07.02. Simeon

SIMEON. THE ear of God is at the world’s tent-door; He hears the cry of its sin. His ear is at the tent-door of every family; He listens to what is said in love or hatred, in prayer or praise, by parent or by child. But the I notice He takes of what He hears is not by words only; more frequently it is by deeds. Leah knew this when she named her second son "Simeon," which means "Hearing," significantly intimating that the Lord by the providence of this birth had taken notice of the unhappy disagreements of Jacob’s family. " Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, He hath therefore given me this son also" (Genesis 29:33). The Lord had heard the upbraiding, the bitter word, the unkind remark, too frequent in Jacob’s dwelling, from the lips of Rachel; and to rebuke her, sent this gift of a son, not to her but to her hated sister.

Earth is the Lord’s larger family. "Behold, alI souls are mine" (Ezekiel 18:4). His providence is testifying among his own people that He hears the report of their deeds, as well as their words; and soon they who speak "often one to the other" (Mal. iii. 16) shall discover that "the Lord hearkened and heard," for his book of remembrance and his reward shall testify it to the full. Soon, too, all earth shall know it, for the due reward shall overtake each man, and compel him to say, "Ah, the Lord heard what I said and did! He has rendered to me according to my deeds."

Because of the import and early associa­tions of the name, it became common among the families of the other tribes, so that we have Simon Peter, or the Sea of Galilee; old Simeon, at Jerusalem; Simon, of Cyrene; not to speak of others historically famous also. At Simeon’s birth, it was what his parents spoke and did that was specially marked; but in after-years it was Simeon’s own evil report that came up into the ears of God. Simeon and Levi joined in unholy brother­hood to take vengeance, deceitfully, cruelly, and sacrilegiously, on the men of Sychem. O Simeon, Jehovah is a God that heareth! In the days of Sodom, "the cry of it came up to Him," and "the cry was very great," like the cry of the blood of Abel from the ground; but thy very name, Simeon, might have warned thee that thy deeds also must come to his ear. Accordingly, his own father, with breaking heart, must utter Jehovah’s sentence on him and his seed (Genesis 49:5-7).

"Simeon and Levi are brethren, (Yes, brethren in guilt and sin): Their swords are weapons of wickedness.

O my soul, come not thou into their counsel; With their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united, For they slew men in their fury, And houghed oxen in their wantonness;

(They spared neither man nor beast).

Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, And their fury, for it was cruel."

This, therefore, (says dying Jacob) is the sentence which I am called upon by the Lord to pronounce on them, as a protest against all deceit and violence. I utter it with reluctance, and yet without one misgiving as to its justice.

"I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel."

Born at a time when his father’s house was in a state of disunion, Simeon, in after­-days, by his own cruel deeds, dissociated himself from the sympathy of his father and brethren; and now he hears that in the days to come, the tribe that is to descend from him shall ever bear the impress of this unhappy beginning. It shall be a scattered and divided tribe.

Now, was it so?

We turn to the farewell blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 33:1-29. to seek for Simeon and any word of favour to him there; but in vain. In their encampments at that period his tribe used to pitch side by side with Reuben, as we find in Numbers 2:12 : "And those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon," a host of 59,300 men. And yet Moses, whose eye had so often rested on these tents, has no blessing for him at the last. Did the infamous sin of "Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites" (Numbers 24:14), slain in the act of his adultery by Phinehas, witness against the whole tribe, and bring to remem­brance their first father’s sin; as a recent wound often revives the smart of scars left long ago? At all events, Moses had no blessing to bestow on unhappy Simeon. Not that he forgot him, for in the commence­ment of Judah’ s blessing, it seems as if he had the name of Simeon in his thoughts when he thus began: "Hear, Lord, the voice" ******. Be to Judah in the better way what Thou has from the first been to Simeon in the way of rebuke.

Simeon’s tribe was one of the foremost in going to battle against the Canaanites after Joshua’s death. He nobly went up with Judah to war: "Judah said unto his brother Simeon, Come up with me into my lot, and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot" (Judges 1:3). And they went together (Judges 1:17), and at Zephath, or Hormah, won complete victory. Judah fulfilled his pledge of helping his brother, for this Hormah was allotted to Simeon by Joshua (Joshua 19:4). But then it turns out that this city and all the cities given to Simeon (such as Beer­sheba and Ziklag) were "out of the inheri­tance of the children of Judah;" so that Simeon is dispersed among the tribe of Judah, and has no separate portion assigned him as his own. In this way, Jacob’s prophetic words begin to be realized; and yet at the same time, in this very way, the dew of the blessing pronounced on Judah by Moses falls in part upon Simeon also. Indeed, at one juncture they seem to have outstripped Judah in zeal. For, in the days of David’s trial, Simeon furnished 7100 "mighty men of valour" (1 Chronicles 12:25) to the Lord’s cause, while Judah sent only 6800. But the after-history of the tribe was destined to set forth a far fuller illustration of Jacob’s words regarding their being "divided and scattered." Simeon (as we have seen) never had any compact territory of his own, and probably it was because of this that he was ready to go forth beyond the borrowed possessions yielded up to him by Judah. We find him, at any rate, setting out upon an expedition against Gedor, pos­sessed by the sons of Ham. This was in the days of King Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:39-41). Perhaps the defeat of Sennacherib’s mighty host may have revived the old faith and courage in the men of Israel, who could not but see that the Jehovah who fought for Joshua was Jehovah still. We find thir­teen chiefs of Simeon leading a band of elect warriors to this Gedor, where they come upon a people living in idolatry, quiet and secure (as quiet and secure as their father Simeon had found the men of Sychem, though in far other circumstances), upon whom they burst like a flood that sweeps all before it. It was an exploit that resem­bled the assault of the Danites on Laish, this occurring in the far south of the land, as did that other in the far north, but both furnish­ing (may we not say?) a sample of the Lord’s ways toward a thoughtless world. "When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, and they shall not escape" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). It has been thus; and it shall be thus with all the earth when the Lord himself shall come.

Here Simeon found pasture "fat and good," but far from his proper lot, so that he is "scattered and divided." And then yet more; it is recorded in 1 Chronicles 4:42-43, that his valiant men turned their arms against a remnant of Amalekites who had settled among the hills of Seir. That band of 500 warriors was led on by four redoubt­able leaders, all sons of one man, Ishi, who had named his sons at their birth by names that spoke of the true ground of confidence, viz., Pelatiah, "Jehovah delivers;" Neariah, "Jehovah is the light;" Rephaiah, "Jehovah is the healer" (or, "Jehovah is the true Giant"); and Uzziel, "God is my strength." Their expedition was crowned with success, and Mount Seir became another settlement for the tribe of Simeon. Simeon is blessed, but he is "scattered and divided," found in Judah, in Gedor, and in the hills of Seir.

People of Israel, why are you "scattered and peeled" at this hour? Why are you not a compact nation in your own land? Is it not because you have had fathers who without any provocation (in this far worse than Simeon and Levi at Sychem) "slew men in their fury"? What men? The Man Christ Jesus, the God-man, and his people.

"Why are Jacob’s sons afflicted?

Why is Israel still a slave? Has it not been long predicted That the Lord would Zion save?

"Why do heathen, proud oppressors, Rule her sons with iron hand?

Why are Gentiles now possessors Of her Iong-neglected land?

"Go and trace the sacred story, There we read the awful cause:

They have slain the Lord of glory, They have trampled on his laws."