CCF: Where Sin Runs Deep God's Grace is More
September 18, 2016
Joshua Gurango
In spite of Jacob's shady past, God remains faithful and
reinstated His covenant with Jacob. Genesis chapter 33 accounts the first
meeting of Jacob and Esau after more than two decades of running away from his
family. He showed humility by bowing down to his brother several times and
calling him 'my lord'. Esau ran to meet him and without a word they reconciled
forgetting 21 years of separation. By God's grace Jacob was delivered from the
wrath of his brother Esau, because where sin runs deep God's grace is more. Our
response to every circumstance should be to rejoice in God's deliverance. The
Lord worked in the heart of Jacob transforming his heart from deceitfulness to
humility, at the same time with Esau from revenge and bitterness to gentleness
and love.
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| Image courtesy of pinterest.com |
While God does many miracles in our life, the greatest
miracle He did for us is to deliver us from the slavery of sin. Giving the
righteousness we do not deserve.
As Jacob settles in a land near his brother Esau, Shechem,
son of Hamor the Hivite defiled Dinah, daughter of Jacob to Leah. After hearing
the news, Jacob kept silence while his sons grieved and were enraged of
Shechem. Grieve is a natural human response just like Jesus grieved for the
lost souls, hence laying his life in the cross for every one to believe in Him
and be saved.
Blinded by anger, Jacob's sons schemed as Hamor spoke with
them asking Dinah to be his son's wife by giving a condition that they will
only give their sister to circumcised man. They asked all their male to be
circumcised just like them, which Hamor and Shechem agreed. They were able to
convince all the men in the city and while they were in pain, Jacob's son,
Simeon and Levi took their sword, murdered all the men and plundered the city.
Here
we could see how sin begets sin after another sin, but the issue is you cannot
commit sin, wrap it nicely and expect
God to to accept it. This is called man-made religion, when we try to outweigh
our sins with our good works and try to live a double life.
Following the laste passages, while Jacob seems passive, his
sons took justice into their hands. When faced with sin, we should neither be
like Jacob who kept quiet and let wrong doings unnoticed or like his sons who
avenged for themselves. When faced with prejudiced, we should leave justice
to the Lord and trust Him that He will do what is right.
The most unjust killing in all of history is the death of
Jesus Christ. Simeon and Levi slaughtered because their enemy has offense but
Jesus died in the cross without sin by the people who offended him.
Finally the passage teaches us to show mercy like Christ
did in the cross where justice was met and at the same time mercy was
freely given away to the sinners at a precious price. We are reminded to show
mercy like Christ did to the people who turned their back on him and rejected
him. Jesus remained pure and sinless by choosing to show mercy and grace –
God's richness at Christ expense.
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