighten our hearts and our minds by your Spirit to teach us? Would help me to speak with clarity, Lord, in that all of us would be transformed from one degree of glory to the next as we behold your Son in all of the Scriptures? So Father bless us this day, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Now, this is a rough story to say the least, to be honest. One of those ones that I'd rather, well, I don't wanna skip over it, because there is things in it to learn, but it is hard to deal with. But particularly looking at the reality of names and their meaning, dine is actually has a very beautiful meaning. I relate to Nate very much. I also mean, my name means gift of God. So I hope you guys feel that way. know, Marni also has a very beautiful name. It's derived from the Spanish word for Marina. There's not really that much to it. It also comes from the Hebrew word for rejoicing. But all, so many names have meanings and diner means judged or vindicated, right? It's a name about justice, right? It was very much related to that word in Hebrew to judge, right? To make right. And this whole story here is about the justice of God. Really, where is it? What is it doing? And what is God's justice like? Because particularly, unfortunately, when we read a story like this, when we think about the things that Dinah went through, because of this broken world we live in, most of us can relate to it ourselves or relate to someone we know who has gone through such a thing as this. Maybe in different people in this story, but the reality is horrific acts come to our mind and we just wonder, can God really be just? Can God really be in control of this world? Does He even care? Because there is injustice all around us. People make a practice of not watching the news because it's just all so bad. Because injustice is being perpetrated day after day all around the world. The internet has its benefits, but one of the thing is not opening our eyes to see all that goes on in this world. So in this story, you'll notice that God isn't mentioned at all. He is completely absent. He's in chapter 33 and 35, but from this, He is absent. Because we are witnessing the realities of what happens when God is not there. We are seeing a story about sin today. We are seeing a woman. a young girl who has injustice done against her, a horrific act. But then we will also see how the responses of her family, justice is still not properly done. So we have the two parties, right? Jacob and then her brother Simeon and Levi, they're the second and the third borns. And as we go through this story, we're going to look at both of these characters. We're gonna look and see how do we sometimes view God as these characters. How is our view of God's justice actually wrong and better yet, how should we actually see it? And then we'll also see in these characters that there is actually good to be taken from it because there's actually an embalance of wisdom and a good desire in them, but the problem is the end object is bad. And so we will learn the good and the bad in both characters for ourselves. And so let us jump now into this story, into the chaos that is created when God is not there. So, Jacob's daughter, he obviously had more than one. This is the only one that is ever mentioned, right? Why? Because of this story. Lucky her, not at all. And so you see this horrific act that happened, she is brought in and she is named in the Bible because of this event. And so you see now, this story tells the... reality of how Jacob transitioned from being a nomad walking around everywhere, just wandering in tents to settling down in the land. So now they've come back from Haran where he was with his uncle and now they're settled in the land. We are living here, these are the 12 sons and they will take possession of this land. So what does he do? Well, he does something wise. He sets up next, he sets up his shop right beside a major trading hub. If you wanna expand your presence, your influence, if you wanna get connected in with the community, sorry, but you don't go to Chinchilla, because that's not where everyone in Queensland is. If you want business connections, you wanna be able to really grow yourself, you go to where the people are. So he goes to this, in another city. And now Dinah, she's probably about 13 to 16 years old. She's a young teenager at this point. And she's been wandering, hanging out with her cousins when she was with her uncle over there. And she's grown up around her brothers, they've kind of been their own little niche into themselves, their own little clique. But now suddenly they're in this different culture, surrounded by different women that she's never seen before. She's like, it's just interesting. It's part of one of the reasons people love to travel because you get to see people in a different culture, see how different things work. It's thoroughly interesting. but she's also very naive. She hasn't experienced the world. She doesn't realize that there are dangers laying out there for her. And so she's naive and unaccompanied, she ventures into the city. All right? Without any escort or any kind of probably notifying her parents either, she's just wandered off. And so then we see that the Prince of the Land Shechem spots her, sees her and assaults her. basically, not to say the really bad word, but he rapes her. That is exactly what happens. He takes her lives with her and her innancy, her innocence, sorry, her dignity ripped away from her. Everything this little girl's life has just been destroyed And then the rest of the story doesn't even seem to correct that wrong. All we are surrounded by is just people who want to do good by her some, but even they go wrong. This town begins to look a lot like Sodom. Men who force themselves upon others, filled with their own lust. And so then you come to the character, of course, that we need to look at of Shechem. He was the son of the land. They called the town Shechem because