Title: Simeon's Blessing (Genesis 49:5-7)
Contents
Simeon's blessing (Gen 49:5-7)
< Text >
(Genesis 49:5) Simeon and Levi are brothers, and their swords are machines of wreckage.
(Genesis 49:6) My soul, do not concern yourself with their counsel, my glory, do not participate in their assembly, for they have killed men in their wrath, and cut off the tendons of the ox in their lust.
(Genesis 49:7) Cursed is they for their wrath is bitter; Cursed is they for their wrath is fierce: I will divide them among Jacob and scatter them in Israel
<sermon sermon>
Jacob's first wife Leah prayed earnestly to God to have a son so that her heart could be turned to her second wife, Rachel, and gave birth to the first son 'Reuben'. However, her husband's heart stopped for a while, but when she turned to Rachel again, she prayed earnestly to have a second son, and gave birth to 'Simeon' (=God heard my prayer).
Leah, who gave birth to Simeon through prayer, raised her son well through prayer and the word.
When Jacob's family stayed in the city of Shechem for a while, Dinah, Jacob's youngest daughter, went out to see the land and was raped by Shechem son of Hamor, the chieftain of the land. When Jacob and the 12 brothers heard the news, they were angry, and in particular, Simeon and Levi were raised with anger and hatred in their hearts.
Shechem, unable to forget Dinah, comes to Jacob and asks for Dinah to be his wife, but Jacob's brothers make a false promise if they will circumcise all of Shechem's people as a sign of their trust in God.
While Shechem circumcised himself and all of his people and was in pain, Simeon and Levi went to them with swords and killed many people and cut off the tendons of the hind legs of oxen and sheep, causing them to die. In this way, Simeon and Levi suffered one wound, but they could not heal it, and they took revenge tenfold or more cruelly.
Father Jacob has this in his heart. When he died, he gathered his 12 sons and blessed and cursed them according to their actions. Simeon was a 'destroying machine. This is what the text says, "My soul, do not enter into the conspiracy that Simeon and Levi made to kill many, and do not communicate with them or associate with them."
1. Simeon (=God hears our prayers)
Remember that even our groans are heard. God is listening to the prayers we cry out because of our heartache, and the prayers we cry out because there is a desire in our hearts.
Hannah, who could not have children, cried out to God in her pain and had a child. Also, when Leah in the text cried out to God to have a child because she wanted her husband's heart to turn to her, God heard her prayer.
A phrase that appears frequently in the Old Testament is 'God sees and hears all of us'.
In the Exodus, when the people of Israel suffered as slaves in Egypt, God said to Moses, "I have seen the suffering of the people of Israel in Egypt with my own eyes, and I have heard their prayers cry out in their suffering."
Those who live in faith in the midst of difficulties have comfort and hope that God is watching. However, those who believe in God but fall into secret sins are afraid that God is watching.
In particular, God hears the prayers we cry out during the decree prayer, and He will grant them in His time.
A few years ago, my elderly butler, my grandfather, was unwell and went to the hospital. I was sick and told God that if I prayed, God would hear me, but the grandfather deacon asked, "Will God hear my prayer?" Since you are listening to the prayers of so many Christians, will you listen to the prayers of those who are weak in faith like me? It was a question.
God is listening. Because God is different from humans, He exists simultaneously in Korea, America, and China, and He can hear everything. This is God's 'ubiquity'.
When the saints met in the 1st century, they greeted them with 'Maranatha' (=God is coming again). He also greeted us with 'Simeon' (=God hears our prayers).
Please remember that God hears your grievances, prayers, and hymns, and hears the cry of your heart.
2. We must live a life that resolves anger and hate.
Even if we have a little less, if we abide in the Lord, it is a blessing to live in the peace that the Lord gives us. However, many people believe in God, but live with anger and hatred in their hearts. Even if you believe in God, this blocks the peace that God gives you.
Where is the unscathed soul? In a complicated life, we live with people hurting and suffering from events. But the question is how to solve this.
Simeon was born through prayer and raised by his mother through prayer. When he encounters an incident where his younger brother is raped, he cannot solve it in God and develops his hatred to take revenge by brutally killing people. With one wound, it causes an incident that kills dozens of people more than ten times.
If you have hatred in your heart, you will say and do cruel things. If we do not solve this problem while believing in God, we, the beings of God who should receive blessings, live a painful and cursed life.
When anger arises due to any wounds among us, I pray in the name of Jesus that God will 'solve it in God'.
When Hannah in the Old Testament could not bear a son, the husband married a younger wife and had several sons. When the little woman was tormenting Hannah, she said that she went up to the temple of God and wept and prayed in God for a long time.
Expose my problems before God and weep in God. Then God's healing begins. Pray as long as Hannah prayed for a long time until she is healed.
Forgive those who have offended me. Vengeance belongs to God. If there is a wound inside me, it is painful and hellish life. Do I have peace in my heart to take revenge for hurting the person who hurt me again? They come back again, but life in hell becomes continuous.
I entrusted it to God, who sees with the eyes of a flame, and I am healed and forgiven before God. Even if we are hurt, we believe that we will be freed from those wounds and enjoy the heavenly life in the grace of God.
3. Who is around me?
People live in relationship with each other. They influence each other with the people around them. If you have people of faith around you, you will receive the influence of faith and your faith will grow. No matter how much a person leads a life of faith, if there are worldly and fallen people around him, he will be influenced like that.
When Simeon learned that his brother had been raped, there was Levi with him. If his faith had matured and he had asked him to be patient and to solve the problem through prayer, he would not have developed hatred and killed dozens of people.
God commanded us not to marry a foreigner. If they serve idols, I will be influenced and I will also be able to serve idols.
In the verse of the text, it is written, "You must not participate in their assembly, for in your anger you have killed a man, and in your blood you have cut off the tendons of an ox's ankle" (v.
It is because parents are concerned that their immature personalities will be negatively influenced by parents telling their children not to meet bad children and bad children.
Even adults with mature personalities give and receive influence with the people around them.
God had a blessing that he had prepared for Simeon. He was given one because he could not control his anger, but God cursed him because he committed murder that paid him back tenfold. I couldn't be bothered by people of faith around me. Simeon's children prospered at first, but later their population was cut in half, and when Moses gathered the 12 tribes and blessed them, their names did not appear. You are cursed to be cut off.
May the peace of Christ be within me. May God solve it. This is a blessed year. May you have the peace of Christ to be blessed. In the name of Jesus, I pray that God's blessings will be yours and mine through fellowship with people of faith. Amen