The Deceptive Patriarchs
Part 3: Sons of Jacob
Introduction.
Many of us know the sons of Jacob.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.
If you don’t, someone taught me the clever mnemonic: GIRLS JJZ BAND.
Gad, Issachar, Reuben, Levi, Simeon, Joseph, Judah, Zebulun, Benjamin, Asher, Naphtali, Dan.
Of course, we can’t possibly cover them all today, and not much is known about many of them.
The deceptions and underhanded deeds are mentioned, in particular, of the first four, and even Joseph who dominates the last several chapters of Genesis.
Joseph, but I thought he was good? Indeed, he was, but there is some evidence of deception in some of his words and actions.
We find that despite these wicked beginnings, God’s will was still accomplished!
A quick word on Reuben.
Reuben was the eldest of the sons of Jacob, but he did not receive the inheritance due the eldest son.
The only reason we have is because he slept with Jacob’s concubine, Bilhah (Gen. 35:22).
That was a betrayal, but I will not spend much time on it because the Bible doesn’t spend much time on it, and there is plenty more on the others.
And since the main theme of this series is the long-lasting effects that sin, lying in particular, has on us and our families, we should mention that this caused the blessing of the Seed promise to pass through a younger brother.
We find that it will pass through Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, because of the wicked actions of Reuben and of Simeon and Levi which we will discuss today.
A Word of Warning.
I do want to say that some of these events recorded in Scripture may be difficult for some to hear and to talk about.
These events, however, are in the Scripture, and there are some great lessons to learn from them.
That said, if at any moment you feel you need to turn this off and come back, please do. We understand.
Preview.
Simeon and Levi (Gen. 34) – Background and motive, the lie, and the effect.
Judah (Gen. 38).
Joseph (Gen. 42–44).
Body.
Simeon and Levi (Gen. 34).
Background and motive.
We often talk of Jacob’s twelve sons, but he also had a daughter, Dinah.
She is briefly mentioned when she is born to Leah, making her the full sister of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun (Gen. 30:21).
In the events under discussion today, it is not entirely clear what her age was.
I calculate she was no older than her mid-teens.
She goes off to hang out with her friends who lived in the area of Shechem, as any teenage girl would do (34:1).
They didn’t exactly have a mall like we do, but I imagine if we were going to put this in the modern day, that’s what Dinah was up to, hanging out with her friends at the mall.
Then the unthinkable happens—Prince Shechem sees her and takes advantage of her (34:2).
Since it is not recorded, I have no idea what was going on in Dinah’s mind throughout this chapter, but we do see that Jacob and his sons “were grieved and very angry” (34:7).
While it seems unconscionable to us, Prince Shechem wanted to make things right by marrying Dinah—the gall and that sense of entitlement is disgusting!
Still seething in anger and no doubt very upset, Jacob holds his peace.
It’s as if he’s saying, “I can’t deal with this right now. If I do I might say or do something I will regret.”
So he lets his sons handle the negotiations which end in a disaster.
Oh it seems to go well at first, but that’s where the deception comes in.
The lie.
In the negotiations, Hamor, the king and Shechem’s father, proposes an alliance to unite Jacob’s family and the residents of Shechem.
Shechem, in addition to wanting Dinah, was willing to pay a dowry (bride-price) and give gifts for her hand.
We don’t know how common this was, or even how honest the Shechemites were.
In most ancient cultures, a dowry is money or goods that the father of the bride gives to the groom’s family to sweeten the pot, if you will, to make the young woman seem more attractive.
But that’s not what Shechem wants—he wants to give Jacob gifts in exchange for his daughter. It would appear he really wants her, especially when we find out what the conditions are.
I don’t know what Jacob would have considered the right course of action, but it wasn’t what played out.
The sons of Jacob convince all the men of Shechem to get circumcised, saying (Gen. 34:14-17).
And it actually pleased Hamor and Shechem, and they get it done quickly!
And while they are healing and in a weakened state, Simeon and Levi come in and slaughter all of their males, taking captive their women and their belongings.
It was a terrible mark of cruelty, and Jacob is even more upset with the actions of his sons.
The effect.
There does not seem to be much of an immediate effect.