eventually it would be named after him. He was a very powerful and important man, even though obviously he gets killed at the end of this. And you see right, he lays eyes on Dinah. He seizes her and then assaults her. like she's a toy off a shelf. And then later after, what happens? Honestly, this is some of the most terrifying stuff when I started reading it. It says that his soul was drawn to Dinah in chapter, in verse three, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and then spoke tenderly to her. Now, it even really shocked me when I read some commentaries on this and they said, see, he's actually trying to be polite. He's committed this horrible act, but he's trying to make it up to her. I'm sorry, but if the person that assaulted you come and says, hey, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that, that's not comforting. If anything, this guy is psychotic. And so he falls in love with this woman that he has abused. And now what does he do? He approaches the father, he goes to his dad, say, hey dad, I love this woman, get her for me. They approach Jacob and start a marriage negotiation. He's trying to now pay his way out of his problem, right? He wants it, so I'm gonna get it. So what do I have? Well, I obviously don't have a love and affection. This isn't Jacob and Rachel. He has to force her into this so he will pay whatever he possibly can to have her. And so this goes to the very question at the end of the chapter. where the brothers ask, shall our sister be treated like a prostitute? And this is exactly what Shechem wants. He just wants someone to live with him so he can basically treat her like a prostitute. That's all he wants. This is just the fulfillment of his lust. Now, the whole start of this is really just painting the picture of this horrible act and the horrible man behind it. Despicable human being, right? Who thinks he can get out of this with daddy's money, he cannot. And then we're asking the question, because this is in a world where for women to get justice, it needed to come through the authority of a man. A man had to seek it for them. That's wrong, right? But nonetheless, that is the reality we must deal with. And so she must either find it from her father or from her brothers. Hopefully from all of them would be the ideal. And so we are looking, who will she find justice through? Who will be the one to redeem her? Where? Will the true justice come from? And better yet, what does justice actually look like? And so, let's look at the first response. The first person who finds out about it is Jacob. And what is his response? He does not say a single thing in this entire chapter until the second last verse. There is a reason for that. They are painting the picture of a father who says nothing, who does not care. Maybe he cared a little bit, but there are things that are more important than justice for his own daughter. Because you see, he doesn't utter a single word. And then even in the middle of the marriage negotiations, when the brothers come in, Simi and Levi, filled with anger and they take over, does he step up as the father of the household? No, he just backs off. Because he just doesn't want this situation. He just doesn't want to deal with it. He is like a judge who simply hears it and just says, sorry, this is a bit too involved. He's just like Pilate, wipes his hands of it says, not my problem. You guys do as you see fit. because he doesn't actually care about his daughter. And so what are we to see in this? Well, one, right, we start, how do we sometimes see God like this? I don't think it'll be hard for you guys to imagine how we can often see God as silent, right? That's one of the biggest questions that pops into our heads as we see the injustice of the world. Where's God? What's He doing? I'm praying about things and He's not answering. Does he actually care? Better yet, when we're praying for injustice, when we're praying about things done against us, done against others, why doesn't he act? Why isn't he doing anything? And so we can start to see God as Jacob. He's just, maybe he doesn't even exist. Maybe he's not real. So where is God? What is he doing? Where is God when I'm in the midst when my credit cards are maxed out, when I don't have any money left? What happens? Where is he when the miscarriages happen? Where is he with the millions of babies that are aborted each and every year in this world? Injustice that happens all around us every single day. We assume and know that he is all powerful. We just think he doesn't care. Because Jacob had power in this moment. He was a household, he could say something, but he just didn't care. But we know God is not like this. Because notice, both of them are silent at times, but it is for different reasons. Why does Jacob desire to be silent? Because what does he say at the very end, after Jacob, sorry, Simeon and Levi have just done, you know, killed the whole town? Well, now, by doing this, you have threatened our future. You have threatened my survival. He already had the promise of God. He's already faced Esau, he's made it through that trial, but he's still trying to keep himself alive on his own merits. And so he says, by doing this, you've endangered our future, as though God is not all powerful, as though putting justice to the sideline is okay in the pursuit of surviving. And so he is happy to offer up his only daughter as long as he survives him and his household. Why does God do it? Do you think God is scared of some people in Canaan? Do you think God is scared of the US military? No, he doesn't care about any of that. He could destroy this entire universe with a click of his fingers. He is all powerful. So why is he silent? It's not for fear of his own survival. God's silence isn't silence. It's patience. It's not not caring, and it's not cowardice. He has given us a promise as we spoke of in the kids talk, we stand on these promises, Acts 17, 31. He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. see, we