Genesis 34:25 On the third day, when they were sore, 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. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29 All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered. 30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to 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.”
The Bible does not hold back on sharing the sad stories of God's people. Jacob had finally learned to trust and have others trust him, when this takes place. These men's sister had been taken by force and mistreated by the men of Shechem and they wanted revenge. The took it out not just on the offender or the men, but the whole city. They destroyed the trust Jacob was trying to build. Justice needs to be upheld, but how often do we go too far, thereby destroy the trust a watching world has in our words and our character? How many problems do we cause for ourselves and our God?
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