Have you ever wondered if what we
do on land, matters? Well I have, and maybe
the story of Shechem provides us with some insights and answers?
The very first time that we read
about a place called Shechem in the Bible, is in Gen 12:6-7
“Abram passed through the land to the locality of Shechem, to the oak or terebinth tree of Moreh. And the
Canaanite was then in the land. 7 Then
the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity.
So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.
The Lord appeared to Abram in the
vicinity of Shechem, and it was here that God promised him that this land will
one day belong to his generations to come.
It was a place where Abram built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him. It was a place where God met Abram and where
he had a special encounter with God, that included a promise from God not for
Abram alone, but also for his generations to come. It is a place where God
revealed his long-term vision of giving land to his chosen people. Surely this place must have been a place of
special significance for Abram, after having such a profound encounter with
God.
So if this was God’s intention
for Shechem and the rest of the land – to belong to God, to belong to God’s
people, to be the land on which there would be an altar meant for worship of
the one and only living God - God surely meant that there would be good things
in stall for the town and its inhabitants? So what happened in history after
this day at Shechem?
We find the next reference to
Shechem in the Bible in Gen 33:18 to Gen 34: 31. Jacob arrives in the vicinity of Shechem,
pitches his tent there and buys a piece of land from the people of Hamor. He builds an altar there, and he calls it El Elohe Israel – literally that means “God, God of Israel”. Then the unthinkable happens at this place:
Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, goes out with the daughters of the land and when
Shechem, Hamor’s son, the prince of the land, sees her, he takes her and rapes
her. Now the Canaanites were the descendents
of Noah’s son Ham. Canaan was Noah’s
grandson and we know that Ham also displayed a sexually perverse spirit when he
violated his Father’s privacy while Noah was drunk and naked in his tent. So
this perverse spirit seems to still be present in the Canaanite lineage. However, in spite of Shechem’s wrongdoing, he
decided to do the “right” thing and marry Dinah. Gen 34:3 says that he loved the young woman
and spoke kindly to her and asked his father to arrange for him to marry her. Jacob and his sons were rightfully grieved and
angry when they heard what happened to Dinah (vs 7) but then Hamor and Shechem
spoke to them and offered to take Dinah as his wife and bring any dowry they
may require of them. They even offered
them the freedom of the land to live and trade in it and to live with them
together as family and in peace. Shechem
pleaded to receive favour in the eyes of Jacob and his sons (vs 8-12).
However, in vs 13 the Bible says
that Jacob and his sons spoke deceitfully
to Hamor and his son Shechem, because he defiled their sister. Well, perhaps they thought that Shechem’s sin
gave them the right to sin against Shechem, to take revenge. Their bitterness and unforgiveness drove them
to commit a terrible sin. They convinced
Hamor and his people to get circumcised.
In vs 19 the Word says Shechem
did not delay to get circumcised and the Word adds that he was more honourable
than his entire father’s household. He
convinced the leaders of Shechem to be circumcised… and all of them did!
On the third day, when the men
were all in pain, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, attacked the people of
Shechem, killed all the males and took the women, children and all the
livestock and material possessions for themselves. At first one may think that Shechem got what
he deserved, and that Simeon and Levi defended their sister’s honour, until one
realises that circumcision was the sign of the Hebrew’s covenant with God. So what they actually did was to bring Hamor
and Shechem into the covenant of God - they became blood-brothers. They used the sign of the covenant to deceive
Hamor and his people but not only that, they rose up against a brother with
whom they were in covenant. Jacob did
not take this news well, and it is
really in Gen 49:5-7 where we see how seriously he disapproved of this conduct
of Simeon and Levi when he spoke these last words to them:
Gen 49: 5 “Simeon and
Levi are brothers [equally headstrong, deceitful, vindictive, and cruel]; their
swords are weapons of violence.6 O my soul, come not into their secret
council; unto their assembly let not my honor be united [for I knew nothing of
their plot], because in their anger they slew men [an honored man, Shechem, and
the Shechemites], and in their self-will they disabled oxen. 7 Cursed be
their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will
divide them in Jacob and scatter
them in Israel.”