have to realise something. God isn't just God of one daughter. He isn't just the God of Dinah or the God of Jacob. He's the God of us all. And so, the day He judges one person is the day He judges all of us. And so, if we say, God, you've got to come and judge these people, you've got to come and judge these people, be aware, yes, but He must also judge you and all of your loved ones who have not yet come to faith. And so, you see, this is why He says, don't Count his promises as slowness. He's not slow, he is acting, but he's patient, desiring that all should come to repentance. And so understand God is always working. His judgment isn't delayed. He is just allowing time for salvation to prosper. Ending all evil would mean ending us as well. So understand God does hear us. And even in this life, we shall times experience justice. That is the grace of God. Sorry. he does that. But the final defeat of evil, the final ending of all injustice in this world has a date. But sometimes it will not always be now. So see, he's not like Jacob, but we have to trust that he has a plan and it will come in his time. And so now I want to look as well, how should we, what can we actually learn from Jacob ourselves? We see that God isn't silent. What can we learn ourselves from Jacob's silence? Now, first things first, we shouldn't just paint it as completely bad. Silence when injustice is happening isn't always a bad thing. It isn't always the wrong way. Sometimes we are called to be silent in the midst of injustice. Can you guys think of a good example? Matthew 27, 12, when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Who's that? Jesus. Jesus was one who was silent. It speaks about in Isaiah 53, he's silent like a lamb was brought before his accusers. The difference is again, the motive. The reason why Jacob, he was silent and he surrendered the rights of his daughters, of his daughter, her right to justice, he offered it up for his own sake. So that he would be able to survive, that he would not cause himself pain. But why does Jesus remain silent? So that he might surrender up his own rights for your salvation, that you actually might be spared justice, that you might not have to take it, He takes it in your place. And so understand this, sometimes trusting God, God's justice requires accepting silence. It sometimes means suffering loss for Jesus' sake. Oh Matt, what you talking about? When do we really have to be silent? You know, all of you have a right to demand back what someone has taken from you. All of you have a right to retribution, eye for an eye. But is that what we're called to in the gospel? We are called to remain silent, to let it pass over, to forgive and put it in the past. What did God say? As far as the East is from the West, so is your sin gone from me. Right? It is gone, it is removed. He doesn't think about it anymore. Yes, it's there, but it is forgiven. So sometimes we do not seek retribution for those things done against us. We forgive and silence is there. What if instead when people slander and gossip against you, do you gossip and slander back? Do you speak out against them? Sometimes, yeah, that is good to be done. But sometimes, it's a hard thing. We must remain silent. Do you guys not have a right to safety? To feel comfortable and protected in your own home? But what if God would ask you to bring someone into your home that maybe you weren't that comfortable with? That maybe threatened that right that is yours? Sometimes you must give up our rights for the sake of the gospel. We have to do it. God is not always just about enforcing the rights that He has given to you and the promises. Sometimes He says, you must give up something of yourself for me because of all that I have done for you. take hope in this. Matthew 5 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. True justice sometimes demands patient silence. We do not speak up, we do not argue against God. We say, God, I will take what you'll give to me and I'm happy with that, just as Jesus did. How might we also see though in the person of Jacob something we are not meant to be? These probably the easier ones. What is the thing that he didn't, what is the thing he was really seeking? Did he have fear of God? No, maybe some degree, but who did he really fear? He feared man. He feared the people around him that they might end his life. And what do we know this as? We want the approval of others. He wanted to be approved of by the others, by these men so they would not take his life. It may not be that extreme for us. But you see, we are always seeking the approval of others to validate those things that we see as essential about ourselves. Being rejected by people is debilitating. One of the hardest things is when God made us in His image, that meant that we need people. We're dependent on others, just as God in the Trinity is dependent upon the other persons of the Trinity, we are dependent upon others around us. And so when we are rejected by those people, it can destroy us. that does not mean that the approval of man is actually worth all that we make it out to be. It is the approval of God that it's worth its weight in gold. You see, because it is the approval of man that caused Jacob to offer up his only daughter. And it will make us give up far more than that. For when Paul was threatened to give up the gospel, he said, refuse. And he said this in Galatians 1.10, For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I was still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. You see, you cannot serve Jesus. You cannot serve God and say, well, yeah, but I still want to make the other people happy as well. I'm not saying you won't at times make people happy, but there will come a time where the God, where our God will be at odds with the God of this world, with ruler... with Satan. And there are people who serve him and so sometimes you will not make everyone happy. Who