Tragedy strikes again and revenge is taken. I can’t say that I wouldn’t want to react any differently, but Jacob’s sons do reveal their character when they slaughter an entire community. Did you catch that they took their sister from the house of the prince? This implies that she had agreed to marry him, but her brothers stopped that from occurring. There existed no greater disgrace than what Dinah suffered. However, I am sure that God would have taken care of revenge and defended her. What we see as a result of this incident is that Jacob finally holds the faith of his father and grandfather. His name is changed to Israel. The greatest significance of today’s reading is that Joseph’s story begins. Joseph is vital to the establishment of the nation of Israel. And it all begins will hatred and betrayal. Not a good start. We also see God continue to use His same course of action of choosing the younger son. The significance of this is that in the culture of that day, the younger son was the unfavored son. Isn’t that just like God to choose the least likely, the unfavored, to carry out His plan for redemption? What I want us to pay particularly close attention to today is His command to Jacob in Genesis 35:11. Upon changing Jacob’s name to Israel, He says, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply.” Does that sound familiar? This was the exact same command He spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden. This was the same exact command He spoke to Noah. God is continuing His covenant and it is Jacob whom He chose to carry out the plan for redemption. The faithfulness of God to His people is unexplainable. His unwavering commitment to carry out His covenant so that His creation can have a way to be reconciled to Him is unbelievable. That is the God we serve. Through all of the failures and disobedience we’ve seen thus far in our reading, God still kept His promise. This should speak volumes to us as followers of the same God.
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