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2/2 Reading Portions: Genesis 34; Mark 5; Job 1; Romans 5
Genesis 34:30
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land.”
STINK
Although what Shechem did to Dinah was wicked and reprehensible, what Simeon and Levi did was worse. They used circumcision, a covenant given by God to Abraham and his descendants, to deceive men and ultimately murder them. In other words, they took the “law” into their own hands before it was even given through Moses. When men use God’s commands, covenants, or counsels to aid their own agendas, advance their own schemes, or worse, avenge wrongs done to them by committing evil acts themselves, it confounds grace and condemns Christ’s church with an odious witness. In other words, by doing so, we make our Lord Jesus Christ stink in the nostrils of others. Our Lord and Master was “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2) because of who He was and what He had done. We are likewise…
the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 2 Corinthians 2:15
When calamities arise in our circumstances, when trials, tribulations, and persecutions are encountered, as the called out of God in Christ, we must call out to our Sovereign and submit to His covenant, His counsels, and His commands, unto Christ’s exaltation and the Father’s glory.
Jacob’s sons were just as shameful
As wicked Shechem in his lust;
God’s grace and love smell quite awful
When in our God we fail to trust.
2 Corinthains 2:15 - good verse. May our aroma be good not bad...