will we seek the approval of? And so the reality is, we cannot be seeking that approval because if we do, we will give up the gospel. We will give up the truth. We will become wimps who simply fall away that the moment the truths of the gospel are actually threatened and we must stand up for We need Christians with backbones. We need people with great thoughts of God, not big thoughts of men. Jesus must increase and we must decrease. Think little of men. Do not think they're mighty and powerful more than your God. And remember always, you guys have an eternal inheritance. So be prepared to lose worldly comfort. Be prepared to sacrifice your rights for the truth. And so you see, in this character of Jacob, we are seeing that there is a place for silence. There are sometimes we must surrender up our rights. but silence should never come at the cost of the truth of God's word. Do not give this up. This word is your life, all right? This is what Jesus has given to us. This is what He's spoken to us. Don't give it up for anything here. And definitely do not give it up in the pursuit of justice. And so now we come to the flip side, our second party in this story, Simeon and Levi. So these two brothers, they hear they're out in the field and they hear of the injustice done against their sister. It's spread gossip like wildfire. They've heard it, they come in and they see the very man that has done it to their sister. They hear what is going on in these marriage negotiations. They obviously understand what he's trying to do. And so they enter in and say, we are not gonna let something like this get off lightly. No. see these brothers have a sense of justice, retribution, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, they will not let their sister be simply used as a prostitute. So they take over the negotiations. But do they demand justice? No, not in that moment. What do they say? You can marry our sister, but take upon you this sign that was given to us, a sign of God's people, and they use it deceitfully. And so their response, it degenerates from justice into deceit and then blood lust and murder. It goes far beyond the reach of what true justice is. They murder every single male in the city and then they take the wives, the children and the livestock. Now, how can we see God in this picture? Do you guys not ever feel that sometime God is a bit overbearing? Have you ever felt that in your life? That why does he just put all these rules around us? Why does he set these boundaries? Does he really have the right to tell me this isn't the way I should go? Does he have the right to tell me what to do in my life? Better yet, don't you just feel like sometimes he's angry at the smallest things? Even a white lie. is condemnable to hell. That seems a bit much God. And so we see his anger not as justified, we see it as going beyond what is justified. Because you see anger is this thing that it isn't about justice, it takes the littlest slight. You got cut off in traffic and now you're hopping out of your car ready to fight the person who cut you off. that jokingly, I've actually had that happen to me. Someone hopped out of their car and wanted to fight me because apparently I cut them off. What a ridiculous thing. That's not justice. That is anger. And so you see, sometimes we get this idea that this is exactly what God has looked like. This is the legalist view of God. He has set these commands before us and he is simply a strict judge obsessed with rules and punishment. He's perpetually angry with us because we are falling short of his standards. And yet, then we come to assume that every struggle, everything we're going in life is a result of us disobeying God and now him vindictively punishing us. That is not our God. This is a lie of the devil. He wants to convince us that God is restrictive, that He's trying to keep you from something that's actually good for you. He wants to think that you're punishing you for seeking something good. You know what's funny? Exact same lie He told in the garden. God wants to keep that from you. You know, He's trying to stop you being God. You know, this will actually be good for you. God wants to punish you for doing something good. But in reality, we saw that it led to our death. His lie was false. And better yet, even when they deserved death, what did they get instead? God covered them with a sacrifice, right? He covered them with a dead animal for clothes. He showed them grace. Our God is nothing like the picture Satan paints. Satan wants us to mistake divine discipline for vindictive punishment. But you see, discipline is concerned with your good. Sometimes God does lead us through suffering, it's for a good... Wow, not doing well with the mic today. I'll stop being so, yeah. Anyway. But we mistake and think that He's doing it to exact punishment for a wrong we have done. That is what the devil wants you to think. When the reality is when you go through suffering, when you go through bad things, what is the purpose of it? As a child of God, He's teaching you a better way. He is doing it as a loving parent, not as a vindictive judge. You see, particularly as you look at Simeon and Levi, after they murdered Shechem, justice was done. Maybe the father as well, but yet they continue with every single man in that town. If you take notice of when Shechem and Hamor, his father, went to the people of the land, they didn't tell them about the story that preceded all of the marriage negotiations. They didn't tell them the truth. And so they were brought into this. without knowing the full truth. But Simeon and Levi do not care. And they do not return good for evil, they return evil for evil. Their anger goes beyond the bounds of justice. There is no measure, it simply delights in watching other people suffer. That is not God. For what does he say in Ezekiel 33, 11, as I live declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Do you think God likes the idea that people