Jacob says that he has now been made “obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land” (34:30).
This doesn’t sound so bad until you look at the word translated “obnoxious.”
Some translations say that Jacob now stinks or is repulsive among those who live nearby.
That word is indicative of an odious scent that you would never want to deal with again.
And Jacob was worried about the ramifications of his sons’ actions, so God tells him to go up to Bethel to live there (35:1).
But the excuse that his sons give for their cruel actions is this: “Should he treat our sister like a harlot?” as if that makes everything alright—no hint of remorse.
Of course what Shechem did was wrong, but the answer was not to do more wrong! What’s that old saying? Two wrongs don’t make a right?
Should Shechem have paid for his crime? Of course, but that doesn’t translate to destroying the whole city.
This overreaction seems to have paid off, however, in the attaining of all the goods of Shechem. Sure they had to move, but they are nomads—no big deal.
And that’s how sin often is, there are small short term gains, but huge long term losses.
Simeon spends several months to a year in a dungeon in Egypt, but the real long term loss comes in his inheritance.
While Reuben was “unstable as water” and would “not excel” for what he did (49:4), Simeon and Levi’s blessing was worse.
They are called “instruments of cruelty” and because of their fierce anger, Jacob says, “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel” (49:5, 7).
We don’t hear much about Simeon after they return to Canaan. The land his family inherits is enveloped in Judah—he is scattered (Josh. 19:1-9).
Levi fairs only a little better. His family is not given any inheritance except for a handful of cities scattered throughout the land (Josh. 21).
He does have the tribe of the priests, but it’s almost a penance for the actions he and Simeon have done here.
Just as Moses writes in Deut. 10:9, “Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.”
Anger, wrath, and cruelty are condemned, along with the deceit of these two brothers.
Judah (Gen. 38).
Background and motivation.
These events take place after Joseph is sold into slavery.
Two of the brothers stand out in that event: Reuben and Judah.
Reuben saved Joseph from death by saying he should be put into a pit until the other brothers had a chance to cool down so he could return and let him go—but Reuben got back too late.
Judah suggested selling Joseph into slavery instead of killing him.
Regardless, they all lied to Jacob to protect each other from the ire of their father, deceiving him into thinking that Joseph was dead—another lie, but one that God used for good (Gen. 50:20).
After this Judah got married to a Canaanite woman and had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah.
He finds a wife for Er called Tamar, but Er was wicked and so he died.
We don’t know what wickedness Er did, but the Lord thought it worthy of death.
One wonders of that wickedness and how it might be related to that of his father or his Canaanite mother who was likely a pagan.
To fulfill the customs of the levirate marriage, Onan marries Tamar.
The levirate marriage stated that a childless widow was to marry her late husband’s brother or close relative so that the first child born to her would carry on her late husband’s line.
Well, Onan refused to fulfill that obligation and dies.
So Tamar was meant to go to Shelah, the youngest who was not yet of age.
The lie.
Judah assured her that they would get married, telling her to wait in her father’s house until Shelah gets to the right age.
He lied there, for when Shelah had come of age, he was procrastinating, not giving him up.
The text doesn’t say why, but we can put ourselves in Judah’s shoes to figure it out.
Judah had already lost two sons, one of which died as a direct result of having married Tamar.
He didn’t want to risk losing his youngest son.
So his motivation was fear—an understandable reason, but still, not good enough.
The result.
In the passage of time, Judah becomes a widower after his Canaanite wife dies.
He goes to see his buddy in a nearby town to seek comfort.
Little does he know, but Tamar hears about it, dresses as a harlot by covering her face, and goes to that same town.
Judah sees her and has his way with her and leaves a pledge with her for payment.
He tries to pay up, but she isn’t there to receive it.
A few months later, come to find out Tamar is pregnant.
Well, they are ready to punish her by burning her—quite the double standard!
But before they can do that, Tamar presents the very things Judah gave to her in pledge, revealing his sin.
Instead of denying it, he owns up to it—which is good—but now he has twin boys, Perez and Zerah.
A moment’s indiscretion brings two lives into the world that he is responsible for.
That’s another result of sin sometimes—a lifetime’s worth of responsibility is now upon him.
