Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.” (Genesis 34:30)

Genesis 34 tells of one of the most violent and shameful incidents in Genesis. Outraged that a Canaanite prince had raped their sister, Simeon and Levi used deception, treachery, and grotesque violence to massacre a whole city of Canaanites.

They did all this without their father Jacob’s permission or knowledge. When Jacob found out, he confronted Simeon and Levi, but weakly. He said, You have troubled me by making me obnoxious. In response to the terrible massacre and plundering of Shechem, Jacob seemed to only be concerned with himself and the danger of retribution against his small family (his complaint was, I am few in number). Jacob showed no concern for right and wrong, for God’s righteousness, or for the death and plunder of innocents.

Barnhouse noted that the deception of Simeon and Levi grew in the soil of Jacob’s own poor witness and compromise. They saw their father compromise and deceive other people when it suited him, so they followed his pattern. Barnhouse said that Jacob should “Talk to God about your own sin before talking to these boys about theirs.”

Simeon and Levi were correctly outraged that their sister Dinah had been abused and degraded. Yet none of that justified their evil deeds of mass murder, enslaving women and children, and theft through plunder.

When Jacob was about to die, he prophesied over his 12 sons. This is what he said about Simeon and Levi: Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place…. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel (Genesis 49:5, 7). He saw Simeon and Levi for who they were, but he rebuked them far too late.

That prophetic word of God through Jacob proved true. God did in fact both divide the tribes of Simeon and Levi and scatter them among Israel. Yet significantly, the way this happened for each tribe was different.

The tribe of Simeon, because of their lack of faithfulness, was effectively dissolved as a tribe, and was absorbed into the tribal area of Judah.

The tribe of Levi was also scattered, but because of the faithfulness of this tribe during the rebellion of the golden calf (Exodus 32:26-28), the tribe was scattered as a blessing throughout the whole nation of Israel.

Both were scattered, but one as a blessing and the other as a curse.

When God brings His correction to our life, we can receive it either as a blessing or a curse. If you faithfully humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, His discipline can be a blessing.