go to hell? He doesn't, but he must do it because he is a just and holy God. It would be wrong for him to allow them to pass. If God actually allowed everyone into heaven without actually believing in him, without their sins being forgiven, if he just let those things pass, we cannot trust that he is actually just, that he will actually right the wrongs that have happened to us. We can't actually trust him to do right by Dina. But understand he doesn't desire to see people suffer, but he must do it because he is a judge and he is just and we have done wrong against him. But he is always eager for people to be redeemed. He always wants to save. That is his default position. So what might we learn from the people of Simeon and Levi? Is there anything, is there actually anything good for us to learn in these guys? Well, there actually is. You see, these guys, again, every single person in this story starts with a good motive. They actually, there is some wisdom in what they do, but they go about it the wrong way. The intent is good, the execution is bad, literally execution. Because you see, these brothers, they saw evil and they hated it. Shouldn't we hate evil? Of course we should. But the problem was how they directed their anger and their hatred. You see, anger and hatred, if you didn't know this, isn't actually intrinsically sinful. It's actually a God-given desire. How could that possibly be? Because you see, we're often so scared of it because it so quickly goes from righteous to unrighteous, like that. But what if I told you there was actually something in this world that was made or better yet was brought in, that you are able to hate with your entire heart. You hate it with all your might and you still don't hate it enough. What is that one thing? It is sin. Yes, it is hard because sin is bound up in people. But when we are able to understand that there is a demon, that there is a Satan and a devil and that there are powers of darkness behind all of it, you can hate them with all your heart and you will never be wrong. because they are pure evil and to not have pure hatred for pure evil is actually sinful. You have to hate it with all your heart. Even look at Jesus when he had such compassion and such grace for people, who did he rebuke? Who did he hate? Matthew 18 six, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believed in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fasten around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Why does he say it'd be better for him? Because if he says, I get my hands on him, it's gonna be a lot worse. He is filled with hatred for those who lead others into sin, because he hates sin. And so particularly, he must hate us before we believe in him, because we are bound up in our sin and we love it. So my friends, I'm asking you the question, do you actually hate your sin? Do you actually hate the injustice that goes on in the world? Have we stopped watching the news because we become numb to the things that go on around us? Sometimes chinchilla can be nice because we are separated from this awful world. It doesn't seem like there are bad things going on. My friends, there are families that are being abandoned. There are drugs running rampant in this community. There are all kinds of things. There are people without homes. There is injustice, powerful people treating poor people like garbage. Are we not angry at that? Do we have no hatred for that? And better yet, do you not hate the sin going on in your life? My friends, all of you have things in your life that God hates. Yet we are called to love what God loves and to hate what He hates. And so we'd ask, would you treat the sin in your life like the city of Jericho? What did they do with the city of Jericho? God said, you were to take nothing from that city. You would devote every single part of it to destruction. Burn it and destroy it all. There is to be not a bit left. We are to do the exact same thing with our sin, with those things that are opposed to God that we love so much, we must cut them off. We must cut off our love for the riches of this world. We must cut off our love for the approval of others. We must cut off our love for dividing the body and seeking to gossip. Everything that happens in this world means cut it off. And how do we do that? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because He has freed us from being enslaved to sin. So let us go on into righteousness, looking to Christ. And so, final bit of these two parties, how should we not be like Levi and Simeon? Again, this one is a bit easier to see. True justice includes mercy and restraint. True justice is not just eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. When God gave the law, he did say, eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth, but he also gave them the sacrificial system where they could offer up a cow, they could offer up a lamb in their place. There was grace, there was mercy on offer. And so you see, that is part of justice, but Simeon and Levi, they let their wrath come out and it turned into bloodlust and rage. And how quickly this happens to us. How quickly do you sit there as you're disciplining your children, as you may be talking to people, friends even, and you're disciplining them. And yet how quickly it goes from turning into something for their good into simply a need to satisfy your own need to put out your own anger. It is so easy to do with kids, my goodness. How quickly we go from discipline into anger. And you see my friends, we cannot allow anger to fester. It has its place at its right object, but the moment it begins to focus upon the wrong thing, we have to cover up the fire. You have to pour water on it, you must put it out. Because unchecked anger is like throwing petrol on a fire. It will destroy your self-control quicker than you can imagine. But again, take the advice of Paul. He says in Ephesians 6.12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We