But let’s not forget, it started off as a lie that motivated Tamar to take that action.
Judah certainly bears the greater responsibility due to his lie and his indiscretion.
Sin often snowballs out of control, leading to another and another until we are so caught up in it that we cannot see our way out.
This despite the Lord’s promise to always provide a way of escape from the temptations we face (1 Cor. 10:13).
Judah discovered the best course of action was to own up to it, to take responsibility, and to move on.
Joseph (Gen. 42–44).
Background and motivation.
Despite the theme of this sermon, Joseph was a very honest man.
He was the favorite son of his father Jacob, one of twelve.
That favoritism played a large role in his brothers’ hating him, hating him enough to sell him into slavery.
He spent 13 years as a slave or a prisoner.
He went to prison for being an honest man, refusing to take advantage of his master’s wife despite her advances.
She lied saying that he did try, and he was thrown into the dungeon.
He finally got out of the dungeon and quickly ascended to be the top man in all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself.
God blessed him greatly after all the hardship he experienced.
But then a famine comes into the land, one that he predicted and prepared for.
And his brothers, all but one, come to Egypt because they know that they have food stockpiled.
He recognizes them, but then that is where the deceit comes in.
The lie.
Joseph is not very forthcoming with his identity.
It is obscured by his age, his appearance, and speaking through a translator.
He then accuses his brothers of being spies, when he knows full well they are not.
He also begins a series of tests to prove the character of his brothers.
These tests range from giving the youngest brother Benjamin more food (which is not deceitful), to putting a silver cup in Benjamin’s sack to accuse him later of theft (which is deceitful).
Joseph was testing their honesty and whether or not they regretted and repented of their sin against him by showing how much they were willing to protect Benjamin.
The effect.
It revealed to Joseph that he could trust his brothers after all that had happened.
But it still made his brothers fearful.
After he finally revealed himself, it says that “his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence” (45:3).
Of course, the main reason for that was because they thought he was going to make them pay for what they did to him.
But the lies, I’m sure, didn’t ease their concerns, even if they were in the name of testing.
Even after Jacob’s death, they were still concerned about what Joseph might do to them (50:15).
But the sons of Jacob had clearly repented of their sin, so they had nothing to worry about from Joseph.
What we learn here is that motivation matters.
In fact, lying is defined as telling an untruth with the intent to deceive—motivation is embedded in the definition.
Simon and Levi clearly intended to deceive the Shechemites, and Judah deceived Tamar by not following through with his promise.
Perhaps Joseph could have found a better way to test his brothers, perhaps not.
The point is this was still a roadblock on the road to reconciliation with his brothers.
Conclusion.
In any event, we find the long-lasting effects that sin, and lying in particular have on us and our families.
Abraham and Isaac told the same lie to kings of different nations where they were taking refuge.
Isaac married a woman who seemed to come from a family who had no problems in deceit, which spread to Jacob.
Jacob was full of deceit early in life, but repented after his encounter with God.
His sons, however, did not learn that lesson, and many of them were involved in terrible and cruel things.
Their motivations were understandable: anger over the violation of their sister, fear for the life of his son, and testing them for repentance.
But the effects had lasting repercussions on them and their families.
God can always use such things for good: Levites became the priestly tribe, the Seed promise passes from Judah to Perez, and the family of Israel moves to Egypt to protect them from assimilation into the wickedness of Canaan.
While the consequences of sin are dreadful, God offers forgiveness.
The forgiveness we receive may or may not remove earthly consequences, but they will provide us with a removal of eternal consequences.
The removal of eternal consequences is quite comforting, but these lessons ought to motivate us not to sin at all and to do what we can to atone for those sins here on earth despite that removal.
The long-lasting earthly consequences can be quite devastating to ourselves and to our families.
Since we are human and will sin, how can we atone for those sins here on earth?
Own up to them like Judah did. Recognize they are wrong and take responsibility for it.
Christ has taken the ultimate atonement upon Himself, the shedding of His blood on the cross.
All we have to do to accept what He’s done for us by believing in Him, repenting (which includes owning up and taking responsibility), and being baptized.
Will you do that today?