Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 34:30-31

30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.

31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?

Jacob was none too pleased that Simeon and Levi had slain all the males in the city. He pointed out that killing tends to lead to more killing, and that now he was in a dangerous situation with the other inhabitants of the land. Let us remember that Shechem, the man who raped Dinah, was the founder of the city by which they resided. They had killed a powerful man, his father, and all those under his protection.

As it turns out, though, Jacob and his family were not destroyed, but his words ended up being prophetic. The future of the Israelites in this land would be defined by the many wars that they have with all of their neighbors. The Israelites will be one nation with virtually no allies but hundreds of enemies, and eventually they would be overrun and carried away by those foes.

Simeon and Levi’s response, though, makes clear that they could not see their sister disgraced and not retaliate. Certainly, God was displeased with what had happened to Dinah, but that does not mean he approved of how Simeon and Levi responded. At this point it doesn’t matter, though. What was done was done, and the pattern of the Israelites being a peculiar people who slay the unclean had been established.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Worthy Vessels- John 5:19, 1 John 4:19

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

We love him, because he first loved us.

COMMENTARY

The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do
Each one of us has seen others doing good, and even been the recipients of that good. And having experienced this, naturally we desire to do good things to others, and we try to follow the pattern of those that showed us the example.
But those that did the good things to us were themselves only following the example of others who previously did good to them, and so on and so on. Each of these paths of goodness ultimately leads to the same singular source. As Jesus taught, even he only followed the example of his father. His proclamation is total: the son can do nothing of himself. He does not say that the Father taught one virtue and that then he, Jesus, riffed his own new ones off of it, he claims that any good act done on earth first had its template written in heaven.

We love him, because he first loved us
I have seen the truth of that in my own life. For many years I was fully capable of fearing God, but I couldn’t sincerely love Him until I felt His own love bursting into my soul. I had wanted to love Him, but I had to have Him teach me how. As Graham Cooke so eloquently put it: God loves us first, and then He allows us to love Him back with that love.

Graham Cooke’s message starts at 1:15, quote comes from 4:35