don't wrestle against our brothers and our sisters, but we wrestle against the rulers. the authorities and the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Flesh and blood, image bearers of God are not your primary targets. It is the evil powers of this present darkness. The demons and Satan and the powers that surround us hate them. Speak out against them because they are the wicked ones. Where it is us who can be redeemed and is there. it is us that have hope. Whereas when we act out against anger with people, we distance those that God desires to save from the gospel. And so now I'm drawing this all together after I finish this last point, we will go into communion. I want to talk to you about the greatest paradox of scripture. Because here you see, we actually have Simeon and Levi and Jacob in the person of God. Basically, these are questions we are asking, should we allow people to be forgiven? Should we allow things to pass without any punishment? Or do we need to make sure the guilty go punished? This is exactly the paradox that is dealt with in the entire Old Testament that we see in the character of God Himself in Exodus 34, as He shares Himself with Moses. He says, Lord passed before a man proclaimed, this is who I am. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yes, He's a God of forgiveness, a God of mercy, and yet... He will by no means clear the guilty. So here's a God who was gracious, who is forgiving. He forgives people, but then he will not let the guilty go unpunished. Those are contradictory statements. Those things are mutually exclusive. How can they possibly come together? there can only be one person in which they come together and it is Jesus. He is the one who solves the problem of God's justice. He is the perfect middle road between Jacob's silence and the wrath of Simeon and Levi. He brings the two things together. because he too would be silent like Jacob, but not for his own sake, but for the sake of his people. But so too, we see that God is angry against sin because he must send, someone must pay the price. Someone must go in as our place. But instead of saying, I will take it out on you. our brother steps in our place and takes it on himself. You see, God's justice demands payment. But in the loving mercy of His justice, He takes it out on Himself, on His own Son. You see, Simeon and Levi, demonstrated love for their sister by killing everyone who hurt her. But Jesus loves us by taking the pain, the shame, the guilt, and putting it on himself. You guys should delight to know that Simeon and Levi couldn't possibly understand all that their sister went through. They were still men in a world where women were very much subjected to all kinds of injustice, where they were silenced. Jesus knows it all because He did not just pay the punishment, oh sorry, do the punishment, He bore all of our sins. as in he knows the pain you went through, he knows the shame that you feel, he knows the guilt that weighs you down because he bore it himself, every single sin. And so the sin that has been done against you and the sin that you have done against others, he felt all of it and he understands all of it and he paid for all. And so friends, as we're about to enter into a time of communion, I would ask this of you, don't grow ungrateful of this gift. I spoke at the start of the one diamond. We can sometimes get bored with this diamond. We can sometimes think, I need to look at something else. There's not more. I've kind of figured everything out about this diamond. There's nothing really to amaze me anymore. You haven't looked long enough. I'm sorry. When we are tired of hearing about how Jesus died in our place, when we are tired of hearing about the cross... That is a realization. It should be a realization to us that you do not actually get the gospel. You actually do not comprehend it. You do not really grasp what happened on that cross because if you did, you wouldn't think so little of it. Every screw up, every mistake, every single thing you have done comes with a price and someone had to pay it. You were sitting here now in this chair. You are now breathing this air at this very moment in grace because someone died in your place. despite the fact that you were like Shechem. Before God, we should be a piece of human garbage because to us, to God, we should be nothing of value. And yet He still went and died in our place. Justice demands a price. but it does not demand that the one who has been wronged should pay the price. And yet he has done it anyway. My friend Jacob's silence, we understand. I understand I would do that. Simeon and Levi's vengeance, we understand because I feel that. I am angry. I do not understand a divine and holy God who comes down and dies in my place, who takes the punishment that he should have rightfully put on me and puts it on his son. I don't understand that. And so there is an eternity that I have to plum its depths. My friends, do not grow hard-hearted against the greatest message of hope and mercy that the universe has ever heard. Pray to God that you might be more excited about it. Ask Him to show you more of how much Jesus has suffered in your place. Because only when you comprehend the depths of your sin will you be able to understand the endless grace of God. And trust me, good luck getting to the bottom of you. It's a pretty endless barrel. So my friends, be grateful that God has offered up His only Son when justice did not demand it. He has been given up in your place. So now I'll invite the helpers up to take the communion around or anyone who would like to be a helper today, feel free to come up. And we will take the bread and the wine around representing the blood of Jesus. If you would like the payment of justice, to be paid in your place. If you would like someone to go to that cross for you. Say, God, I'm sorry. I have sinned against you and against your son. Please forgive me and take my sins in my place.