The Cost of Rebellion
It is strange that Deuteronomy ends with Moses blessing all the other tribes and Simeon is not mentioned. Not even once is Simeon referred to as twenty nine verses are dedicated to honor and encourage all the other tribes with kind words and prophetic utterance. Why is Simeon excluded?
Moses declares as he closes this service of blessings. But not a word is said of Simeon.
Deu 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
In the book of Numbers, you recall there were two instances when there was a census ordered to count the able men. The results revealed a lot especially the second census of male soldiers after a plague devastated the Israelites after incidences of immorality with the Moabites upset God. According to Numbers 1, at the initial census, Simeon was the third largest group with 59,300 only after Judah with 74,600 and the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim combined to 72,200. If we treat Manasseh and Ephraim as two separate tribes, then the Simeonites were second only to the tribe of Judah in their military might.
Now, let’s examine the second census taken approximately 40 years later listed in Numbers 26. Numbers 26:2 confirms that it is again the sum of males “twenty years old an upward…all that are able to go to war in Israel,” so each census was conducted with the same criteria. Simeon, one of the largest tribes had plummeted to be the smallest of the tribes … loosing 37,100 people while Manasseh gains 20,500 people and if you combine with Ephraim, the blessed tribes of Joseph have taken the lead.
In the previous chapter, before the census we learn that Phinehas, a Levite, executed “a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites for his audacity in taking a Midianite woman into his tent at a time when God was punishing Israel for such deeds.
Num 25:6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; 8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. 10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel. 14 Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.
A plague which killed 24,000 people was stayed by the action of Phinehas. The Bible gives no details of the tribes that suffered the most …but to account for a drop of 37,100 soldiers in the second census just after this plague cause us to suspect that the Simeonites bore the brunt of this plague. The tribe of Simeon – which was cursed with Levi for being an instrument of cruelty for the vengeance over the rape of Dinah, now worsens its situation with immorality with the Midianites. It is suspected that there was a crisis after this incident that led to a mutiny of many men of Simeon …after many had walked out … only 22,200 can now be counted. They are now the least of all the twelve tribes.
Genesis 49:5-7 prophesies that impulsive wrath leading to violence would characterize both Simeonites and Levites . Now the Levite has executed a Simeonite Prince and the Levites in a previous incidence stand up passionately for God and His servant Moses., God mercifully re-directs the Levites’ propensity to violent slaughter into becoming a tribe of butchers, killing, cutting up and sacrificing innumerable animals under the system of animal sacrifices established in ancient Israel. Simeon fades out from the army either through a mutiny or a natural attrition, sickness or wastage. The likelihood is that they simply walked out. But what is the final result.
At the time that tribes are being blessed, Levi is forgiven and praised by Moses but concerning the tribe of Simeon, Moses is quiet. While Levi gains an important and blessed priestly role, the Simeonites you could say have gone from bad to worse.
Moses ends his blessings by declaring that Israel are a happy people saved by the Lord(not by any man, group or tribe) and all their enemies shall be proven to be liars.
Reflect on this devotional. Are you in mutiny against the people and purposes of God. How can you possibly win? Is the correction of God to flee sinful exuberance, immorality and worldliness too severe for you to bear. Learn from the Simeonites and the blessings they eventually missed. Rebellion is a costly game. It has cost many their destiny.
Father, Lord help me … I repent of everything that could cost me my destiny.