In Gen 35:1-4 we read how God commands Jacob to journey from there to
Bethel. Before he leaves he purifies
himself and all that were with him. No
doubt that this included the women and children of the people of Shechem who
now lived with Jacob and his sons. They
probably contributed to bringing the idols into the camp. However, it is interesting that Jacob buries
the idols under the terebinth tree… where Abram first built the altar… there he
hides them. God does not want us to have
hidden idols in our hearts or our land, he wants us to destroy them, to ask his
purifying fire to completely obliterate anything that challenges His place as
God, the God of Israel, in our hearts.
Did Jacob cleanse the people, but continue the defilement Simeon and
Levi started on the land with this action?
Let’s continue to read…
In Joshua 17-21 we read that Shechem became the property of the tribe of
Manasseh and both a city of refuge and a Levite city.
In Gen 37:12-17 we read about Shechem when Jacob sends Joseph to his
brothers feeding their flock in Shechem, they departed from there and he finds
them in Dothan, which is about 21km from Shechem – and once again we see
brother rising against brother in the vicinity of Shechem. Joseph’s brothers first plot to kill him but
God uses Reuben and Judah to stand against this plot and instead of killing him,
they sell him into slavery. Years later when he was reconciled to his brothers,
he asked that his body would be brought back to Israel, and in Judges 24:32 we
read that he was buried in the plot of land that Jacob brought from Hamor – at
Shechem.
During the times of the Judges we read of two occasions where Joshua led
the people to renew their covenant with the Lord – both these times it was
done at Shechem (Joshua 8:30-35 and 24:1-27).
In Joshua 8 he once again builds an altar there to the Lord and in
Joshua 24:26 he took a large stone and set it up under the oak (the terebinth
tree) that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
Shechem was clearly intended as a place where the people of the Lord
would enter into covenant and would constantly be reminded of the covenant He
made with them. It was a place that
would remind them of their relationship with El Elohe Israel.
However, in Judges 8:31 - 9:1-57 we read another tragic story of brother
rising against brother. Abimalec, the
son of Gideon’s Shechemite concubine, convinces the people to make him king
instead of having the 70 sons of Gideon reign over them. He kills all but one of his half-brothers on
one stone after he made this agreement with the people. Jotham’s prophecy over Abimalec and the
people, that they will one day raise against each other, happens after three
years and both Abimalec and the people of Shechem die.
After the death of Solomon the people gather at Shechem to inaugurate
Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, as their king.
(1 Kings 12) The people asked that the yoke that Solomon put on them be
made lighter and Rehoboam’s elders advised him to do so, but the younger men
advised him to increase the load on the people.
Rehoboam chose to increase the yoke, in effect further enslaving the
people, just like Joseph was enslaved in that area. The result was that the Kingdom was divided –
bother and brother were divided against each other with Rehoboam as king over
the one half and Jeroboam king over the other half. Initially Jeroboam made Shechem his capital.
In Hosea 6:9 we read that the people of Shechem had descended into such
a spiritual degraded state that the priests – the Levites – were robbing the people
on their way to the city of Shechem. The
city that was supposed to be a city of refuge, a place of safety and the city where
there was an altar to the God, the God of Israel, a city for the Levites, has
now become a place where the priests rob their brothers… brother against
brother once again.
The city was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians and after the exile
it was not occupied for about 150 years.
The Assyrians resettled people into the area who worshipped YHVH, but we
know that they continued to worship their own gods as well (2 Kings
17:24-34). It became a Samaritan
city. When the temple in Jerusalem was
rebuilt, the Samaritans sent people to go and help to rebuild the temple, but
those building the temple refused their help.
This resulted in a longstanding rivalry and opposition from the
Samaritans against the rebuilding of the temple. After Alexander the Great destroyed the city of
Samaria, many of the Samaritans fled to the foot of Mount Gerazim and built a
temple that became a rival to the temple in Jerusalem. In 128 BC John Hyrcanus destroyed the temple
on Mount Gerazim, futher adding to the rivalry between the Samaritans and the
Hebrews. This seems to have destroyed
the city completely until the Roman empire rebuilt it and named it Flavia
Neapolis. Today it is the city of Nablus,
has predominantly Muslim inhabitants and is governed by the Palestinian
National Authority.
The thing that happens at Shechem, brother against brother, continues to
happen… while God intended it as a place of covenant, a city of refuge, a city
of safety, a city for the Levites, a place where there is an altar – although
not THE Altar – but nevertheless an altar to El Elohe Israel, The God, God of
Israel.
And… I wonder why? … and I wonder would it make a difference if Simeon and Levi
pitch up at Nablus and repent of their covenant violation in Gen 33?
